"Since many of you are participating in the 30 for 30 challenge you might have noticed a trend... more readers and more comments. But of those additional comments have you noticed that at least a handful of them are the generic spam-like 'nice outfit' 'cute shoes' etc... Don't get me wrong I like comments but what's up with that?
The thought about this hadn't fully formed in my head until this morning when I read this post on Dressful about blogger self promotion. When is it too much? When are you doing it wrong? Of course that flipped my brain into overdrive and FBFF questions rolled out from there."
I have noticed my level of comments has increased since 30 for 30 started but some of those comments are from readers that I know have been reading for a few months because I have emailed them.
1. How do you promote your blog? I tell my friends about it. Sometimes I make my blog post a tweet. I share my post via google reader so if anyone checks my buzz they see it. I comment on other blogs. I thought guest posting would get me some new readers but that post only got me 3 hits total so I guess it didn't work.
2. In your experience what has been the most effective form of self promotion? Commenting on someone's blog AND including my link as a link in the comment and that person's blog can't be a blog that gets a million comments or nobody sees mine. But I don't really know if those readers have stuck around or not. I am gaining readers slowly. Yesterday I had 78 subscribers in google reader and 18 followers on my blog. About a week ago I had 14 followers on my blog. Sometimes I feel like if I find a new blog I like that I should comment because that's what I wish people would do when they find my blog. Also I have specifically noticed that if I have 0 comments, I don't get comments even though I get hits. But if someone (usually someone I know that reads my blog) comments first, then I'll get a few "new" people commenting.
3. Do you think there is a wrong way to promote yourself and your blog? Yes but it's a matter of personality. I don't promote mine on facebook. I think once or twice I put my link on there. But I do that because there are so many facebook friends that are really just people I knew in high school. It wouldn't benefit me and the friends on there who know me, have other means of learning about my blog.
4. When is comes to others pushing their product what annoys you? I had to think hard about this and the only thing I came up with was not liking when people make a super short comment, put their blog link, and then say "follow me" because I feel with the link the follow me part is implied. Sometimes I have 3 or 4 word comments but only on someone's blog that I have commented before and sometimes I am really obsessed with the outfit (like Sydney's pink cardigan and black and white skirt or Style Underdog's white blazer, striped shirt combo) There are times I go back after thinking about the outfit for a month. OK I just checked and even when I went back later, I seem to have written more than a few words.
5. In Dressful's post on this topic earlier in the week she said, "It's impossible to respect someone who wants all the attention, but adds nothing worthwhile to the conversation." Do you agree? Well if they add nothing to the conversation, I agree. But if the post is a few sentences, I feel it's OK to have your blog link. I actually prefer it. Some people have multiple blogs and when you click on their name, you have to click around to find the blog related to the blog they posted on. Also I am much more likely to click on a link that is in my email when I get the comment. I subscribe to all future comments on any blog I comment on. I read them all. I see that the people who get a million comments have a lot that are really short and just begging to be followed. I'd say the people who get 10 comments or less are much more likely to get real comments. I'm still in the getting real thoughtful comments stage because I don't have that many followers. I am much more likely to return to a blog if the blog owner replies to posts. I hate when I ask a follow-up question in my comment and never get a reply.
I guess I'm done.
It has taken 2 hours to type this because I have to keep getting up to do things, once my computer shut itself down, and my cat sat on my keyboard for awhile.
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