But as the human brain is set to forget, after a while people came back to New Orleans and tried to re-build their lives on the ruins of their old ones. Some of those people are bloggers. Maybe you’ve read their blogs many times without knowing that they were running away from the hurricane as they were writing those posts.

I was thinking the other day at a friend of mine, who’s working with me on an internet project, and who excused himself to be late with some things because he had to prepare for the hurricane. I’m fortunate to live in a blessed area, with moderate climate. The biggest wind I’ve ever seen was barely able to put down a dead tree. I think that if I had to face such a disaster, survival would have taken the first spot in my priorities (and the next ten spots on my priorities list would have been empty).

Today I discovered that there are people like PB, who after surviving Katrina, is now running away from Gustav, and meanwhile he still finds time to make a video post. Unbelievable, while being away, he’ll have to pay some $300 a night (or $100 a night) for the hotel room, as far as I’ve understood from his video. Again, I don’t get this democracy which cannot find a solution for lodging these people who were terribly hit by Katrina and who are in danger to be devastated again, this time by Gustav. Why do they give names to those storms? Only to have somebody to blame it on for so many deaths?

I’ve never read PB’s former blog (which he recently sold), but I cannot stop myself from thinking that maybe other bloggers I read are in the same situation. What I know, is that there are bloggers who pray for PB and for all other people in distress.

I surely hope Gustav dies young. Do you?

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But do you know what’s even more important than giving your readers useful tips?

Giving them in form of lists.

If you believe what I’ve written so far, that’s OK, your readers probably love you already. But doesn’t this blogging world start to look like a cookbook? Take two eggs, scramble them on a plate, add some salt and pepper, some small cut bell peppers, throw everything in a hot pan, wait one minute, turn on the other side, wait another minute, put everything on a plate, decorate with parsley, eat, enjoy.

Although there are great recipe books available for almost everybody, some of us are lousy cooks. Or maybe we are good, but the ingredients we use aren’t always that fresh. Or our timing is not exactly the right one: 30 seconds more on the fire can change the taste of the food we make.

Do you see my point? Why writing in lists, when the outcome would be unique anyway? Why respecting the cooking recipe, if I think my food could have a better taste if I cook by inspiration? Do you think the guests you invite for dinner care more about your cookbook rather than about the result, the food itself? If I were a cooking expert, supposed to produce the same outcome each time I combine the same ingredients, that would make a sense. If you go to a restaurant and order a Caesar salad, each time you expect to get the same combination of foods which we use to call Caesar salad.

But cooking by the book when nobody expects that can be a little frustrating, don’t you think so? Having an infinity of blank pages waiting for me to fill them in could be a challenge for creativity and not for making more and more lists. Why limit myself to a given frame, when I feel like crossing the boundaries? Only because I assume that readers cannot focus enough to read a whole page which is not broken into bullet points?

I’m smarter than that and I’m sure my readers are smarter, too.

What do you think about lists?

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Whatever the reasons, we want to be creative and to live up to the expectations of others. That’s why we need backup plans and strategies. Let’s see some of them:

Pat B. Doyle provids her readers with an impressive list of 23 great ideas for blog posts.

Lisa, from Hit Those Keys tells about counterweighs to beat Inertia and produce “New Work”.

Spinebreakers publish an audio interview with an author who has never experienced writer’s block. It seems that having multiple jobs ongoing at the same time is key for him to never have this problem.

Finally, this is how Rudyard Kipling explains the six words which prevent writer’s block.

What’s your way? Do you want to get rid of your writer’s block when it comes, or you are just living it to the full and stop posting for a while?

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Writing for free, programming for free, talking, e-mailing, more blogging, more writing, and soon I got over my head.

Everybody is busy in their own way. Priorities shift constantly, and interests change.

One thing I’ve struggled with lately is how to keep on going. My personal situation has changed since I bailed out a friend who was kicked out of his apartment (long story). I’ve met a nice lady friend. I used to use blogging and programming to pass the time, now I have to make the time.

It’s a struggle, and one that I’m sure we all face. Some of us have kids. Most of us have day jobs. Some of us have school. And some have all three and then some. Yet we still find the time to make it online and share with the world our thoughts and knowledge.

Just this week I had to tell a guy who requested CSS customization on Ajax Edit Comments that I wasn’t able to help him unless I billed him my hourly rate. I felt bad about it, but there wasn’t much I could do. I had a paying client I had to finish a job for, and the custom work would have competed with that.

Andrew Rickmann also raised a thought-provoking issue. If someone had a site you didn’t particularly agree with, would you still help? So not only is our time being competed for, our ideals are as well.

My question to you is, how much are you willing to give away before it’s too much for you to handle? If you do client work, how do you determine what work should be paid for, versus not?

Thank you for reading.

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As mentioned in my design decisions series, I believe it should be the reader, and not the blogger, who decides which content is timeless.

After I consolidated my design decisions series for another site, I quoted a reader’s comment on another blog:

When I find a blog with no time stamp, I feel conned. (From Erica)

I don’t personally feel conned, but a timestamp is a helpful tool in gathering context. For example, if I’m looking up something time sensitive, such as useful apps for my new iPhone, I wouldn’t want to read something dated March of 2008 because the new iPhone wasn’t out then.

On the other hand, as Darren pointed out, there are older posts which are indeed timeless (not date sensitive) that readers ignore simply because they are old:

The problem is that when you have a post that is ‘timeless’ (ie it doesn’t really date because the tips you give or the principles that you talk about will always apply) a date can act as a distraction to your reader. They arrive at the post and see that it was written in 2006 and a little warning bell goes off in their mind that what they are reading is not ‘current’.

While Darren presents some good arguments for having (and not having) dates on posts, the majority of his comments are in favor of keeping dates.

So Should Blog Posts Have Dates?

My official stance is yes. You’d be hard pressed to find a magazine, journal, or newspaper without some kind of time reference. Even reference material and novels have publishing dates and revisions. Why would the web be any different?

Yes, I can hear Liz Strauss saying, “But we’re on the web, not in print.”

While true, a time reference is one aspect of print that should be carried over.

The argument for removing dates is so that the content appears timeless. I would love to declare all of my content timeless. But it’s not up to me. It’s up to my readers.

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We’ve written many articles here on the importance of having comments enabled. Even Liz Strauss has weighed in on the issue:

My personal opinion is, that if I read a really great article and I come to the end and I can’t leave a comment… These days, my response is sort of like, “They don’t want to talk to me, I don’t want to talk to them.”

However, there are some times when it might be better to disable comments, regardless of the consequences.

You’re On Vacation

When going on an extended vacation, perhaps it’s better to disable comments temporarily rather than let a potential spammer take over your blog.

An alternative to this is enlisting the help of a trusted friend to help moderate your comments while you’re away. If you are in charge of a multi-author blog, perhaps temporarily promoting one of your authors is a good fit.

You’re Done With Blogging

You’ve had it! You’ve experienced everything the blogosphere has to offer and you’re ready to move on.

If you decide not to sell your website and just leave it up for archival purposes, then it would be wise to completely disable comments on your blog.

You’d Rather Concentrate on Writing

In the case of Shawn Blanc, he didn’t want readers to think they had an obligation to comment on every post. Shawn concentrates on his material, and allows readers to weigh in to him via e-mail.

Prominent blogger Seth Godin also follows this approach.

You Don’t Ever Respond

If you find yourself never responding to comments, then perhaps it’s time to turn those comments off.

I’m definitely not perfect, but I do try to respond to all comments. However, if one never makes that attempt, then perhaps comments aren’t a good fit.

You Don’t Have Time

A while back, a blogger named Avinash decided to disable comments on his site. It was temporary, but I understood his reasons.

Some bloggers simply don’t have time to manage comments.

Bloggers have to deal with:

• Spam
• Moderating
• Trolls
• Responses
• Requests

Managing comments is a lot of work, and if you simply don’t have the time, then perhaps leaving them off is a better solution.

There Are Legal Issues

There has been some debate in the blogosphere recently about who owns comments.

There are also countries out there where the blogger is liable for a reader’s comment.

If a blogger is fearing arrest (or worse) over a comment someone else made, then perhaps it’s better to leave them off.

Conclusion

I’m absolutely 100% for having comments enabled. It’s one of the first steps in reader appreciation.

However, comments aren’t for everyone.

In your opinion, is there ever a time when a blogger should disable comments completely?

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In a crowded, smoke-filled room, a person asks me, “What are you singing?”

I stare at the blank sheet of paper in front of me, where I am to fill out my name and song request.

“I’m not sure yet. What about you?”

“Oh.” the person replies, “I’m not going up there.”

“Why not?” I ask.

“I get horrible stage fright.”

“It’s just karaoke. Nobody expects you to be an expert singer.” I say trying to reassure my friend.

“I’ve tried it before. I just froze up.”

I smiled, “Sometimes you just have to forget there are other people in the room and sing for yourself.”

Karaoke and Blogging

Singing karaoke in front of a bunch of strangers is an intimidating experience.

If you’ve ever written a blog post for a rather large audience, it is an equally intimidating experience. You’re placing yourself out there for all to criticize.

It is my belief, however, that the more comfortable you become with yourself, the more your audience will be comfortable with you.

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It was just a little over a month ago that I was in Dallas for WordCamp Dallas. It was my first real trip to Dallas (besides going to the Ft. Worth zoo), and I had a blast.

The trip today, however, was more for business.

Knowing that Dallas is a maze, I went to BestBuy late yesterday and bought myself a Garmin 200W. I had hopes it would come in handy in Dallas, and boy did it ever!

The first order of business was visiting a home establishment in Grand Prairie, Texas. After we were done with that, the work for the day was done.

I mentioned to my co-worker that there’s a great Tex-Mex place called La Hacienda Ranch that you can only find in Dallas.

After traveling through torturous rush-hour traffic, we finally located it (using the trusty GPS) on Preston Rd. The name sounded really familiar, but I let it slip by me.

After La Hacienda (which was great, by the way), my co-worker wanted to find a sports store. The trusty GPS took us to a place called Dick’s Sporting Goods, which was still on Preston Rd.

Déjà vu swept over me. The sporting goods store was located in a giant mall, which looked very familiar. It finally dawned on me that I was in the very location where the WordCamp Dallas attendees had their first meet-up (at Dave and Busters).

I looked over at my co-worker and said, “Wow, I never thought in a million years I’d be back in Frisco, Texas.”

It was WordCamp Dallas all over again for me.

As a sidenote (I think everything in this post is a sidenote), the La Hacienda had a nice feature that I think should be done more often.

In their restroom is a switch above the sink. The note more-or-less states, “La Hacienda Ranch is committed to a clean restroom. If this restroom needs attention, please flick the switch to the right.”

When I read this, I thought, “Wow, what a great and non-embarassing way to bring attention to a problem.” If only every restroom had such a feature! I was looking for one in my hotel room, but I sadly couldn’t find one.

Anyways, I head back from Dallas tomorrow and back home to humid Alabama. I just wanted to share a quick note with the readers. I hope all is well out there in the blogosphere.

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- How do you appreciate your readers?

- With pommes frites and a glass of good wine!

Two firemen bloggers are chatting about their readers:

- What kind of readers do you like most?

- The ones who set my soul on fire!

Two policemen bloggers are chatting about their readers:

- How was your traffic today?

- I’ve got a couple of readers who exceeded the reading speed limit.

Two fishermen bloggers chat about their readers:

- How do you catch so many readers with your articles?

- I always use fresh (link)bait!

Two kamikaze bloggers are talking about their blogs:

- What’s your biggest fear in blogging?

- Each day I fear I ain’t gonna live enough to answer all comments!

Two toddler bloggers are talking about their readers:

- Do you think they smelled my lie about my previous month earnings?
- No, but if you want to be honest to your readers you should disclose also how much money you’ve spent on diapers!

I hope you just had some fun. No real blogger was harmed while writing this post. Any resemblance to real bloggers is purely not coincidental.

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I visit Slashdot every other day, and one of the things that irks Slashdotters the most is a linked article with multiple pages. Inevitably, someone will find the link to a printer-friendly version and be praised and worshipped by all.

You’ll mostly see multi-page posts on “newsy” sites like Slate, or tech-heavy sites such as Wired. But every now and then, you’ll find a blog that does it too.

Now when I’m talking about multi-page posts, I’m not talking about its related, but twice-removed, cousin called a series. I am actually a big fan of a decent blog series and have written quite a few myself.

Here’s why I find multi-page posts annoying:

• I’m a big fan of instant gratification. Forcing me to click through pages for content is just working against me.
• I don’t like swarms of ads and pop-ups (I’m looking at you Sitepoint).
• Page loading still takes a lot of time. Even in high-speed bliss, some pages still take a looong time to load.
• It’s an inconvenience to readers. Multi-page posts are not a convenience. They’re a nuisance. I can hear it now, “Look mom, clicking through all these pages is so much fun!”
• It’s disrespectful to readers. Do page views and advertisers really matter that much? I suppose so.

Lorelle VanFossen has also expressed her feelings towards multi-page posts.

Blogs are about communicating and interaction. They are about creating and maintaining relationships with your audience. If you are doing anything that interferes with their ability to read your blog posts and access your blog, you are just putting barriers up between your content and your readers.

Amen, Lorelle!

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hello my name is Alix i live in the uk and i have one thing to say to you. you call yourself a writer ok not got a problem with that but i think a writters main obective in life is to wite about subjects in a open minded way your comments on many subjects are ofensive, outragous and very critical. i find myself not seeing you as a wirtter but a very one minded and one opinioned person who in “My Opinon” should take a brake from writting on subjects which you clearly have no understaning of or concept of. and focus on what the world is really about and im sure you will cearly realise that the probem with this world todays is people like you! who set out there day to cause upset and complete disruption for every one around you. and this i find only happens in people who inside themselves are very comfused and unhappy, so to stop these things from happeing you find it in yourself to unnesserly put these insulting and agin very outragouse commments out there. to be honest i wish people like you didin’t have internet acces becasue your comments do nothing but cause great harm and is a waste of time.
that is all i have to say i hope you read this and understand what iam saying to you and to hoestly find it in yourself to take this as a heping hand.

So what to do when you receive comments like the one above? Granted, it wasn’t a death threat or anything, but it kinda makes you wonder if others might feel the same way. And if so, do you care?

My comment policy on my personal site is fairly loose. I will allow comments as long as they don’t personally attack me, defame others, and don’t have unnecessary swearing. My policy warns that to break the policy is to risk deletion. And, I will admit, the above comment was pushed rather quickly into my moderation queue until I could decide what to do with it.

On raproject, we have a similar comment policy. Personal attacks aren’t allowed, and neither is advertising. We also try to promote comments that add to the discussion.

Another example of a comment policy is over at One Man’s Blog. He doesn’t allow commercial links and would like commenters to leave real names (no nicknames).

My question to the reader, what is your comment policy? And if you have one, what kind of comments do you like to have?

I’ll conclude with a quote from Liz Strauss’s WordCamp transcript:

We have one rule on my blog: be nice.
[...]
I’m a firm believer in the more rules you put on a blog, the more loopholes people will find to break them.

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I’d like to think I could approach just about anybody on the streets and make a good first impression. But since I’m not super-human, I can’t.

I’m not that guy who can sell ice to Eskimos, or sell sand to people on the beach.

And since I’m not super-human or a power-salesman, I have to rely on the power of introductions.

It’s Who You Know

You’ve probably heard the saying, “It’s all about who you know.”

With introductions, it’s the same thing. And it really doesn’t matter who you know. It does matter, however, that the people you know, know someone else.

I would love to spout off bullet after bullet of why being introduced is a lot better than a “cold call”, but I think it’s just too obvious. If you have a good reputation, and you introduce me to someone, it’s likely that that someone will take your word for it until I prove otherwise.

If there’s a girl (or guy) you’ve been yearning to talk to, one of the best ways is to find a friend who knows that person and ask for an introduction. It won’t guarantee you anything further, but it’ll at least get you that foot in the door.

Introductions and Blogging

Blogging and introductions are no different.

What would happen if you suddenly received a few invites a day for xyz product that claims to be the best thing since sliced bread? You’d probably scream “spam” and go for the delete button.

What if, however, your favorite blogger gave a rather nice review of this xyz product and explained its usage. Then, perhaps, you might be just a little more receptive of an e-mail. You may not even need an e-mail and pursue the product on your own. And it was all due to a friendly introduction.

Introductions don’t have to stop with products. I’ve discovered many blogs and bloggers due to recommendations from friends.

Introductions and Commenting

Another introductory approach, which can’t really be duplicated in offline life unless you leave notes for people in the bathroom stalls, is that of comments.

Commenting is a fantastic way to put yourself out there and allows others to get to know you without really knowing you.

After commenting on a site for a while, you start becoming a regular. The other commenters may not “know you”, but you aren’t a stranger either. If you then need to contact one of the other commenters, you can simply say, “Hey, I saw a comment you made at xyz site and I had a question…”

If you would’ve just e-mailed that person out of the blue, you might have a difficult time getting a piece of that person’s mindshare.

Conclusion

If you talk to anybody in the dating or job hunting game, they’ll tell you that introductions can be priceless. All it really takes is that foot in the door.

Once you get that foot in the door, however, the rest is up to you.

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I argued that individuality (in the context of service) harms the customer, and the better approach is a team-based environment where customers (or readers in the case of blogging) are everyone’s responsibility.

I discussed this concept with a friend who is not familiar with blogging. He is, however, very familiar with customer service as he is a waiter at a local Mexican restaurant.

My friend is very popular among his customers, and his customers often ask for him by name. The other waiters do not like this, since waiters at his restaurant are assigned to tables on a turn-based basis. And since my friend’s customers tip rather well, the other waiters are green with envy.

This past week was a very popular holiday in America called Cinco de Mayo. It’s a nice excuse to grab some Mexican food and drink a few margaritas. My friend asked me to stop in, but warned me, “It’s going to be very busy.”

Indeed it was very busy. I was lucky to have found a parking spot, and I had to sit at the bar instead of my favorite table.

The waiters, whom often fought for customers, were scurrying around from table to table making sure everything was alright. That night, there was no set waiter per table.

I asked my friend about it a few nights later. He said, “That morning I came up with the idea. I told my manager that if we don’t work like a team, our customers are going to get slaughtered.”

When asked about the tip situation, he responded, “Even though I get the most tips, I felt it was better to share the tip revenue evenly that day. Everyone was pulling their own weight, and it worked out pretty good.”

In the end, Cinco de Mayo for my friend and his restaurant was a huge success. Many first-time customers came in to celebrate, and many returning customers came in to say hello. And, according to my friend, the day would’ve been a disaster had it not been for a team working environment.

Conclusion - How does this compare to blogging?

My friend’s Cinco de Mayo story is just a neat example of a person placing his customers’ interests first.

How do you think this example of a busy day at a restaurant compares to that of blogging?

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A few days ago I read an article from Daily Blog Tips about managing reputations online.

A good reputation is a hard thing to earn. It can take years to build a good reputation, and only seconds to destroy it.

A while back I wrote an article here talking about how to irritate your readers. The same irritants of readers can also be very effective ways to ruin your reputation online.

Within this article I will highlight three ways one can easily ruin a reputation online.

1. Hack your readers into submission

I am a WordPress plugin author. I’ve also developed a few themes as well.

Having done both, I realize there are many ways I could hack into a person’s blog. All I would have to do is provide myself a back-door.

Earlier this week one of my friends discovered her blog was hacked. In the source were many links pointing to spammy sites. This is a constant problem with WordPress themes, especially if the theme has been hijacked by a third-party theme site.

Plugins can provide the same issues as themes. Plugin authors can create user accounts, track the plugin’s usage using stealthy code, and even harvest commenter e-mails.

However, what happens when this plugin and theme “hacker” is discovered? Well, let’s just say their reputation will take a nose dive and the person will never be trusted in a community such as WordPress.

2. Promise, Promise, Promise, and Never Deliver

We all have been in a situation where we have promised something, but never delivered.

I personally have promised plugins or designs, but then life just gets in the way. In those situations, it’s helpful to be transparent and honest.

However, there are some that are content to always promise something. The next big contest, or giveaway. A free e-book or membership site. A brand new theme or program.

It gets to the point where I just want to tell the person, “When are you going to stop talking and actually do something?”

I realize people are extremely busy and things are forgotten rather easily. I have this problem, and I’m sure I’m not alone. After a while though, people get sick of the empty promises.

3. Lie and Get Caught

When one announces a contest and a fake winner, readers get pissed off.

In the blogosphere, news spreads like wildfire. When Ashwin Khanna scammed a bunch of bloggers into a fake contest, they became angry.

How’s he doing? See for yourself.

There’s nothing to gain from lying, whether it is to get traffic, advertisers, or subscribers. Long-term, lying simply will not pay off.

Reputations are fragile…

Reputations are eerily fragile. It’s almost discomforting. But most of the cases I’ve seen where a reputation suffered, the person basically did it to himself.

Whether it’s a politician and a talkative ex-pastor, or a bride who ran away, reputations are there to haunt us or help us.

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There’s no secret that many bloggers measure online success beyond dollars and cents. I suppose that even those ones who are measuring success in money are happy to see that their blog attracts loyal readers.

What does a blogger do after he gets his loyal readers?

Well, a piece of advice which is frequently encountered is to “make a list”. So people follow the trend and make a list out of their readers, either by bribing them into subscribing, or simply by the interesting things they write.

What does a blogger do with his list?

Once the readers are not readers anymore, but “the list”, the blogger starts sending them emails. He has their permission, so he feels free to communicate with his list as frequently as he feels like.

What does a blogger communicate to his list?

This is the sad part of the story: once you turned from reader into “part of a list”, you start getting advice about what is the next thing you need to buy in order to … (to whatever the blog you subscribed to was about), or about how lots of people are so cool and you are not, because you don’t have Y product, or because you haven’t read Z book.

The funniest thing is that most of the times, those bloggers get their offers from affiliate networks, and you find yourself every morning flooded with offers to buy the same product, but from a dozen of guys who all want your attention.

Do you want to be “a list”?

I don’t want to be “a list”, and despise the fact that I receive maybe hundreds of offers every day. I have never bought anything as a consequence of getting those messages. Am I a bad reader because I don’t make those bloggers happy and buy their stuff? Actually it happened only once that I bought something only because I wanted to reward a blogger for his efforts. I already had a cracked version of that stuff, but I felt good when thinking that the guy would smile when he sees that he’s got a commission, consequent to my purchase.

But you know what? That blogger never put me on “a list” and never sent me one email to sell me something.

Do you share my feelings against such lists? Let’s all have our say as readers, maybe internet marketers would end up listening.

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• Reader Appreciation Initiatives 10-20-2007

While shopping at my local grocery store, I noticed that my store now offers financial services. Within the advertisement is a quotation: “What a great idea!”

When I first saw the advertisement, I just mumbled to myself some expletives and continued my shopping. The quotation reminded me of Sony when they made up a quote from a fake critic. The key word here is fabricated quotes.

Another example of this is at a chain restaurant. The restaurant is hiring, and on the advertisement is the quote, “A great place to work.” I was half expecting an asterisk with some small print adding, “…for some people.”

I suppose the addition of these quotations is just a decent attempt at self-marketing. Adding in these quotes perhaps is trying to reproduce the word-of-mouth effect that works so well. The problem is, I don’t know the people behind the quotes, so I could care less who said what.

The beauty about a blog is that there is usually a decent person behind it. And from this blog, we can get a feel for who you are, what you like, and whether we can trust you.

It’s one thing to have a nameless recommendation, it’s another to have a recommendation from a trusted friend.

I’ll conclude with a quote from Liz Strauss’s transcript from WordCamp:

So if you go to a website, or you’ve got a product, bring your experience to it.

I want to know how you felt using it. I may not feel the same way, but if I’ve been reading you, I can extrapolate from your experience whether I like it or not.

If you’re a friend of mine, I can extrapolate from your taste in music whether I like it or not.

So blog your experience. It makes you more real.

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Think about the last time you had excellent service at a restaurant, store, or hotel. What made the service so excellent?

Perhaps it was the small details. The place may have smelled nice. The bathroom was clean. The staff were friendly.

These small details can come back as a negative as well. What about staying in a hotel where the room thermostat didn’t function? Or perhaps Wi-Fi happened to be down that day.

Small details usually only matter when there is something wrong. These small details, however, can make or break what is a good experience.

Blogs are no exception, and paying attention to certain small details can allow your readers to have a good experience on your website. Your readers probably won’t notice, but that is likely a good thing.

1. Turn on Full Feeds

There are many arguments for turning on full feeds. One is from an analytical content standpoint, and the other is from an aggravated reader.

I’ll make it simple: from a reader’s perspective, full feeds need to be on.

One extra thing you can do here is increase the number of posts showing in your feed.

2. Don’t Force Readers to Register to Comment

In the words of Liz Strauss, forcing (yes, I said forcing) readers to login is the equivalent of this analogy:

To me, that’s like putting a sign on the mailbox that says, “Excuse me, please. If you want to deliver mail to me, come up, knock on my door, ring my doorbell, and then wait for me to answer. And maybe I will.”

Again, from a reader’s perspective, there shouldn’t be a required registration to comment. Readers simply don’t have time to register for each blog they want to comment on.

3. Allow Comment Subscriptions

Another easy way to add convenience to readers is to allow readers to subscribe to comments.

If I go to a blog and leave a comment, I’d like to know if somebody replied. Typically if a blog doesn’t have a way to subscribe, I won’t be back. It’s nothing personal, but there are too many blogs to keep track of.

For WordPress users, there is the invaluable Subscribe to Comments plugin, which easily allows readers to receive e-mails whenever there are additional comments.

4. Remove that CAPTCHA

From a blogger’s perspective, CAPTCHAs can seem necessary. Many are overwhelmed with spam, and CAPTCHAs are a quick way to stop spam in its tracks.

However, CAPTCHAs are often defeated, and accessibility takes a nose dive.

One thing I’ve been trying out here is a WordPress Plugin called WP-SpamFree. The plugin has actually worked quite well when used in conjunction with Akismet. And the best part is, no CAPTCHA.

5…

Here’s where you come in. As a reader, what conveniences you when visiting a blog?

What lacking feature causes you to scream into the heavens, “WHY???!!!”

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• 5 Ways Some Bloggers Do Not Appreciate Readers Who Have Differing Views

Today is Earth Day 2008. I’ve seen it celebrated at first in Google (and I didn’t get the reason for shaping letters like trees) and later on, in many blogs who wrote about it, or celebrated it by changing their usual header to a “greener” one.

Have you thought that the more readers we can get, the better the Earth can become? Do you remember, in the age before internet, how many books were you buying and reading every year? Hard copy books are eating the forest. Printing houses are polluting (I never understood how printing house workers don’t faint because of the smell inside). Or how many newspapers you used to read and send to the garbage the next day. Other trees, other forests gone for good.

The better a blog is, the most readers it attracts, the more trees are saved, simply because those readers take from their books reading time, in order to read your blogs. The days have still 24 hours each, while the things we want to do in those 24 hours are maybe ten times more. The result? We cut on books reading time, then we buy less and less books, as the ones we’ve already bought over the past five years are still waiting to be read.

How is it? Can you believe that your blogging can save a few trees every year?

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While going over Liz Strauss’s transcript, I came across yet another ounce of wisdom. Sometimes, the readers don’t respond because they don’t know how to answer the question.

So why not show ‘em? Just jump right out of the blog post and go in the comment box and answer it. Here’s my answer. Here’s the way I would answer this. This is what I would say.

I’ve been experimenting with this a bit here and I have to say that so far it’s worked out fairly well. So if you see me as the first comment to my own post, you know what I’m up to ;).

But Liz brings up an good point. Sometimes the questions we pose at the end of our posts are vague. Sometimes (and I’ll be honest here), we don’t really care what others think, but we still want to invite them in to have their say.

Liz says she she spends more time on her ending question than on the rest of her post. Don’t take my word for it:

I spend more time on my ending question than almost any other part of my blog post. And the time I spend is like writing the question and going, “Ok, how would I answer it?”

I can sum up the genius Liz Strauss advice into three steps:

1. Spend a generous amount of time on your end question.
2. Ask a question you would answer.
3. Then, answer it.

As Liz puts it, why wait for the readers? You can comment first and lead by example.

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• Have I Offended You?

Ok, not really. But how many times have you told yourself that when it comes to blogging?

If you’ve been in the blogging game long enough, you probably know quite a few bloggers who have quit.

Some quit because:

• Subscribers weren’t growing
• Traffic wasn’t increasing
• No money was coming in
• Their page rank took a hit or was too low
• Their site was blacklisted by Google
• They received too many negative comments
• They didn’t receive enough comments
• They were burnt out
• They were too busy (school, work)
• They had personal obligations (child, spouse, parents)
• And more…

Within the past two weeks I’ve read a few posts that I consider rather thought-provoking. One was about a blogger’s responsibility to the readers, and the other was about blogging pains. Both expressed confusion for what the future held for their blog and their readership. And believe me, I share the same thoughts constantly.

And confusion over the future, or lack of purpose, is intimidating. Even Lorelle VanFossen says it’s a good reason to stop blogging:

Stop blogging if you don’t have a purpose: Honestly, you don’t have to blog if you don’t want to, and if you don’t know what to blog about, don’t. If your blog has no purpose, stop blogging.

You can probably relate to Lorelle’s quote. It’s hard to find purpose on a blog. And it’s demoralizing when a purpose can’t be found.

While at WordCamp, one phrase from Liz Strauss was a huge motivator. The phrase? “They come for you.”

You are the one unique value on your blog.

The information is everywhere. But you are the one who molds it, shapes it, and brings your experience to it.

As Liz puts it, readers come to a blog to read your stuff. And if it’s a multi-author blog such as this one, readers come for your writing, and perhaps others’.

Because, as Liz puts it, “Information — straight, clear information — is all over the Internet. But you aren’t.”

Conclusion

People will quit blogging. It’s a fact of life. Some blogs have just run their course.

But for those questioning why they should keep going, perhaps it’s for those readers that are coming just for you.

I’ve thought about quitting many times. But it’s often the readers that keep me going.

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The Bad

I’ve lost count of the number of sites I have stopped visiting because of the readers. I’m sure you can think of several sites off the top of your head where the readers routinely indulge in OS flame wars, sexism, racism, stupidity, or are generally unable to string together enough words to form a cohesive, or rational, argument.

So if readers can make such a negative difference can they also make a positive difference and turn their comments into an essential part of a site? I think they can, and I have a site in mind.

The Good

I am a big fan of Formula 1 motor racing. I never miss a race or a qualifying session, and there is so much to discuss that I talk about it, read about it, or think about it every day. A significant amount of this discussion happens at F1 Fanatic

When you open your feed list I imagine you do the same thing as I do: go straight to your favourite blogs and check out their content, leaving the rest for later, or at least after you have read the favourites. Am I right?

With F1 Fanatic, however, I found that I actually lose out by doing this.

If I come to a post late in the day I find between ten and twenty comments featuring extra thoughts, more information, and different viewpoints. If I get there first I miss all of that. The readers provide so much added value that it is better to wait.

For me this blog stands out for me as a prime example of how a blogger and their readers can work together to create something larger than the sum of its parts, how great the conversation with a blogger can be, and how a reader focussed blog can prosper.

The Contributory

Blog communities like these probably owe as much to the blogger for fostering the relationship as they do to the readers for coming back and commenting in the spirit that was intended. It may be that this is the natural result of great content, a great subject, and great reader appreciation.

As a reader in these communities, which sites do you value more because of the contributions of other readers? How much of this effect do you think is down to the blogger, and how much to the reader? And do you think it is possible for a blogger to achieve this without appreciating his readers?

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I was in a local restaurant this week when I made a small observation. My Diet Coke was going on empty, and a person who wasn’t my waiter came up and asked, “What are you having, Sir?”

“A Diet Coke, please.”

“Sure. I’ll be right back.”

The guy brought a new Diet Coke back, and my waiter also returned and exclaimed, “Oh, you already got your Diet Coke. Wow.”

Working Individually Harms the Customer

The waiter that I had at the restaurant was relatively new. And unfortunately my drink went past the empty mark, and a fellow team-member came to assist.

However, what if nobody came to help? I, as a customer, would have been dissatisfied with the service.

What if the staff was okay with my dissatisfaction? After all, I wouldn’t be leaving the other waiter the tip.

The individual mentality only works in the short-term. Long-term, I’m a customer of that particular establishment. If I receive one bad experience, it doesn’t reflect badly upon that particular waiter — it reflects badly upon the establishment as a whole.

So if a waiter interjects and helps out another waiter, the customer will be satisfied. The customer’s chances of returning are high (long-term). And quite possibly, that first waiter could have the returning customer, who can now leave that valuable tip.

The Team Environment in the Blogosphere

Multi-author blogs are not so different when it comes to the restaurant mentality. Authors are in charge of their own section, and in charge of their own readers (customers).

If readers want to leave a tip, it’s through comments, ad-clicks, and links.

With a team environment, however, an author sees the entire blog’s readers as their readers. A reader who comments on one post might as well be commenting on their post. A reader who is dissatisfied with one author might as well be dissatisfied with all authors. And a reader who expresses love for the site, also expresses love for the individual authors.

I’ve been apart of multi-author blogs where each author worked in his or her own sandbox. I didn’t like it.

Now I’m apart of a few blogs were the authors are in constant contact. We make decisions together. We coordinate posts and schedules. And we answer the reader questions, even when they aren’t on our own post.

We work as a team. And I’m grateful to be apart of something like that.

Conclusion

With multi-author blogs, it’s easy for each author to work in his or her sandbox. However, a team environment is much more beneficial for both the authors and the readers.

An author’s article and comments represent the site as a whole. And if other authors jump in to assist, the reader and the site are the beneficiaries.

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I was invited to the conversation, and I did my part. Did you do yours?

What I ask is a somewhat rhetorical question. Having the opportunity to transcribe Liz Strauss’s presentation, I came across some valuable gems of advice.

One of her points about why readers don’t leave comments was because readers notice when the author doesn’t respond.

Which begs the question: why would an author with no intention of responding to comments invite readers to be apart of the conversation?

Below is a quote from Liz Strauss’s presentation describing exactly that scenario:

A really good friend of mine who writes a great business blog was on a blog of a very famous author who asked a question. And she found the question so compelling, she went over to another blog and got a friend of hers to come back to this first blog and answer it. And the author did not answer the comment.

And so my friend went back over six months of the original best-selling author’s blog and found that at the end of every blog post, he asked a question.

But he had never answered a comment. And she ended up writing a blog post about it saying, “I don’t feel like I’ve been invited to be a part of the conversation and I don’t think I’m going back there.”

Readers pay attention to those kinds of things. If you rarely respond, then I don’t feel welcome.

My lone comment…

This week I commented on a post over at BlogHerald. The post was written by Chris Garrett, who usually does a great job at responding to readers.

He asked, who else upgraded to WordPress 2.5?

Several readers responded, including me. But where was the author? We (the readers) were invited in. But there was no conversation, which was unfortunate.

Why ask me to show up then?

It’s hard to respond to comments. It’s “labor intensive” as Liz Strauss would put it.

However, blog authors have no excuse to not respond to comments when they actively encourage readers to be apart of the conversation.

A conversation isn’t one-way. When somebody asks me to chime in, I don’t expect to talk to a digital wall. I never “expect” comments. I’m thankful for each one.

I’ll close with another quote from Liz Strauss about her efforts to respond to readers:

If a blog is a conversation, you need to respond. I respond to every comment on my blog. And believe me, it is labor intensive. Of those sixty-thousand comments, at least 25,000 of them are mine. That was a lot of hours.

Liz mentions that in order to have a conversation, a blogger needs to respond to his or her readers.

Here’s another rhetorical question: if the author doesn’t show up, then why should the reader?

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Most of the people I know have no concept of what blogging is, much less on how to deal with readers.

While at WordCamp Dallas, however, I was able to explain to others, some new to blogging, some veterans, what the concept of reader appreciation was all about.

Below is a fictional conversation of how I would ideally explain reader appreciation to someone who had no idea that it was.

Jason: Hey, nice to meet you Ron. I see you blog for the Reader Appreciation Project? Did I get that right?

Ronald: Yes, the Reader Appreciation Project.

Jason: So what is it? Something to do with readers, I imagine?

Ronald: Well, everything you see or experience generally has some kind of support base. For example, a business wouldn’t survive long without its customers. A television show wouldn’t last long without viewers, and a radio show wouldn’t last without its listeners.

Jason: Right, so you’re talking about blogging and readers, correct?

Ronald: Yes. Whether a blogger realizes it now or later, he is writing for an audience. This audience is his readers, and without his readers, his blog won’t be able to sustain itself over an extended amount of time.

Jason: But not all bloggers write for an audience.

Ronald: Well, I would argue that everyone who blogs is writing for some kind of audience, otherwise why not write in a diary and tuck it under the mattress? It goes with the saying that if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it really make a sound? The same goes with blogging: if you write a post, and nobody reads it, did you really write it?

Jason: Gotcha.

Ronald: So bloggers need that audience to survive. Not only are readers necessary for advertisers, but many bloggers are encouraged by comments, e-mails, and growing statistics.

Jason: So where does reader appreciation come into play?

Ronald: When you’re online, it’s rather easy to forget that there is a human behind every comment, e-mail, and visit. Each subscriber to a blog is giving up a moment of his or her time to read your material. Every time a reader leaves a comment, that reader is focusing his or her energy momentarily completely on you and your words. And when that reader writes in that e-mail, the reader is attempting to interact with the author.

Too often, comments go ignored, e-mails get trashed, and readers aren’t treated as the humans that they are. Just like you wouldn’t want go to into a store and be ignored while making a purchase, neither do readers when leaving that comment or sending in that e-mail.

Jason: So reader appreciation is just giving attention to the readers then?

Ronald: More along the lines of giving back. Readers make up the foundation of a blog. Without them, bloggers couldn’t even dream of monetizing. A lot of time bloggers measure their stats in the terms of page views and hits, but there are readers behind every single web statistic.

Jason: So what are some ways a person can show reader appreciation?

Ronald: At its simplest? Responding to comments is a good start. Most bloggers unfortunately don’t even do that. But there are many, many other ways, which is why there are sites like the Reader Appreciation Project.

Jason: Alright, sounds like something I should look into. Thanks a lot Ron.

Ronald: You’re welcome, and good luck.

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“What?” I asked. “You can only see the last 10?”

“Yes, only 10.” he replied.

“How many posts would you use?”

Alex responded, “Do thirty to fifty. If it’s a new subscriber, he wants to read some. I know some bloggers who show the last 2 years.”

Wow, Fifty Posts?

Alex as a new reader wanted to read our content, but when he subscribed he could only see the last ten of our posts. I immediately went into my WordPress settings and increased the count to fifty posts per his recommendation.

In WordPress you can access this setting under Settings (or Options) and in the Reading panel.

WordPress Feed Settings

I’m sure Alex is not alone, so do your readers (and new subscribers) a favor and increase that feed post count to whatever you feel comfortable with.

PS: While you’re at it, make sure you have “Full text” turned on also.

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The common denominator on most of the about pages I saw? There weren’t any pictures of the blogger!

I basically went to WordCamp blind, not knowing who was who, and hoping that I would be able to place the blog with the face when it came to meeting people face-to-face.

From my perspective as a reader, I shouldn’t have to search for a blogger’s picture. It should be right there on the “About” page front-and-center. Of course, not everyone is comfortable posting a picture, and I completely understand this. But if you are, please (pretty please) put a picture on your about page.

For those with multi-author blogs, I suggest implementing Gravatars to enable your authors to showcase themselves. It’s difficult to showcase authors on the about page of a multi-author blog, but on individual posts and on author archives, Gravatars are an excellent way to identify authors based on a nifty pictorial icon.

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