Hari's Corner

Humour, comics, tech, law, software, reviews, essays, articles and HOWTOs intermingled with random philosophy now and then

The art of drawing responses

Filed under: Internet and Blogging by Hari
Posted on Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 21:39 IST (last updated: Wed, Jul 16, 2008 @ 20:16 IST)

Angry man I've often wondered: do some bloggers have an uncanny knack of drawing more attention to themselves than other bloggers? I know that in the real world, people can often influence others around them with their behaviour, but what of the online world? I've been blogging for too long to pay much heed to topics like 10 Sure-Fire Ways to Get More Comments on your blog which frequently crop up on blogging-related online communities. I also know that just being popular is not guaranteed to generate attention and feedback.

In fact, I don't think controversy or deliberate baiting is always successful in bringing about a large readership. I've seen so many bloggers draw only feeble, tepid responses from readers even when they write about contentious issues in a most provocative way. I've also seen some other bloggers need to just put together a few words to generate hundreds of responses by way of comments. You might argue that these bloggers might have already got a dedicated readership, but so have other bloggers who write spicy stuff guaranteed to draw attention. But is commenting on others' blogs a sure way to get comments on one's own blog? Again, I've not seen this to be too effective. There are a few people around who return the courtesy, but most bloggers don't these days. Yet, some very indifferent and anti-social bloggers tend to attract more attention than others who try desperately to be more sociable. Does the topic of discussion have some effect on readership? Sure it does to an extent, but I don't think this correlates well with the comment-to-readership ratio.

The only thing I can say with certainty is that some people tend to have this strange ability to draw attention with the least bit of effort. I don't know how one's personality translates online, but readers tend to pick up emotional cues from the words they read. Communication always has two threads - one the informational thread and the other the more subtle emotional thread. In direct face-to-face communication, one tends to pick up emotional cues from one's senses, but while reading, I think we tend to attribute emotions to certain words, a particular sequence of words or even by the usage of the language. I know this sounds more obvious than it is in reality, but our brain works so quickly that I doubt whether many people actually realize this. Whether deliberately or otherwise, some people seem to use the language in a way that is designed to trigger an immediate response.

Whatever the cause of this strange phenomenon, I have decided to start using more visual elements in some of my posts to enhance the effect of the words. What do you think of my drawing above? Does it add or detract from the tone of this article?

13 comment(s)

  1. Excellent article, Hari. Besides the kind of target audience you expect for your blog, I suppose the consistency in the quality of your posts is a major factor. One flash good post picked up on one blog aggregator can spike your traffic for a while, but cannot raise the level big time.

    I want to add to the points you've raised by saying that each of us who spends some time online has a certain bandwidth within which we can read say 10 blogs. If I discover a new blog, and the recent 2-3 posts seem good, it will be there on my feed reader for a few days and then must be *that* good to replace one of the top-10 blogs you follow religiously.

    About emotional cues, yes, and I suppose not just mastery over the language, the depth of your understanding when you're dealing with a certain topic also affects the quality of what you post. Visual elements do increase the appeal of a blog: plain text puts off sometimes. This image on the top of this post had me expecting a humorous posts -- but this is good, too! :)

    Comment by Sudipta Chatterjee (visitor) on Thu, Jul 10, 2008 @ 03:25 IST #
  2. Sudipta, thanks.

    There are really two issues at work here - one is drawing attraction and the second is drawing responses... the two don't always correlate well.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Thu, Jul 10, 2008 @ 08:48 IST #
  3. I have come to believe that there isn't really a surefire way to bring both attention and responses to a blog. You could, hypothetically, write a bile and hate filled post and it would get Dugg, /.ed, blogged about, etc etc and then you get nothing more - it only keeps people coming if the rest of the blog is worth reading.

    I will say that I have seen traffic increasing after following a few of RT's posts - adding a picture and adding links to other sites does seem to draw people in and you get added to various blog list pages.

    Comment by ray (visitor) on Thu, Jul 10, 2008 @ 14:22 IST #
  4. Whatever the magic, I guess each one has his own formula, Ray.

    I don't think generic advice can work in such cases. I think you can get more traffic but that doesn't necessarily translate into more comments.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Thu, Jul 10, 2008 @ 15:25 IST #
  5. I have to agree with Ray, to an extent. I am sure that there is a formula that you could follow to at least get started witht he comments. But, popularity does not mean comments. My post: http://coreythompson.com/2008/02/hardy-java-firefox-3/ (Hardy, Java, Firefox 3) has had over 3500 views but there are only 5 comments and one was from me and another from you, hari. It has, by far, been my most popular post since I started tracking, and its definitely not a producer of commentary. now, if I bitch about the weather, I'll get 3 times as many comments. :D

    Comment by mrcorey (visitor) on Thu, Jul 10, 2008 @ 21:16 IST #
  6. Oh, and I love the drawing!

    Comment by mrcorey (visitor) on Thu, Jul 10, 2008 @ 21:17 IST #
  7. Thanks MrCorey. I guess topics that call for discussion tend to draw some extra comments, but even there I've noticed a lot of potentially solid discussions peter out.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Thu, Jul 10, 2008 @ 21:27 IST #
  8. I'd agree with views that turn into comments. Since July 6th, I've had 1034 unique visitors to my site. I think the number of comments since then has been just a handful.

    Then again, I don't blog for comments or popularity, nor am I seeking out a ton of visitors.

    And people just comment on Ray's blog all the time cause they just feel sorry for him ;)

    Comment by drew (visitor) on Fri, Jul 11, 2008 @ 00:23 IST #
  9. Excellent post. As the comments before...I'm not so big with comments. I sometimes think that my postings with lots of comments relate to my inability to make those posting clear. I feel if people disagree with me, can only be because they didn't understand my point. Of course, the premise is that I'm always right. I think the key for lots of comments...is not new users, but keeping old users coming back and engaged...of course posting often will keep them engaged.
    Many of my "real-life" friends read my blog..they don't post comments, but I always hear their opinion about it the following days in person. These are the "comments" I enjoy the most.
    You write amazingly well..so that would keep me coming...not commenting necessarily.

    Comment by Gem (visitor) on Fri, Jul 11, 2008 @ 03:38 IST #
  10. And people just comment on Ray's blog all the time cause they just feel sorry for him ;)
    I'll take whatever I can get!

    But yeah, I get a load of page views but relatively few comments. I think that's mainly because I get found via image searches and searches for certain words!

    Comment by ray (visitor) on Fri, Jul 11, 2008 @ 14:14 IST #
  11. Drew, yes, Ray's comments are all through sympathy. ;)

    GEM, thanks for the comment. Yes, friends and relatives rarely comment on blogs.

    Ray, your blog attracts all kinds of elements :>

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Sat, Jul 12, 2008 @ 15:02 IST #
  12. Well, you really 'drew' my attention!
    Do you believe in manifestation? Movies such as 'The Secret' and various theories of attracting what you expect or believe would explain the success of these bloggers.
    Ernie and I believed in Blue Beaver Beer to such a degree that we actually had a lot of people looking for it. I wonder if anyone is out there looking on a map for the mighty Horseguard River :)

    Comment by Tim (visitor) on Thu, Jul 17, 2008 @ 09:44 IST #
  13. Tim, I believe in ESP :yes: I was hoping desperately for some comments after the last few days of 0 comments, and BAM... what happens? I get three new comments in a single hour. :))

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Thu, Jul 17, 2008 @ 10:01 IST #

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