Luke Gedeon

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Have you ever had a conversation with someone who never stopped long enough to listen to your reply to the hundreds of questions and statements they threw at you? How about the other extreme – someone who will not give you more than a grunt in reply, even though you give them plenty of space to reply?

Strangely, I have offended in both ways when talking to someone, but I do a bit better in writing. That is part of what I like about blogging. If I get long winded, you can skim to the bottom and have your say, and I can skim anyone else’s writing too, when necessary.

Blogging does not solve the one-grunt-reply problem, though. Hundreds of readers pass by this blog every day, and yet very few have anything to say. I know part of that has to do with the fact that I am still learning how to ask good questions.

Why should I waste my time typing messages to people I do not even know?

Part of it, though, is that many people have not yet discovered “what’s in it for them.” Jan Geronimo has some great tips on how to write great comments and addresses what’s in it for you if you are trying to bring traffic to your site. He says that if you are blogging you should also be commenting on high traffic sites. Not just the little “Hey! Great Post!” type comments either. We’re talking real comments, ones that are on topic and long enough to show that you understand and care about the topic or at least the author.

In return for a well written post, you get a friend, or maybe several. People care the most about people who care about them and their interests. Show that you care and new friends will start finding you.

If you have a blog, and you are commenting on other blogs, but not getting the results you want, read Jan’s post here.

But what about me? I don’t have a blog. Should I comment?

[[pull]]If you are not on the web, you do not exist.[[/pull]]Definitely! Maybe more so, since you do not have any other way to present your ideas to the world. It is also a low-stress, easy way to get in the habit of communicating online. Why is this important? Because, in the past ten years, we have gone from barely anyone communicating online to tens of millions. Ten years from now, knowing how to chat, blog, and twitter will be as essential to keeping touch as knowing how to use a phone is today. It already is required within many professions.

Your web presence is now of equal importance to being listed in the phone book. I haven’t used a phone-book in years. If you are not on the web, you do not exist. And this post is not written to geeks or businesses only. This message is for you. The next two years are your last chance to get online before you disappear. You cannot learn to effectively communicate online over-night. Commenting is a great way to get some practice before starting a site of your own.

Do I have to comment on high traffic sites only?

Certainly not! When you are first starting out, you probably want to comment on lower traffic sites until you learn basic courtesy like (NEVER USE ALL CAPS) and get the hang of communicating tone in text – especially if you enjoy sarcasm.

Another argument for commenting on medium to low traffic sites is that you are more likely to get noticed, and you can grow with the sites that you are commenting on. This is especially helpful if you can find people you would like to work with long-term, people who have common interests and will stick with you for awhile. You will not get an immediate traffic boost, but the relationships will yield benefits for a long time. Plus when your blog is just getting started, a lot of traffic does not help much anyway. They will just leave if you have not first built a critical mass of commenters who will be there no matter what and written enough great posts consistently enough to convince people to stay.

So, for several reasons, I would say, start by commenting on sites that talk about topics you are interested in regardless of size. As you get more comfortable writing, start posting some great content on a blog of your own then start targeting A-list blogs and then you will really bring in the traffic.

So what now?

Well, what can I do to help you experience the joys and benefits of commenting?

If you are starting to see the value of commenting, but you’re not sure how to make it work, leave a comment here. Tell me what makes commenting difficult for you, and let’s see if we can make it easier and more fun.

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