Many of you have written in to ask me various questions about life and blogging. The most common questions are in regards to my marital status, astrological sign and if I think that the Hulk could take Superman.
The answers are:
1) Married.
2) Taurus
3) Good question. The Hulk has exceptional power and he is green like Kryptonite, but there is a reason why the man of steel is called Superman. Have to think about this one some more.
One of the specific questions about blogging is how long does it take me from start to finish. The answer is that I can bang out most posts in about ten minutes or less. It depends on whether I am interrupted and how deep it is.
Generally the most time consuming part of blogging is answering and responding to comments. It is kind of funny to me. I blog for myself, always. It is far and away the foremost reason I have for blogging.
But, I have no compunction in saying that I love to get comments. It is nice to know that people are reading me. Sometimes that surprises me because so much of what I produce is in my mind fair. And some of it is rather esoteric and kind of out there.
So I am always pleased to receive comments. But I also admit to sometimes having trouble keeping up with them. My goal is to try and respond individually to each one. If you take the time to comment, then I should take the time to respond.
As I mentioned sometimes it is hard. Sometimes my time is so limited, and sometimes I just don’t have a good reply/response. But I do what I can to try and respond.
Jack, even if I don’t comment, you know I’m reading. 🙂
Prag,
IMO, you have to blog first for yourself. The comments are just a bonus, a very nice bonus but just that.
Irina,
Ok, go ahead and guess. 😉
Chosha,
It is just one of those things. You try and show your appreciation for the time people spent reading you, but sometimes it gets to be kind of hard.
BF,
I removed my word verification a while back and got hit with five spam comments within moments. I may try it again at some point but I don’t know.
Hi Elvira,
Thanks.
Barbara,
Your son has a great sign.
I agree that it is quite time consuming to answer questions about oneself on a blog.
But these questions are basic, and post one word answers, and little thought.
My son is a Taurus!
You’ve said it all, and said it wonderfully.
I can’t for the life of me understand why someone who is just starting out or rarely gets comments would not jump at the chance to respond to them. Likewise, leaving comments on other’s blogs is just part of the fun. If you subscribe to the notion that “no man is an island,” and if you consider blogging to be a social experience, it seems only fair and polite to react to comments–even the “bad” ones.
I started my blog just to get in the habit of writing every day. (It sort of worked. I write most every day, but I don’t blog every day.) I told myself I didn’t care if anyone commented. It didn’t take long to get totally addicted to the comments. If you want people to comment you have to comment on their blogs, so you are exactly right, dealing with comments is the most time consuming part of blogging. Although I wish I could write a post in 10 minutes. Most of mine (at least the better ones) take at least an hour.
pragmatician brought up word verification. I never instituted it. I was hit pretty heavy with spam for awhile, (I just deleted it or made a joke out of it) but now I don’t get any spam. Not speaking to you in particular, but I wish some would try turning off word verif. and see if the spam problem has gone. It has for me.
I found that too. I wasn’t particularly concerned about whether or not I got comments, but when they did start rolling in I was really pleased. I liked the notion that I could connect with someone over something that I’d written. I thought it would take ages for there to be too many comments to handle, but it was surprising how time-consuming they became to answer, even though I really only have about ten regular commentors. I can understand why the guy at Waiter Rant rarely answers comments – he gets over a hundred on each post!
Taurus! I should have guessed, LOL! ; )
Stacey: we do?
The most common questions are in regards to my marital status,
And we all know who you’re married to! 😉
Comments give us bloggers a reason to be.
That’s why I find it unfortunate that only a tiny percentage of the readers,(based on time spent on page) take the time to leave one.
Word verification certainly hasn’t helped this matter.
I find it very annoying!