Blogger Anxiety – Blogging and Comments
28. Mar, 2007 
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This is the first post in a series called Blogger Anxiety. The series will talk about the causes and possible solutions to various forms of blogger anxiety.
Bloggers have a lot of pressure put on them to keep up with post counts, comments, and a wealth of other factors. This post will go into several causes of blogger anxiety. Not all causes have solutions, but I personally found it helpful to know that I am not the only blogger going through these trials and tribulations. Having an awareness of the anxieties and that you are not alone will hopefully serve to boost your morale as a blogger and enable you to further appreciate your readers.
Negative Comments
One cause of blog anxiety more-or-less centers around what other people think. In real life, people always tell you, “Don’t worry about what other people think.” But in the “blog world”, you are basically putting something out there and asking what people think.
I received some excellent advice from another blogger who shall remain nameless (to protect the innocent). He more-or-less said that people will get pissed off about anything. The negative comments might outweigh the positive comments tremendously. However, all the feedback is going to make people curious about you and your product. If you have aggravated somebody (and that somebody is a blogger), you can guarantee that you’ll see more traffic your way. To sum this up: bad publicity is more downloads and/or page views.
My take on negative comments is that some people will just cut you down just to be mean. Ignore all personal attacks. Ignore the people who question your credibility. Listen to those who have actual, legitimate grievances. Listen to those who have actual, legitimate feedback.
No Comments
You’ve worked on something for hours, days, or perhaps weeks. You proof-read it and publish it. And nothing. Not one comment! Did you do something wrong? Did it fall on blind eyes?
Sometimes you might have had a total disconnect with your audience. Sometimes your audience that you want reading your stuff isn’t the audience you have.
Sometimes it takes time for your audience to catch on. Don’t worry about it. Keep blogging for you, but keep your audience in mind. If you have something interesting, your audience will warm up to it eventually.
Crickets
Somebody once told me that if you kill a cricket, you’ll have some bad luck. With blog posts, however, I’d like to see all crickets die a horrible, torture-induced death.
Crickets can be louder than silence. It’s one thing to write a post that doesn’t have any comments. It’s another to pour one’s heart and soul into a post and then nothing.
I am comforted by the fact that the cricket-type posts are probably the best ones.
The A-Lister
You have written a post that an A-Lister has commented on. Wow. Now the reality sets in that this A-Lister doesn’t agree with you.
I’ve had this happen to me quite a bit since I started writing for Devlounge. I’ll put something out and somebody that’s “somebody” in the blogosphere will leave a comment voicing disagreement.
The anxiety is high because you know these people carry a high influence in the blogosphere, but you also don’t want to look like a wimp and say, “Yes Mr. (or Mrs.) A-Lister, you are absolutely correct. I retract my poor blog post and bow down to you.”
If I were an A-Lister (and I’m far from it), I would want somebody to come up with an intelligent argument if that person disagreed. My advice would be to respectfully disagree and give your reasons for the disagreement.
Comment Spam
I hate e-mail spam. But at least nobody sees the e-mail spam except me. With comment spam, every one of my readers has the potential to see the spam I get. Fortunately, bloggers have a powerful ally with Akismet. The Blog Herald has an interesting article on how to stop comment spam.
A good spam filter and spam plugins do not stop idiotic people from posting random gibberish though. As a result, moderation is still sometimes necessary.
Conclusion
Blogger Anxiety is very real and it is amazing how something as trivial as a comment (or lack of a comment) can make someone have a really bad day. Thanks for reading.
Blogger Anxiety was originally part of a two-part post on my personal site. Several commenters helped inspire some of my points. I’d like to say thanks to them. Thank you Bes Zain, Vivien from Inspiration Bit, Josh Motlong, and Shawn Blanc. You all helped me with this series.
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Thanks for the credit, Ronald.
Your post made me realize that I’m not the only one suffering from blogger anxiety. It’s not that I’m happy to see that others suffer too… not at all.. it took away the guilty feeling that perhaps blogging is not for me.
Misery loves company?
Just kidding.
Blogging isn’t so bad. It just isn’t one of those “instant gratification” type hobbies (or jobs).
Thanks for stopping by Vivien (inspirationbit).
Thanks for the mention Ronald.
Also, thanks Vivien for the comment. I think blogging comes with these anxieties that need to be overcome on an individual basis, and sometimes as a group, in order to focus more on blogging than wondering about the side-effects.
Among other things, when I write posts that take days to write and yet I see no comments, it feels really weird. You know the usual mantra, the one in which everyone says something like “Write, write and write more even if your posts dont get attention in the beginning. People will come more if you have more content.” I do not agree to the first sentence in that mantra, since that focuses on marketing so that anything that does not get comments can be let go so we can focus on marketing. For me, every post takes time and effort, and every post has a purpose, so I want even older posts to get attention.
What I’m wondering about is how some bloggers manage to have a vvvvvery active team of commentators on their blog. Even their posts that bring nothing new (say, copy & paste announcement from WordPress about their latest update) get tons of comments. They manage to build more than just a readership who comments, they build a community of loyal readers around their blog, so that it feels more like a forum where only the owner posts a topic and the rest are commenting on it.
Of course, they all rank high on Technorati and have thousands of RSS subscribers. I wonder if this is possible to achieve with not so popular blogs?
Hi,
Most obviously you’re quite wrong.
pollyHuber,
Care to elaborate on that? Saying I am wrong does not argue any point and is in fact a personal attack. If my argument is flawed, point out the flaws please. Otherwise, do not bother to leave a comment.
Ha. I know what you mean. I have to constantly keep up with every question, comment and criticism. It’s no easy task. But the end result makes it all worth it. Content sites are way easier. My site http://www.stop-anxiety-attack.com was the result of tons of blogger data. I enjoy it much more. And without the need to keep up with the blog – i too have far less anxiety. In fact it was ironic that stopping my blog actually helped me cure panic attacks at the same time. So my solution? Run away! Run away from the blog! and just stick with content sites.
Rachel,
That is indeed a solution. In my case, I love the reader interaction, even if sometimes it is through negative feedback.
For some reason, I couldn’t load your page, but I’ll keep trying. Thanks for stopping by.