Thursday, March 26, 2009

Quick! You Have 140 Characters To Tell Me How Much I Rock: Go!

Ultimate Blog Party 2009

Hey, and welcome if you came for the Ultimate Blogger Party! What? Over here, in the corner. What am I wearing? Oh. It's not a lampshade! ..it's a hat. Whut? Never mind! Grab a drink! And some chocolate, don't forget some chocolate. Let's talk about blogging, because, well, what else would you talk about at a party for bloggers? And remember, this is a conversation, so your input is wanted...

In the beginning, when I started three years ago, comments were currency. You "paid your respects" by leaving a quick comment for the owner of the blog. It was your calling card. If you cared enough to read, you left evidence that you had been there. In return, the blog owner often would visit you once in a while. It was a lot of fun.

As the Blogosphere ballooned exponentially, it was no longer possible to comment on every blog you visited. It became harder to get noticed and find a core readership. When the marketing of blogging took off, suddenly, blogging was a business, not just a pasttime, and everyone had a blog. Who had time to comment?

I have been noticing for a while now that though my comments have decreased, my traffic has increased. While I love that new people are finding me, I would really like it if you came out of hiding, so I can get to know you. I started blogging for the community, and the connection to others. But I have noticed that unless you are one of these rock star awesome bloggers with a legion of loyal subjects, your comments won't be where most of your interaction comes from.*

*Barring giveaways to entice people to your blog and "extra" chances to enter contests by tweeting your link, subbing to your feed in order to increase your exposure...all things I won't do here. I may, from time to time, do a giveaway, but I won't force you to tweet my link or subscribe to my feed or blog about my contest... that feels disingenuous to me. It's not the way I roll.

::tap, tap, is this thing on?:::

But if you're like me, you will keep writing, and hope the writing pulls the unsupecting victims minions worshippers readers in, and that your wit and aplomb keeps them here.

Enter twitter. With 140 characters to say just what's on your mind, twitter revolutionized the blogging scene. For some, it became a time suck, and their blogs weren't so important. We call them "microbloggers." For others, it became a way to stay connected to those they blogged with and meet new bloggers. There were almost as many ways to use twitter as there were twitter accounts!

Jump to today. I will often tweet a blog post, and it would seem that twitter has become the new blog comment forum. Followers will comment on the post, via twitter, and not on the blog itself. So I will check stats and comments on my blog and feel mildly discouraged to find few (compared to last year when the comments were more plentiful) Then I will remember that comments and kudos came through my twitter stream. It would appear that Twitter is the new comment system.

But I think I kind of miss the old one.

Just an aside, I think Comment Luv is one of the best things to happen to blogging. I love clicking on the last post that someone links through my comments. Might it be you?

T, who says come out, come out, whoever you are

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

28 sent chocolate:

Anonymous said...

I love Twitter, as you know, and I think it's a great way of alerting people to new bloggy posts, but mostly I just adore the company of all the fab people I follow and who follow me. It has brought up my stats, but that's not the main reason I use it. Viva La Twitter!

Anonymous said...

you know, I can't remember how I found you on twitter, but your nick was chocolate related. Instant follow :) I tend to subscribe to everyone's blogs in an RSS and then get around to reading them ... oh a month of Sundays or more later. So I am not a big comment dropper.

So, T, YOU ROCK! (ack now I have Camp Rock in my head....)... see you in the twitterverse.

Anonymous said...

Twitter has been a useful tool for connecting with other bloggers. I'm pretty sure I post less as a result of using Twitter, but I do get more visitors when posts are published.

And if I hadn't joined Twitter, I wouldn't have found you. That would be a travesty. ;)

Anonymous said...

Good post. I've only blogged a handful of times in the past year. Typically average maybe 20 - 30 visits a day (such a newbie) Always wondered why my comments were thin. Last week I posted an article and in 1 week, I've already had over 2000 views of that one article. I am in heaven over that amazing stat. A fraction of the views come from my tweeting the article. Most are feedburner, some Google.

Yet even now I've only had one comment. Thank God for that! :-) My ego wants me to be in that "superstar" league always getting lots of comments. Or even retweets or comments on Twitter. Anything good, bad or otherwise. How else will I know if what I'm blogging is itself good, bad or otherwise? < sigh > such is life. Always learning.

In any case, the first and most important reason I blog is still valid today- to help educate, and offer value to anyone who might find my subject matter worthy of even just viewing the content. That won't stop even if nobody ever comments.

Anonymous said...

Just leavin' you some comment luv. And chocolate. Maybe like the Lindt bar I tried the other day with an orange center for sweetness & the dark exterior 'cause well, sometimes being a mother is cause for dark, and even on certain hard nights, bitterness. So glad I found you. See you here & on Twitter & I promise to behave well in either locale. 'Cause my name? For real.

Anonymous said...

I'm here from UBP! Loved the post...although I'm not a twitter!

Anonymous said...

Well I found you on twitter and loved your tweets which led me to your blog! Also I watch you on my dashboard at blogCatalog so I know EXACTly what you are doing at all times - :-)

I enjoy your writing and am sending *virtual* chocolate (better for the figure!)

Anonymous said...

just to let you know that if you change your js-kit settings so that "expand leave a comment" is enabled then commentluv will be available to all!

Recent blog post: Can I catch up to the catchup?

Anonymous said...

OK, so I'm a BIG time lurker out here in blogsville--But you DO rock amd I'm back to read every new post-- AND I don't even LIKE chocolate.

Anonymous said...

I love Twitter. Some days I love it a little too much and someone should tell me to back away from the keyboard. It has been a connection to a lot of different people, some of whom sporadically may visit my blog, some who I only connect with via that 140-word medium. As much as I enjoy Twitter, I also find it can suck away at some writing ability I have and I am left wondering what I'm doing when I log into my blog and think I've got words to share!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE Twitter and actually started blogging because of it. Everyone would ask if I had a blog and I enjoyed reading the blogs of those I followed. So, with much encouragement and advice from my Tweeples I jumped into the Blogosphere. Your blog leaves mine in the dust - you are so witty and sometimes I really have to chew on your content. I did miss the haircut entry btw - was done during the week I barely got to look at email let alone blogs. Do you like nuts or chews?

Anonymous said...

Sending you a little comment luv!

Anonymous said...

Andy: THANKS for pointing out that others' comments weren't being directed, darn it! I had expand post summaries checked, but recently cleared my cookies so JS-Kit wasn't responding the way it was supposed to. (I was essentially logged out.) I will have to watch that. Now to see if I can go back and ADD everyone's URL in...
T.

Anonymous said...

missbanshee's latest post: Catholic School, The Dance

(comment luv hiccuped, so I am adding the latest posts to everyones' comments)
T.

Anonymous said...

Annette's latest post: This Brand Is Your Brand

Anonymous said...

Thank you for leaving a comment Renae! I would love to be able to post your latest blog post, but can't figure out how to link you up. Comment Luv logged me out when I cleared my cookies. (I tossed my cookies, LOL) I have restored settings, and am manually adding everyone's posts that I can find.

T.

Anonymous said...

EarnestGirl's latest post is: Dear Husbands,About Those Kitchenette Holidays

T.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for coming! Make sure to get some chocolate!

Anonymous said...

joyfrequencies profile: here it is

Anonymous said...

fadkog's latest post: Pucker Up, Buttercup

Anonymous said...

Too Many Hats' last post: I have to be careful with audio books

(and I like cream centers, not a big nut or chew kind of person. Dark chocolate, if you please. (no, I am not demanding...)

Anonymous said...

Here's looking at you, kid!

Anonymous said...

thank you for reading!

Anonymous said...

Newbie blogger is humbled by your eloquence. I'm learning so much about the language - this blog freakin' rocks!

Anonymous said...

I think I have this bad boy figured out now! Yay!

Recent blog post: Want to Improve Your Teen's Essay Writing Skills?

Anonymous said...

Love the blog, T, and thanks for all the kinds words the last couple of days, too! :)

Recent blog post: "Try facts next time...." - I stand corrected

Anonymous said...

OK I think we have lift-off!

Recent blog post: e-motions

Medela symphony said...

Cool post, thank you for the share.

Related Posts with Thumbnails
 
Clicky Web Analytics