Let me be the first to say that I blog to get responses. Now, there are a few ways in which I respond to blogs. First, I just say "oh, that's interesting." If I am more fascinated, I say "come here dear and look at this." The next level of fascination is to consider a witty or insightful comeback to the blog posting. If I think of one, and I want to bother logging in, I will post it. Sometimes, I just feel bad for people not getting any comments on their very comment-able blog posting and make a comment.
Realizing this, I have tried to do a number of different things to inspire responses. Contests have faired poorly. My interesting findings and rantings have also failed. (I do give credit to Danny who can seem to post one of his papers for school and get multiple comments. I guess that most people don't like my fores into the world of meteorology.) I even nearly gave up one week and asked my sweet wife to take a turn to see if it was just me. She did better than I did (as always) but still the responses were sparse.
So, this evening I took a qualitative look at the different topics of my families' blogs that have succeeded or not in the responses department. So, if you want to do this yourself, the easiest way to do this is look at someone's blog and tally up a percentage of the total responses by topic and compare the percentages to other people's blogs. Here is a rough list of the things that I have seen that are proven response getters (or at least do better than others):
Sicknesses - which people can sympathize/empathize with
Vacation log
Birthday/holiday
Pitty log... explaining why something was so bad even if you overcame it.
Family/accomplishments
So, in my expert opinion of looking for patterns when there really may not be one (hence the meteorology and physics degrees), I determined that these topics are good response getters.
What do you think?
Realizing this, I have tried to do a number of different things to inspire responses. Contests have faired poorly. My interesting findings and rantings have also failed. (I do give credit to Danny who can seem to post one of his papers for school and get multiple comments. I guess that most people don't like my fores into the world of meteorology.) I even nearly gave up one week and asked my sweet wife to take a turn to see if it was just me. She did better than I did (as always) but still the responses were sparse.
So, this evening I took a qualitative look at the different topics of my families' blogs that have succeeded or not in the responses department. So, if you want to do this yourself, the easiest way to do this is look at someone's blog and tally up a percentage of the total responses by topic and compare the percentages to other people's blogs. Here is a rough list of the things that I have seen that are proven response getters (or at least do better than others):
Sicknesses - which people can sympathize/empathize with
Vacation log
Birthday/holiday
Pitty log... explaining why something was so bad even if you overcame it.
Family/accomplishments
So, in my expert opinion of looking for patterns when there really may not be one (hence the meteorology and physics degrees), I determined that these topics are good response getters.
What do you think?
posted by The Pagets in Florida at 8:25 PM
10 Comments:
I feel fortunate if I get two comments. I type about 3 comments for every one I actually post. I don't like giving empty comments - and loathe myself when I feel like I leave one. Although comments are nice just to know who actually read your post.
Boxes I vote for boxes. Yep I would respond to your rantings more regularly if you talked about your love for boxes.
PS. while swimming down memory lane, I found some Prom Pictures yesterday.
Just be glad you are young enough to have friends that blog. I only get immediate family responding to our blog entries. Most of our friends ask, 'What's a blog?'
Mom had a good point. I think you also have to factor in your readership. What percentage of people actually post a comment after they read. I post comments less than 10% of the time. I know, shame on me since I love comments too. I just don't want to write something just to write something. I think it will gets less sincere that way. I'll just start writing the same phrases every time. I do have a select group of people that I try to post comments on often, just because I think they need the boost (and I am usually the ONLY commenter). One thing you may want to try is to post more often, post more pictures and/or post on your normal daily things. I've haven't seen many pictures of what sort of place you live, when you get together with others (who are they, etc), what does your school look like?, do you have any textbooks or book reviews that you especially like?, Katherine is an excellent cook - maybe share one of her lactose free recipes, you could also put a poll on, or take pictures of some of Michael's art work and post them, etc... There are lots of things in your life that I am curious about, but I just don't ask I guess. These are just suggestions if you wanted some fresh material that you haven't posted on. So far I think that you have had wonderful posts. I love seeing pictures of the kids and you guys. I think you have gotten quite creative lately. It has not gone unnoticed. Does that answer your question? Sorry I may have just gone off subject.
One more idea:
Something that a friend of mine does (Truman Family) is that she comments back to everyone that comments on her blog. Then sometimes they comment again. She treats the comments as an opportunity to have a conversation, not just to drop a one line note on people. It is really really effective for her. She often ends up with over 21 comments sometimes. (Of course some of those comments are hers, but she'll respond to several people on one comment.) That was just another thought.
I agree with everyone. I love getting comments, but I don't like writing empty thoughts. But I like your blog enough to break that rule sometimes :)
hmmm... most of my thoughts are empty Aaron. I use most of my good thoughts on my children and then by the time I get to reading blogs I have nothing left. In fact I read blogs, because it's a nice escape from thinking. So, don't go looking for insightful comments from me.
Jen
I just want you to know that I've checked back on your blog 4-5 times after I made my comments to see if you had responded. Not that you have to, or that I was expecting it, but I sort of wanted a response in some little way, which I guess prompted the checking. I know that you could just call me and talk about it, but (sigh)...it wouldn't be the same thing.
Well, you're getting comments on this one! A suggestion I have is this: Instead of focusing on the factual content of your blog posts (i.e., the list of topics you posted), try to focus on style. That is, are your posts open and engaging? Do they address topics about which many of your readers are likely to have an opinion? Do they show a personal side to your life? A great example of someone who does this is Anna's and my friend Lori (http://ourpursuits.blogspot.com/), who always gets a ton of comments. I think it is because her posts are personal and focused on topics which mean a lot to her. She states facts, but the facts are always presented with commentary on larger topics, such as what life/family/religion is or can be. I think this goes a long way for her.
Also, for the record, I haven't post any of my papers on our blog. I do post on topics which are interesting to me, and I have interests in what I study, so it works out. Sometimes I have philosophical thoughts and just want to get them out.
I think 9 comments is a record... for this blog. I will try to reply to comments more often. Thanks for the advice everyone.
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