I read a lot of sailing blogs and leave a lot of comments. Without a blog of my own, I have more time to do that than many bloggers.
Most people who read my comments naturally assume I write the first thing that pops into my head - without thinking at all. But, there's really a lot more to it than that. I'd be absolutely lost without Blog Commenting For Dummies. Between the covers of this thin volume is everything you need to write intelligent-sounding comments - even if you're a complete idiot.
I've been wanting to tell people about this book for a while, but the 'Write A Review' writing project is the perfect opportunity. I never could have become Tillerman's 'Blog Reader of the Year' without it. It's just loaded with great advice.
Take the chapter on relevance - wow what an eye-opener! For months I'd been leaving comments on people's blogs without really understanding what they were talking about. I couldn't figure out why bloggers pretty much ignored those comments.
But the book explains - and this is just brilliant - that if you try to understand the point a blogger is making and then respond to that point, the comment makes a lot more sense to everyone.
Blog Commenting For Dummies is written very clearly, in plain English, so people like me, who aren't smart enough to write our own blogs, can understand every word.
A new concept for me was irony (chapter six). Apparently, this is very popular on many blogs today. The idea is that you say something just the opposite of what you really mean, but, somehow, it comes out sounding like what you were trying to say in the first place. That's supposed to make it funny. Only the best bloggers can pull this off, and, honestly, I still don't know how they do it.
A real time saver is the included CD of pre-written comments. I don't know how many times I've used that over the past year. Just copy a comment from the CD and paste it into the comments page of your favorite blog. What could be easier? There are comments on every subject you can imagine. And they check all the grammar and spelling and sentence structure for you, so everything sounds pretty slick. I mean, who has the time to do all of that today?
I actually haven't finished the book yet. There are some chapters at the end about keeping your comments short so you don't bore people to death and about how blog readers usually read a blog for the blogger's opinions - not for the goofy thoughts of other commenters. I can't wait to get to those chapters.
5 comments:
See - this is exactly why I need that book.
An excellent post but can I think of a comment that is witty, relevant, and possibly has a hint of irony?
Alas the answer is clearly no!
I am lost without a copy of "Blog Commenting for Dummies" to hand.
Thank you Mr O'Docker for bring this superb book to my attention
I don't feel qualified to remark on this post.
I don't have time to comment on this post because I have a blog of my own.
Me neither, but I don't think he's ever commented on my blog.
Be careful what you ask for, B.J.
Most people would pay good money to have me NOT leave comments on their blogs. Tillerman has been refusing my extortion demands and so suffers the consequences.
This is all covered in Chapter Eight - Commenting For Profit.
Post a Comment