I was recently asked why I don’t have more comments on Lorelle on WordPress. The answer is simple. That blog is an answer blog.
It is my “job” writing about WordPress and blogging to give the answers people are seeking. I may ask questions of my readers, but it’s part of the style of that blog to have you leave knowing all the answers, or having a pretty good idea of what the answer is.
That’s the job of a technical blog. Giving answers, not questions. For that blog, it’s not about the Q&A. It’s not about the conversation. It’s about the information and education. That’s what the readers want. Few even read the comments. They are just there for the answers.
A conversation blog is one that incites a dialog between the blogger and the reader. It doesn’t give you all the answers. It leaves room for you to answer. It challenges you to come up with answers. It is designed to get you thinking and invoke a response. Each blog post develops a relationship with its readers.
There is another lesser known style of blog that features little or no dialog, yet can inspire a different level of conversation: inner dialog. I have many names for these types of blogs, information blogs, thoughtful blogs, inspirational blogs, thinking blogs, but these descriptive names can apply to other types of blogs.
These “inner dialog” blogs need little or no response. Comments are often turned off. They are unnecessary to the success of the blog. The blogger is just providing information, be it their personal story or a way to communicate in a one way direction.
Tony Hung spoke about this type of blog in Why I Blog About Tech (Not About Medicine) And Why Comments Aren’t Always That Important, which I also covered in Blog Comments: On or Off and Why. The blog in discussion was from a cancer patient and his ordeals fighting to survive. He didn’t want, nor need, comments, and yet, it is a popular blog.
Not all blogs need comments to have a conversation with their readers. It’s an interesting notion, but it works because they are providing information that needs no response.
Is your blog a conversation blog, answer blog, or inner dialog blog? Or maybe a combination?
