Comment Love
Here’s the thing: blogging for me is an incredibly personal endeavor… but I wouldn’t have made my blog accessible to the public if I didn’t want other people reading it. I wanted to highlight my love of books but, more importantly, I wanted to geek out about them with other people – that’s where the comments come into play.
You could say getting thoughtful comments on my posts is the ultimate goal of my book blog. And, if comments are the ultimate form of support – meaning someone took the time out of their busy day to read what I had to say and share their thoughts on it – shouldn’t a response be the highest priority on my to-do list? In my opinion, the answer is yes.
So why, then, is it so hard for me to respond to comments in a timely manner?
In all fairness, when I comment on other blogs, I don’t expect and answer right away. As long as the blogger gets back to me within a week or so (i.e. before I forget what I responded to in the first place) then I’m happy. But for some reason I hold myself to a much higher standard. If I don’t respond to a comment within a couple hours of reading it, I feel incredibly guilty, and it hangs over my head until I’ve answered back. I think it’s mostly because I want everybody who comments to know how much I appreciate their attention.
However, there are a few exceptions.
My heaviest commenting days are Tuesday and Wednesday where I participate in the memes Top Ten Tuesday and Waiting on Wednesday. There are always a handful of people who hit as many blogs as they can on those days, copying and pasting generic comments as they go. In my opinion, they might as well just write “I’m actively soliciting you to come look at my website and don’t really give a shit what’s in your post.” I know I’m not the only one who finds it a bit tacky, and am always less inclined to respond to the comment if I can tell that’s what they’ve done.
The silver lining is that for every ten generic responses, there’s always one or two genuine ones that surface each week, and these thoughtful comments is where I have met several of my best book blogging buddies. In fact, all of my awesome blogging friends have one thing in common: Comment Love. It is virtually impossible to have good blogosphere relationships without great comments that show you’ve taken the time to read and appreciate what the other person has to say.
So thank you to all of you who are still my blogging buddies despite the fact that I almost always suck at getting back to you in a timely manner. Just know it doesn’t lessen my appreciation in the least, I’m just waiting for a times when I’m able to respond just as thoughtfully!
Now I want to know what you think:
Do you have a difficult time keeping on top of comment love? How long do you think the appropriate response time should be?
The Obsessive Bookseller 
I do find it hard to keep up with comments sometimes. I’m not so bad at replying to comments on my own blog but I definitely lose track of comments I’ve left on others so rarely do a follow up, especially if it’s not a WP blog. I totally forget I’ve commented on most things.
I don’t really worry about it too much though. I think as long as you make the effort by replying to comments left on your own blog then people appreciate it. There’s nothing worse than someone inviting you to comment but then never replying, waste of everyone’s time!
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I usually forget as well when commenting on other peoples blogs – especially if I forget to check the little box that sends an email when they respond. Luckily if they’re WordPress users it sometimes notifies me anyway (which is great because I could use all the help I can get).
I do hope the effort is good enough… I should take a page from your book and stop stressing so much. LOL
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Great post Niki and I completely agree with everything you said in this post! For some reason I am so behind in my comment responses :( The time just seems to fly by lately and Ii am not getting half as much done commenting back as I normally do.
It always looks great to have 30 comments under a post but like you said it’s the 3 meaningful ones that completely make it worthwhile to blog!
Chanzie @ Mean Who You Are.
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Thank you – it’s amazing how many things come up in our daily lives that prevent us from focusing on the blogosphere world. I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who’s had trouble lately!
I do want to say that I think you are a fantastic commenter and always make me feel appreciated. Your comments are always meaningful. :-)
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It’s a pleasure Niki :) I enjoy your posts and your visits back!
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I tend to obsessively check for comments on my posts withing the first 2-3 days of publishing to respond. After that I tend to lose track. As a commenter on other blogs, I get excited no matter when the author responds to me. I love that the little orange box in the upper right corner lets me know when that’s happened :)
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The irony here is that it is taken me so long to get back to you ha ha. It’s nice that you’re so on top of things… I really should take a page from your book and keep better track. I love the orange box also, but half the time I forget to check it lol.
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Liked your post Niki. I know you appreciate comments and I try not to comment unless I have something somewhat intelligent to say…thus I don’t comment a lot. LOL However, I do thoroughly enjoy reading your blog and love it! Keep up the good work and don’t stress about a quick reply…
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Thank you! Your comments are indeed always appreciated. And thank you for no pressure on getting back to you – I really had intended on writing sooner LOL!
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Liked your post Niki. I know you appreciate comments and I try to comment whenever I have something intelligent to say…which unfortunately isn’t all that often. LOL I don’t usually expect a reply back, so I’m always pleasantly surprised when you do. Love your blog!
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