And then we
blog…
We write. We
edit. We post.
And then we
blog…
We
socialize, network and engage in the community.
Blogging in
a bubble is like cooking without eating the meal.
And then we
blog…
We read
other blogs, meet and get to know other bloggers, join and participate in blog
hops.
See what I
mean? We blog.
Dishes can
wait. We’re blogging. Blogging is a verb – an action word that requires
participation.
Making it
hard for active bloggers to comment on your blog is like doing the dishes when
you’re entertaining company. Sure, you can get away with it, but why would you be
so rude to your guests?
On that
note, here’s a brief list explaining why some people might not comment on your
blog…
- It takes too long to find your post. As serious as I am about blogging, there’s one thing I know to be true. Blogs are blogs. When I get to your page, I don’t want to click another link to read your post. I’m sure it will be very interesting and all that, but reading your post isn’t about giving you page views. It’s about reading what you wrote on your blog.
- You wrote a friggin’ novel! Again, it’s a blog…especially when we’re all hopping around like flying trapeze artists, hoping not to miss any step (or blog) along the way during some of these gigantic blog hops. Save it for your ebook already, and post a blog post, without apologies for writing more words than I could write in a week. (And I write a lot of words every week too!)
- Avoid misleading your audience by title or post. If your title promises to give a how-to on peeling oranges, I’m probably not going to want to read about dealing with grumpy co-workers. I’m certainly not expecting to anyway.
- Check your ego at the post. Um, I’m sure your post will be great, but I’m not coming back to see what you wrote about something in two or three days, just because you were too busy to write your post for today’s blog hop. As much as you want me to appreciate your busy blogging schedule, it would be nice if you would appreciate mine too. Remember, blogging is a verb.
- Skip the hoops already and make it easy for people to comment on your blog. I’ve commented on your blog time and time again. Yet I still have to fill out my name, email and website every time I visit you. At what point will you acknowledge my effort to leave you nice comments? I spent several minutes reading your post and now I can’t find where to leave a comment. Make it easy. Put the “Post a comment” at the bottom of the post (along with sharing tabs), just in case you said something my friends might want to read too. Captcha – think I said it all in this post on the subject.
It’s only a
few days til we’re all in a mad rush to post and comment on well over 1,000
blogs in the A – Z Challenge blog hop. Hey, we’re all in this together and blogging
is a verb!
Here’s to a
successful A – Z Challenge for all!
M. J.
Photo
credits: Blog – commentskkkkk; Cortega9,
CCA; blog iconoiiiiiii, Cortega9, CCA; Blog (1), Cortega9, CCA
Hi Tina and MJ .. great great post - and I do hope my blog passes muster on these points!
ReplyDeleteMaking life easy is the trick in the A-Z ... entertain and people will want to visit ... and even I might write shorter posts .. about 250 words ..
Cheers to all - enjoy the Foolish month! Happy Easter - Hilary
I agree that shorter is better, and I will try not to ramble on.
ReplyDeleteThanks to MJ and the rest of the team! I'm excited for Monday! Happy Easter to all!
Julie
I will do my best not to ramble...sometimes the bug inspires me...I am so excited to begin though...this is my first (not my last) A to Z Challenge!
ReplyDeleteLove it. My A-Z posts are linked to my writing and I'm now thinking no-one will fine them interesting or fun or worth reading.. hmm..
ReplyDeleteahh.. hopefully they'll be better edited than my comments.. oops..
ReplyDeleteGreat post Tina. have heeded what you have written.
ReplyDeleteYvonne.
Love this, Tina! And I love the inspiration in the form of how-to's and how not to's as April 1 draws nearer.
ReplyDelete:-) I am only guilty of my blog home page showing post summaries. Sigh.
The one thing I truly hate in life is jumping through captchas and word verifications. A visual challenge for me. Arrrrgh!
Looking forward to interacting!
Oh, Tina. There's something I wanted to add - I had forgotten - then I experienced it right now, here, while commenting.
ReplyDeleteThose commenting on Blogger blogs, please ensure you are signed in - and have "chosen your identity". And after commenting, copy your comment before hitting publish. Because, almost always, I find that the page simply refreshes, as if getting ready to let me post my comment. When this happens, simply paste and be happy. Or be sad if you did not copy - it can be friggin aggravating to have to type it again!
:D
Good advice. This challenge will be only my second challenge to participate in so it is good to get advice. I try to make it easy for readers/visitors to my blog to comment. I am pretty sure most of the hoops to comment are turned off. I wish I knew how to visit my blog as a visitor so I could see what someone has to do to comment.
ReplyDeleteJust a clarification: MJ WROTE THIS POST. The only credit I should get is for finding someone who's an amazing writer and was a fantastic help to the team, writing many of the posts we needed to have to prepare all of you for your best chance at success in The Challenge.
ReplyDeleteThanks again, MJ. You're a treasure of creativity, and your help to us cannot be measured. Keep rockin' it!
Tina @ Life is Good
Co-host, April 2013 A-Z Challenge Blog
@TinaLifeisGood, #atozchallenge
Now that is to the point! I don't want to click through trying to find the blog either.
ReplyDeleteThose are great tips MJ. One of my pet peeves is when I start to read a post and then have to click on 'read more' to access the next paragraph. Hey Hey! Ho Ho! These blog settings have to go! ;)
ReplyDeleteYou pulled no punches today, MJ!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! i shared the A-Z Challenge on my blog today to prep my readers. Here's hoping I stick to your advice!
ReplyDeleteGood morning to you all from sunny Arizona! Thank you for so many wonderful and encouraging comments on my post! Here's looking forward to enjoying oodles of amazing blogs on Monday! Here's wishing the happiest Easter ever to each and every one of you!
ReplyDeleteClear and to the point. Yeah!
ReplyDeleteHear Hear! These are all things I remember rolling my eyes at over and over again last year!
ReplyDeleteLx
I've worked hard over the last year on making my average post shorter, though I think it's safe to say I'll never be the type of writer whose typical post is all of 200 words. I think my average posts for the challenge this year are between 550-upper 900s.
ReplyDeleteCaptchas are heinous. Google isn't working with my Chrome lately, so I recently had to copy and paste a url into a different browser just to be able to see captchas and comment.
OK, so some of my posts contain website links to the places I am writing about. I don't think that's the same thing as linking to another article. I think that I am in compliance with the other items but this is my first blog hop so I will learn as I go. Can't wait.
ReplyDelete"You wrote a friggin’ novel!"
ReplyDeleteRe this sentence in your post - I really don't see the value of short posts except to encourage speed of transit, but I'm in the minority. It's not the first time.
Good luck to the A to Z'ers! Get those engines ready. . .
Lat moment instructions in comado style! Loved it!
ReplyDeleteGreat advice as we start the countdown.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post! I'm excited that's it's only three more days away. I'm going shorter this year. Shorter is definitely better!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I am not a writer. Second, this is my first A to Z challenge. I am kind of put off by all of these rules. But I might be speaking up for some who won't speak up. I am not doing this challenge to necessarily increase traffic to my blog, but to make a record for my family of places I have visited and maybe meet some new bloggers along the way. If it gets too long for you my feelings won't be hurt if you want to click on through. I am almost scared from even starting the challenge after all of these 'rules'. Hope I have not offended anyone.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you stressed the importance of making it easy to leave a comment. For so many of us trying to decipher the captcha codes is so challenging, we simply don't bother. I hate to visit a blog and not leave a comment, but that does make it difficult.
ReplyDeleteHey Paula, I'd love to read longer posts, and posts about places, so hope you will write them.
ReplyDeleteShorter is definitely better for the A to Z! Those tips are great reminders as we look forward to Monday!
ReplyDeleteGreat post MJ.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminders!
I don't know how to do some of things recommended for making comments and sharing and stuff easier, but I did make the changes I figured out how to do.
ReplyDeleteoh gosh YES!! I totally agree! Looking forward to the challenge again!
ReplyDeletePaula,
ReplyDeleteThe information and points made in this blog post are not rules. They are tips to help make tge A to Z Challenge as smooth as possible for everyone involved, to:
A. Make it easier and more enjoyable for readers to visit as many new blogs as they can....for if they like what they see, they will want to return to these same blogs during and after the challenge.
-and-
B. Help bloggers put themselves in a position where they can get the most benefits out of their A to Z Challenge experience. To many bloggers, that means receiving more visitors and comments. To other bloggers, that means receiving more followers and To some participants, that means developing friendships.
While the reasons why people sign up for the A to Z vary, this challenge has been running long enough for Co-Hosts and veteran participants to get a good idea of what best practices are more likely to reap certain benefits for bloggers as well as what worst practices are likely to do a disservice to the needs, wants and interests of our blogging participants.
We welcome your participation in the challenge as a first-timer and we want the experience to be as enjoyable for you as it is for other participants...and vice versa. To make it that way, we encourage that certain best practices be implemented in April to accommodate the schedules, time zones, interests, pet peeves, etc. of the most people involved...or rather, the most people involved who are actively engaged in the community by voicing their concerns in their reflections posts and on the A to Z Blog when we seek feedback.
Know that participants are not required to have short posts. You are welcome to write your A to Z blog posts at whatever length you desire for the purpose of your chosen topic and whatever suits your blog. We just aim to make it clear that participants who publish long posts might receive less visits and comments than participants who publish shorter content...and we put this out there so there are no misunderstandings during the challenge.
Having participated in the A to Z for 3 years now (this will be my third year), I can tell you that both long and short posts receive attention and at the end of the day, quality trumps length. If the blog post is good, people will read it. If the blog post is great, they will come back for more. If the blog post is awesome, they will tell their friends and link to it from their own blogs. That said, I can also tell you...from experience...that you cannot have your cake and eat it too. With over 1,500 participants and blogs doing the A to Z Challenge, everyone that comes across a long blog post isn't going to stay to read it, even if it's good. There will be people who skip it...because they're trying to get through 1,500+ blogs in 26 days all while managing their own blog at the same time...and that is no easy feat!
I wish you the best of luck with the challenge and will do you one better: I promise to visit AND comnent on one of your A to Z blog posts...even if they are long...but if they are, I cannot guarantee that I will pay your blog a return visit because I have 26 posts to write, 1,500 blogs to try to visit in 26 days, an A to Z Challenge to host and an A to Z Blog to contribute to....even with help from 4 mighty minions who also have 26 posts to write and 1,500 blogs to try to visit, follow and comment on.
Oh, and did I mention I'm also in the middle of making a movie? As you can imagine, we all have things to do, places to go and people to see. Still, I will visit your blog. Between D.G. Hudson and I, that's two guaranteed visitors and two accompanying comments right there...and the challenge hasn't even started! I'd say that's one helluva head start. I just hope that you take some of these "tips" into consideration, for I just may want to return.
Sincerely,
Nicole Ayers
2013 A to Z Challenge Co-Host
www.madlabpost.com
@MadlabPost on Twitter
Well said ! Some blogs are so hard to find the comments bit it drives me mad.
ReplyDeleteHi Tina and MJ I missed this wonderful post. well said, helpful too. Keep it up
ReplyDeleteThe time is up
Get Ready Sart :-)
Wish you all a Happy Blogging as well as Season's Greetings
Best regards
phil
This is my second time participating in A to Z. The philosophy I choose to focus on is - keep it simple. This blog hop has not, and will not, stress me out. I plan to have fun, and I look forward to starting the hop!
ReplyDeleteAwesome tips. Thanks for sharing and look forward to the fun!
ReplyDeleteHi Tina and Mj,
ReplyDeleteThis is marvelous,
Great tips. I am a bit late here
Happy to join in
Keep us inform
Ann
Wow! Easter was fabulous out here in the desert southwest - hope everyone can say the same! The Challenge is off to a great start! I've been discovering some amazing new blogs already, as well as having a wonderful time visiting those I follow already.
ReplyDeleteLove all the comments I'm receiving on this post. Thank you! Nicole is right, these are simply suggestions, not hard and fast rules. I've been doing a lot of blog hopping these past few months (warming up for the Challenge) and these are merely thoughts on how I believe things will run as smooth as possible for all concerned. From the sounds of it, a lot of people agree with me. That said, my crochet tutorials are pretty detailed. I sure don't expect everyone to learn to crochet all these flowers I made for the A - Z, and shortening the posts by skipping steps was not an option. We do what we need to do, right?
Happy April Fool's Day, good people. I'll see you in the Challenge:)
Love the tips! I do visit new blogs everyday and I have to admit that if I cannot find the AtoZ easily, I just leave the blog.
ReplyDeleteI find difficult about the comments, I have a google/blogger account, but my blog is in wordpress. When I comment with my google ID, it doesn't link back to the wordpress :( I think this will be the next thing to work on.
Love the tips! Also, making people go through captcha! But, you already have that as a rule for the challenge!
ReplyDeleteI've been seeing a-to-z challenge in my feeds recently and I'm glad to say that the tiny tidbits that you provide to your readers are excellent. Keep it up!
ReplyDelete