Why I Stopped Commenting on Other Blogs

May 11th, 2008 | Increasing Traffic, blogging-

I went through a period of low posting frequency on Net Writing. Ironically, at this time, I was being much more prolific with commenting on other blogs. I guess leaving a comment is less intimidating because it can be much shorter than a blog post; a blog post involves a bigger psychological effort. However, these are the reasons why I have largely stopped commenting on other blogs.

If I have something interesting to say, I will post it on my own blog, rather than leave a comment on someone else’s blog. Leaving a comment on other blog, gives much less benefit than creating a post on your own blog.
People give more importance to a blog post than a comment. On some blogs, the standard of comments is pretty high, like Copyblogger. However, people instinctively give a higher authority to a blog post than a comment. I usually read blog posts, but, don’t get round to reading the comments.
I don’t read that many blogs anymore. I used to read many blogs to get ideas for posts, but, I find that reading many feeds, doesn’t actually give you that many new perspectives. Generally, I prefer to just use my own ideas.
Opportunity Cost of Time. Leaving comments is time consuming. You have to find blog posts, think of something to say and then fill on all the captcha’s e.t.c. (BTW: Blogger blogs are the worst) If you spend an hour leaving comments, that is an hour you can’t be spending on your own blog or getting away from the computer. I’m not saying commenting is a complete waste of time; it just ranks fairly low compared to other things you could be doing.

Traffic Benefits are minimal. If you leave a comment on Problogger and get in the top ten you will get a couple of visits, but, it is a relatively minor traffic source.
I don’t like leaving useless comments. Sometimes I got into the mindset, “I have to leave a comment here to get the 1 or 2 click throughs”, so I was saying something just for the sake of it. But, I really didn’t like this. It seems wrong to leave comment, primarily for the traffic benefit. Now, I only leave a comment if I feel there is something worthwhile to add.

Of course, some people have said they have used comments to great effect in getting a blog going.

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