This one is for all the bloggers out there, I see a LOT of good blogs lately with only a few, if any, comments on them.
Would you rather have high page views, with little or no comments. Or low page views but lots of comments?
For me it is all about the comments. I love it when something I have written makes someone take a minute or two of their time to think about, and write a comment. But I know that for some people, page views are very important.
As much as it's great to see high reader numbers, I would prefer to have comments. Like you say, it's nice to know that people have engaged with the post rather than scan over it and click away again. Having said that, if you're one of these (seemingly more and more common blogs) which rattle out review after review (mostly gifted of course) then I suppose high reader numbers do play their part in working with companies.
Right, take two! On the traffic vs comments thing. It's a tough one - generally I think blog comments are down unless you're the sort of blogger with a 'fan base' as such of people! My blog gets decent traffic but I've never really had tonnes and tonnes of comments. I guess for me, it comes down to the fact I mostly write about products that maybe don't quite warrant a comment - it's more of a post people will have a read, look at the pictures and move on. Because it doesn't necessarily open up enough of a debate to warrant a comment. However, I do love comments - it always excites me when I see a new one (and such a let down when it turns out to be spam...) and would love more as they remind you it's real people out there. Numbers are great, but can feel a bit generic/removed at times if you know what I mean where comments feel much more personal.
I absolutely agree with Jen and I think it's especially relevant to beauty blogs as I don't think there's much need for comment for a lot of what we write about; I read a lot of blogs (mostly beauty) but I wouldn't feel inclined to comment about a new lipstick launch or incoming skincare unless there was something specific I needed to add to the post. I see massive blogs with loads of comments but I don't think the comments necessarily add anything extra as there isn't anything that can be added...hopefully that makes sense!
Therefore I take reassurance from when there is a post I write that does warrant extra comment and I actually get comments as I take that to mean that people are engaged.
It's a tough one but my blog has always been about the conversation for me so I cherish each and every comment I get. Like you I've never had so many readers but my comments are at an all time low. That said, I do find blogging to be much more social these days in that people will 'comment' via Twitter, Facebook etc so I guess it's swings and roundabouts really. As somebody who reads a lot of blogs I know that I'm guilty of not always commenting. Often due to lack of time but sometimes I just have nothing to add despite enjoying what I've just read.
Good question! I don't mind either to be honest, so long as people are engaging somehow - even silenty? But, more and more I am finding people commenting via Twitter...are you?
Yes!!! Definitely the Twitter thing!!!
I really like it when my readers take the time to comment, yes it's great that people are seeing it, making your page views go up but it really means a lot to me when people comment.
It's all about the conversation for me. I don't have many page views but people do tend to comment (which makes me smile.) I'm not sure what brands make of it, what they'd prefer, but if I was a brand/PR, I'd be looking at interaction, not page views.
I love getting comments on my blog but I know that personally I'm very lazy with it - I think as a blogging community, everyone feels the same so we should all try to help each other out!
I like getting comments! I've noticed a masssssive decline in them over the past few months, even though our views have remained the same. SOB.
Comments, i like to know if people are liking what they read. My hits are up too - but comments (apart from on competition posts!) are down. But *sigh* I can't make people comment, and I'm not great at commenting either - I tend to comment much more on Blogger blogs as I'm a Blogger blogger so I'm signed in. But more blogs are Wordpress and I'm too lazy to fill in 3 boxes each time I want to comment. Also I can't be arsed if there are captcha either. I do like shares on twitter too, and twitter comments are nice, I think we need a way to add twitter comments to blogger!