A blogging friend of mine called me the other day and said she wanted to stop blogging. “It’s just too much.”
Too much what?
After asking a lot of questions and listening, I realized that the writing and publishing aspect of blogging wasn’t getting her down. It was comments. In fact, it was three comments. Three mean and vicious comments that broke her blogging spirit.
She couldn’t think about anything else. Every time she’d sit down at her computer to write, she’d see those comments in front of her.
Physically in front of her, because she’d check her blog for comments and there they would be, staring at her. Black letters on the white screen, left there for her to see and her readers to read.
She didn’t have the heart to remove them.
Blog Comments Getting You Down?
Blog comments are content on your blog, and as the blog administrator, you have the right to edit your blog comments, including deleting them if you want.
When mean-spirited comments gets you down, take action. They don’t belong on your blog.
However, if you do decide to take action regarding comments on your blog, it helps to have a Comments Policy to help guide you, and your readers, on what is permissible on your blog.
Recently, John Pozadzides of One Man’s Blog has been on a campaign to help bloggers consider adding a “Terms of Use”, “Comments Policy”, or “Blog Policy” to our blogs to help readers, commenters, and users understand where the blogger stands on what they will and will not allow on their blogs. In Time Wasting Blog Comments, Comments Policies, and Comment Etiquette, I covered some of what John proposed in his article, Terms of Use and Universal Comment Link Philosophy, and he also covers the subject of link spamming in comments on his blog, taking the issue further.
In this post I will attempt to enumerate the reasons, causality and consequences to justify the argument that the blogging community needs to unite under a common philosophy regarding the use of links and author names in comments. I will also suggest an introductory framework to deal with the issue, most notably the institution of Terms of Use for all blogs.
If a comment on your blog is bothering you, sucking the energy out of your blogging experience, what do you think it is doing to your readers?
What Else Stops You Blogging?
My Sites Advisor offers “Top 5 Confidence Corruptors”, a list of the top five things this blogger finds gets in the way of his blogging experience.
Basically, they include:
- Blog Statistics
- Negative Comments
- Time Limitations
- Blank Comment Section
- Health
If you are spending more time watching and analyzing your stats, then you are taking time away from blogging, aren’t you?
I think that stat watching is an excuse, a self- sabotaging method that gets in the way of many bloggers. Stop it. Blog statistics are just information, not a judgment. Blog for you and your readers, and let the stats do what they will. If you spend more time blogging, and less time with distractions, your stats will increase automatically as you improve your writing skills and blogging abilities.
Watching your comments and not getting any can be as debilitating as negative comments. When you measure your blog’s success on comments, and you don’t get any, enthusiasm wanes and the desire to keep generating content which gets no response fades.
- People who come on too strongly in romantic situations typically display display these 8 behaviors without realizing it - Global English Editing
- If your goal is to maintain your physical beauty as you age, say goodbye to these 8 behaviors - Global English Editing
- I used to keep the TV on when going to sleep to avoid my own thoughts—learning to sit in silence showed me just how powerful self-reflection can be. - Hack Spirit
Do your blog posts mean to generate comments or do they answer the whole question so there is no room for a response? Maybe you are doing something that kills the blog conversation, no matter what your stats say?
Negative energy attracts negative energy, so if your lack of enthusiasm for blogging is showing up consciously or unconsciously in your blog posts, you could be spurning commenters, too.
Time limitations and health easily get in the way of blogging. Blogging takes time. It takes time to find content, write up a post, edit it, publish it, and then monitor comments. And when you are tired or not feeling well, it’s hard to concentrate and find the time and energy to blog. You tend to blog half-heartedly, and when your heart isn’t in it, your enthusiasm for blog drains away.
If something is getting in the way of your blogging experience, then maybe it’s time to stop blogging. However, if what is getting in the way of your blogging is just an excuse, then nip it in the bud and get on with the process of blogging. There’s a lot to blog about out there, and your opinion on the subject is wanted.
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