************* SECRETS of TOP bloggers **********
Read on ..... you'll see what is their secret. I read through AR in search of this and I think I may have found it.
Top bloggers on AR have a secret to their success. There is a reason why they are top bloggers and obtain the most number of points. It is incredible and sometimes overwhelming to see the number of points they have amassed in a fairly short period of time. For newbies, this can be especially intimidating when you are starting out with just a few hundred points. There are certain things they DO DO (courtesy of BB :) or do not do that has worked for them when blogging.
When I first started blogging 2 months ago, I was amazed at how some bloggers have several hundred thousand points in less than a year. If you think about it, blogging can be time consuming and can take you away from your normal daily business. This is not to say that you can't get business here by blogging as there are success stories of those doing so....but I digress. So what is this secret I'm talking about? I'm glad you asked.
Let's say you write a blog. People will browse through the library of posts (and there are many) and decide to stop by to comment on your post. Wow! Like the M&M Christmas commercial where Santa meets the M&M, they each say to each other "they do exist!" For a newbie, I felt honored and appreciative that someone actually stopped by to comment on my 1st post. That was the feeling I got when I did my 1st post here on AR What is the best follow-up after knocking on doors???. Those first 3 comments I received were from Lupe Soto, Joe Manausa, and BLR Guy. I want to say thank you and to all those who have dropped by to comment on my blog.
For those new to AR, just go ahead and blog! Don't worry too much about what others think and you won't get pinned either! I was in your shoes not very long ago. As Nike's slogan states, "JUST DO IT!" You never know what you might get yourself into but it can be a good thing. I have heard that some have resorted to extreme measures like caffeine to keep up with the blogging.
So what about this secret? Please bear with me as I will get there soon. Patience is a virtue, my dear friends. :) In another post I did, Listing agreement..... Do you charge a cancellation fee??? it became a Featured post! I had no idea how the selection process worked but it did happen. Wahooo! Initally, I responded to all the comments. Then I had an avalanche of comments come in afterwards and I admit it was overwhelming to respond to them all. Instead I summed up the comments and responded to the comments in that format. I felt kind of bad later that I did not acknowledge every comment personally.
Great commenters. My hats off to those who have commented back to each and every comment on your posts when you received an enormous response. That is phenomenal! To name a few in no particular order, they are Todd Clark, Ernie Cabrera, Tom Plant, Renee Burrows, Karen Hurst, Ricardo Bueno, Donna Yates, Suzi Gravenstuk, Jessica Horton, Paul Slaybaugh, Brian Block, Candace Robinson, Adam Waldman, Nestor and Katerina Gassett, Mike Jones, Karen George, Gary Miljour, Jason Crouch. There are many others as well.
Yes, yes, I'm getting there. Going back to the secret here. That rhymes, how cool! So I then checked out one of Broker Bryant's latest post, I made it to the mountain top!! 300,000+ Points! If you are a newbie and do not know him yet, he is a great guy. His posts are informative and hilarious to the point that sometimes I ended up laughing so hard the pitch of my voice sounded like one of the Chipmunks! I guess that's better than p**ing in my pants. I'm not kidding either. Testing..1,2,3. Just checking to make sure I got my regular voice back here.
(Photo courtesy of BB)
Anyways, on that post BB stated that he does NOT "respond to every comment on my posts." I can see why as he consistently gets many comments. You see if you consistently blog and write new posts but don't have time to comment back to each one of the comments, it is ok. The main thing is to at least acknowledge the comments received by saying, "hey group, thanks for all the comments, I appreciate it". My advice is to either address the commenters on your post 1) Individually or as a 2) Group. Be consistent on how you respond to them from your particular post.
Either you do it or you don't....but don't do it halfway. I have seen bloggers who made a post and reply to the comments (addressing them by names) only to those that they know. This "selective commenting" can be frowned upon by some as it is bad practice. Briefly browse through AR and check some of the bloggers and their comments. You will see that some have chosen to take this "selective commenting" route. I would not recommend it. By "selectively commenting", you may end up losing some of your readers as they may feel left out.
BB is a great blogger in my opinion. So DO DO as BB do (or does? there's just too many do do's here it sounds like of funny). I leave you with that.......great bloggers don't comment back. This is not to say that other great bloggers don't comment back on the comments received as that would be a false statement. There are those that do comment. This is not a knock on BB as I do admire him. As the saying goes, "there is more than one way to slice the bread" and so the decision is up to you.
What about me? Since I am not a great blogger, I will continue to comment back to the comments I receive. Thank you for reading this blog through to the end.
BB, I hear a ROAR! behind you! Ahhhhhh!!
j/k...Say "hi" to TLW for me. :)
Copyright (c) 2007. Dave D, All Rights Reserved.
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Hey Dave, Look at that....put my name in a post and here I am!!!! I love those Google alerts! Now see if I DID respond to every comment individually I would still be over on my other post responding to the 120+ comments and I would have missed your very good post!
The key, in my opinion, is to find what works for you and then do it. There was a time when when we had a "top blogger" dashboard. The top bloggers at that time were picked based on an algorithm that combined the number of comments on your post and the rating from other members. Folks could increase their "number" and therefore raise themselves up on the dashboard, by commenting back to everyone individually and because of that the practice was actually seen as gaming the system. This old dashboard created many many problems and eventually had to come down. Because of the way the system was set up, at that time, I never got into the habit of doing the individual comment "thingie". It was a big no no.
However things have changed over time and eventually responding individually became the norm. My opinion has always been that it's distracting. I like to read all the comments on a post and when every other comment is from the poster I find it interrupts the flow of the conversation. But this is certainly just my opinion and many would disagree with me.
There is no right or wrong way. The good thing about AR is we are all free to choose how we wish to handle our own blogs.
I'm a broker and do a lot of business working by myself. I have to be careful to not let AR consume all of my time or I'll get out of balance and burn out. That's the main reason I do things a little different. For me it's all about pacing myself.