An awesome guest post from the enigmatic Snoskred, a blogger from New South Wales in Australia with a blog on many and varied subjects.

Early in November of 2006, I heard about NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. Unfortunately it was too late for me to get in on the action as I had already missed one day of blogging. So instead, I decided I would challenge myself to comment on as many of the NaBloPoMo blogs as I could during the month of November. It was a huge challenge to set as there were thousands of blogs on the list and there were days when I commented on over 100 blogs a day. During the month I learnt a lot about commenting on people’s blogs which I’d like to share a bit of here today.

Many people find it difficult to write comments; for some it is like pulling teeth. I have some good news for you - the more you comment, the easier it gets.

First of all, what should you write?

• Compliments are excellent. Take a look around the blog. Do you like what you see? Say so.
• We are all human beings and for the most part we can relate to each other. If you look for things you have in common with the blog writer you’re sure to find some material which will make a good comment.
• Each blog that you read will make you think, so listen to what you are thinking as you’re reading. That might be where you find the good comment.
• Never be scared to say what you are thinking. People write blogs to connect with other people and if you have a different take on something someone has written it is ok to share it - they may not agree but they will appreciate you taking the time to express your views as long as you don’t attack them and theirs.
• Does the blog writer have kids or pets? Do they post photos of their kids or pets? If yes, saying how cute/gorgeous/lovely and other similar words (Challenged for words to use? Want something really different? Try the thesaurus - I find it invaluable) can make an excellent comment.
• Look at the most recent post on the blog. Is there any comment you can make on that topic?
• Never feel like you have to shorten a comment. Long comments are much appreciated by blog owners. However *any* comments are appreciated by blog owners so if short is all you have go with it.

If you have set yourself a blog commenting challenge and that is why you’re at the blog let people know. It’s ok to have this part of the comment as a copy and paste thing. I usually have a text window open (Editpad Lite is my favourite and it is free for personal use; unlike notepad or wordpad it allows you to use tabs with text files) which will contain the “base” for my comments. It could be something like -

Hi, it’s Snoskred here. Iím trying to comment on as many of the NaBloPoMo blogs as I can and I thought I’d say hi.

(now personalize the comment here - using any of the above points you like)

Now we come to the sign off. This has become quite important to me lately. I used to not do it at all but then I read somewhere that putting a link to your blog at the bottom of any comment can be a good thing for several reasons and the most important of all being it makes it easier for people to get to your blog if they want to come and visit - and many people will want to visit people who comment on their blogs. Surprisingly people also like to drop by if you’ve written a good comment - they want to find out more about you and see if they should add your blog to their must read list. Typing your name, email address and URL into comments is fine and dandy and I recommend you do it every time but sometimes people don’t realise they can get to your blog that way. So at the bottom of the comment you can put something like this -

Snoskred
http://snoskred.blogspot.com/

What not to say.

There are times when you read a blog and your thoughts are not positive. I clearly remember one occasion where a blog writer was complaining that people kept giving her child plastic toys and that she would not allow them in the house, she would throw them out as soon as the present giver left. Whether or not you like or dislike plastic toys, I believe my thoughts went along the lines of “How rude to tell someone what kind of gift they can buy for your child and if they don’t obey you bitch about it!” and “At least her child is being given toys” and “how terrible for this child who is given a toy to play with while the present giver is there and the moment they leave it is snatched away and thrown out”.

Of course, I did not say any of those things. I do believe I tried to be tactful and comment on something else but my memory of it is fuzzy because I have to say that one made me pretty mad. I just kept imagining my nephews in that situation and it made me see red. So, there’s probably a lot of things you should not say but here’s a short list of my absolute do nots - and note that this only applies to a blog you’re commenting on for the first time. If you are a regular reader and commenter on a blog sometimes you can do some of these things below.

• Don’t swear. It’s ok in some situations but this is not one of them.
• Never say something negative about the person, their blog, their pets, their kids, etc.
• Some topics were never meant to be commented on. In my opinion these are politics, religion and sex but I’m old school. You’ll have to make your own decision on topics you want to steer clear of.
• Some blogs were never meant to be commented on. I’m sorry to say that if you have a myspace or a livejournal, I found these difficult to comment on and instead would steer well clear.
• If you’re seeing red, get out of there fast - and as politely - as possible.

So, is anyone up for a commenting challenge? How do you set one for yourself? Nablopomo isn’t until November. Technorati has a lot of blogs listed there, you could try commenting on the top 100 blogs. Blog Carnivals might be of interest as well, along with blogging communities like BUMPzee or MyBlogLog. Also, Blogrolling has a top 500 list. These are just a few ideas but it doesn’t even have to be any kind of list, you could just say “I want to comment on of new (to me) blogs a day/week”. My new challenge is the Blogging Chicks blogroll so if you’re a blogging chick you might see me soon.

You simply want to set yourself a goal and then go out there and achieve it. Don’t overwhelm yourself to start off with. Reward yourself as you go. I used to say comment on 25 more blogs then I’ll (make a coffee, watch a dvd, play a game) then another 25 and I’ll (eat lunch, have a snack, go for a walk).

People who blog are people who live all over the world and have many different thoughts and opinions and dreams and loves and hates. The comments section of a blog is a place to be pleasant, friendly and if you can manage it from time to time, witty. That’s because you want to make friends out there in the blogging world. When you make friends out there, people add you to their feed readers, they add you to their sidebars, they become a part of your blogging “family.” Pushing yourself to go out there and comment on blogs can allow you to find a wider audience than you ever thought possible.