The Seven Month Wall
It seems like I got a lot of people’s attention with my last post regarding the trials and tribulations of blogging. Just to clarify, I have no intention of quitting. I knew what I started this blog that it wasn’t going to be easy, especially because I chose such a unique niche. For one thing, people aren’t used to what I blog about. Secondly, there’s no beaten path for my destination. I have to figure out how to do what I do with little precedent for success! I was just speaking my mind about and trying to inform the people out there that blogging isn’t always glamorous.
Like I mentioned before, I am in my seventh month of blogging, which some bloggers have pointed out is a “wall” of sorts. It’s a point in time where you’ve passed that six months of putting in the effort, and you step back to reflect on how far you’ve come. I’m not going to lie, I thought that I would be further than I am now. Does that make me want to stop? No, it doesn’t. And did I stay as focused and disciplined as I thought I would. No, I didn’t. And did I get as much out my experience as I thought I did? Yes, and a whole lot more.
Pleasant Surprises…
One thing I didn’t expect from the blogosphere is how close knit it is. It is truly amazing how you’ll “run into” the same people commenting on several different blogs. Every blogger has a unique perspective on the world, and they are all trying to bring their own niche and viewpoint to the blogosphere. In my case, I blog about arts and entertainment, in a broad sense. I also encourage other people to find their inner artist, and to express themselves in whatever way that they can. Lately, I’ve been focusing a lot on expression through blogging, and what I see as wrong with the current world of entertainment, and I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how I need to get back to my roots with this blog… but I digress.
That’s just it, I’ve grown as a person from being on the blogosphere, because I’ve learned a lot from interacting with my blogging colleagues. We are all putting our own viewpoints onto the blogosphere, and challenging each other to broaden our minds and our lives. I’m sure that just about every single blogger who has been doing this for a good amount of time will tell you that their “topic” has evolved since they first started off. The bloggers who have stayed 100% strictly on topic are usually the ones who are antisocial.
To me, the blogging world is a lot like a marketplace, with an unlimited amount of space for one to set up shop. We all set up our shops, but we’re not all selling goods, per se. We are “selling” our ideaologies. But like any decent marketplace, we get to know the other “vendors”, the bloggers if you will. We get to know them, and they influence what we do, and vice versa. To the naive outsider, blogging is nothing more than a bunch of self-centered people standing on soapboxes and preaching, but it’s so much more than that. In actualitiy, us bloggers have immersed ourselves in a world where we can grow, learn, and meet people together, and possibly even find our calling in the process, giving us our coveted means of revenue.
Dollar Signs In Their Eyes…
Allow me to get to my point. One of the very first unexpected revelations for me after I entered the blogging world was that I became annoyed about so many people who would see blog articles as a means to an end. After someone would pour their heart and soul into an article, and would open up the floor for discussion, there would always be several people who would leave comments such as “great article, blah blah blah” and that would be it. In other words, their only reason for leaving the article would be to post a link back to their blog. To me, this dilutes the very thing that makes blogging great, and is incredibly selfish to boot. If you have absolutely NOTHING to add to an article, then don’t comment.
This isn’t anything new. A lot of bloggers have enacted “comment policies” where they state that they will straight up delete comments if they don’t add anything to the discussion. Personally, that’s not my style, but I don’t necessarily disagree with people who do that. It goes to show you that bad comments are a problem in the blogosphere, and a lot of people are of the opinion that something has to be done about it. I am one of those people. Just because I’m not in favor of enacting comment policies, doesn’t mean I think blogs should be overrun with comments such as “This is a great article, let me suck up so that you might mention my blog in the future, blah blah blah”. No, something has to be done so that the blogosphere maintains its integrity.
What Can Be Done?
Here’s what I suggest. We need to educate bloggers on the proper way to carry themselves. The blogosphere can be a wonderful, fully enriching thing for them if they would open themselves up to it, instead of seeing visitors as dollar signs on their adsense report. There truly is no limit to what you can accomplish with the fellowship of your blogging colleagues. People have been able to quit their jobs, start their dream careers, get in shape, get married, and everything in between using the blogosphre. All it takes is open minded participation… that’s it!
This is why people need to stop leaving such stupid blog comments. When you do it, not only are you wasting space on their article, not only are you being selfish and trying to capitalize on their hard work and popularity to shamelessly plug your blog, and not only are you making yourself look like a fool to the COUNTLESS more established bloggers who know how to act, but you are MISSING out on an amazing experience that is literally right at your fingertips! Who knows if the potential to have this experience is going to last forever? With the way that the internet evolves and the way that people change, this could all die off within a few years, so I strongly encourage you to get in on this amazing experience now before it’s too late. And all you have to do is to stop leaving dumb blog comments!
Come back next week when I take this discussion to the next level and discuss a better blog comment strategy, as opposed to how not to approach it.
Eye Image by: Max Romersa
Keyboard Image by: Ariel da Silva Parreira
Trey… I definitely agree with you on this one, but educating and getting people to take your advice are two different things all together. There are people out there that just comment to get their name and they leave these worthless one sentence comments that do nothing to add to the conversation trying to be developed. There is one guy in particular that I see on most of the blogs I visit that REALLY bugs me as you really never know if he actually read a post or not.
Now to be fair… one of the reasons I comment so much is to get my name out there in the blogosphere, but I do my best to leave well though-out comments and I try and add some value to other readers.
I look forward to your post on building a better comment strategy.
Doug Dillard´s last blog ..MakingMoneyOnline.com August Recap – Also Only Two Days Left to Win Banner Package
OK, I’m not at all sure if something I did inspired you to write this post, but whatever it was you did a damn good job of it.
I understand that there are a lot of bloggers out there, especially new ones, who are unaware of commenting etiquette, but then I reckon there are also a lot who are and do not give a damn. Still, it’s posts such as this that may help those willing to learn to leave the Dark Side of commenting and enter the light.
Sire´s last blog ..Sometimes It just Doesn’t Pay Being Jack
I would say that most people that leave junk comments already know better. They know that there is a chance that the owner may/may not delete it.
They are willing to take the chance just in case they do get posted & then they have exactly what they came for – a backlink.
I watch my stats & see when the ‘link searches’ come in & yep, I’ll end up with junk comments on 3 or 4 post. I moderate so they just get deleted.
Hmm, I wish I saw my blog visitors as $ signs. Maybe I just wish they would give me money, who cares if they visit my blog just send cash, I’m not picky.
Sheryl
ps. I am sure that it was Sire that did something bad (always blame the Aussie).
Sheryl Loch´s last blog ..Why You Should Care if Teens are Using Twitter
I’m a bit hesitant to leave a comment now, after reading this
Personally I’ve not had a problem with junk comments yet .. well apart from the masses of spam that my anti-spam deals with very well. Perhaps it depends on the nature of what my blog is about. Or maybe it’s because I never (well, rarely) leave comments just to get my name and url up.
I’ve also found the blogging world very close-knit and I find the different life stories and philosophies fascinating. We’re all different and, for me, blogging is a celebration of that.
btw .. I’ve been quiet in the blogoshpere for the last couple of months so I don’t know how new the ‘new look’ is on your site .. but I really like it.
Ian Peatey´s last blog ..How we die
@ Doug
I would argue that the real reason that most of us leave comments is to promote our own blogs. I believe that we, as humans, are very self serving creatures. There’s nothing wrong with that though, and as long as we balance the equation and serve others in the process by leaving meaningful comments, then it’s okay to promote your blog. But when you unbalance the equation, and you only comment to promote your own blog and not add value to the discussion, then that’s when the selfishness comes into play. Thanks for commenting!
@ Sire
Thanks for the compliment. I know you don’t just hand out praise, so that means a lot. And yes, I definitely think that the proper way of educating the new bloggers who just don’t “get it” is to show them what they’re missing out by not participating.
@ Sheryl
Lol, well I disagree. I don’t think that most of the bloggers who leave dumb comments realize that it’s wrong. I think that they don’t quite get the concept that it’s a worthy investment to get to know the other bloggers on a personal level. And yes, it is my personal policy to always blame the Aussie when things go wrong.
@ Ian
Lol @ your first sentence. You don’t have anything to worry about, you always leave intelligent comments. As for why you don’t have junk comments, I think that it’s because your niche is so specific. When I first discovered your blog, it took me a little while to understand what you were writing about, but now I understand and think it’s great!
And thanks for the praise regarding my new theme. It’s been up for a few weeks now. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s 100X better than the old one.