Dear Readers,
According to my blog posts earlier this year I blocked all possible comments on my entries. I did this because of a lack of legitimate comments and a lot of spam comments. I got tired of comments in languages I can’t read with suspicious links. But since that decision I learned about blogging platforms. I changed my mind on comments once again, and now will allow comments with minimal restrictions.
Recently I’m writing posts three times a week, and last month averaged over 40 views per day. At the Writer’s Digest Conference I learned 3,000 page views or more a month should interest agents and publishers. 3,000 page views per month averages 100 page views a day. I’m half way there. As I wait for agents on my novel submissions I should focus on increasing my view count of this blog.
One way to do that is user participation through comments. Before I blocked comments on my blog I had the wrong settings. For users to make comments they had to put in their email, their name, website, and maybe a verification. This restricts in two ways. First it takes multiple steps that can deter people if they get annoyed. Secondly, not everyone wants to identify themselves on random blog comments.
In 2011 a comment infuriated me. Looking back the person had good intentions. Among a few other suggestions the commenter stated with blogs I needed to make my point quicker. That was legitimate. But I did not take the criticism constructively because the person used my work email and my name instead of his or her own. The person was a colleague that for whatever reason did not want to confront me directly. Instead of learning from the criticism I got freaked out by someone using my work information.
I still think that was a juvenile thing to do, but now future commenters will not have to be that creative. Now it’s set up that commenters may enter in their email (does not show online) that allows them to use whatever name they want. If the commenter does not want to enter in his or her email, the comment will show as anonymous.
Hopefully this will create blog entries that people feel free to comment on even if they don’t want to be known. Also it makes it easier to comment. When I changed this on wordpress.com I changed the rating of my site from G to PG. By wordpress standards that is age 13 and up. I do not want my blog site to become an insulting jerk fest like the comments on popular sights. Honestly, that’s a long way from happening I’m sure, but my blog is not a democracy. If I find something mean spirited, bigoted, sexist, or offensive in anyway I will simply delete it. Also keep profanity to a minimum and all comments with derogatory language will be deleted. Feel free to disagree and debate me but be decent.
Cheers,
Matt Allison
(Creator of mallisonwhat.com)
Mallisonwhat's Blog 