JOINING THE CONVERSATION
Even though I blog mostly for myself (i.e. to process and document thoughts), it is nice to get feedback. I'm not just referring to "attaboy" and "insightful," but also "have you thought of" and even "I completely disagree." Sadly, my posts don't often get comments. My wife conjectures that either no one's reading, no one cares, I'm not saying anything interesting, my point is made in such a hackneyed way that no one bothers to reply, or people disagree with me but don't want to hurt my feelings. I appreciate the vote of confidence, Amy. :)
So much to my surprise, a handful of people commented with days of when this post got automatically posted onto my Facebook page. Maybe my future writing career isn't in faith, cities, or business, but rather in sports! More likely, Facebook is a funner place to comment on peoples' posts than Blogger. Although all my blogs get posted on Facebook.
My theory is that comments beget other comments. Once one person chimes in, it officially becomes a conversation. And each comment adds flavor to the conversation, making the conversation even more attractive to join in on. Just another fun discovery about Web 2.0; even detached by time and geography, we can enjoy some semblance of the richness of good and witty conversation.
Even though I blog mostly for myself (i.e. to process and document thoughts), it is nice to get feedback. I'm not just referring to "attaboy" and "insightful," but also "have you thought of" and even "I completely disagree." Sadly, my posts don't often get comments. My wife conjectures that either no one's reading, no one cares, I'm not saying anything interesting, my point is made in such a hackneyed way that no one bothers to reply, or people disagree with me but don't want to hurt my feelings. I appreciate the vote of confidence, Amy. :)
So much to my surprise, a handful of people commented with days of when this post got automatically posted onto my Facebook page. Maybe my future writing career isn't in faith, cities, or business, but rather in sports! More likely, Facebook is a funner place to comment on peoples' posts than Blogger. Although all my blogs get posted on Facebook.
My theory is that comments beget other comments. Once one person chimes in, it officially becomes a conversation. And each comment adds flavor to the conversation, making the conversation even more attractive to join in on. Just another fun discovery about Web 2.0; even detached by time and geography, we can enjoy some semblance of the richness of good and witty conversation.
Comments
A couple of thoughts on attracting comments. First, the primary way to get them is to give them. Leave comments on other blogs, or even write response posts on your own blog and link to them in a comment.
Second, build fellowship with specific other blogs. This is what "blogrolls" are for. Find related blogs and regularly give and receive thoughts. Quality connections with a few people can be very valuable and productive.
Third, when you write something relevant to particular people in mind, there's nothing wrong with e-mailing them and saying you'd be interested in their feedback.
Fourth, I notice you never seem to respond to comments. Doing so can make commenting seem more like a conversation and less like a feedback jar.
Really though, you're already doing the number one thing you can do: consistently putting up quality content.
On facebook: you might be more likely to get comments there, but I would think less likely to get comments of substance on matters of substance.
So, I would say it's true what they say in economics class - we all benefit from exchange!