Receiving comments is one of the most rewarding aspects of blogging. Comments show that someone out there is listening and interested in participating in the topic at hand. In fact, comments were a large part of what kept me going in the first year of blogging. When you first start out, blogging can get lonely.
I often write posts to understand the other side of the story. There are things I believe in which for the life of me I don’t know why other people disagree e.g. getting good grades, getting into work first and leaving last, equal treatment by the government for all, and the West Coast being the best coast to name a few. Through comments, I get to understand other people’s viewpoints and expand my own horizons.
There are also a ton of things I do not fully comprehend, namely tax laws. I’ve learned so much from my readership of accountants and lawyers that I can’t thank them enough for the information they’ve provided. Discussing legal advice, although dangerous to accept at face value, is also very helpful given lawyers are an expensive bunch.
BEWARE OF TOO MUCH
Financial Samurai has the “Top Commenter” and “Most Commented Posts” plug-ins on its homepage to keep track of who have participated the most and which posts have generated the most discussions over time. As you can see, I comment a lot, with over 2,300 comments since February. That’s about 300 comments a month.
I’ve come to realize that perhaps I am spending too much time commenting and not enough time publishing! Often times, I’ll let the commenting go out of control with comments reaching 60+ due to a lot of back and forth between me and my readers. At more than 60 comments, we start beating a dead horse to death.
With more free time now, I’ve decided to up my posting frequency by 20% to around four posts a week. With more content comes more traffic. That so much is obvious. But what about burnout and sustainability you wonder? Well not to worry at all!
Given I post more frequently, the average number of comments per post has come down. My posts don’t have enough time at the current moment to mature to the point where we go over the same points over and over again. A higher frequency helps me comment less and focus my energy on writing more content!
NEW COMMENTING GOAL
I now have a soft goal of shooting for roughly 30 total comments per post before I move on. This soft goal has meshed well with my posting frequency increase to every 36 hours from every 48 hours. I’m careful to not be too rigid in my posting schedule because sometimes, I’ll have myself a hit that may lead to 100+ comments and a tremendous amount of coverage. If this is the case, I’ll leave the post up for longer before publishing another one.
My quest is to work no more than 20 hours a week. When I sit down at the table, I want to feel as efficient as possible since I’ve only got about three hours a day on average, or four hours between an arbitrary Monday-Friday. I say “arbitrary” because when you’re retired, everyday is Saturday!
So there you have it. Comments are always fantastic to have. Just beware that you are not going overboard with your comments at the expense of producing new content. If you tally up the number of words you’ve written in responding to everybody in a post, you’ll be surprised to find out you’ve probably written another full-length post just in your comments!
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Updated for 2017 and beyond.
For me personally, as someone who comments on another site, it’s nice to receive a reply to a comment.. but as a site owner, it can be a lot of work. I try to reply to the early comments to encourage other comments and then reply to those that add to the conversation. Too much commenting is a distraction from writing.
Quite honestly, if I go to a site and there are already 20-30+ comments on a post, I’ll generally leave without leaving a comment. I figure that most everything has likely been said already and that the host and other readers have likely moved on. But I like to see that many on my posts :)
I feel that way too. Sometimes I quickly glance over the comments to see if what I want to say has been already, if it has, then I move on.
I’ve never really thought about the possibility of too much commenting, but actually when I go to websites and there’s a bazillion comments, I won’t leave one. Feels like the conversations are done and I can’t be part of them. But it’s also interesting from the blogger perspective of too much commenting — I’d never thought that that time could be replaced with post-writing time! And we all know that quality content is #1 priority. Maybe having some cutoff of comments before you focus on your next post is a good idea, but I also like that you mention the idea of this being a “soft” guideline. Hard and fast rules tend to be too rigid, so I think ti’s great that you’re new plan is a “soft” one!
Yeah, everybody’s website and interaction levels are different. Worth experimenting and seeing what is ideal for each.
I like receiving replies to my comments on other blogs, so I don’t think too much is possible :) I often go back to sites to see if they replied.
Me too. However, I’ve found 75% don’t respond to my response, hence my reduction and optimal commenting level I’ve discovered.
Reading this makes me think we don’t leave our posts up for long enough. I noticed that when we went from 5 per week to 4 per week my comments spiked, but I also was out commenting more and worked on the posts longer. I’m not sure which is the culprit, but leaving the posts up a little longer has to be part of it.
Try experimenting with 3 posts a week and see how it goes!
That has been my schedule for the first couple years. Worked well.
I post twice a week usually (sometimes 3 times/week) and there is definitely a ‘sweet spot’ in there for giving people the time to get to your site, read your content and comment. Five times a week doesn’t seem like it gives peopel enough time. I found I did the best with 3 posts/week becuase the blog is actively being written in so people don’t feel “lonely” at your site due to low activity, but it’s still leaving enough time for people to comment.
5 times a week seems to be too much as well b/c I like to suss out topics quite thoroughly. 3-4 times a week is what Im comfortable with, but it is worth playing with 5X too and seeing what happens.
If you don’t already, I would create the ability for comments to be rated so the readers can vote a comment up they would like to see you address. Maybe set a threshold so you only read comments when they get a high rating by numerous readers? This would allow you to focus on what a majority of the readers would like to see you address. Enjoy the blog! Thanks
I will look into it with the Yakezie.com 3.0 potential redesign!
Good idea. Thx
Your blog compared to my blog receives more comments. So, I’m not at that stage where I feel like commenting needs to be toned down. I enjoy responding back and engaging with my readers and building a community. But, I understand what you are saying. With so many comments to respond back, you need to manage your time accordingly to post fresh content. Makes sense:-)
Much is relative. I think I partially wrote this post out of guilt for not responding to everyone all the time.
I try to respond to comments that really add something to the conversation, where there is really a response to be made. I started to get tired of saying, ‘you’re right’ or ‘thanks for stopping’ by for every other comment.
Sam, I do not receive much comments on my post, it could be because of many different factors…but I have found that many of my small number of followers do reach me through Twitter and such. To me the comments aren’t as important as spreading my ideas and as for the West Coast…I can tell you this, it would not exist without the East Coast…lol
Joe
Sam,
You are a comment ….well not going to say it…but you get around…LOL
Kudos, that’s awesome, and I always admire those who go out of their way.
Personally, I try to respond to every comment I get, because I see it as…”If you made an effort, the least I can do is to reply” …that’s sort of my mentality.
Since were on the commenting topic, is there such thing as Poor Quality Comment?
I say NO, because a comment is still a comment at the end of the day, whether its 100 words or a simple “I enjoyed your article”. Thoughts? Anyone?
Commenting machine you mean right?
We have to admit that it is flattering to receive a lot of comments on our posts. To save time and effort, I only comment back 24 hours after I post the article and I only respond to comments that I think needs my reaction.
Kinda like email chunking. A more efficient way. I do something similar but sometimes I just cant resist responding immediately!
Commenting is a way I interact with the readers. I don’t measure my success by number of comments as many prominent blogs on main stream media receive very few comments, ie forbes, jean chatzky etc.
Your comments are usually longer than my posts!
Write longer posts! Or, I can institute a small comment policy.
I’m sorry, but all i could think of when reading this was how we should all start commenting 2 or 3 times on every one of Sam’s posts ;)
I reply to all comments as of right now, but I do agree, it can definitely cut into post creation time. I’m still trying to find my balance, but am always happy to see a new comment on my blog.
Don’t put me through the guilt of deciding whether to comment back or not! :)
This is interesting. I wonder how you came up with 30 comments as optimal number, Sam? Why not 20 or 25? :)
Careful mathematical calculations over three years of analysis!
When Seth Godin disabled the comments on his site they asked him why. His pesponse was that he had a choice to have either a blog or comments and he chose to have a blog. I still like it – it is a good feedback mechanism.
Quality of comments is more important than quantity! Quantity can impress the author, but meaningful comments is more worthwhile. If I had to choose, I would rather have high quality vs. quantity. Of course, I would prefer everyone to have their Alexa Bar on their site to improve my ranking too.
I’ve said it elsewhere, but the primary reason I blog is to have conversations with others. I definately agree, however, that it becomes unweildy at a certain point. Look at Get Rich Slowly. Each posts gets well over 100 comments, meaning that the likelihood of anyone actually responding to you rather slim.
J. Money has the best system that I’ve seen. He’ll get a couple dozen comments per post and what he does is type up one (or sometimes 2 or 3) massive comment where he devotes a line or two to responding to each individual commenter.
” If you tally up the number of words you’ve written in responding to everybody in a post, you’ll be surprised to find out you’ve probably written another full-length post just in your comments!”————–Yeah i agree with you, it almost made me laugh while reacting to this. I think we need to have a bit restraints in every response we give to our commenters, if we divulge a lot, who knows you have already opened up another sensible issue that you can make use for your next article topic. I haven’t realized this one until i read your article, thank you for making me aware of it.
Count me in with those who really (really!) dislike things like InfoLinks. I completely understand the need to monetize, but right in the middle of your content is a sacred place. If you choose to include relevant affiliate links, that’s fine. But auto-generated links that may or may not relate to the content at hand are a huge turnoff — not to mention the fact that I often scan pages using the mouse as a guide, which results in unwelcome InfoLink popups. I’ve never knowingly clicked one of these links.
[…] that would mean I’d have to spend some moderating and responding to comments. When you are no longer thrilled to get comments on a post, you know you’re suffering from online apathy.When I got to Fincon, I was […]