How to Pay for Blog Comments
Puzzle: How can I reward people who post comments on WebWord? This matters because I feel that the value of WebWord drammatically increases when people comment. I almost always learn something new from people dropping comments here. How do I return the favor without literally spending money?
Here’s my answer…
If you have posted a comment on WebWord recently, and you have a blog with commenting turned on, please be aware that I’ll visiting your web site and posting comments. In fact, for every posting on WebWord, I’ll trying to post three comments on your blog. This is my payment to you. It is my way of saying thank you. I can’t wait until you come back to WebWord and post again.
June 19th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
3-for-1! What an offer. Feel free to comment at these 3 sites:
http://www.investorgeeks.com
http://www.winelog.net/blog
http://www.strangerstudios.com/blog
June 20th, 2006 at 3:28 am
Nice initiative! Unfortunately, http://www.corporatewebsite.com has not got the opportunity to post comments… yet. Soon there will be a forum!
June 20th, 2006 at 6:57 am
I hope you realize it’ll be counter productive and you’ll end up with commenting on other blogs instead of writing on your own? Oh, right, I might do just that, too..Hmm.
That doesn’t mean you aren’t welcome to visit my newly opened blog, though ;) It’d be nice to have you as a first-time triple commenter 8-)
June 20th, 2006 at 7:00 am
P.S. clicking on categories results in 404 errors. Hope you noticed them in your logs? For such a huge amount of articles, categories should be helpful ;)
June 20th, 2006 at 7:50 am
Is this still the same old category bug that you posted about in December?
If you still need help fixing it John, just let me know :)
June 20th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
I like the exchange-in-kind approach. Some other ideas
- you’ll collect the best comments every week and write a new post about them
- blog comments totalled and top 10 posters get added to a blogroll on the main page
Seems like there’s an assumption that blog commenters are also blog writers, and in that case, the exchange makes perfect sense, but if not, if I don’t write a blog, what do I get out of it?
One shortcoming on some blogs is authors not responding to blog comments. Of course, sometimes the comments we get don’t lead to an obvious response, but it’d be cool to do an “yeah!” or something to at least acknowledge it.
This is more about etiquette now than reward.
I’ve gone through a few of these forum things recently where you have to post a few times in order to earn credits to start a new thread yourself - which is probably why I’ve sought out the forum myself to begin with. That forced-posting doesn’t lead to anything useful, just a bunch of me-too comments from newbies. So there’s a quality issue to consider as well - how to get the best comments, not just the most comments, if the goal is to create conversation.
June 20th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
I find comments very useful on my site and wish more of my readers would leave comments. Some of them are more interesting than my original posts.
Anyhow, I’d certainly appreciate it if you stopped by my website and left a comment or two.
June 20th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
I used to be a regular commentator on webword, but I changed from being a technical writing instructor at a large state school to a “new media journalism” professor at a small liberal arts college, so usabilty became a less central part of what I did each day.
I teach with weblogs quite a bit, and while I don’t award students higher grades based on the number of comments their posts attract, it’s certainly true that students seem to like blogging more when they get comments from their peers. Certainly they probably like it when I post “good job,” but when I post a thoughtful comment that really reflects my thoughts, sometimes I worry the students interpret that as me giving them another homework assignment.
I could certainly artificially increase the number of comments on my course blogs by awarding points or penalizing students who don’t comment, but that would be far too artificial.
Your plan, John, sounds pretty clever.
June 20th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
Thomas,
I’m ashamed. This is the same problem from one year ago. I did a partial fix but the issue came back. I’m going to try again in the next 1-2 weeks as time permits. I face the choice: Fix What’s Broken or Create New Stuff. It is a tough balance. Yes, as a usability site, you’d think it would be fixed already. * * Head in Hands, Crying * *
June 20th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
Steve,
I’ve previously considered this: “blog comments totalled and top 10 posters get added to a blogroll on the main page.” Right now, I don’t actively maintain a blogroll. That would be a nice way to repay folks who add value here. One reason I haven’t done that is many folks who comment don’t have web sites related to UX, IA, UCD, HCI, and the other acronyms. You can read into that however you wish…
June 20th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Note to Matthew Stibbe: Your site is a bit confusing to me. That is, it doesn’t seem to be a blog so I cannot post comments. Am I missing something?
Dennis G. Jerz: I posted three comments, or should I say, I tried. When I went back to verify, I realized they did not stick. Is something fishy going on?
June 20th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
[…] WebWord The usability blog of John S. Rhodes « How to Pay for Blog Comments […]
June 20th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
This was caught as spam (?) so I’m posting it…
Comment Author: Jesper Rønn-Jensen (justaddwater.dk)
John,
I think that this is a very intelligent initiative especially after Seth Godin decided to turn off comments (found via spectorbrain).
I totally agree with you that comments are of extreme value. For our own blog, we also learn a lot from our readers, and the comments benefit other readers as well. People can post whatever opinion they have on the website. Usually they do, and even our heroes like Jakob Nielsen, Jared Spool, Joe Clark, Eric Reiss and you have posted opinions.
But what’s really helpful is that comments on our site is for everybody to participate in, use and learn from. It’s such an important asset.
From the other comments here, I see that your offe attracts attention and it shows that your offer has a value to your readers as well.
June 20th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
John, maybe my spam blocker trapped your comments. It’s happened before. But all three comments? That seems very strange. I’m sorry about that.
June 21st, 2006 at 8:18 am
[…] » Articolo scritto il 21 Giugno 2006» Categorie: Blogosfera, Curiosità» Non ci sono commenti Vorrei sapere cosa ne pensate dell’idea venuta a John S. Rhodes, proprietario del blogWebWord.com, che ha pensato di ricompensare tutti gli utenti che lasciano un post sul suo blog ricambiando il favore e scrivendo almeno altri 3 commenti sul loro blog o sul loro forum. […]
June 23rd, 2006 at 4:50 am
And will you be doing the same for new comments? How about those people blatantly whoring themselves out for more comments on their own sites?
I think this is a great idea. I try to visit the sites of people who comment on mine, but rarely leave a comment. I’ll try to make a point of it from now on!
June 23rd, 2006 at 11:05 am
Digg Link:
http://digg.com/links/Pay_it_Forward_with_Blog_Comments
June 23rd, 2006 at 11:06 am
Very interesting concept. I think you could really start something with this. What if the entire blogging community adopted this policy?
June 24th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Dave Child writes: “And will you be doing the same for new comments? How about those people blatantly whoring themselves out for more comments on their own sites?”
I’ll be doing this more in stealth mode. I’m trying to explain and demonstrate more than anything else. While I’d love to have more comments and more traffic to WebWord, I’m not trying to be tricky. This is simply one way to repay the folks who post great comments here.
Dave Child writes: “I think this is a great idea. I try to visit the sites of people who comment on mine, but rarely leave a comment.”
That’s the spirit! Think about how good you feel when people post comments on your site. Think about how much you appreciate it.
June 25th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
[…] (Reference: Part I, Part II) […]
July 4th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Oh, wow! I discovered your blog today via Usability Must Die! and am thouroughly enjoying it, as well as finding it very useful.
I think this is a great idea and will be blogging about it in the near future.
Excellent post!
July 5th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Hi
I have cited your blog in my most recent post: Visualizing Comments on Blogs
Would appreciate if you leave your visual signature (I mean your comments) at my blog.
Best, Mohamed
December 25th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
Thanks for the great insight. I have quoted your post and adopted your reward-in-kind type of deal from non-spammers.
My 2007 resolution is a friendly deal to get more comments via a give and take path.
Btw, your visual signature at my blog visualization post, as promised, is LONG OVERDUE, if I am not mistaken.
Best wishes.
December 26th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Happy New Year to all
December 26th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Very interesting concept. I think you could really start something with this. What if the entire blogging community adopted this idea
happy new year
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pretty interesting idea, might try that at http://recruitcity.com
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January 17th, 2008 at 9:37 am
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thanks for the post.
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