Interesting indeed, to examine the chronicle of events and personal growth of an entire year compacted through the subjects I thought important enough to blog about.

January

Letter Writing

The lost art of letter writing.

February

Cookbooks…of DESPAIR
Ha! I’d forgotten about this one. Join me as I try and find a cookbook aimed at normal people. One of my favorite posts from this year.

March

Patches of Sunlight
Not my most heavy-hitting post, but serenity in reading is something worth remembering.

April

Another Look at Scrivener
A review for the powerful Scrivener writing tool. (Short version? I recommend it.)

May

Writers Owing Readers
Although this was also the month of my Quicksilver review, I liked this one better. What do writers owe readers? What do readers owe writers?

June

One Word
One of my more popular posts, comment-wise. If you had to choose a single word mantra to inspire you and remind you of the kind of person you want to be, what would you choose?

July

Taking Writing Seriously
I work through my insecurities and declare, publicly, that I am going to TREAT writing like the important life goal it is, rather than just SAYING that I am a writer.

August

Character Voice
How do you find your character’s voice? Exercises and definitions for the frustrated writer.

September

Aion Open Beta Thoughts
My review for the video game Aion, based on open beta play.

October

Perfectionism
Being called a ‘perfectionist’ should be an insult, and here’s why.

November

[Nouns] [Verb]!
Take action! If you are a [Noun], then [Verb]! (my favorite post of the year)

December

How to Answer a Polite Question
Are you afraid or ashamed to tell people that you are a writer?

1. Comment

What’s that? Encourage commenting by commenting yourself? Balderdash!

*sets aside monocle and walrus mustache*

One way to encourage people to comment on your blog is to reply when you get comments. It’s a way for a blogger to say “Aha! Oho! This blog is run by a human who likes it when they get comments!”

Granted, it’s a pretty safe bet that most bloggers like getting comments.

Even though I KNOW that, I’m still more likely to comment on a blog that I get feedback from the blog author. I’m pretty sure that’s true for other commenters as well.

If I comment and I never get a reply, I do not think “oh, what a stuck up blog author! I’m never coming again!” and then flounce as I click away.

I DO, however, stop and think about leaving comments on subsequent blog posts. If I have a comment that I don’t care whether or not I get a response, I’ll still leave it. But a conversational, “hey, thanks for the post” comment I will probably just keep to myself and move on without commenting.

Responding to comments is the number one most inviting method to encourage people to leave comments on your blog, and works for all platforms.

2. Invite Links

That’s sort of an odd phrasing, but it it’s a single idea that encompasses multiple methods.

You want to invite people to link back to their own site. I am more likely to comment on a blog which allows me to comment AS MYSELF. I want to choose the name I use to comment on your site, and I want to be able to provide a link directly back to my blog, just in case I’m witty enough that someone decides to find out who I am.

Livejournal and Blogspot are NOTORIOUS for failing at this. For both of those blogging platforms, I have to use my Livejournal ID (which points to a now defunct blog) or my BloggerID (which also points to a defunct blog). Aside from commenting anonymously and then ending my comment with a link to my blog (which I do not like to do, since it reeks of self-promotion and link-whoring) I don’t have a way to tell people “this is who I am!”

I don’t really have a solution for LJ and Blogspot bloggers – I don’t know if there’s a flag you can set in your blog settings to change that behavior or not.

Wordpress users can actually go one step further. We can install a plugin called CommentLuv, which will actually pull a link to the commenter’s most recent blog post and insert it into their comment. It’s automatic, so it’s not link-whoring, and if I’m reading comments, I might see a catchy blog title and click through to read, thus finding another blogger to follow.

HUGE kudos to Kestrel for not only finding this plugin, but also encouraging others to use it AND giving tips on how to make it more “pretty” during display. <3

Being able to comment as ME makes me feel more comfortable when leaving a comment.

3. Inform Commenters

Even if you are a diligent comment replier, if your commenters don’t know that you’ve responded, it does no good.

I may spend a day visiting and commenting on a dozen or so blogs – I am SO NOT going to re-visit those dozen blogs periodically throughout the week, refreshing the comments to see whether or not someone replied to me.

I’ve done that before. It sucks bigtime since most bloggers don’t reply to comments, so I seemed desperate and needy as I hit the refresh button. NEVER AGAIN, do you hear me?!

So how can you let a commenter know if they’ve gotten a reply? My weapon of choice is another plugin recommended by Kestrel (smart guy, there) – Subscribe To Comments.

A commenter may CHOOSE to have replies to comments emailed to them. Granted, this probably works best on smaller blogs, like my own. Blogs that frequently get upwards of 100 comments might easily end up spamming inboxes, but those are the blogs that I’d not really expect bloggers to reply directly anyway. Who has that kind of time?!

I am more likely to comment on a post if I see the little “subscribe to comments” checkbox (from any of a number of different plugins) because I’ll be able to tell if I get a reply, and I’ll be able to read OTHER comments as well.

This feature, in particular, encourages conversation among blog commenters. For example, the comments in my recent Fun With Twitter post are hilarious as some of the original commenters have stepped up and replied to things other people have said.

Ending

Does anyone have any other tips or ideas? Does any of this not really apply to you? Anything that bloggers can do which might make you feel more comfortable leaving a comment?

Aside from “write witty blog posts which invite commentary based on content and subject alone”, of course. That one goes without saying (only I said it! What can I say, I’m a rebel.)

I have a long and sordid history of using terrible analogies to try and explain something. Today will be no different.

Blog comments are like a handshake.

Some of them are quick, nervous, and a little on the clammy side. That’s okay, we’ve all been there, especially if we’re meeting someone that we respect or are trying to make a good impression on. I’m sure those folks’ve been on both the giving and receiving end of a nervous handshake before. Time and interaction will turn that handshake into a warm, welcoming, and friendly gesture.

Some comments are like a handshake between old friends, loose and comfortable, and perhaps accompanied by a good-natured clasp of the shoulder and a bit of ribbing.

Some comments, of course, are unpleasant. The person giving the handshake has a buzzer in their hand, or maybe they spit in their palm first (and aren’t five years old trying to seal a deal). Perhaps they’ve recently enjoyed some chocolate pretzels (bonus points for the movie reference).

Behaviors

I think that in today’s blog-heavy internet, it can be all too easy to over-analyze commenting. I know I’ve done it. I’ve been guilty of being irritated or hurt that someone didn’t reply to a comment. I’ve waited to comment until I had something interesting posted on my blog, so if they followed my link back, they’d be more impressed by me (the blogging equivalent of “freshening up” before meeting someone famous).

I’ve held my silence in comments because I admire the blogger, and don’t feel that I could possibly comment in a meaningful and amusing enough way to catch the blogger’s attention. I’ve commented in the hopes of getting more traffic to my site.

I’ve commented in anger. I’ve commented in self-defense. I have completely and totally disallowed myself from commenting on my own blog out of fear.

I’ve commented just to let someone know that I read their comment and appreciated it (actually, I do this a lot – it’s part of my personal philosophy on comments).

Summary

If comments are like handshakes, then maybe I should stop with the over analyzing. If someone says something I feel I want to comment on, I shouldn’t stop and run through a thousand scenarios in my head before I decide to say something.

I believe there are things bloggers can do to encourage commenting, but I also believe that, as a commenter, I shouldn’t sweat the details.

I should give that blogger my warmest smile, shake their hand, say my thank you, and consider that to be a meaningful exchange.

Question

How do YOU guys view comments? Do you find yourself with a different philosophy as a blogger than you do as a commenter?  Do you over think your comments on other blogs?