No Comment by Tony Green

I was poking around of blogger.com after a long day of work and I checked how many blogs had comments associated with them.

One blog I read which happened to be written by “chemist” caught my eye. The blogger mentioned he had been to California for the first time for work remarked about its beauty and how ideal a place it would be to live. This did not surprise to me as I have lived in the Bay Area for eight years and could not think of living anywhere else.

The point, which caught my attention, was the number of remarks on his blogs as he traveled from place to place reporting the sights of the places he visited. Some comments simply stated, “right on”.

I wondered if this person worked as an accomplished blogger with a loyal following. State in another way, were all of the bloggers who commented looking around the Internet like me and stumbled across this blog entry? One way or another folks had taken time to respond on his entries and only just touching the blogs I had written.

As you might expect comments are not the reason I write my personal blog, I mean every dumb ass can write about anything and post material on the Internet so I figured why not. On many occasions, other people’s blogs are more informative and pertinent than the published material in the mass media. However, I thought to myself, how do I get more people to comment as I write?

In my view, blogging comes down to writing content, which strike a strong enough chord with people to respond.

My initial thought postulated the folks who read all my blogs failed to comment must have done do for the following reasons. Conceivably, they did not take time to comment. Perhaps they had nothing to say. Another possibility was they did not know how to express what they thought. Here is a funny one, my content was interesting and my readers are out to lunch. Seriously, the most likely reason was the thoughts I penned on paper simply did not warrant commenting, as what I wrote had no meaning to anyone.

Whew! Now my secret is out in the open. With that thought just to be safe, I should get to work on creating valuable content. This will in all likelihood serve me better creating quality than to wonder about what I created in the past.

Photo courtesy of Elymedia.com

A new type of Blog Comment by Tony Green

I maintain a blog because anyone can publish content on the Internet so shouldn’t I? To be honest, it is something I enjoy as it provides insight to what I may be thinking at a given point in time and into my past experiences which is the basis of many of my postings.

Since I am not blogging to make money in an internet marketer point of view or blogging to drive my business how to measure the success of effectiveness of your blog?

One was I would imagine is number of readers who read my postings and the other would the amount of comments I receive. I am aware if you receive a comment from a posting then at least five people have read the posting and thought of the same thing but did not take the time to comment. If a blog has prompted someone to take time out to leave a remark after reading I consider the blog successful.

Most of the comments I receive are positive or neutral while many others are informative. Once in a while a scathing comment from someone who disagrees with my view or disputes the accuracy of what I posted. For some reason most of these send these comment incognito. (Thus eliminating a chance for me to respond)

Upon checking my comments a few days ago, I had a first occurrence where someone left a bunch of links to everyone’s favorite on line medications, Viagra, etc. After I chuckled to myself I deleted because if you blog can be seen by the public someone checking might not get the best impression. I thought these types of messages as a rule entered into spam filters never to reach the intended persons inbox.

In short, perhaps this is a new method’s for spammers to send messages no one wants
to see. Let’s face facts, I did read the “comment” and took the few minutes to write this blog.

With that said, I will move past my temporary annoyance and look at the big picture. At least someone took the time put to comment on my blog.

Blog following by Tony Green

Webblogs or blogs are becoming more and more popular. Any individual can showcase their thoughts in the event you want to say something and a platform to do so. A person can choose tofollow a blog which means every time an update occurs the latest entry can be read in a reader. In most circumstances somebody chooses to follow someone’s postings when the content of interest to them. The subject matter of the blogs you read on regular basis tell a lot about you, however, who you follow perhaps a bit more.
For the record here are the webblogs I follow, the reason why and how I came to add them over the noise of all of thousands of other communications I am bombarded with in a daily basis.

1. Joel Spolsky

I read his monthly column in Inc. Magazine. His postings provide a good balance of high technology, common sense and military knowhow. This isn’t surprising as his background from Ex Israeli army, a former employee at Microsoft, and now is running his own software company.

2. Robert Scoble

I read his material for the first time in Fast Company magazine. The link to the blog was in the byline of the article. I always tried to check out his latest musings when I could from then forward. I enjoy his postings because of their direct style. Additionally, they make me think about a vantage point on a topic I had not examined.

3. Denise Lee Yohn

I have never met Denise face-to-face. I was “introduced” to her while I was the VP of Workshops for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association (SVAMA). I was considering conducting a seminar on Branding. Ultimately, we were unable to come to an agreement. In the end I wound up on her email list. During a quiet moment at home I read some of her postings. As an engineer trained marketer I am aware that many technical trained folks have no idea of the importance of a brand. Her insights caught my attention within an instant.

4. Denise Shiffman

I met Denise who led a SVAMA workshop last year on the topic of the Age of Engage. I try to conduct research the speaker to judge if they would be a fit in before agreeing to allow a speaker conduct a seminar. I find her insights witty and insightful. Her book, which is the same title of her presentation, is a definite recommended read if you want you know about social networking.

Is there a theme to the choice of these selections of blogs to follow? Is a recommendation to read printed magazines regularly? How about being active in non-profits marketing organizations? What does that say about me? I will let you check these blogs for yourself and be the judge.

Overall, I think that it would be quite flattering to have someone follow what I wrote. Who these people are would serve nicely as the topic of another blog posting. Anyone care to help me out by following this blog? Just kidding….

Photo courtesy of Dreamstime.com