When ‘Thank You’ Just Isn’t Enough!
Any blogger will tell you, there is nothing quite like getting great comments from your readers.
This site does quite well in the comment stakes and our readers are great at expanding upon the topic-at-hand or just providing some real nice feedback and encouragement.
I visit a lot of blogs each week that are considered ‘industry-leaders’ for their target markets, and, I can honestly say that they do get an enviable amount of comments.
But, (you knew there was going to be ‘but’ didn’t you!) the majority of the comments only go so far as saying ‘thank you’ or ‘great post’.
For a reader this quickly becomes mundane, scrolling through reams of one line comments to find the ones that have something extra to add.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty of this myself, sometimes a post is just SO good that you want to show your appreciation to the blog author, and what better way than to say ‘thank you’, right!
Better Than Thank You!
Well, there is a better way and it’s so easy that it may even be quicker than filling out the comment box below.
Every blog I come across has the ability to share a post, and what better way to show your appreciation than to promote the post across your social networks?
If you take a look at the top of this page you will see a ‘tweet‘ button and ‘vote‘ button.
The (re)tweet button allows you to share a post you like with your followers on Twitter.
The vote button allows you to vote for this article on BlogEngage.
Below this article you will find a collection of social media and social bookmarking icons that will give you even more places that you can share a post you’ve really enjoyed.
You will generally need to have an account with the sites to be able to share but they only take a minute or two to register, and once you’re you’ll be able to share your finds without this step.
Here are a few to get you started:
So What’s In It For Me?
You may be asking what you will get out of sharing an article in such a way! Here are just a few points for you to consider:
- You’ll get the recognition of your social connections that you are someone who finds top grade articles that are worth sharing.
- People will see you as a ‘go-giver’ and they will be more likely to share your findings in return.
- It’s easier than ever before for a blog author to track what posts are shared and by who, you never know how they may thank you in return.
- You will be letting the author know that they have something of value, something worth sharing.
Well, this is what I’m going to be doing from now on. If I really like a post I’m going to share it with my social media world. I may still say ‘thank you’ from time-to-time, but you can be sure I’ll be throwing in a little something extra as well.
I’m going to take this opportunity right now to thank our readers who have gone on to leave us with some truly amazing comments, you guys ROCK!
I’ll leave you with this, ‘Give And You Will Receive!’
Karl Foxley
39 Comments
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A re Tweet or a mention of your article in another blog is really something. Somehow its gives you the idea that your blog is good.
.-= ZXT´s amazing last blog ..Top Commentators =-.
Absolutely ZXT.
Makes sense. So here’s a tweet. BlogEngage? Uhmm… I have yet to make an account there. I remember ExtremeJohn making a post about the benefits of having a BlogEngage account. I guess it’s time I make one.
.-= James M.´s amazing last blog ..Track Cell Phone =-.
I look forward to seeing you there James and thanks for the retweet.
Karl
I definitely agree with you… A “thank you” is great but a vote on some social media sites is much more than that. I have found it very difficult to get my readers to add me on social bookmarking sites so far. Really, it’s hard enough getting a few good comments but they do come in once every couple hundred visitors. But getting bookmarked only happens to me about once every couple thousand. That’s a huge difference! -Mike
.-= fort lauderdale movers´s amazing last blog ..Atlanta Movers =-.
Sorry, didn’t mean to put keywords in the name field – I know you don’t like that. Feel free to change it to “Mike”.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience. Is this in relation to the URL you are using here or another site? I would say that your experiences may be due to having a very targeted niche.
Karl
Hi Karl,
I’m not sure if you noticed but after the recent sexybookmarks update the blogengage image has been added. It looks pretty decent to.
Blog comments are really hard to get. I swear it’s a talent that many bloggers including myself don’t have. I guess each article has to have a certain benefit and the reader has to have interest.
I’m a big fan of submitting my content to social networks. Using this method of marketing has brought me all the readers i have to this day.
Thanks for the excellent article!
.-= bbrian017´s amazing last blog ..Creating unique content from one article =-.
Brian,
I had not noticed this. Thanks for pointing it out. I just added it on my site. You get the first position.
Brad
Yeah we just got added! Josh was to cool to add us!
Duly updated, thanks for the heads up Brian.
A tip for each…
Readers should inform in comments when they share a post.
Admins shouldn’t be too shocked when a reader says they shared when they really didn’t, just be sure to block them for lying.
‘Admins shouldn’t be too shocked when a reader says they shared when they really didn’t, just be sure to block them for lying.’ I’ve found those that leave copy and paste type spammy messages are the worst for this!
Me too, but how does that apply to this?
You said that about people saying they have shared when they haven’t and I went on to say that I have found those that have pre-written copy-and-paste emails are the worst for having the ‘I’ve tweeted your post and added you to bookmarks’ in their message… makes sense to me Dennis!
Oh duh, I read it wrong. lol
It’s okay Dennis, Kelly read my reply and said I wasn’t very clear; that will teach me for asking for a second opinion… lol
Great post and an excellent way to get some additional votes
I’ll tap them for you.
.-= Extreme John´s amazing last blog ..14 Ways to Get More Blog Engage Votes =-.
Thanks John,
Did you see Kelly’s post regarding Increasing Sales During Christmas.
Karl
Karl,
As a blogger, I agree 100% with you. When someone goes out of their way to consistently add great comments, and clicks on my shiny buttons, I certainly take notice. I try to find ways to thank that person by helping to promote them. You really never know what you will receive when you give to others expecting to get nothing back in return. Great post!
Brad
.-= Brad Harmon´s amazing last blog ..My, What Great Pics You Have! =-.
‘You really never know what you will receive when you give to others expecting to get nothing back in return.’ Absolutely Brad.
I’m agreeing with this suggestion as I practice the same method as well. Actions speak louder than words. There are more that we could do than just commenting alone. As a support to this post, I’ve voted on Blogengage, one of my favorite spots of social networking. Will need to keep up with all the hypes and hopefully, engage a continuous network with fellow members. ^^
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
.-= Ching Ya´s amazing last blog ..8 Lessons Derived from Vacation to Boost Your Blogging Experience =-.
‘Actions speak louder than words.’ Most definitely.
Thank you for the vote Ching Ya and I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
I’ve just joined Blogengage and have already commented on a couple posts & voted on a few. The next few weeks are going to be busy for me, but I hope to be an active part of BlogEngage in the new year.
.-= Rose´s amazing last blog ..USB-powered boob warmer =-.
You can be sure I’ll be making an appearance to read your articles Rose! I look forward to seeing you there and also seeing you here!
Great post.
Oh, OOps I had better say more.
Your absolutely right. If you are going to add a comment, make sure that it ads value. A lot of these, “Great post” comments are just a way of soliciting traffic to their blogs via links.
Well the bad news is it does not work. Most blog comments have a “NoFollow” tag enforced, meaning that you do not get any PR juice from Google, which is what most people want. Second, why would anyone want to click through to you blog, when all you can say is “great post”. You probably put just as much effort into your blog posts.
Oh BTW, I have voted you.
.-= Robert Bravery´s amazing last blog ..What is the one thing that can improve your blog? =-.
Absolutely, I think the ‘building relationships’ part of blog commenting is really overlooked. Even if the blog owner doesn’t get involved directly, members of the community may become your main interaction and become visitors of your own blog.
I know I am much more likely to visit someone’s site when they have something to say!
I missed your blog post collaboration project this time round but be sure to let me know the next time it’s running as I’d be happy to get involved; certainly a great idea.
Karl
When I surf through the Blogosphere, I find many Blogs with comments such as “Nice” and “good”. As a Blogger, I researched on this phenomenon and found a solution. Actually many comments with nice and good as text are posted by the author itself to promote their site. If the user sees that her/his blog has lot of comments, they stay for a while to read and subscribe to the blog. Is that cheating ? I don’t say all the bloggers do this = sorry bloggers if it hurts…
Jeevan Jacob John
P.S : By the way, its a Great Article !!!
I’m not sure how prevalent it is but I know that it does happen.
Hey Karl,
I get your point here. But writing a “creative” or engaging or critical comment on a blog-post like “231 Webdesigns using font-color 30% gray…” is a bit dificult (I like the inspirational part of those list-articles though). I think Facebook’s LIKE-Button would be a nice thing sometimes.
But generally lately I see a huge amount of really interesting comments on the articles / blogs I read myself. It all depends on the article itself I guess.
Sharing them is surely a great way to show your apreciation of a good post. I even like to share posts that I don’t agree with to see a growing discussion on the comments. For me that’s what blogs should be about, too. It’s primarly for sharing the thoughts of the author, but the interesting part comes, when the readers get involved and a conversation starts.
So, to make a long comment short: “Great collection. Thumbs up. LIKE!”
Thanks for bringing this up!
.-= Elmar´s amazing last blog ..der_schneider: Oh, that’s a funny and good one: "Learn To Fu**ing Spell" http://bit.ly/5p7Mei by @paddydonnelly =-.
‘I get your point here. But writing a “creative” or engaging or critical comment on a blog-post like “231 Webdesigns using font-color 30% gray…” is a bit difficult…’, Absolutely. Some posts do leave you with little to add, and I totally agree that others are a collection of resources that people will just want to say ‘wow!’ This isn’t something that I would make a catch all, but if I’m taking the time to say thanks, it won’t hurt me to extend that appreciation to a retweet either.
‘I even like to share posts that I don’t agree with to see a growing discussion on the comments…’ I’m totally with you on that! I have shared posts that I don’t agree with because I’ve wanted to see a conversation unfold (and maybe to see if I was on my own with my opinion
).
Thank you Elmar for taking the time to get involved.
Karl
you are right, just nice post or good article does not provide any encouragement to the author. I am already following what you have said. If like a particular article i will share it using twitter and echofon is helpful in tweeting the articles easily. if they are using blogengae i vote for them.
.-= Deepika´s amazing last blog ..I Drive You To The Next Generation: Regards, XML =-.
That’s great Deepika. I will certainly be sharing more of the great posts I come across on a daily basis if I think they can provide value, entertainment, etc, to the people I’m connected with.
Also, hitting that ‘vote’ button for the BE community is becoming second nature!
Karl,
I think that you might find that CommentLuv enabled blogs see a lot of “thank you” or “nice post” type comments. That’s ok in a sense because most of the savvy readers will not click on the links even when the title seems inticing.
It’s true that Blog Engage members need to be just as proactive about voting as they are about submitting. So today, just like many others, you have my vote, my comment and my RT (with the hashtag #blogengage)! BTW – I like using Diigo, so I’ll add the post to my bookmarks there as well.
See you in Twitterville.
.-= ileane´s amazing last blog ..Blog Engage Activity for Ms. Ileane Speaks in November =-.
I agree with you Ileane, any system that rewards a certain action can be abused, CommentLuv being no exception. I think there is also a temptation for people to drop links on high traffic and high profile blogs in the vain hope that people will end up visiting. Copy and pasting ‘thank you’ on 50 such blogs wouldn’t take much time at all. We have a top commentators box on the sidebar of this site and I’ve seen these also get abused through people ‘comment dropping’ just to secure their position on the list. We have ours set to reset every month so that everyone stands a chance of being featured there.
Thank you for showing your continued support for our posts. Oh, I have an account with Diigo but haven’t logged in for way too long, maybe I need to check it out again!
Karl
Interesting.
Here’s my dilemma, I already feel (not pressure) if I’m going to post a blog, then it should be something I would want to read. I don’t like giving gifts I wouldn’t want myself and it’s the same with my writings. To show my readers I value their time and respect their intelligence, I try to post something that would ENLIGHTEN, STIMULATE, and/or AMUSE. And now I think I hear you saying I should do the same when commenting.
Since becoming engaged in the BE community by reading so many awesome pieces, I was telling a friend this morning that I feel intimidated. I don’t want to have a complex about my comments too. sigh….
Thought provoking is my comment and now I’m going to give it a VOTE!
Hi Kissie,
I totally get what you’re saying and maybe I could have made my musings a bit clearer, I’m not saying to totally stop writing ‘thank you’ or ‘great post’ comments, some times that is all you can add due to the post covering everything imaginable or being a 30 ways to ‘blank’ etc.
What I’m suggesting is that, to show my support to the blogger, especially ones that I think are awesome but could do with more attention, I will ‘share’ their post across my social networks, give it my vote, etc.
‘Since becoming engaged in the BE community by reading so many awesome pieces, I was telling a friend this morning that I feel intimidated…’ Kissie, after visiting your blog today and reading this, ‘This site is dedicated to my grandchildren. I want them to always know “Mimi’s” view of life. This is my way of leaving a bit of legacy. As I hope to enlighten, stimulate, and amuse them in a small way, it is that same goal for every reader who will lend their time…’ you are certainly doing that so you have nothing to worry about at all! I liked your post about the Labrador, really brightened my day!
It’s been a pleasure having you share your thoughts.
Karl
Of course, this happens on blogs without CL, too, given that most blogs allow you to link your name to your site.
Now I really feel pressured to say something profound but, honestly, that’s all I had to add!
.-= Alison Moore Smith´s amazing last blog ..6 Steps to Startup with WordPress: The Guide for the Wannabe Blogger =-.
A worthy addition all the same!