An interesting article was being passed around by fellow writers and industry folks this week entitled, It’s Time For (Many) Experienced Writers to Stop Blogging. The author’s basic point was that blogging is a waste of time without a big audience.
Last spring, an author approached me via Twitter to get my advice about blogging. How could she make it work for her? Was it worth it? Should she move to WordPress, get a new design? What did I think?
I told her to forget about blogging. And one week later, after a Skype conversation about writing and platform-building, I hired her as an Editor for Every Day Poems, a publication of the site where I currently serve as Managing Editor. “How many people are visiting your blog per month? One hundred?” I had joked gently. “Work with us and serve a much larger audience. This will be more worth your time.” (bold mine)
This is probably good advice… assuming that you can get a gig at a high profile site. Not everyone can get an article on Jane Friedman’s or Nathan Bransford’s site. But the logic’s a bit circular. I mean, it doesn’t answer HOW to get a larger audience, other than blogging where there already IS one. Even then, when/if you acquire new followers by blogging on bigger platforms, what are you doing to keep them?
But it still begs the question: How does any individual blogger get a larger audience? The author suggests it’s partly anomalous to “timing and sheer cyber-longevity.” There’s a lot of truth to this. If you find yourself in the right place, at the right time, producing timely, high quality subject matter, and you do it consistently, you’ll probably find a following. But with the number of blogs constantly increasing, this still doesn’t guarantee you a hearing.
Almost inadvertently, the author references something that I believe is a key to building your blog audience.
Does this mean I would recommend that everyone stop blogging? No. I encourage new bloggers, just the way I always have. It’s an excellent way to find expression, discipline, and experience. But if writers already have experience, and they are authors trying to promote themselves and their work, I tell them to steer clear. If they’ve already found themselves sucked into the blogging vortex, I suggest they might want to give it up and begin writing for larger platforms that don’t require reciprocity (an exhausting aspect to blogging and a big drain on the writer’s energy and time). (bold mine)
Let me illustrate what I think of when I hear blog reciprocity. Several years ago, I spoke to another writer who commented often on my site. They were trying to get their name out there, establish a bigger platform, and drive more traffic to their site. But they were frustrated. Part of their frustration was with me, because I wasn’t commenting on their site. They commented on my site, but I didn’t comment on their site. It seemed to violate some unspoken blog ethic:
Thou shalt comment on my blog if I comment on your blog!
It was an eye-opener.
What I’m about to say is going to sound arrogant and snooty, so please forgive me ahead of time. But at this stage in my “blogging career” (if you could call this that) reciprocity is not as important as producing good content. Right now, I don’t need to try to drive traffic here as much as I need to ensure it stays.
This was not true when I started blogging in 2005. I had ZERO audience. So I commented actively on high profile websites. And when I did, I took time to put my best foot forward, to leave a good comment*. Listen, you’ve got to move traffic to you. And a good comment on a high profile site is one of the best invitations for someone to visit you. (Of course, when they do visit you have to give them reason to stay. But that’s another story.)
The author of the above article suggests that the established author should “begin writing for larger platforms that don’t require reciprocity.” This is a valid point. My question is, When does an author / blogger become established enough to NOT be required / expected to reciprocate? I mean, if I leave a comment on Jane Friedman’s, I don’t expect her to reciprocate. Do you?
So reciprocity declines in proportion to traffic. The more you get a self-sustaining audience who are interested in what you have to say, who Tweet and Share your stuff, the less need you have to reciprocate. And the less they expect you to! This doesn’t mean you should become insular and egocentric. It might just prove you need to “begin writing for larger platforms that don’t require reciprocity.”
Which leads me to a confession: I really struggle with this blog reciprocity thing. Frankly, I’m usually so burned out after working / blogging / writing that I don’t give sufficient time or energy to following-up on comments and leaving comments on commenters’ blogs. I feel bad about this. Especially because I get so many great comments and commenters here. So I’ve been trying to give a few more shout-outs, provide linkage to cyber-friends who really deserve a bigger following. And I sincerely hope they build their own audience from all this. But as much as I’d like to disagree with this article’s assertion that reciprocity is “an exhausting aspect to blogging and a big drain on the writer’s energy and time,” I can’t.
So let me ask you: How much should a blogger reciprocate other bloggers? If someone comments on your blog are you required to comment on theirs? At what point should a writer / blogger forgo reciprocation for a bigger platform?
Frankly, Mike, I would never dare to comment on your thoughtful and comment-filled blog if I felt that would somehow make you feel you had to comment on my blog. In fact, I’m not sure I want a good blogger like you even looking at my blog most days.
Some days because of my Asperger Syndrome I just don’t feel able to go to other blogs, even when the bloggers have commented on mine, and make an intelligent comment. I’m barely able to produce a little blog content once in a while. I’m therefore not doing the blogging thing write. Yet I persist in the hope that someone will think something I wrote on my blog was worth reading.
When I talk on my blog about how aspiring writers can improve their blogs, I always suggest they look at Mike Duran’s blog for a good example. That example alone is worth more to me than a dozen comments on my blog, so don’t feel bad about this.
This is one of my major problems with blogging. It’s ultimately self-serving, and thus disingenuous. The focus is on the blogger. Blogger comments on other blogs because blogger wants traffic. Blogger blogs because blogger has something blogger want to sell.
Perhaps I’m being a bit too cynical about it, but it’s something I struggle with because quite frankly really start to bore myself after awhile. Sometimes I feel like I’m creating real community via my time online, other times I’m convinced it’s just a faux community. (Is virtual “real” or “faux” or something else entirely?)
This is probably why I haven’t been very successful at driving traffic to my blog. I waffle too much, I’m moody about the whole blogging gig, and distrustful of it at the same time. Ideally, I’d like to blog because I want to connect with my audience, i.e., the audience I’ve created because they’ve read my novels (which are currently nonexistent…talk about a catch-22).
Ironically or perhaps sadly my post that produced the biggest hits was the one where I posted pictures of myself (“Photo shoot on a shoe string budget.”) I’m still puzzled as to why this is, although, I suspect it’s because I derive much of my traffic from Facebook, and I have many high school classmate friends who must be curious about how old I look.
Jessica, I think you ARE being too cynical. Bloggers can raise issues and raise them in a way that it isn’t just self-serving or about the blogger. Sure, traffic is going to a specific site. But if readers are feeling informed, inspired, educated, equipped, conversational — whatever — from a given blogger, then blogging CAN be about something other than just the blogger..
I’ve been known to be (too cynical that is) to my own detriment; however, it could be that I’ve spent too much time on indie writing blogs, the authors of which tend to fill up my Twitter feed with nothing but advertisements for their books and links to their blog posts.
Oh, no! I’ve been found out. I’m only commenting on your blog to drive traffic to mine…
Just teasing!
Actually, Mike, I think most commenters here comment because you hit on good topics and it’s a place where you allow freedom for disagreement. Hah–we’re here to talk to *each other.* You’re just the party host. So don’t feel guilty ;).
On the serious side, I have gone through the whole “should I blog or give it up?” thing, and decided I blog because I like to. I don’t have a big audience, but that doesn’t bother me. I am fine with only having followers and commenters that are there because we connect on whatever I’m blogging about. My goal as an author has never been to gain a big blog following–I want people to read my books. If they don’t care about knowing me as a person, I don’t take that personally.
And I only comment on blog posts that inspire me to comment. That’s not personal either. I still follow blogs and read plenty of posts that I never comment on.
This has, though, reminded me of my frustration with Twitter. It seems there is this reciprocity….no, that’s not even right. It’s not just “follow me because I followed you” over there. I’m finding even more it’s like, “I follow you, then when you follow me, I unfollow you to make room to follow someone new.” I see it happening to me personally (as in I get followed, follow back, then unfollowed), and I have read SO many blogs/articles advising authors to do exactly that. It makes me angry. Especially when a writer friend told me the other day that publishers DO look at your number of followers. It makes me think publishers only care about how much of a user you can be. (Yes, I know there are some great, sincere people on Twitter–I’m not dissing them. But it is still a bit of an epidemic.)
Kat, you just hit on what I hate about twitter! I read an article that said to do just that to gain more followers and I couldn’t believe it. I’m stubborn and decided that I will only follow people I want to follow. I also hate how it feels like I’m watching a continuous stream of commercials (not everyone is like that, but there are some days that all I see is “buy my product!”).
Ahem. Going back to Mike’s article. I never thought about going to other people’s blogs to comment, hoping they would come to mine. I read posts because they interest me. And if I have something to say, then I’ll comment 🙂
Morgan, I’ve read MULTIPLE articles that say that. And I have also had SO many people tell me, “I go on Twitter only to post. I never read anything there.” I do think much of Twitter is shouting into a void.
I do find some good things on twitter, but I have to search for them lol.
hey, can you guys direct me to a reputable site that encourages people on Twitter to Follow someone so they’d Follow them back, and then Unfollow them. I’ve never heard of that, at least from any serious social media person. Not doubting you or that people do it. I really like Twitter.
For fun, I added an app to my twitter that I can login to and see who has unfollowed me etc. I rarely ever login to it, because I really don’t care, but I went through and unfollowed some people on my twitter because they were filling my feed with their book promo’s, pinterest pins or endless rants about various topics that were of no concern to me. It was interesting to see that those people almost IMMEDIATELY unfollowed me as well.
They have the same app :).
Ha! I figured that, but just thought it silly that everyone else seems SO concerned with it all that they’re immediately on top of unfollowing someone for unfollowing them. Clearly their motives were wrong to begin with. That statement sounds a lot more serious than I feel about it, but for lack of a better phrase . . .
I actually do feel pretty seriously about it, though. I’m ready to drop Twitter altogether. The numbers don’t actually reflect truth most of the time. It’s become a game, and therefore meaningless.
It happens on blogs, too. Especially book review blogs. Again, not all of them are like this, but I joined a network of book review bloggers a while back in order to try and find reviewers for my novels. Most of what was going on there, though, was, “I’ll follow you if you follow me.” Because publishers are more willing to give out ARCs to bloggers with bigger followings. So the bloggers help each other gain followers in order to get free books.
I see it on Goodreads, too, to a certain extent. And most recently, Wattpad. I joined there and posted some of my short stories to try and reach a new set of readers–but it’s all “you read and comment/vote on mine and I’ll do the same on yours.”
Fact is, I want genuine followers and genuine readers, and if that means fewer so be it.
I want my followers and readers to be genuine, too, which is why I take the time to block each and every spambot. 😛 I don’t want them inflating my numbers with their nonsense.
It’s frustrating, though, when people on any social networking anything aren’t interested in the social aspect of it all. When I follow someone, it’s because I think they might be interesting people to follow and interact with. If they’re not, I unfollow them after a while. The only exception to that rule is people who I know and interact with through other channels (because some people are more active in one place than another). And, to be completely honest, that’s how I thought everyone else was doing things, too. I mean, I’ve found people who are like that, and I really enjoy my time on Twitter because of it. I’ll admit that it can be hard to find the people being themselves in the midst of more and more marketing types (or whatever other types), but it’s not impossible to find them.
Follower numbers on Twitter are pretty irrelevant when you can buy 100,000 followers for about $300 (if that’s your level of integrity). Followers who read your posts, click through to your blog, reply and retweet? Priceless… but they can’t be bought, only earned.
If/when I have time to get on Twitter, I use TweetDeck. It makes Twitter like a real time conversation, and thus, much more meaningful. I sort by relevant hashtags and see if anyone is talking. Before TweetDeck I didn’t see the point of Twitter. ‘Course I haven’t logged in in awhile. Just don’t have time. But when I actually have something to market, I can see the value of logging on for a half an hour a day, for networking purposes mostly.
Pls retweet!
Boom!
Oh, you guys are hilarious.
I did just quote you though in today’s post. 😉
I don’t comment on very many blog posts, and I don’t worry about reciprocity. If commenting on a blog post gets someone to click over to my site and look at my blog, great; but if I expected that or counted on it, I would be a very disappointed blogger.
I figure most folks approach things the way I do, which is that I read what I like and comment on what I like. Maybe I find a post particularly inspiring or important, or maybe I just want the author to know there’s someone out here who agrees. But we’re all insanely busy and media-saturated, so I don’t sweat it when I post something and get no comments. I figure I didn’t touch the right nerve(s).
I admit that I don’t necessarily enjoy the feeling of playing to an empty room — on my personal blog or the blog at work — but if I don’t keep posting, I won’t stand a chance of reaching more folks. As my HS English teacher wrote in my yearbook, “Our beach is a lonely beach, and few come to see our castles. But, on we build.”
Best,
G
* Note: A “good comment” is not” “Amen!” “I love you!” “You go, girl!” “I agree!” “Great article!” or “Boom!”
HAHAHAHA! That’s really funny.
Anyway . . . I struggle with this too, mostly because in the past I’ve been so sucked into the blogging world that it took up a good portion of my day. I don’t know WHY people ever read my “Mommy-blog” because it was so dark and depressing during the infant years, but apparently my reality was appealing because it was REALITY and not “My kids are so wonderful and such a blessing 100% of the time . . .”
I moved away from that community a few years ago, I realized I was spending time reading blogs about the kids of people I would never meet and had very little in common with. Now I blog to promote myself and my books, to encourage and inspire, and share what God is doing in my heart. I want an audience, but I struggle with going and getting it via comments on blogs rather than simply promoting posts on Facebook.
I definitely don’t adhere to that unspoken rule and I don’t expect that of anyone. Most of my comments end up on the link on my FB page anyway, which makes my blog look sad and unread, but that’s not the case at all. If a new blogger “likes” my blog or follows me, I check their blog out as well, but so many times those follows/likes are there because the person is trying to promote their own blog. I have some crazies out there that like my blog and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. I prefer to be intentional with my follows and likes, and generate an audience that will actually read and engage.
So . . . comment back? 😉 hahaha.
Mike, Like you I struggle with this and some other “unwritten rules” I’ve encountered in this road to writing. Part of the problem may be that we’re all at different places along that road, and you’ve touched on that very thing with your rather thoughtful post.
I follow a limited number of blogs. Some get added, some dropped, and a few have survived for the several years I’ve been doing this. I don’t expect people to come to my blog and comment when I visit theirs, but I have to admit that I’m pleased when they do. It means I may have made a new cyber-acquaintance.
And I don’t often comment here, not because I don’t read it regularly, but because sometimes I disagree with you but can’t express my argument in a cogent fashion, sometimes I agree with you but don’t want to just say, “Amen brother.” In this case, I’ll just say thanks for pointing out the elephant in the room. I’ll be interested to see how others react to him.
It seems if you are the more followed site then, when the comment interestingly on yours that they are the one reaping the benefit since you have a larger audience that will see theirs. If on the other hand you comment on a site that does not have a big following . . . are people showing up at sites to read the comments or the articles? The comments serves to drive more people back to your site not theirs in my opinion.
So as for reciprocity, it seems if anything its more helpful when you mention someone in your article and really that should be organic.
As much as they feel like.
No. It’s nice if they do, but not required.
Besides, even on blogs where I comment regularly, sometimes a post comes up wherein I have no interest in commenting, because I have nothing to say. Why should I expect someone to have something to say, on my blog?
Whenever they feel like it.
The concept of blog reciprocity smacks of favoritism, ‘you scratch my back.’ I set all that aside.
I presume that what you post on another’s blog does two things, adds to the discussion there, and as a by product, gradually adds to the brand that is your name. If people come to know your name and value your unique perspective, they may follow you back to your blog (if you have one). Indeed, I first read Mike’s posts on other blogs and that’s how I would up following the feed for deCOMPOSE. And while here, I discovered other fascinating writers and thinkers (Kat Coble, I’m lookin’ at you).
What makes more sense to me is when you have genuine mutual interest in a variety of topics. I have had the pleasure of both interviewing and being interviewed by Mike Duran. I’m not here to promote anything of my own, I’m here because Mike continues to craft fascinating, thought-provoking, genre-busting posts. If people find value in my comments and follow me back somewhere else, well and good, but that’s not why I’m here.
Thank you, Johne. Your comments are always appreciated.
I agree that you should comment on the blog’s issue if you have something new to add or want to support a comment you feel strong about. This idea of “I follow you so you follow me” is child’s play. Who cares how many followers I have if most of them don’t read or care about my blog subject? If it’s a “me, me, me” blog I get bored pretty quick and unfollow, or “Read my friend’s book,” all the time I tend to drop them as they are just advertising.
Blogs are informative, fun, and stimulating most of the time. Let’s keep them that way by being honest and supportive.
I don’t believe in blog reciprocity, and it seems to me that in the last few years blog popularity is declining, anyway. It used to be that most of my readers had a blog, now few of them do… unless Pinterest or Facebook or Twitter counts. I try to interact with those who comment on my site, but I don’t go connecting to all their social media and trying to follow them around, unless they give me something specific to take a look at (or I already check in on them occasionally because of their content).
Your comment brings to mind another thought/reality that’s been swimming around in my mind for quite some time. There can only be so many water coolers. Mike’s blog is a water cooler. It happens to be my only water cooler…I only need one…
Within any online community, the “water cooler” blogs draw attention away from other blogs, leaving the majority of blogs fledgling. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just a mathematical fact. For instance, within the Christian writing community, we all have limited amounts of break time each the day; therefore, when the number of blogs to visit vastly exceeds our collective break time (which I think it currently does), the majority of bloggers will experience comparatively low traffic. Not that a blog can’t break out of the pack, but it takes a lot of effort, more so I suspect than in the early days of blogging, and so much so that people begin to wonder if it’s even worth it and begin seeking alternative modes of platform building. Or perhaps not alternative, but more hybrid, multi-pronged, with energy more evenly spread among the different modes.
Why am I getting so philosophical about blogging today? I blame you, Mike. 😉
Yes, that’s true. And for a while everyone was supposed to have a blog because it was the big thing, but that time seems to have passed. And, honestly, a lot of people have terrible blogs that I check in on because I love them as people not bloggers. 🙂
I visit the blogs I like, comment on the blogs I like, and I don’t worry about it any more. I understand reciprocity as much as I understood how to be a social diva in school, which is not at all. I never could understand why some blogs were so popular when the posts were just lame mimics of 100,000 other blogs out there: “Hi, I’m a Christian who writes, and let’s talk about faith and Show Don’t Tell.” I obviously don’t understand what makes a good blog post. I don’t understand why my blog just got slammed over the past week over writing a…..book review??? Written in the same style I write all my posts??? Oh, well, I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing because I like it. And I’ll hope for the best. Maybe I’ll have another hit someday that makes me scratch my head.
Jill, if we learn nothing else from Mike’s blog, we learn that controversy isn’t all bad, right? 😉 I read your review (at least I think it’s the one you’re talking about), and thought you were evenhanded and fair.
I think honesty–or authenticity, which might be the more popular way of saying it today–is the only way to blog or to comment. After all, we answer first to God.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with going to sites with big followings and commenting. I find, however, that I rarely have time to read all the comments there, and when I know the author won’t have time to answer, it sort of spoils the “we’re having a conversation” feel.
Maybe that’s just me–one of the things I like about blogging is that interaction. I grew up reading editorials that left me with no possibility of voicing my thoughts on the subject, whether I agreed or disagreed. So blogging feels like a breath of fresh air–a chance to broaden the discussion or give it a new twist or added more support to the main point.
I do think FB and to a lesser extent, Twitter have reduced the dialogue on blogs. Comments on my posts are sometimes split–some at FB and some at my site, so there’s no interaction between the two groups of commenters.
I think “interaction” should be the point of social media. People who lose sight of that don’t end up benefiting from all the time they waste pinning and following and tweeting. People are likely to tune out social media marketers as many do telemarketers.
Becky
I don’t really worry about reciprocity. I can understand how hard it is to follow or participate in more than a handful of communities. There’s also the special pitfalls of a writer, and how participation can be seen as promotion when you just want to respond to a point. Goodreads in particular becomes far less useful for writers than users due to this.
I don’t know how many people can find these kind of gigs, though. For Christian Spec Fic in particular, where would you write for? It seems like these days, it’s pointless to write actual fiction. Instead, you should do something else, get famous, and then you will have books made and sell. It would be like saying to someone who wants to be a programmer, “hey, first you need to get a degree on the history of computing, and maybe then if you market yourself well enough, you might be able to get a gig fixing computers.”
Good post Mike, but depressing I guess.
Part of my frustration is that I may not get to comment on a blog post until it’s three-days old! But I still like to say something if the topic is pertinent and the writer has said something I really like or dislike.
I fly planes for a living, and my schedule is highly unpredictable, as is the length of the day. It’s hard enough to write for my own blog, much less comment on another. Still, I make it a point to comment at the blogs of friends I want to encourage, and in places like this, where I think the topics are interesting and the writing way above average (not brown-nosing here, Mike).
You may never see this comment, but if you do, don’t feel obligated to return the favor. I agree with you on this. For those of us who believe in the sovereign hand of an Almighty God, we need to produce the best content we can, do the work required to gain an audience (which includes commenting at other blogs), and trust that Hand.
Great post today, Mike, BAM! Ha. Seriously, I do still adhere to ye olde blog reciprocity thing, simply because I was reared in the South and thank-you notes are integral to my being. If someone comes to my blog, I am jump-with-joy happy they decided to show up there, so I always comment if they do (or if I have a guest blogger, I let that blogger comment, but I try to give an overall shout-out to the visitors).
It’s funny–back when I started blogging, I did the bloghop thing and had over 100 followers, yet few comments. Then I decided to steer my ship into the CBA cove, and when I switched blogspots, I lost followers. But the followers I’ve since gained are so loyal. They follow me all over the internet when I guest post, they root for me on my FB author page, and I feel I have personal friendships with almost all of them (I have 50 blog followers right now). It hit me the other day that I do have a (magical word!) *TRIBE.* So the blogging has definitely been worth it. Also, when I find a new author, I immediately hunt them down on the Internet, expecting to find a blog/website w/more info on their stuff. If they don’t have a site, I feel they’re somewhat less than legit.
Yes, I do blog less now, and I’m launching into a group website with some friends, which will take up huge amounts of time. Yet it’s exciting to think of our follower circles colliding and growing on that website.
I also agree w/Rebecca, above–interaction is the point of social media. When do you reach that stage in your platform-building when you can quit visiting other blogs? Maybe when you have a book pubbed? But regardless, as long as I have a blog/FB or twitter, I’m going to respond to comments. It’s just who I am!
I have been blogging since 2008 and never knew about the unwritten rule about blog reciprocity… I know that there are people who comment on my blog who have blogs about subjects I’m just not interested in and so have nothing to say on their blogs. I do aim to reply to comments on my blog, but don’t always get there!