commenting on blogs

Why Don’t More People Comment On Blogs?

On Twitter a couple of months ago, a local business consultant I know said “no one comments on blogs anymore,” to which I responded “I commented on yours yesterday.” He came back with “no one comments on blogs anymore but you.” In my mind I disagreed… but had to think about it for a bit.

commenting on blogs
he’s got opinions

I get comments on almost every blog post I put out. On this blog in 2019, only one of my posts (talking about promotion no less) didn’t get a comment. But I have had a couple of posts that only got one or two comments; that’s disappointing. Still, I did have one post this year that got 22 comments; I’ll take what I can get.

It’s disappointing for more than one reason. Over the last couple of years, I’ve worked hard on improving the type of posts I write, no matter the topic. I’m also promoting my articles from this blog more often on social media, especially on Twitter (I promote articles from my business blog on LinkedIn and my Facebook business page).

I’ve written longer blog posts for the last 5 or 6 years, and I make sure I’m thorough. Some might say no one wants to read long posts, but that’s counter to what most statistics show. Obviously I don’t believe that’s the problem.

The issue these days is the competition with social media and the proliferation of around 500 million blogs, active or not, which accounts for over 2 million blog posts daily. As a writer, that’s hard to conceive keeping up with; as a reader, I know I’m missing a lot.

What about myself as a commenter? That’s interesting. I still comment on blogs, but not as much as I used to. In the period between 2008 and 2011, it was my goal to comment on at least 10 blogs a day. I used to follow over 160 blogs at a time, so I always found something to say somewhere. These days I’m following less than 20, but not for a lack of trying. When my hard drive crashed last October because of a Windows 10 update, I lost everything on that drive eventually, which included my large RSS feeds file. I found a backup on my laptop, but it wasn’t as comprehensive as the one on my desktop.

To be transparent, I actually get tons of “comments”… that is, if we want to count spam. If I only cared about numbers instead of quality (and didn’t mind comments promoting escort services in India, which I didn’t even know was a thing), I’d have nearly 100 comments per post. But we all know better… don’t we? lol

Regardless, my numbers are down, but I’m not alone. I was checking out some of the big name bloggers from my past who are still writing content, and I noticed the number of comments they get aren’t close to what they used to be.

In a way I guess I should be happy. I’ve seen the quality of comments on Flipboard stories and news sites; I’d delete almost everything that showed up on my blog looking like that. I don’t understand why people bother if they really don’t have anything to say or do except be snarky.

The lack of comments or good comments might be contributing to the growing number of people who don’t accept comments on their sites any longer. Not only that, but when they decide they’re no longer accepting comments, almost all of them remove previous comments from previous posts; I don’t know if that’s mandatory or not, but it’s stunning.

What’s a body to do these days? Is blogging still worth it? Is accepting comments still worth it? Is commenting on blogs still worth it?

I think it depends on what’s most important to you. I can only define what’s worth my time, not anyone else’s.

What I’m going to do is continue writing on all of my blogs whenever possible. I’m also going to continue accepting comments on my blogs because sometimes they’re illuminating but they’re always appreciated. I’m also going to continue commenting on other blogs because it’s what I do, and for some reason I feel the need to offer my opinion on stuff. lol

I figure that blogging and promoting on social media is still the best way to go to promote myself and my “product”, which is mainly article writing and content creation and myself. Without that, all I have is YouTube; how scary is that in today’s age?

What do you think about blog comments these days? Would you comment if you had an opinion on it? Let’s find out! 😉
 

26 thoughts on “Why Don’t More People Comment On Blogs?”

  1. I still do comment on blogs when I feel compelled to say something and if I’ve read a post I usually comment. I just don’t read and explore blogs like I used to. My comments have dropped considerably from what they used to be, but so has my own commenting. Reciprocity seems to be what keeps commenters coming back. There are very few people I know who don’t blog but are willing to read and comment on my own posts. Even when I ask my friends or family to do so, they still won’t bother saying they don’t have time or something like that.

    Lee

    1. Lee, friends and family never sign up or read our stuff; I’ve postulated on this one for years and I figure that unless we’re bringing in tons of money from what we do they see it as more of a hobby than a real thing. I gave up more than 10 years ago. lol Commenting has always been the best way to drive traffic, but you have to do a lot of it and hope that what you’re writing gets enough people interested to follow back. Even you and I don’t comment on each other’s blogs as often as we used to. Social media & technology were supposed to make things easier for us and give us more time; seems we never quite figured out what to do with that time except stuff more things into it to get in our way. lol

  2. Hey Mitch,

    I always loved commenting on blogs and reading the comments on my own. I’ve built some beautiful relationships with people I would have never met otherwise through doing that. It’s unfortunate you don’t see as much of it lately.

    I’m guilty of it too. It’s just SO time-consuming when you get to a point where you have a lot of blogs to visit and comments to respond to (and projects to finish). I wasn’t one to paste a few words and leave it at that. My comments would turn into discussions. I enjoyed it, but eventually, I just lost steam.

    Great reminder, though, to get back into it.

    1. Thanks Dana. I miss commenting on a lot of blogs like I used to, along with responding to lots of comments around here. Maybe it’s another thing to pencil into my schedule at least a couple of times a week; something to think about…

  3. I couldn’t agree more. I’ve attributed it to laziness. Perhaps they do have something to say but the thought of actually typing it out proves discouraging.

  4. I am willing to comment on posts that interest me as a blogger for pleasure. I do not comment on most of your blog posts because they address a different audience. I don’t hold it against you that you hardly ever comment on my, for you, useless posts.

    1. We agree on interest as far as commenting but these days we’re interested in writing about different things most of the time. We both hardly ever comment on each other’s posts these days, but both of us are, hopefully, still commenting in other spaces. At least I see everything you write since your blog’s in my feed reader, so I usually know what’s going on.

  5. Hi Mitch,

    Is blogging still worth it? I think so. I think commenting is still worth it, too. Then again, I consider myself a writer, so that is my main form of self-expression. Perhaps others prefer to listen than to read.
    Thanks for continuing to write. I love your posts with your mom, too. 😀

    Carol

    1. That’s an interesting take on it Carol. I’m also a writer, but I never took that part into account as to why I like commenting on other people’s blogs. I thought it was just because it was one of the few times when I can offer my opinion because in a way I was asked by the post itself. 🙂

  6. I comments on other blog posts and from there I also build some connections with pro-bloggers and Now, I do commenting and it also increase our knowledge because we have read new article and that knowledge goes in mind.

    1. That’s definitely a truism; we learn, then we share our thoughts and sometimes even share the links to articles we’ve read. Sometimes we even get the opportunity to pass along some knowledge in a comment; I love when we all share with each other.

  7. Although there are many people who watch blog content every day, only 1% are those who comment on blogs. Most are only based on seeking information and are not interested in commenting. I think that to receive many comments on a publication, you must have a large audience or that the publication is really of great interest.

  8. Thanks, I always loved commenting on blogs and reading the comments on my own.And I watting others comment on my website.I think comment is best way to know the people what they want and what they think.

    Thanks

  9. I get few comments, but then I don’t expect many since I am writing to someome or expressing my opinion or thoughts in essays. And i don’t promote my blog much.
    I am thrilled when these spark strong feelings or resonate with others, but…

    1. Sometimes that’s the best you can hope for. I know I feel honored when I’ve touched someone enough so that they’ll leave a comment. Still, I miss the old days when it was easier to get lots of comments on an article.

  10. Thank you for this excellent article I was asking myself the same question, I have a few that start commenting and not even them for a month are not anymore and yes an I have a few spams and I hate that.

    Can you guys visit my blogs and give me some advice on how to improve what to write more about I like to share and talk about everything. But please give me advice I really need it to make this work and have more fun while doing it. here are my two one English the other in Spanish the first one is WordPress and the other Blogger and I am a novice on this. First timer. Thank you again.

    Oh I have a question, like if I share this article in my blog that is something bad to do even that I give you the credit. What is the correct way to do this. I don’t want to do illegal things

    1. Greetings Ed,

      I took a quick look at your blog and it’s easy to see why it’s failing. Pictures of pretty women populating it like you’ve done might get your a few people stopping by, but it’s not quite the type of content that’ll get people commenting all that often. Also, if you don’t own all those images you shared, you’re risking being sued by those who actually own those images.

      To get engaging commentary you have to write engaging content. I’m not sure which country you’re based in, but if this was an American blog, in the world of #MeToo, if you started receiving commentary it wouldn’t be all that pleasant.

      Regarding sharing links, one can always share links, but there will be caveats. One, if the link doesn’t mesh with your content the search engines won’t like it and they’ll downgrade your site. Two, if it doesn’t mesh with the content and the blog owner discovers it, they’ll probably ask you to remove it, and if you’re in the European Union you’d have to remove it by law. I sometimes share a link to someone else’s blog, but it matches the content I’m writing on and I always let them know I used it when I start promoting the article. Just giving attribution isn’t enough; makes it look like you’ve got something to hide.

      I wish you well with your blogs.

  11. I don’t receive comments on my blog, Mitch, and I have decided that that’s the way it is. I am going to write it anyway. I’m going to say what I want to say and that’s really important to me. I would love to have more comments but I really believe that when one is as self-indulgent as I am in my posts, it’s pretty hard to have long-standing supporters. There isn’t a real theme to my blog except letters to my children and they are really not had an age or time in their life when they read a lot of blogs. They’re busy working. Their focus is elsewhere. C’est la vie.

    1. You’ve received comments from me here and there, so you mean you don’t regularly receive comments. lol I like your writing because it’s like you’re telling your family stories… and who doesn’t like stories? However, I’m also betting that because you consider it more personal you don’t promote it all that often, if at all; that’ll definitely keep the visitor count low.

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