Did you notice the heading was a question? I am trying one of the techniques suggested by Darren Rowse in the article about 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog. I can't believe the thought of asking for a response from my readers never really occurred to me..though, why not? It makes total sense and I enjoy reading text that requires me to interact with it, so why wouldn't my readers? (Are there even any of you out there?) This idea also goes along with another technique of inviting comments. I think I need to employ both of these techniques more.
Another idea I thought was interesting, though I don't think I will actually use, is to be controversial. Rowse agrees that he doesn't use this one much either, and I would say that it would probably annoy me for a writer to be controversial just for controversality sake. But if they really do hold a controversial view, then I would probably be interested in reading or commenting further.
I do like the idea of commenting on comments or interacting with readers as mentioned by Rowse and on Blue Skunk. I want to do that one more.
This whole Thing has gotten me thinking about wanting to get more comments (duh, I guess that is the point), sort of like when you first join Facebook or Linkedin and you try to get as many friends/connections as you can..but then later sort of realize that quantity isn't necessarily as important as quality because you get all of those random updates on the random girl who was in your 4th language arts class but you haven't seen since.
Anyway, I am going to sign off of this post and go comment on some of my comments. Then, on some Library2play blogs! Wohoo, here I come!
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Great post, Elizabeth! It DOES make a difference when people comment, especially if the comments are good ones. I'm trying to respond more frequently although I'm not at all certain what I write is all that interesting.
ReplyDeleteLet me be the annoying writer with the controversial viewpoint. I disagree with you about folks writing provocative comments just for the thrill of it, when they don't necessarily hold that viewpoint. So many educators "go along" and I believe that we do not have enough people playing 'the devil's advocate,' yes, a sometimes annoying role but one that I find promotes wider and deeper thinking in our debates about some concept. Let us embrace robust discussion, and those colleagues who begin it by writing something on a blog! (One of my favorite teachers of all time was a first grade teacher at a former school who always had her hand up at faculty meetings, responding to every single thing that I said with, "Do we have to do it that way? Can we do it that way? Why do we have to do that?" etc. She was tough to deal with at times but secretly, I appreciated the response because it put into motion better discussion!)
BTW, a note about a management tool that I like:
ReplyDeleteWhen you have more and more posts to keep track of, sometimes folks write comments on one of your 'older' posts, however you are way ahead of that and do not take time to go back to check comments --- you might want to consider adding a 'recent comments' gadget on the sidebar. It's a fast way to see what someone said on one of your older posts.
Elizabeth, I posted a SOAP BOX ENTRY on Marty's blog and it was kind of fun! All about BOOKS, of course! Because of this 23 things and more I belong to so many connections I do not have the time to see them all. So I guess I need to be more selective! Interaction IS very important because if there are no comments on your blog, you feel as if you are floating in cyberspace ALL ALONE! BOO HOO!
ReplyDeleteVicki, you are so right about provoking discussion though controversial comments. I am all for controversial comments too for this purpose because I, like you, feel too many people go with the flow just because "that is the way it is done." In fact, that is my least favorite way for why people do things--"because that is how we have always done it."
ReplyDelete