#IWSG–The Importance of Comments
This post is for Alex Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writers Support Group (click the link for details on what that means and how to join. You will also find a list of bloggers signed up to the challenge that are worth checking out). The first Wednesday of every month, we all post our thoughts, fears or words of encouragement for fellow writers.
This month’s insecurity: If I don’t get comments on my blog, does that mean it’s irrelevant?
I have two main blogs–I have four in all, but that’s a different topic. One of them (this one–WordDreams) gets lots of comments. I love the community. I learn from my readers. It’s what I dreamt of when I started blogging: a cerebral sharing of ideas. The other blog (my teacher blog, Ask a Tech Teacher) gets almost no comments. That always makes me sad because I spend a lot of time on those posts. I’ve tried the typical suggestions–ask for reader input, close with a question, include a scintillating headline–but nothing works.
But then I look at the metric of hits. That blog that no one comments on gets 2-3 times as much traffic and is shared much more often.
What do you think about that? Is there something I can do to motivate more comments or should I be OK with the traffic?
More IWSG articles:
When do you use first or last names in novels?
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman
, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, adjunct professor of technology in education, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning.
Filed under: writers, writing Tagged: iwsg, writers
