That said, the winery blogging world has been very welcoming since I started El Bloggo Torcido a few months ago. I was a little surprised actually, but the warm reception has encouraged me to be supportive back and I think all benefit. I hope we can sustain this for a long time!

For my own blog, every commenter gets a response, either in the blog or a private response (as appropriate). I know that when I comment and get no response I’m left wondering whether it was appreciated or not – and I may not comment the next time or I may simply not come back.

I think blanket responses are OK when you have 25+ comments :) – but it a comment is particularly good, I’d at least try to send a private thank you.

cheers! – j

It *is* a niche blog, and a fairly narrow one, but what is nice is that my commentors and visitors tend to be all over the map, not just people interested in opera music.

I am sorry to say that I don’t find this happening on other blogs – I find a lot of shut-out happening, which is really too bad for the people who still feel the need to treat the world like the elementary school playground.

I came here looking for ideas about bringing the kind of readers I want to my blog. I don’t advertise at this point, so I am not interested in traffic for traffic’s sake, but I put a lot into my writing, and obviously, would like to have it read. What I have noticed about my very small readership to date is that people tend to become invested and stick around.

The feedback (if not the numbers) I do get is very affirming of my writing style and subject matter. I feel I have something of quality to offer a certain readership, but I am stimied as to how to get it in front of them. Much of the traffic-building how-tos seem to focus just on raising the numbers. I’m not really looking for a stampede; just more thoughtful readers. Any suggestions?

p.s. I initiated a good thread on blogher.org recently on what motivates or prevents commenting. The header is “Hello? Is this thing on?”

cheers,
k.

As a blogger, if I recognize a new name in comments, I go to that person’s blog, comment on a post and thank them for commenting on my blog. I also reply to the blog directly.

I came up with this way of getting people in the mix and getting in the mix myself from adapting my real world behaviour. If I realize I’m the newbie in an environment, I pick out a few “second tier” insiders and chat them up. If I’m on the inside and I recognize a new face, I go out to meet that person and introduce them to someone else.

Blogging is just like real life, only in a virtual medium.

Cheers

On my own blog this seems to hold true as well. I usually only get comments from friends and a select few at that even though I’m averaging now about 1000 unique hits/month, that’s not a lot but only having comments from 5-10 different people seems weird. There’s even posts where I ask for comments/criticism advice and I still don’t get responses. The clique may be existant for the blog in that it is more of a personal blog then a learn how to do X blog but getting comments from other readers to know they are out there would be nice.

The main topics I ask for comments on is most of my photography posts where I’m asking for comments on what I can improve and usually I only receive comments from the subjects of my work saying they like what I’ve done… it’s good to hear but not what I’m looking for.

I think it depends on how the person wants to be known online. I was actually talking to a friend a couple of months ago and he posted a comment on my site regarding his band and questions people had about them in comments of a related post. He told me that it was the first time he’s ever posted a comment on any blog and he’s been reading them for awhile, I wouldn’t have known he even checks them out if he didn’t comment and I didn’t ask him about it.

Before nofollow if you went round building up a portfolio of genuine comments on multiple blogs, you got the blog traffic and you got the google juice.

1 :: I think that a sense of “cliqueyness” – or lack thereof – does first reside with the blogger. Darren, you’re a very approachable guy, so right off of the bat your attitude diminishes the risk. Also, your group writing projects consistently work to invite new people into the ‘group’ so to speak – so your actions are congruent with building an open community, not a walled community, or a clique.

2 :: That being said, there will always be people that feel that they are on the ‘outside’. I guess the question is – who is responsible for the way they feel? I personally think everyone needs to take responsibility for their own emotions. It is up to us to choose to knock on the door and say, “Can I play too?”.

3 :: On a third note, I do believe there are blogs out there are tend to give off an ‘exclusive’ attitude, and are indeed Cliquey. I guess, if it works for them, great. Small communities are indeed important and have their place in the blogosphere. But when Cliques are combined with power and influence, we can only hope they are responsible with the power they hold. And if not, ultimately it will work against them rather than for them, and we must trust in the laws of karma. ;)

http://webiztoday.com/wordpress/?p=9

Blogland desperately needs to open its borders to the outside world. It’s way too comfortable and clubby (dare I say tribal?) in Blogland and its inhabitants want to keep it that way … just as John is finding out.

Out of some sort of fear/shyness, I don’t do it regularly. I tend to do it after I’ve seen links coming in from referrers that I’m not familiar with. Especially if I notice a lot of new visitors without corresponding new commenters (I don’t expect everyone to comment, but for a bunch of new visitors, there should be 1 or 2 new commenters.)

I really like this topic. It’s interesting to think about ways to make each feel special, maybe especially commenters (who do add a lot of value to a blog) without making lurkers feel like outsiders.

It’s not a stretch for me to see bloggers who are validated/rewarded for the things they say (with massive feedback and commenting) feeling that they could survive by making people pay for the things they say. It’s analogous to broadcast versus cable. After all, we’re talking egos here. Everyone blogs because they feel they have something to say. We’re already attaching value to those blogs through advertisements, not to mention their rise in popularity.

The day will come when I will be asked to pay for content on a blog, and I will be interested enough and the price will be just right that I will without hesitation.

I have found that they can be very hostile and mean, just as they can in the real world. There are also nice clicks out there. Unfortunately you are just as likely to encounter a mean click as a nice one. That’s life though.

I would suggest that if your confident in your blog and your blogging community, why not extend a formal welcome to NEW bloggers, make them feel a part of a growing community proud to accept new friends and learn together. You never know who’s on the other end, could be a tremondous asset to your community.

The only strategy I’ve tried so far is to go out of my way to welcome new commenters, and I hope this will communicate to those who haven’t yet commented that it’s safe to do so.

Don’t you think, Darren? It’s just like that one time. You know what I’m talking about. ;)

I’ve emerged from my own, familiar niche to read up on freelancing (grad school can’t last forever), and so far it’s felt like:

1. the niche consists of five blogs with enormous readership.
2. they all link to each other, but not outside of this small circle.
3. I’m the only person who doesn’t know who these illustrious bloggers are.

And here I was, thinking that starting a new school was scart… Try reading in an unfamiliar niche!

If I could make just one request as a reader (rather than a blogger), it would be for big blogs to link to a greater variety of sites. It would make getting a grip of a new topic so much easier…

I have a very non-popular view of the world, and in that sense, people tend to snob me. I’m also rather blunt when I voice an opinion, so sometimes I can hurt some sensibilities. But this is what makes me myself. That’s why people read me. Because I cut on the bullsh(t.

brem

I started my blog with the encouragement of a lot of online friends who wanted to talk about nutrition/health/weight issues but didn’t want to swamp the online communities we were a part of with Off Topic discussions. So from my first day I had 80-100 visitors (who knows how many ‘unique’.) And it was real chatty and we all knew each other’s name — knew each other very well, in fact….

And I was very grateful for all the activity (they even contributed a lot of articles that are still popular) but I knew that our very comfort with each other might be ‘off-putting’ to the casual drop-by-visitor. And that I was sort of at the mercy of their interest. That as they drifted away (and they mostly have now) my blog could disappear if I didn’t take steps to meet new people and interest them in Eat4Today.

And even then I tried to keep the cliqishness out of my posts, even when I couldn’t totally control the tone of the comments.

Your blog has been a great service to me. Hints like making comments on blogs I visited have kept a (tiny) trickle of new visitors coming to see me and I think I might make it after all.

Thank you very much.