Writers Cafe - Comment Crazy & International Delurking Month Coming Up
Let’s Go Comment Crazy Together
I’m getting you all geared up for International Delurking Month in January. 
We all love comments. How do we get more of them? What inspires you out of lurking mode to comment at either a new blog or one where you are a regular visitor?
I love it when readers have a conversation with each other in the comment thread. How do you get this happening? Any comment tips, pitfalls, experiences?
Of course, you’re welcome to chat about any writing, blogging or business related issue, not just comments. Drop a link from your own site or someone else’s if you like.
Special thanks to Suzanne Wells for a great article spreading the word about the Writers Cafe. Thanks also to last Weekend Writers Cafe commenters and supporters.
Laura Spencer at Writing Thoughts
Princess at The CooknTchr Mom
Genesis at At Home Mom Blog
Lillie Ammann at A Writer’s Words An Editor’s Eye
Jeanne Dininni at Writers Notes
Rach at Heart of Rachel
Robyn McMaster at Brain Based Biz
Mary Emma Allen at Home Biz Notes
Mihaela Lica at Ewritings Online Public Relations
Suzanne Wells at Ebay Selling Coach
I love getting comments. I know sometimes, others are too busy to read my new posts, but I appreciate when they come over and leave short notes on my chat box.
I always find myself coming back to the same blogs that have posts that I can relate to or find interesting.
Hello everyone! I apologize that I have been noticably absent for the last few weeks. Lots going on.
First of all, a HUGE thank you to Yvonne for alerting me of a compensated blogging opportunity. I am proud to announce that I have joined the Know More Media team and will be taking over the Power Seller King blog. (Think there is a chance that they can change the name to Power Seller Queen?)I am really excited about this opportunity and the chance to reach out to more eBay sellers and share what I know. I am just thrilled.
This absolutely would not have happened without Yvonne’s help. What a great networker she is. My hat is off to you, Yvonne!
Last week, I became aware that another eBay seller had copied my copyrighted book and was selling it on eBay as her own. I was able to secure a copy of “her” ebook, and yes, it was my work. She had removed my name, added hers, and added about 300 words about herself. (Most of which were misspelled and gramatically incorrect.) The title of my book, “The Stay-at-Home Mom’s Guide to Successful eBay Selling.” The title of hers, “The Stay-at-Home Mom’s Guide to eBay Selling.” Gee, how original. She even copied the cover of another mom’s book from amazon and photoshopped her name onto it.
She even copied my ebay listing and Amazon summary for the book VERBATIM. How lazy can some people get? So I spent a few days researching copyright violation laws, finding out about the thief, and deciding what to do. After thinking about it for a few days, and learning that she is only 21 - young and stupid - I just wrote her a firm cease and desist letter - that what she did was wrong and she could be fined up to $150,000 and spend 5 years in prison. Suing her would be pointless, she doesn’t have anything.
Isn’t life exciting! LOL. What has everyone else been up to?
Suzanne
I’m sorry that happened to you Suzanne. I recently had a smaller, similar problem with a blog that was reposting my posts, in their entirety (sometimes minutes after I hit the “publish” button).
Suzanne, congrats on the new gig. Sorry to hear about the copyright infringement. I’ve never had anything like that happen to me - either I’ve been lucky or I haven’t written anything anybody thought was worth stealing.
Re: comments: It’s interesting to look at which posts get comments and which don’t. Sometimes a post I think will generate comments gets nary a one. Then I’ll get a number of comments on a post that I didn’t expect.
As Suzanne said, Yvonne is a great networker and knows how to get the conversation going.
Hi, Yvonne!
Thanks for the mention (and link)! I encourage comments by placing a few friendly lines at the end of each post, such as the following: “Did you enjoy this post? Have anything to add? Any questions? Please feel free to comment!” I often vary this, sometimes relating it directly to the topic of the post, and sometimes saying things like, “We’d love to hear your thoughts!”
When I first started this practice–an idea I picked up from Michael Martin at Pro Blog Design in his “Personalize Messages and Stand Out” post (http://www.problogdesign.com/general-tips/personalise-messages-and-stand-out/)–I used this message: “Did you enjoy this post? Don’t leave me lonely—please comment!” At the time, I thought that was catchy and attention-grabbing; but, my message has since evolved.) I feel that, by writing such messages specifically welcoming comments, I make my readers feel valued and show them that I care about what they think.
Sometimes this brings comments and sometimes it doesn’t, because—let’s face it—there will always be a topic that simply doesn’t move a particular reader to comment. But, that’s OK. At least I know that my readers realize that I’m interested in what they have to say! (Thanks Michael!)
Here’s to comments!
Jeanne
Rach - Yes, comments are part of the conversation and connection which makes blogging so rewarding.
Your blog has an amazing number of comments. You have a real sense of community there.
Suzanne - Congratulations on your new problogging gig at Know More Media. That’s definitely a Writers Cafe success story, as I wouldn’t have met you without the Writers Cafe. Ain’t networking grand?
Yikes! Your whole book was lifted! Approaching the person first is the way to go. Often people aren’t aware of the rules, but this does seem over the top to not only pass the content off as your own and photoshop a cover to add your name, but to sell it.
What was her response when you contacted her?
Actually, I wonder if she should pass on all the payments she received from the book. I’m not a legal expert, but I would say what she did goes beyond copyright infringement and into the fraud area, as she was not only passing it off as her own, but selling it.
You may just want to let it go as a lesson learned. On the plus side, these issues look like information you could research and pass on to your readers in your next book.
Laura
How did you go with that? Any tips for how to approach it for others in the same situation?
A lot of these are fully automated scraper sites, so you need to contact their ISP or web host as they are stealing your content and could be banned.
Suzanne- Just wondering what Ebay’s rules are about selling stuff that isn’t yours on their site… may be worth checking, if not for this case, for your own research and to pass on to your readers as posts or for your next book.
Lillie - Everything you write is definitely worth “stealing”.
It’s pure gold. Hopefully, it will never happen to you, though.
Interesting point about getting more comments on posts where you don’t expect it, and sometimes less on posts that you think will spark the conversation?
Writers Cafe Musings
What is the magic ingredient? Has anyone written a post which they definitely knew would be a conversation starter? Why?
Does a post with no comments mean readers were not interested in the topic?
Hi Jeanne
Providing an environment where readers feel valued and comments are welcomed and respected is key.
You offer a lot of value to your readers, so I think commenting is not just about the content. It’s also about the community and the person running the blog.
Explicitly inviting people to join the conversation is something I do too, but with mixed success. As Lillie says, you never know what is going to spark a converssation.
Thanks for the link.
Yvonne,
I was considering pursuing them, I had several folks help me by sending me the contact information.
Then, all of the sudden, they stopped targeting me (after over a week of scraping nearly every post). At least, as far as I can tell they aren’t doing it any more
I went to the site, and I can only find one of my articles there. (Maybe they removed the other ones.)
Oops! Corrected to say: the original posts they stole are still there. I just can’t find any new ones from me.
May I ask “international delurking”?
Hmm…I think the commenting really depends on the genre. In the professional portals that I participate, there is a lot of commenting. In my artistic work, it’s different. Not everyone likes or agrees with my poetry, theatre or visual arts. That’s okay, my job as the artist is to push the envelope.
Personally, my professional writing is getting published! I am slowly killing my weight and trying to survive my first real winter. But overall, smiling with every lesson.
Wow, sounds like most people here have had problems with content being stolen. To the best of my knowledge, that hasn´t happened to me yet.
As for the comments business, I´m slowly getting to the point where I get a few comments on nearly every post, but it´s hard. It´s not for lack of interest, there are quite a few people reading and subscribing to my blog, but they just don´t comment! I try things like ask a question or ask for their opinion on the post. Sometimes it works, but not always.
Hi Genesis
It’s hard to know what will spark a comment.
I guess we just need to remember that a lot of people will visit and find something interesting or useful without commenting.
Hi Claudia
International Delurking Month (January) is when people who don’t usually comment are encouraged to stop “lurking” and comment instead, hence “delurking”.
It started off as National Delurking Week but I’ve renamed it International Delurking Month. We need to think globally and we need to give people more than a week, don’t you agree?
OMG, OMG! I am guilty of lurking on so many blogs. Sometimes I just keep my mouth shot if I feel that I have nothing of real value to say, you know what I mean? And I know that many of my readers do the same.
I don’t know why I do it. I am happy when a reader leaves a quick note like “great article” or “thank you” - and I assume other bloggers feel the same. This de-lurking idea might not be so bad after all.
What a wonderful idea, I am getting into the spirit of things by commenting here. I love comments - they beat pagerank and subscription numbers and other forms of recognition in giving me satisfaction in my blogging.
Mig, I confess that I´m a lurker on a few blogs myself. Generally, I don´t comment on bigger blogs that get quite a few comments because I don´t see much point. However on smaller blogs where few people comment, it seems more worthwhile.
We’re probably all lurkers on some blogs, at least if we read very many. I read so many I simply don’t have time to comment on all of them. And, like Mig says, sometimes I don’t have anything of value to add to the conversation.
However, I’m more apt to comment on blogs that seem to welcome comments. One freelance writing blog I read, for example, has excellent content, but I’ve never seen the blogger ask a question or invite readers to comment. His posts are written more as advice from an expert rather than as conversation. That’s the way I started blogging because that’s what I thought blogging was, but I’m better now at encouraging comments. In fact, my traffic and feed stats show I have very few readers, so I’m pleased with the number of comments I get from the few readers I have.
I think I am a commenter rather than a lurker
I know that I always look forward to great people having interesting comments on my blogs. I really do think we all progress so much with the give and take of ideas and the motion of thought.
There are some really fine writers here I see. I admire so many who do really great things to help and promote one another. Together we can do so much I feel - keep up this great discourse
Always - Phil
Hi Yvonne and everyone
Running a cafe seems like a good way of attracting comments
(and you know I could have sworn I was here last week…)
I can’t really tell what posts will attract comments or not. One thing I’ve noticed though is that I always get (supportive) comments if there’s the slightest hint in what I’ve written that I’m a bit fed up or demotivated, which just goes to show what nice people bloggers are (thanks Lillie!)
Joanna
Mig, Genesis & Lillie - I guess we can’t possibly comment on every blog we visit, so a little lurking is allowed.
Lillie - I agree that not all bloggers encourage comments, either by tone or by explicitly inviting comments. Some blogs even have them turned off.
Also an interesting point about expert vs conversationalist.
Phil - Great to see you back here at the Writers Cafe, and great to hear you are a commenter rather than a lurker. We love commenters.
Taking up Lillie’s point, I guess I see myself as a facilitator rather than an expert, as most of here do, I think.
We all learn from each other, and as you say there is so much wonderful sharing and expertise here. That sparks further comments and conversation.
Hope you will visit often, Phil.
Joanna - You are cheeky.
The cafe is sparking this week with all the comments about comments. LOL.
Isn’t that strange that we can’t always tell which post will attract comments? Darren Rowse of Problogger says the same thing, so we’re in good company.
I’m still looking for the magic ingredient…
Yvonne, in response to “What is the magic ingredient? Has anyone written a post which they definitely knew would be a conversation starter? Why?” - I had a situation a few months back where a visitor left a very negative comment, but instead of deleting it, I rallied my mom friends to respond. Here is the post:
http://twomomsinablog.com/momsinbusiness/?p=47
This resulted in 38 comments, my most ever. And an example of taking a negative and making it a positive. A little controversy can work in your favor.
Wait, it’s delurking MONTH, now? I thought it was only a week! Shows how clueless I was last year on my knitting blog. But still, your blog is a new discovery of mine and I’m glad to have made it here!
Suzanne
Controversy (even unintentional) does seem to spark comments. I guess when you touch on people’s values especially or if they have a strong opinion one way or the other, they want to be counted.
A great example of turning a negative into a positive as you say.
Deb - Welcome to The Writers Cafae. I’ve renamed it as International Delurking Month. It started as Nationals Delurking Day.
Hope you’ll visit us again. Thanks for dropping by.
Hi, again, Yvonne!
One thing I’ve noticed about myself as a commenter is that sometimes, when I’m in a hurry, I tend to shy away from commenting on posts that ask too many very specific questions of readers, because I feel I don’t have the time to really think them through and give answers that will do them justice. This is why I usually try to ask more general questions at the end of my posts, simply inviting readers to share their experiences or insights about the topic of the post.
I’m sure there are times when I ask more detailed questions, but, in general, I try not to make responding to comments too involved a process. This way, those who want to go into more detail can, and those who don’t or can’t won’t feel undue pressure. Creating a daunting task for commenters by asking too many very specific questions–while intended to encourage comments–can often have the very opposite effect.
Thanks for a great Writers Cafe topic this week!
Jeanne
Jeanne
Thanks for these valuable insights.
I’m going to keep this in mind about not asking questions that are too specific. That fits nicely with open ended questions too.
Dec 14th, 2007 at 6:58 am
[…] We swapped ideas for how to spark comments and get blog conversations going. […]