Is this not a good use of my extra time, and i should do something else related to my blog? or spending some time doing this, is a good idea.”
Thanks Preston. Let me share a few thoughts.
Congratulations on your new blog and the 40 posts that you’ve written. 40 posts in two months is a great effort and if you can keep up that level of posting you’ll have a great foundation of content for your blog.
Don’t be too discouraged by the lack of comments to this point. For a month old blog I don’t think it’s too bad an achievement to have 2 comments. While I know you’d want more I’d encourage you to stick with it and be patient. Many month old blogs would probably not even have 2!
Fake comments. Hmmm – I think this one will cause some debate and I’d love to hear how many ProBlogger readers have written them in the starting of their blogs.
I’ll be honest and say that on my first blog I did do a few fake comments in the very very early days. I used them in the same way that you’re suggesting here – to get conversations going and to make the blog look a little more active.
So I understand the temptation to use them – however I can say from my experience of them that they didn’t work very well for me and the conversations that I had on my blogs in the early days that had a more lasting impact were natural ones with real readers. Instead of going with fake comments I’d really recommend that you work on the content on your blog and writing in a way that is engaging (Read more on the topic of generating comments).
A Word of Warning – while I can see why people go with fake comments (my suspicion is that if bloggers were honest that a majority of them probably have done it) there is of course some danger in it if you’re caught. Blogging is built upon transparency and honesty. I’ve seen a handful of bloggers exposed for fake comments and it probably set their blogs back a little.
What else could you do with the time you might put into fake comments?
- write an extra post a week
- email another blogger in an attempt to get to know them
- email a friend or family member to ask their opinion of a post you’ve written
- leave a comment on someone else’s blog
- think of a question to ask your readers
I’d suspect that all of these things have the potential to generate comments on your blog and build a sustainable readership for it.
Have you left fake comments on your blog? Why or Why Not? Are there times when they are OK?
