How to Pay for Blog Comments: Part II
Posted on June 20th, 2006 in Usability | 21 Comments »
Yesterday I discussed how to pay for blog comments. My answer was pretty simple. If people post comments on your blog, and they also have a blog or forum, visit their site and post comments.
In my case, I promised to write three (!) blog postings for every posting on WebWord. That seemed pretty fair to me. I’m happy to say that since yesterday, I’ve “Paid It Back” to six different people. I think that my comments were interesting and useful, but maybe not. In any event, here’s where I’ve gone:
http://investorgeeks.com (…and related)
http://allaboutusers.wordpress.com/
http://www.myneatsite.com/blog/
http://chittahchattah.blogspot.com/
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog/ (Did they stick?)
Quick sidebar: I need to write something up about blog posting validation. In effect, different sites are using mechanisms to prevent blog spam. More on that some time in the future…
So, here’s another way to reward blog postings. As Steve Portigal says, what I could do is add and update a blogroll to my site which is adjusted based on comments being posted. I like the idea but it raises the issue of “Me Too!” postings as well as blog spam. (Ugh.)
And here’s yet another way to reward (good) blog postings. If you’ll notice above, I explicitly linked to six different web sites. I can guarantee that will drive at least a small amount of traffic. Further, given my Google Page Rank of 6 (reasonable but not outrageous), this could bump traffic from follow up searches in the future. Put another way, you can simply pay others back with links. Isn’t the web beautiful?
So, we now have at least three non-financial payment models:
1. Scratch my back with postings, I’ll scratch yours with postings.
2. Scratch my back with postings, I’ll include you in my blogroll.
3. Scratch my back with postings, I’ll link to your site.
What sayeth WebWord readers?
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Update: Digg This Story! (Thanks, Jason)

21 Responses
That’s an awfully nice way to thank your commenters, John.
The comments were really helpful, too :) (I posted some replies as well)
Did you try promoting your blog or linking to other blogs to get trackbacks? Perhaps that’d try generate you some traffic.
Are you getting enough traffic, overall? Maybe more incoming links may help :)
Thanks again for visiting my blog :)
Ricompensare gli utenti che lasciano i propri commenti nei blog
Vorrei sapere cosa ne pensate dell’idea venuta a John S. Rhodes, proprietario del blog WebWord.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 lo…
This is a nice way to encourage interaction. Do you read the O’Reilly Radar? They recently posted about “reward models” for interactive sites… if you’re interested, I could find the link for you.
I use the Akismet plugin to block comment spam on my own blog… it works quite well.
Also, I think this method of cross-promotion pretty much already exists; it’s just that no one really says it directly.
Boy, I wish I’d had your ideas a few months ago. I actually gave away a $20 gift certificate at Amazon trying to get people to respond to a question I really wanted some comments on in my blog. Not only are your three ideas better in the long run, they are also a win-win proposition for everyone involved in the exchange.
Guess cross-commenting should be natural, because if it’s not, why bother? If a post isn’t interesting to comment about, the extra comments won’t do a thing.
That being said, it is important to get into a network of topical blogs to be able to cross-comment naturally.
“Also, I think this method of cross-promotion pretty much already exists; it’s just that no one really says it directly.”
I agree, Christina. Then again, sometimes the obvious needs to be explicit.
As a note for others keeping track, I did just post three reasonable comments over at http://blog.tcreative.ca/ ;-)
“Boy, I wish I’d had your ideas a few months ago. I actually gave away a $20 gift certificate at Amazon trying to get people to respond to a question I really wanted some comments on in my blog.”
If you don’t have crazy traffic or if you are just starting out, this can be pretty frustrating. My advice to people is to focus on generating their own excellent content while seeking out places to interact with smart people. Eventually, the search engines will find you and traffic will flow. Also, you’ll build a rapport with the smart folks along the way. If you’re bigger and more powerful, you can get away with posting simple postings and links.
Also, I’ve posted 3 comments on your site, Virginia.
–> http://www.webteacher.ws/
“That being said, it is important to get into a network of topical blogs to be able to cross-comment naturally.”
Yuri, I think that this was the intention of Trackbacks. That’s the (non-human, semantic web) technology solution…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrackBack
What do others think?
The trackbacks is a software way to get noticed – and they do help. However, it is important to “interact with the smart people”, as you have said, which can’t be accomplished by simply linking to others’ blogs.
John, I’ve been playing with the idea of submitting your comments post to Digg. I don’t know if that would be a nice thing or a mean thing. On the one hand you could get 10k more visits and like 100 more friends. On the other hand you could end up with 300+ more comments to write.
Jason, fire away.
The boundary is that I might not be able to actually repay everyone. You might mention that there are human limits. ;-)
(I will say that I’ve repaid everyone since I made my offer.)
I consider John one of the smart people. I’ve read this blog for a long time. But I don’t think I ever left a comment before yesterday.
You don’t have to repay this one, John, since you left three comments yesterday. :)
I’ve never read your blog before, but Kim mentioned it at Cre8asite and I have to say this is a really generous idea!
I’m also very curious to hear your conclusions about your various experiences with blog comment spam. In reading the comments on Blog Comments Part 1 I couldn’t help but notice that the subject came up quite a bit – I’ve personally only commented on about half a dozen blogs, but I imagine that with your goal you’re going to end up witnessing a pretty significant number of different spam filtration systems.
I’m definitely going to have to get myself subscribed to your feed to hear how this continues on!
http://www.joedolson.com/articles/
http://www.interdigitalstrategies.com/blog.php
So John, now that we’re all in love with your idea at Cre8asite, where we are discussing your idea (http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=38044&view=findpost&p=186821)
are there any perks to commenting in forums, or does this just work for blogs?
Just kidding :)
Digg Link:
http://digg.com/links/Pay_it_Forward_with_Blog_Comments
Kim,
As I stated to you privately via email, I interviewed myself. ;-)
http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=38044&view=findpost&p=187264
[...] (Reference: Part I, Part II) [...]
[...] John S. Rhodes, of the WebWord Usability Blog came up with a way to increase the number of posts in his blog. [...]
John, you are a great man!! I will tell everyone I know to visit this blog. Cool site.
Also, if you get a chance check out my blog http://www.techcrunchme.com
It’s technology news in a not so serious & boring kind of way.
Great tips…hope to learn more from you.
thanks
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