Sep 13
Apex Says Speak Up!
I’m a bit worried about my boy Alex otherwise known as Apexad.
First before I begin with the bulk of this post, let me say Apex that I hope you don’t come out and kill me because I’m writing all of this!
I think in the end (if we can get some feedback) this is gonna be a good thing for all of us!
Now everyone else is askin’, “So what’s up with Apex?”
SPEAK TO ME!!!
From what I can tell, it all started around last Saturday during my Saturday Speedlinkin IV post where Apex asked me to make a comment on his site. At that point I wasn’t really worried and didn’t think TOO MUCH of it, but later on it escalated to a post on his site where he offered a $1 for the first 5 comments on that post.
$1 for a Comment!? That got me to take a pause. I mean, that’s not how you’re supposed to get comments!
Now it seems (if you read that post) that basically Apex is frustrated. From what I can tell he’s getting good traffic from “Keira Knightley” and “Keeley Hazell” but basically NO one is commenting on his site! And as we all know, for a blogger that SUCKS.
Why Aren’t People Commenting
I guess that’s the number one question. Here’s my number one explanation:
- If people are coming to his site off searches for “Keira Knightley” and “Keeley Hazell“, I’m betting they’re looking for pictures or videos. I doubt that most of those people are going to bother commenting if they don’t or even if they do find what they’re looking for. And besides that, a lot of non bloggers just don’t understand the community concept of blogging so they’re not looking to comment. They just don’t get it.
But you know, that doesn’t account for everyone else. Why aren’t other bloggers commenting? Here are my guesses on that.
- Not Enough Readers – According to your feed button on your site, you have 16 readersish. I don’t know if that’s enough in terms of loyal readers to translate to a lot of comments. In Feedburner, have you looked at what if any posts of yours are getting clicked? If you have views but no clicks, maybe that’s an indication that you’re not talking about what your readers want to talk about.
- Reaching Out - Are you schmoozing enough? From experience, getting comments at the beginning is tough. You have to reach out to your fellow bloggers, nurture the readers you have and somehow bring them all back. It’s really tough going at the beginning.
- Audience – Is the content on your site hitting your target audience? Do you have a target audience? You have the personality to engage your readers – I see it in your posts and when you comment on here, but are you giving your audience what they want and if not, how do you start doing that?
Conclusions
Apex, you can get this done but I think a big problem for you right now (and this is imho of course), is that you’re not really targeting a particular audience. I had problems with this at the beginning, and after I started really going after a certain group of people, this site started to have some success.
If you want to target guys, that’s great. If you want to target bloggers that’s great too. But I wonder if you only target “Keira Knightley” and “Keeley Hazell” how much room your site will have to grow in terms of comments you know? Plus, as much as I like reading the randomness of your site, it’s pretty freakin’ random! You have posts about well – Everything! And while this is good, I think it makes it really hard in the beginning. (That’s why I don’t have a personal blog yet because I think randomness makes it hard to build up a good community).
So yeah, I turn this post over to everyone now. What do you guys think Apex can do to turn things around? (BTW Apex, don’t kill me!)
September 13th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
One of the best ways to get people to comment on your blog is to be the first to comment on one of their posts. If you can’t be one of the first, just make sure that you leave a lasting impression when you do.
Another way is to go to MyBlogLog and look for newly added blogs. Pay them a visit, leave a compliment, and they’ll almost always visit you and comment back. That’s what I did at the start. Eventually, people got sick of seeing my avatar on their blogs and decided to comment on mine to shut me up hehehe.
You really need to spend some time commenting on other blogs if you want to draw them back to your blog. It’s a good investment
September 13th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
I will freely admit I don’t do much “blog schmoozing” because I don’t spend that much time online these days. But comments I have always found that I have a core group of commenters on my posts, but an awful lot of people who subscribe to the RSS feed.
I’m also quite surprised that posts I think will garner a lot of interest sometimes get no comments at all, very strange! I often wonder who the other 1,995 people who read each day are, and why they don’t want to comment!
September 13th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Thanks for this! I am a little mad, as this will no doubt artificially inflate my comments for a short time, but I also appreciate that you care.
I was going to write a response here, but I decided I would just do that on my own blog.
September 13th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
@Brown – Great comments. I know I’ve used those techniques ad nauseum in the beginning. Now with work and such though, it’s a struggle to get to 5 blogs a day!
@Pete – I think so many ppl read w/o commenting on yours because you make a lot of posts on electronics that others aren’t. (Such as the BluRay posts, IFA, etc etc)
@Apxad – Well I’m certainly glad you’re not going to kill me. Plus I can’t wait to see how you respond to this on your site and what you think about what ppl have had to say on here. *nod*
And OF COURSE I care! You’re one of the first friends I made in the world wide blogosphere!
September 13th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Respond to your comments especially if you don’t have a lot it shows you’re interested and most likely if you post something interesting your readers will come back. Always follow up with your readers especially if they ask. I always check back to see whether the author has answered my questions. I’ll check up to three days but after that I usually won’t visit them again.
I try to comment on blogs, and I go out of my way to comment on those that don’t have a lot of comments but if they aren’t interacting with the readers after a few visits I won’t be back. I like the community blogs so it’s only natural that I seek out those are similar to mine. As others mentioned you also have to comment on other blogs.
One of my readers writes about the lack of activity on their blog, but they are not willing to network with others. Their reason? They are too busy. I thought alright so that means everyone else isn’t as busy as you? How can that person possibly know that? That really doesn’t work if you’re trying to build a community especially if you are just beginning.
This blogger does a great job of following up with people on their own website, but Needs Improvement with their social blogging skills needs a lot of work. It’s just good blogging etiquette. I featured that blogger in the spotlight a few times.
They were just beginning and a few of my readers stopped by to visit, but they didn’t return the favor. The bloggers that visited her are very social if they had stopped by their websites they would have picked up at least four more readers. A few of my blogging buddies have connected with my social blog butterflies that way.
I remember reading from a few different sources that about 90% of your readers don’t comment looking at my stats I would have to agree. On average people spend a little over seven minutes on my website, my traffic is high but not everyone comments, lol.
September 13th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Two phases:
1) Recruit some friends to comment on your site. Have them pose as regular readers. Take down your feedburner stats banner until it gets closer to the 50 readers range at lesat.
2) Give to get. Comment on other blogs. Ask questions at the beginning and end of your post. Respond to your commentors in the comments section. Do it like Bush does or reply in a seperate comment for each visitor to inflate the post count.
You want to fake it til you make it. People comment where they see other comments already. I don’t have anyone recruited to comment on my site anymore (I always told them to be honest and earnest), but a few of those people liked what I was doing so much they’ve stuck around. And you find guys like Bush along the way!
September 13th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I make a conscious effort to leave comments on the blogs of people that leave my comments (basically, the people on my Top Commentators).
Despite me not even knowing who Keira Knightley is, I still would leave him comments back in the day whenever I had something to add to the conversation.
I remember the posts going all over the place (XBox, Celebrities, etc.) so it doesn’t surprise me if its hard to find a loyal reader base.
On my site, I really really really would love to talk about sports and other things, but I don’t for that very reason.
I really like Apex, so I hate to hear that he is frustrated. Hopefully the comments will pick up
September 14th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
[...] is a respnse Bush Mackel’s Apex Says Speak Up [...]
September 14th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Alright, I wrote my response, and the trackback is above this comment. One thing I want to point out is my point about my target audience, it is me.
I realize that is probably my greatest problem, but I don’t really know how to solve it. I’ve tried focusing my blog. It gets boring for me if I focus it too much.
Anyway, I appreciate all of you giving me suggestions and support.
September 14th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
@Everyone – Thanks for the great responses! I knew you guys wouldn’t let Apex down. If you haven’t already, check out the post he made where he got even more helpful hints. *nod*