Over the last 4 weeks, I have had some excellent discussions with other bloggers regarding the most effective use of comments to engage other bloggers and readers of any given blog. Yesterday, EntreCard announced a partnership with SezWho in what EntreCard hoped would generate more quality comments and ultimately more traffic to the bloggers using SezWho with Entrecard.
However, after installing SezWho twice on my blog and watching it generate fatal errors in Internet Explorer and Display Errors in Firefox, and after discussions with other bloggers who have similar issues and different points of view, it appears that this time EntreCard has failed in executing what could have been a very good idea. Ultimately it's not about providing an incentive for bloggers to make quality comments in exchange for credits. Ultimately it's about always generating interesting and thought provoking quality content and building your own blogging community of engaged readers.
This post will attempt to analyze where EntreCard went wrong with this latest partnership, and then it will provide what I believe to be a comprehensive commenting strategy to achieve the goal of enhancing any given blog's readership and increasing traffic.
But before I get into the discussion at length, I want to acknowledge five bloggers who have engaged me in this discussion, and to them I owe in part my ideas, so I would like to share credit with Mrs. Mecomber of
New York Traveler.Net, Ken Armstrong of
Ken's Writing Stuff, Mariuca of
Wishing on a Falling Star, Mama Flo of
Mama Flo's Place, and the Monkey at
Monkey Fables and Tales.
WHERE ENTRECARD WENT WRONGThe intent of EntreCard's partnership with SezWho was to incorporate a rating system into participating bloggers' comments sections to increase the quality and relevance of comments, provide an incentive to make quality and relevant comments, and thus by simply engaging bloggers with each other to drive more traffic to participating blogger's blogs. In theory, it sounds brilliant. But the discussions that have taken place, especially on Mama Flo's and The Monkey's blogs, and even EntreCard's own blog have been telling.
EntreCard made three major errors in rolling out this partnership, thus greatly limiting any benefit to EntreCard members: 1. The Partnership was rolled out before bugs in the SezWho software were eliminated. 2. EntreCard essentially dictated that users had to use the SezWho plug-in whether they wanted to or not. 3. Just the same as not having time to drop cards, bloggers don't have time to comment for compensation.
1. SezWho Software BugsWhat became very apparent in the first hours of the SezWho / EntreCard partnership roll out was that there were a great many bugs with the SezWho scripts. While the announcement on the EntreCard Blog said SezWho was compatible with Blogger, Wordpress and other platforms, it became painfully obvious that the SezWho script did NOT work with Blogger. In fact, the script caused display errors and it failed to install the rating stars in the comment section of Blogger posts--instead the rating stars appeared at the end of the posts. The idea of the SezWho plub-in is to rate comments, not posts. Additionally, for many users, the SezWho script causes fatal errors in Internet Explorer and caused blogs not to load in various versions of the IE browser. Additionally, SezWho did not support WordPress 2.6, SezWho did not support Joomla, and there were other platforms that could not make use of SezWho as well.
Two things: The first here is that if a service like EntreCard is going to roll out a great new program to engage bloggers and generate traffic, it is incumbent on EntreCard to ensure that the program would be functional for all of its users. EntreCard succeeded in doing so by rolling out the Digg initiative a couple weeks ago. However, that program as well was rolled out with little forethought or training for EntreCard Users and resulted in a massive misuse of Digg by many EntreCarders who had no experience using Digg or who were not sure how to use Digg to their advantage.
But secondly, unlike Digg, SezWho just does not work on all the blogging platforms SezWho claims they support. EntreCard should have performed better due dilligence in this regard before rolling it out as a partnership. Yes, SezWho has been responsive in tech support to try and correct these issues with its scripts, but in doing so they have actually created more issues. Our blogs are not SezWho test sites, but they are being used as test sites to solve problems with SezWho scripts at the expense of any given blog's readers who are trying to access the blogs. But instead of seeing a new feature, those readers are seeing display errors and/or blogs that just fail to load.
2. EntreCard Dictates Use of SezWhoRolling out a brand new program to benefit bloggers is one thing. Dictating that bloggers change software and/or plug-ins to take advantage of the porgram's benefits is another. Very quickly after the partnership rollout it became clear that many bloggers were already using various comment systems such as Intense Debate and Disqus, among others. For SezWho to work in blogs with these alternatives already in place, those plug-ins would first have to be removed. That's discriminatory and frankly, a little arrogant on the part of EntreCard.
The way the SezWho/EntreCard partnership works is that EntreCards awards credits for those who use SezWho and who rate other participating blogger's comments and the comments made on their own posts. This will result in EntreCard Credits. So anyone using another system and who doesn't want to change to SezWho can't earn the same credits for his or her own commenting behavior. What EntreCard should have done is picked a plug-in, any plug-in, maybe even SezWho and gone ahead with its comment award system. But EntreCard should also have worked out a way to honor the systems already in place by EntreCard users if they wanted to retain their current system. Whether it be Intense Debate or some other system. Forcing bloggers to switch is disruptive on a large scale, and it excludes those bloggers from the program's benefits if they decide not to switch.
3. Commenting for Compensation is Just a Bad IdeaEntreCard's intent was good. Reward great commenters with EntreCard credits. And why not? It's hard to drop 300 cards every day. It takes a lot of time. Why not provide an alternative avenue for earning EntreCard Credits?
The thing is though that EntreCard's system is flawed. First it involves the ratings of other people's comments to earn those credits based on non-objective criteria that are different for every blogger, and it also involves a judgement on the part of those running EntreCard as to what a good, quality comment is. Sometimes a good comment on a Wordless Wednesday post might be: That photo is so beautiful. What more would EntreCard want to make that short sentence into a quality comment? An art major's dissertation on the way lighting is used to make the photo beautiful? Let's face it, political blogs can more easily engage their readers in in-depth discussion that could generate more "quality" comments than a blog that posts pictures of the blogger's cat. (I don't mean you, Daisy, of course. ;)
Secondly, it takes time to comment. Most bloggers will comment if they come across a post they find interesting and feel compelled to comment on. But while it is not the intent of this EntreCard program, what it accomplishes by effect is that it encourages comment spam. For those out there really looking for the EntreCard credits, they will post comments that may not be relevant but sound good for the sole purpose of earning EntreCard credits. And the reason why this would naturally be true is that bloggers already have their own commenting patterns. Bloggers freely give comments for what they feel moves them to comment. They're still going to do this in the time they have available for commenting and blogging, but this program will not give them more time to comment more. If EntreCard rewards these comments with credits, great. But EntreCard does not provide more time, and encouraging commenting in this way, just like the encouragment to digg posts, involves another step or two in the commenting process.
In a perfect world, I would be independently wealthy and thus able to spend all day browsing blogs, reading posts, and writing long, thoughtful, pithy and witty comments. But I work for a living and have limited time to blog, limited time to drop EntreCards, limited time to digg posts, and limited time to rate comments for a few extra EntreCard Credits. It's just not worth the time it takes to rate comments.
And finally, rating comments for credits is a little cheap. When someone leaves a comment on my site, or when I leave a comment on someone else's site, it's because I have been moved in some way to express myself to that blogger or that blogger feels he or she needs to express himself or herself to me. If I'm being rewarded with credits for my comments, then my comments are devalued because the blogger will never know if I'm being sincere or if I'm just doing it for the credits.
In a lot of ways this is like pay per post or social spark, or any other form of paid advertising. Yes, I'm discriminating. I will not accept money to write a paid post for something I have no interest in or something that I don't agree with. But let's face it, if I'm being paid for my post, I might not be as critical--if it's a review post, for example--then I would be otherwise if I were writing it on my own because of my interest without getting paid. It's the same with comments. This program will encourage those commenting for credits to change their language to get better ratings for their comments. And in that way, all those comments end up being devalued.
SummaryFor those of you who will be using SezWho, I wish you well. If this means you will no longer comment on my blog posts because you will not receive credits for doing so, I'm sorry. I'd like to think the reason you read my blog and chose to comment is because you remain interested in the topics I write about. But if that's not the case then go and earn your credits elsewhere.
For those of you who will be using SezWho and continuing to comment on my blog, I really must thank you because I value your time, and I really appreciate what you have to say. If my posts can generate any kind of interest for you or perhaps help you in some way, then I am most gratified and I will always be most appreciative of your comments--especially because it still will take you time to make them, and you will not be compensated for them with EntreCard Credits.
The jury is still out on the SezWho/EntreCard Partnership. It's possible that the scripts will be fixed. It's possible that more support for non-supported blogging platforms will be created. It's possible that EntreCard can find a way to reward bloggers who make quality comments with credits even if they don't use SezWho and use some other plug-in or even none at all. But like other recent roll-outs from EntreCard, this one just seems to have been done too quickly without enough thought or a plan of implemenation that would be easy and make sense for everyone--and not cause issues of concern--such as all blogs using SezWho with blogger to cause fatal errors in Internet Explorer.
COMMENTING BEST PRACTICESNow that I've talked about the EntreCard/SezWho Partnership, I want to talk about commenting strategies that actually will work in generating engaged readers of your blogs and generate more traffic to your blog. Over the last three months since I've resumed blogging from a one year absence, these strategies have worked for me in improving my Alexa ranking from over 16 million to under 200,000. Additionally, my Technorati Authority has gone up from 9 to 102. This is just in three months. And I'm not killing myself spending more than an hour or two blogging each day. The most time-consuming aspect of blogging for me is dropping EntreCards. If I continue to follow these strategies, by the end of the year I should be very pleased with the results, and you should be too. So without further ado, these strategies are what I've learned on my own, and what I've learned through detailed discussions and back and forths with other very successful bloggers. I hope you find them helpful.
1) Write Quality, Thought-Provoking Posts.Let's face it, if you write posts of the highest quality, readers will take notice. Not only will you build traffic by engaging your readers, you'll find that your readers will comment on your posts, will Digg or Stumble them, will share them with their friends, and might even nominate them for an award or two. Nothing proves this more than my recent post
Circles, which has become
Yearblook's most popular post of the year; has generated the praise of a nationally renowned poet, Taylor Mali; has generated 15 comments and 41 diggs; has won a prize from another blog, the Plotdog Press; and has generated 4 more loyal readers of my blog through the referrals of other bloggers. If just one post can do all this, imagine what could happen if your blog was filled with posts like this. I've thought about it, and I'm trying to generate more posts with the quality of Circles.
2) Comment. Comment. Comment whenever you can.But set your commenting standards high and always take the high ground. We all want comments. We all want to be read. We all want to be acknowledged, even if we are blogging just for ourselves. But no matter what your blogging style is, what theme your blog has, or the reasons why you blog; set your standards high and stick to them. Be nice. Be positive. Follow the Golden Rule. Avoid any form of negativity directed at another blogger. Freely acknowledge great work when you come across it. Don't get into flame wars. Maintain your personal integrity and high personal standards. If you have nothing nice to say, don't say it. Never settle for something less than your best because you don't have the time. If you follow these principles, your kind words will get results and others will read your posts, list you in their blog rolls, and comment on your posts, digg your posts, stumble your posts and share them with friends and family and other bloggers.
3) Relevant Comments vs. Non-relevant comments.I've gone back and forth on this issue with my friends Mrs. Mecomber and Ken Armstrong, and I've seen a different practice altogether by my friend Mariuca--who typically gets over 100 comments for each of her posts. I know, it's insane. But I have a theory about Mariuca that I'll get to next.
Anyway, some debate occurred because I read on a blog somewhere that when you receive a comment, you should reply in two places: 1st on your own blog, 2nd on the blog of the person that left the comment to show that person that you read the comment, that you appreciate the comment, that you have a reply and to engage the other commenters on the other blogger's blog. For example, let's say I have a movie review for Batman: The Dark Knight and I get 10 comments. I reply to all 10 commenters in my blog. Then I copy those responses to all 10 commenters and paste all those responses in one comment on the blogs of all those who commented. After discussing this practice with Ken Armstrong, we agreed that it could generate interest in the other commenters on the other blogs that might cause those commenters to seek out the blogs of the 10 commenters. We agreed it might be distracting when the comment appeared on a post unrelated to Batman: The Dark Knight because it's out of context. But we also agreed that it was better to reply to the commenters on their own blogs so that they could see that their comments had been read and acknowledged rather than only responding on my blog where, if the commenter never returned to see a response, might never know the response was there.
Mrs. Mecomber had another opinion entirely, and that was that all comments should be relevant. Mrs. Mecomber's blog is on New York Travel. If she commented on my Batman movie review on my blog, any comment I might add to her recent posts on, for example, the Erie Canal, really amounts to spam. My response to her Batman Comment and my responses to every other Batman comment don't belong on her post about the Erie Canal. It would be confusing for her readers, not relevant content, and an unwelcome intrusion on her blog.
Maybe it's because replying to all 10 commenters individually in one mass-produced comment response and pasting them on every commenters blog takes up a lot of space, but other bloggers leave non-relevant comments all the time. When someone diggs one of my posts, they'll comment: "I dugg your post, please come to my blog and digg mine." That's not relevant. On my recent post, another blogger will come by and say "Happy 4th of July, Matt. I hope you had a good holiday." That comment left on a non-4th of July post is not relevant, but it means well. Or, after a blogger votes for my post Circles on Yearblook or in my current Battle of the Blog on Blog Explosion, and the blogger comes back and tells me so in a comment on my new Wordless Wednesday post, well, those comments aren't relevant either, but I appreciate the thought--even if they have nothing to do with my post.
So it's very clear that there are lots of opinions out there regarding relevant comments versus non-relevant comments. And it's my opinion that there is enough room in the blogosphere for both, and what I have learned from the discussion is this: just like a stock portfolio that should be diversified, it's necessary to be diversified in your comments as well. A combination of relevance and non-relevance in one comment is acceptable, and a weighting of relevance versus non-relevance really should be determined by a post. Let me explain:
For example, on Mrs. Mecomber's Erie Canal post--which was very detailed and well-written, non-relevance should be minimized. My response here would be a thoughtful couple of sentences on topic to her Erie Canal post, and then perhaps a btw, here's my response to your comment on my Batman Review Post--deleting all other responses to other commenters. If I was on a blog that was also reviewing Batman, then I could post the entire response to all 10 commenters like this: That's an interesting review. I enjoyed where you talked about the darkness of Heath Ledger's acting. You described that in such depth I really saw that performance in an entirely different way. Here's my response to your comment on my Batman Review on my blog, and because you might find the other commenter's responses interesting, following my response to you are my responses to all others who also commented on my Batman Review--here those comments are relevant. On Mrs. Mecomber's blog post, they are not relevant.
Another way to handle it without being intrusive would be to refer the commenter back to the original blog post that was commented on. For example, on the Erie Canal post, I might comment: Mrs. Mecomber, that is an outstanding post. I found it quite informative and interesting blah blah blah. Also, I just wanted to let you know that I recently responded to your comment on my post: Batman: The Dark Knight. You can find that response {here--insert link}. Thanks and have a great day. Or something to that effect.
Does that make sense? What do the rest of you feel about comments that are either relevant, non-relevant, or somewhere in between? I'd really like to know what you think. But before you respond, I want to give you the case of Mariuca!
4) The Mariuca ExampleOkay, this is INSANE! The last five posts on
Wishing on a Falling Star have 100 comments, 260 comments, 129 comments, 100 comments, and 153 comments. And for you EntreCarders, Mariuca has not been selected for a Comment Rush.
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
To quote Black Mamba (Uma Thurman) from
Kill Bill "I'll tell you."
Mariuca is the most friendly blogger in the blogosphere. I recently recognized her with an award and in my post I say that, among other nice things. But what is Mariuca's secret? It's not her template. It's not her content. It's not her memes. It's not her blogroll. It's not her photographs. It's not her personality. We all have these elements just the same as Mariuca does. But where Mariuca stands out is in her commenting practices.
I don't know how long Mariuca has been blogging, but she has built her own rock-solid blogging community unlike any other on the net. And like any gardener tending her garden, she nurtures every member of her community. She has memes in which she names for participation different members of her community. She gives awards in which she finds something for just about everyone in her community. She participates in Battle of the Blogs on
Blog Explosion and when she votes for a blogger in her community, she comments on that blog's most recent post letting him or her know she voted for him or her and wishes him or her a good day. When she reads a post she likes, she writes a comment. When she sees a photo she likes, she writes a comment. At the end of the month, Mariuca writes a post thanking her top ten commenters and passes out some link love.
Mariuca is always positive, always friendly, always consistent and manages to touch base with just about every blogger in her community every day or two. I can't imagine how much time she spends blogging. But cultivating her blogging community is something she does better than any other blogger, and that's why she has regular readers, about a billion incoming links, and more comments on her posts than a lot of national newspaper columnists.
The comments that Mariuca makes are not always relevant to the posts she comments on, such as Battle of the Blogs acknowledgements, but that can be forgiven because she bends over backwards to comment and run while she drops and runs.
5) Using Digg and Stumble and Social Networking SitesMy last best practice for this post is to talk about using Digg and Stumble and other Social Networking sites. I'm not going to go into huge detail here because one, this is a really long post as it is, and two, I describe the Digg strategy in detail
HERE.
When you receive a Digg, Comment. When you give a Digg, Comment. This is actually quite simple. When you receive a comment on your blog, you are probably accustomed to commenting back. It's the same principle. If you use services or social networking sites such as Digg or Stumble or Social Spark or any other one; every day you will probably receive Diggs or stumbles or the other equivalent, normally on your most recent posts. Using Digg as an example, if you have favorited your post, it appears on your profile page. Click on the posts that have Diggs. There is a button below the post for you to click on to see which Digg users have Dugg your post. Click on those users, go to their blogs, and comment on their current post and thank them for Digging your post. The advantages of doing so are the same as they are with comments for normal reasons. You will get to know other bloggers and increase interactivity. You don't have to Digg their post if you don't like it, and really, you shouldn't. But you should comment and acknowledge the Digg.
The corollary also applies. If you digg or stumble someone's post, comment on that post. Tell the blogger you are digging or stumbling it, and give them a real quality comment as to what you found interesting about the post and what characteristics of the post have caused you to want to digg it, stumble it, or share it in any way. You'll engage other bloggers this way, build your own blogging community, and increase your comments and traffic to your blog.
SUMMARYThese five strategies I list are rather simple. But most solutions to difficult and complex problems are often very simple. They are proven to work, and the more time you have to devote to them the better.
What strategies have you used to generate comments and traffic? Comment here with your ideas and I'll compile them all together for mass distribution and some link love for all.
UPDATE July 18, 8:00 AM
Check this out everyone...26 comments so far on a very long post that's just relevant. I don't know if it's a Quality Post or not, but I think it demonstrates that if you make a post of interest to your readers, the comments will follow.Thanks for reading.
Technorati Tags: comments, blogging, entrecard, sezwho, taylor mali, circles, digg, stumble, blog traffic
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
Posts
