I am a hypocrite. I have three personal rules about being a reader of blogs that I've noticed I'm not following all the time. I was having a longish conversation about a meme running through the blogosphere and realized that I was verbally quoting blog posts I enjoyed, but didn't reward them properly.
Do you know what bloggers get paid in cash?
Zilch (usually).
What they do get paid in is attention and conversation.
The primary elements of this currency are comments, quotes, follow-ons, and link-passing.
If you read a post you like, you should (every time) do one of the following:
1. Comment - click the comments link and leave a comment. You can say what you liked, or even disliked, about the post. You can prompt for more information. You can do anything you want, but just let the blogger know you were there and that you cared. Why? Because it helps the blogger continue down that line of thought.
Many times (many many) I have met up with people weeks after I posted something and they would be talking about the post. But the post received no comments. Therefore, I didn't write any more on the subject.
If you're shy or scared or something, you can send e-mail to the author as well.
2. Quotes - if you have a blog, quote parts of the entry (with a link, of course) in related articles you write. Give credit, but also move the meme along.
3. Follow-ons - This is similar to quotes but involves specifically extending the thoughts of someone else. If they start a conversation, specifically credit the conversation to them and then extend it.
4. Link-passing - Give the blogger some added juice by passing the link along to people you think may benefit from it. Mailing lists, del.icio.us, digg, twitter are all great ways to get the word out about a particular post.
The rules are simple and certainly not revolutionary. But they are important and nearly universally forgotten.
Feed your bloggers, so they keep producing for you!
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Even a "Great post, Jim!" goes a long way.
Comments are, indeed, the food of the soul. I love it when an actual discussion breaks out in the comments of my blog -- it makes me feel useful.
By the way, great post, Jim!
Posted by: Dan Ciruli | 06 March 2008 at 12:01
Thanks Dan!
Not just in the comments but also in the overall community. Whether that happens in blogs, comments, twitter or ... wherever people may be conversing.
Viva le conversation!
Posted by: Jim Benson | 07 March 2008 at 13:54
A++++ GREAT TRANSACTION WILL READ POST AGAIN
(woops, wrong universe)
Posted by: Edward Vielmetti | 08 March 2008 at 11:39
IMO, you* really need to turn-off "nofollow" on your blog if you want people to feel that they can comment and link to you freely. We can't really do this thing together, that's ultimately about making good uses of links, if some significant number of bloggers is indiscriminately segregating links into second-class status on the web. Effectively, this is making a portion of the "food" we can share into a scarcity that is actually plentiful in the true web.
* although I'd like this to be said to many people, in this case, by "you," I definitely mean *you*! I don't know if Six Apart is literally forcing you to use nofollow on this blog, but if so, that's revolting.
Posted by: Jay Fienberg | 14 March 2008 at 02:22
Hmm, I had no idea it was part of the template. Something else to do today, I guess.
Posted by: Jim Benson | 14 March 2008 at 11:13