The Benefits Of De-Lurking
- 46 Comment
Let me start by saying I have no objections to lurkers (people who read, but don’t comment) at all on my blogs. I’m pleased you’ve visited, I hope you find my various posts interesting/funny/useful and you’re more than welcome.
But de-lurking is one of the best things you can do, both for yourself and the blog owner. Why?
- Promotion: Want people to read your blog? Then comment on theirs. You don’t have to ask them to visit, you don’t have to leave extra links scattered through your comment and the comment doesn’t have to be the most profound, insightful thing ever written either. But if you say hello, 9 times out of 10 the blogger will visit your blog in return, and so will other commenters.
- Participation: What’s more fun than blogging to yourself? Chatting to people on other blogs. It links in to promotion, but I’ve had some great ‘chats’ to people on blogs other than my own, made new web acquaintances and just had more fun than sitting there reading.
- Linking Up: More and more blogs are implementing ‘DoFollow’ on their blog comments, which means that if you leave a comment on a blog, you pick up a Google-worthy linkback to your own. Don’t go spamming, otherwise you’ll earn a different reputation, but regular, contributory comments left on other blogs could do wonders for the number of backlinks to your blog. I have DoFollow on all 3 of my blogs, so comment away… π
As you can see, it’s beneficial for you to de-lurk, and it’s nice to receive as a blogger, as proof that you’re not just ‘talking to an empty room’.
So, anybody like to comment?
In between my bi-monthly postings on BAYB (Sorry Matt!) I am to be found prattling away on Thermal, posting tips and opinion on Blog-Op and putting photos on Autofocused. I also have a wife and 2 children that I see around the house occasionally….
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46 Comments on this post
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Phara Thomas said:
I was just going to lurk, but then decided to comment on the new look…love it. Way more organized and inviting. Great colors, great layout, great job!
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:20 am -
Lee said:
I think I value comments more than the hits now. All of my favourite blogging experiences have revolved around comments.
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:33 am -
Chris said:
One lurker unmasked! π
I agree Lee, having a post Stumbled for a few thousand hits is fun, but getting a post with 20, 30, 40 comments on it is much more rewarding.
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:45 am -
Akelamalu said:
I agree, what’s the point in posting if nobody comments.
I see you did a post about recycling yesterday. What a coincidence so did I!!
April 23rd, 2007 at 6:16 am -
Charity said:
So true. It’s way more fun to take part in a discussion than it is to read through it as if you’re on the outside. It took me a long time to realize that. Now I comment often, on a variety of blogs. Not to try and garner a click or two, but to feel like I’m part of something, and put my two cents in (if it’s worth that much!) π I’d also have to agree with Lee about valuing comments more than hits. My blog is fairly new, and I’m getting visitors but no comments yet. It’s nice to know I’m getting traffic, but having a visitor comment seems like it would be more validating than just a pageview.
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:42 am -
Claire said:
OK i am de-lurking, i never normally comment anywhere.
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:30 am -
dandellion said:
WhatΓ’β¬β’s more fun than blogging to yourself? Chatting to people on other blogs. It links in to promotion, but IΓ’β¬β’ve had some great Γ’β¬ΛchatsΓ’β¬β’ to people on blogs other than my own, made new web acquaintances and just had more fun than sitting there reading.
I love coming to other people’s blogs to chat a bit. It is like coming to cup of coffee/tea and a bit of smalltalk.
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:44 am -
Matt said:
nice to see you post chris, im glad i could get you over here π
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:50 am -
Chris said:
You’ve got more front than a row of houses Claire!
Keep going Charity, it happens eventually!
I know Matt, I know…. π₯ π
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:58 am -
danusia said:
wow. i did not know about this lurking and de-lurking stuff. you guys from the first world are so much more evoluted than people around here… i live in brazil. actually, in brazil almost ALL BLOGGERS are lurkers. that’s a really big shit.
anyway, just wanna say hi and thanx for your amazing post, and i’m gonna make a post about it on my hipermoderna later. =)
cheers!
lots of luv.April 23rd, 2007 at 11:38 am -
danusia said:
one more thing: the word is not “evoluted”… it’s about evolution, u know? but i can’t remember the right word now. sorry! ^^
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:39 am -
ryan said:
Interesting question about DoFollow, I make a comment every week here on BAYB, sometimes more than once a week and have not received a technorati link back notice or a wordpress link back notice for that matter. Is it because of the duplicate? I will definantly add DoFollow though.
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:57 pm -
Chris said:
Hey Ryan, you’ll have to ask Matt or Lee about DoFollow – my powers (rightly) do not extend that far….
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:05 pm -
ryan said:
Alright, thanks Chris i’ll shoot Matt an email. π
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:15 pm -
kyle said:
Great info in your de-lurking entry. I found you through linkreferral.com.
April 23rd, 2007 at 4:09 pm -
Matt said:
as far as i know we don’t have dofollow on our comments alone
im not really in a hurry to change it though, we do provide very easy and good ways to get valuable linkbacks
April 23rd, 2007 at 6:31 pm -
Lee said:
By default wordpress will add nofollow to all external links within the comments. I’ll defer to Matt on this one as I can see positives and negatives.
April 23rd, 2007 at 6:44 pm -
JHS said:
Delurking to say hello!
Nice new layout & design!
I got rid of “no follow” quite a while ago . . . didn’t know it would turn into the big movement that it has become.
The word is “evolved,” by the way. Sorry . . . I’m a lawyer so my head is full of useless words. π
Y’all stop by “Colloquium” and say hello when you have time. I even have fabulous music there for you to listen to . . . lots of different kinds.
Cheers!
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:04 pm -
Chris said:
Thanks for all the comments guys π
If I haven’t already, I’ll stop by to say hello to everyone – why don’t you visit another commenters blog and do the same?
As I’m always around to moderate comments, along with the reliability of the Bad Behavior + Akismet plugins, I’m happy to have ‘DoFollow’ on – it’s not much, but it’s a little thank you to stopping by.
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:48 pm -
Lee said:
Yeah I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading about dofollow and the reasons why they decided to put nofollow in. I’ll be turning dofollow on for all relevant comments on all of my sites. Starting with Urban Cultivation so go visit there and consider leaving a comment (as long as it’s relevant of course). I’m thinking of writing up a comments terms and conditions.
April 24th, 2007 at 5:58 am -
John Murphy said:
Given that you kindly featured my blog as winner of your Friday comment comp I am all for relevant commenting. It’s interesting to see here that you’ve tempted some lurkers into the open so you must be hitting the right note somewhere.
April 24th, 2007 at 6:24 am -
Overpriced Designer Man Bag said:
First time visitor here, but de-lurking.
April 24th, 2007 at 7:28 am -
The other Ryan said:
Nice new look
Congrats.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:14 am -
Hathery said:
I appreciate lurkers, too, but it’s nice when they stop in and say hello! How else do you know that people are actually reading and appreciating?
April 24th, 2007 at 9:31 am -
WildT said:
Hi,
This is a good article. I’ve been researching blog ettiquite and have figured out the trackback thingy. I just never could find a definitive answer on one question.
Some blogs don’t give you an option to add your website so it is an automatic link when you comment. Is it okay to put a link to your blog in your comment in that case? Seems like sort of a gray area.
April 24th, 2007 at 11:52 am -
Chris said:
Hi WildT, thanks for your comment.
I don’t know what the ‘rules’ are for such a thing, but generally if there isn’t a space I don’t leave my URL.
I’m their to comment first, link second, but that’s just my personal opinion. If the leaving of a link is relevant to the post, go ahead π
April 24th, 2007 at 12:03 pm -
ryan444123(Ryan) said:
Really Matt? That’s odd…see I got one linkback from your post about me winning comment of the day, but two more from comments, and its not technorati acting up, which it seems to be doing anyways, BTW chris http://blog-op.com doesn’t load for me. Story behind that?
April 24th, 2007 at 12:11 pm -
Overwhelmed With Joy! said:
Excellent advice! I was a lurker for many months before I got brave and created my own blog.
Initially my blog was created to simply allow me to post an occasional comment or two. Then, I decided to cautiously start posting my own posts.
I celebrated my 1 year blog anniversary this year and I’m really enjoying blogging!
I’ve blogged about our first adoption journey, which lead to the adoption of our beloved son. I’m blogging about our experiences with the foster-to-adopt process that we’re beginning to try to adopt a second child. I do a weekly recipe exchange. I even manage giveaways every now and then (like this week).
I’ve found that leaving comments on other people’s blogs is one of the best ways to generate traffic to your own blog! π
April 24th, 2007 at 1:17 pm -
Matt said:
blog-op loads for me
well we will look into dofollow, but it has never been enabled as far as i know
April 24th, 2007 at 1:29 pm -
Lee said:
Ryan – the nofollow thing is sometimes ignored anyway so that’s why occasionally you’ll get ranking links from the comments. I’m not sure why that is but apparently some search engines are now ignoring it too. The arguments about its success are semi unanimous (can there be such a thing) with most of the writers I encountered saying that it doesn’t work to stop spam.
April 24th, 2007 at 5:11 pm -
Stine said:
Out of lurking… Great blog, will be back!
April 25th, 2007 at 2:09 am -
Vics said:
Heh! love the fact this post has the highest number of comments on it *grin* just passing through on the link trail via mybloglog..
April 25th, 2007 at 4:06 am -
ploop said:
Fine post sir. I must say I actually check my comments before I check my traffic as that’s where I get my kicks. I’ve got about 20 people who read my blog every day for about 20 minutes and never, ever leave a comment and I almost wish I could ask them just to say hi
April 26th, 2007 at 3:50 am -
Chris said:
Many thanks Ploop: Just ask them!
Why not offer a link for everyone who de-lurks on a given day, or a review of their blog or something?
Bribe them and they will come π
April 26th, 2007 at 9:32 am -
Psycho Dude said:
More and more blogs implanting DoFollow is still to be seen ;). Rarely any blog I visit does that, a major reason simply being to prevent people from commenting simply to attempt to climb up in rankings over what they have achieved. Also, to many outgoing links might negatively affect your rankings is one of the talks going around as well, that to a lot has resulted in fear to get negatively affect in rankings if they set on DoFollow.
As for spam as already mentioned it doesn’t matter, since even with NoFollow, people sometimes still click on it anyways if it gets through. That’s enough reason for spammers to already continue with their actions.
De-lurking in general is nice though, and would be something nice to see on pretty much every blog as there are a lot of blogs out there which get quite a high amount of visitors yet barely any comments. And it’s in general the first 10 comments or so on a subject which form some sort of invisible bar, whilst when those 10 are reached suddenly more and more people dare to comment and leave their opinion and input as well.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:54 am -
Techsplorer said:
Great post. And great comments above!
I’ve “Blogmarked” this blog on BlogExplosion.
April 26th, 2007 at 10:27 am -
kbldshmn said:
another delurked here. one of the best posts i’ve read in a long time.
April 29th, 2007 at 3:11 pm -
Sam Chan said:
Hi Mike!
Thank you for this post.This is indeed a secret of success to bloggers. Well, many may not have realized about this simple fact that Blogging is all about social networking.
Thank you.
April 29th, 2007 at 4:45 pm -
Chris said:
Thanks for the kind comments guys π
Hey Sam, it’s Chris, not Mike π
April 30th, 2007 at 11:54 am -
Alison said:
Hello I’m de-lurking!
Comments appreciated at my blog π
April 30th, 2007 at 12:23 pm -
Maki said:
Good to see some many commenters coming out of lurkerdom.. nice post, Chris. π
April 30th, 2007 at 4:22 pm -
Rob Dunn said:
Good post, and good point. I lurk, but only blogs that I come across. I’ve recently faved your blog, so I will be a repeat visitor!
Come by my place for good free software advice and reviews – Confessions of a Freeware Junkie (http://maximillianx.blogspot.com)
May 4th, 2007 at 1:33 pm -
Chris said:
Cheers Maki π
Any more lurkers to be found?
May 14th, 2007 at 3:06 pm -
Matthew Jabs said:
Wow…this post looks pretty popular to me! π
This is a great post, & I love Chris’s blogs. This is especially helpful if you’re a fellow blogger & you’re lurking! If you are…then De-Lurk for your own good!
May 14th, 2007 at 4:30 pm -
Matt said:
haha yeah, it got a lot of responses, but not many views… seems everyone who viewed must of commented
May 14th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
[…] posted recently about the benefits of de-lurking, and it was quite well received, so I thought I’d link to it here. Basically, if you have a […]