To change a mentality, you have to focus on among other things the myths and stereotypes that are the basis of that mentality. I have been noticing a growing trend among many blogs everyday where people do strange things on their sites and label such things as being ways to appreciate other people. These people would be hesitant to do similar things with other people in their offline lives, yet online, it seems easy for them to justify everything.

To appreciate other people online more, including your blog readers, you have to realize the types of misconceptions that exist on blogs in order to avoid them yourself. Here I will mention 5 Myths of Appreciating Readers that I notice almost daily when reading other blogs.

5 Myths of Appreciating Readers

Following is a list of 5 Myths of Appreciating Readers that I think you should notice and avoid when you notice them on a blog, whether you are a blogger or a blog reader.

1. Saying “Thank you” is enough

   Your readers visit your site, read your articles and add content to your site by writing comments. Simply saying “Thank you” in response is not paying your readers back; saying “Thank you” is a way to show that you may be appreciating your readers, but it is not sufficient compared to what the readers do for your blog.

2. Allowing people to comment is enough

   Any blogger who does not respond to most comments or even any comment by readers is simply depending on the stereotype that because he/she allows people to comment for free, he/she does not have to do anything in return.

3. Asking people for their opinions without actually listening is enough

   Many bloggers have found a way to get more users to interact by asking them opinions about certain things. These bloggers do not act upon the responses they get, as their intentions are usually only to spark a conversation in order to get more people to come to their blogs.

4. Building alliances only with high profile commentors is enough

   I see this everyday, and I would like you to take a look at all your favorite blogs also to see if blog readers are not being treated equally on those blogs. Many bloggers develop solid relationships only with commentors who run successful blogs. Doing such a thing is not appreciating readers; it is sucking up to some people in order to feel important.

5. Rewarding people only when they work more for you is enough

   This a new trend that I have noticed even some of my favorite bloggers doing recently. Many bloggers make readers do extra work, like writing more posts elsewhere on the web advertising something or commenting more, in order to give out a cool prize to some of those readers. That is not appreciation. That is forced labor. If you tell someone that you will appreciate them only when they do something for you, even when they have already done you a favor by coming to your site, spending time on your site and commenting on your site in the past, you are forcing them to do more if they expect anything from you.

That is my list of 5 Myths of Appreciating Readers that I think many bloggers are starting to believe and act upon. Please let me know what you think either as a blogger or as a reader. Do you have any more points that I should include? Is there any point you have more thoughts on, or perhaps you may disagree with something I mentioned?

You can leave a comment below or send an e-mail. Thanks for reading.

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing or Stumbling this post. If not, please let us know how we can better serve you.