Wednesday 26 November 2008

Comment is Free

UPDATE: I think it was me who took myself off of google reader feed. Oops. Fiddling around with settings!

(for those nonplussed by today's title - Comment is free is The Guardian newspaper's commentary blog)

When I started this blog, I was adamant that I didn't care if I didn't attract a single reader; it was for me, only for me and I would do no publicity-whoring or 'plz add me 2 ur blogroll thnx' type comments. But as I slowly started to get readers, my posts started getting comments on - one every few days. And to be honest, these comments are probably one of my most favourite things about blogging. It's easy enough to write a piece every so often, but when you have the promise of interesting, funny and thought-provoking replies, that is the main motivator to continue writing on a daily basis.

Getting 7 or 8 comments on one post is pretty average, or even low for many bloggers but when I get that high a turn-out, it makes me extremely happy. I suppose I've always been the type of person who best responds to praise... not sure if that's a good thing, but it's true. I don't aim to have a worldwide super-famous big time blog; I actually think it would probably scare me into quitting and in all honesty, I would be delighted with only a handful of readers, who made regular and interesting comments. I appreciate every single one of them - at this point (before the post gets too whiny) I want to thank you for that!

So this time last week, when my post got not a single comment, I was a little down-hearted. For the rest of the week, I've been getting a slow drip of replies - one or two per post. On the one hand, I was delighted to hear from less regular commenters but on the other I felt greedy, wanting more and more and more.

However the decrease in replies didn't spurn me into writing faster, networking more furiously, creating an ad campaign. Conversely, it's had an in fact worrying effect; I've been writing less. I suppose it all comes down to motivation, as I said before. It appears that comment is more than free, to me anyway, it's also immensely valuable and indispensable.

So, here I am shamelessly reminding you dear readers - feel free to comment! No, let me amend that - please just comment!

4 comments:

  1. You'll do better commenting on other people's blogs in order to get a response than asking them here. :-)

    People respond to your interest in them, in blogs and everything else.

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  2. I know, you're right! But doesn't that seem more like a 'pls add me 2 ur blogroll thnx' kind of thing? This way I can just claim that it's a literary venture... ;) xx

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  3. Commenting on others' blogs is a good way to participate, and a great idea for drumming up interest, as WendyB points out. It's not begging. It's just joining the party!

    I found you through your comment on my blog, didn't I?

    Make yourself known!

    (p.s.: I'm catching up now, in reverse order! Darn Google Reader.)

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  4. I think that was me... oops.

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