This week I'm participating in Blogger Confessions, a meme that posts the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month, where book bloggers "confess" and vent about topics that are unique to us. It is hosted by Tiger's All Consuming Media and For What It's Worth. If you want to participate, head on over there and link up.
Q: Comments. The holy grail of blogging success! What type of posts do you leave comments on? How do you try to encourage more comments on your blog? Do you respond to people who leave comments on your posts? How do you handle negative/spam comments? Do you use captcha?
A. First of all, I know that I'm weird and different when it comes to comments. I leave comments on all posts that I read. Types of posts? Usually reviews, but I'll leave them on discussion posts as well if it is something that catches my attention. Essentially once I read the first sentence of a post (accidentally or not) I'm going to comment on it. I'm not sure if it is an OCD thing or what. For me it isn't necessarily the post that catches my attention but the blogger. If I notice that the post is by a blogger that writes funny or entertaining or interesting or thorough or whatever kind of special reviews, I'm more likely to read the review even if the book cover doesn't catch my attention much. I also return comment on bloggers who comment on my blog, which is currently how I figure out a blogger's style and I stalk them from there on out. I'm not much of a lurker though. I'm pretty big on commenting.
I might ask a question at the end of a post and I tend to get more comments then. But I really only do it if I'm looking for answer to a burning question. This also happens if I'm really excited at the time I write a review. Mostly I hope to get more comments by people returning the favor. I comment on blogs and hope they'll take the time look around here and return the favor. This actually doesn't work too well though.
I respond to people who leave comments but I admit that I'm pretty slow at it. One of my 2012 goals is to respond within 48 hours but I'm not doing very good with that.
I just delete spam comments. I've only gotten two all year so it isn't bothersome. I don't delete negative comments because that doesn't seem very nice. If someone disagrees with me, I think it adds to the discussion for them to share. I do not use captcha because I hate it with a passion. If spam was a problem, I would switch to approving my comments before I'd turn on captcha.
If anyone sees captcha on my blog PLEASE PLEASE let me know. I don't like that at all.
So what about you? What are your commenting habits?
