How to control blog comments – and why

Following some unrepeatable click-trail, I ended up at an article at http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/reaching-out/ called ‘Quick Tip: Five a Day,’ by michelle w. on April 3, 2013.

The advice given in the post was good: basically, grow your own blog traffic by commenting five times a day on the blogs of others. If you add something of value to the discussion/comments after someone’s blog post, people may click on your link to your own blog to see if you have anything else to say.

Before I started blogging, I read tons of blogs every day for a year. I noticed that there is a subtle dance going on at each blog: the interaction with the blogger, and the kind and content of comments leads to very different blog environments. But only now am I analyzing what I want for mine.

My driving force was – and is – selfish:

Whether and what to blog

Please yourself. And please whatever vision you have of your target readers.

No one else can make the decision that will make you happy (rich, beautiful, thin, successful beyond your wildest dreams…). Both sides of the blogging argument – ‘Never blog about yourself, only about your books’ vs. ‘Blog about what interests you, because it will attract readers to your books’ – have compelling arguments in their favor.

The important part is that these are OPINIONS, and there is no scientific way to prove one or the other, as there are writers doing it well on both sides of the argument.

By all means scan other blogs and see if you agree with the blogger’s opinions. Writing style. Choice of format. Heck, choice of background color (thin white letters on a black background drive me to the Preferences settings on my browser ’cause I can’t SEE them).

It comes down to content: can you provide what others will want to read?

If all you want is to add your bit to someone else’s thoughts – go comment on their blog posts. The disadvantage: waiting until someone else posts on the topic.

BUT: there are plenty of niches left. If, after you read for a while, you find no one ever blogs about X – you go blog about X. Instead of searching the web for solutions to your problems, solve them yourself – and post the results. Someone, somewhere, will thank you.

I write. After some six months’ reading, I have picked the Categories where I have something I want to say. They are in the sidebar. I hope there is something you may want to read.

There is enough sand in this sandbox for EVERYONE.