How are important are comments to you?

[Melody]

I'd like to know if others here feel that blog comments are an important part of their blog??????

I ask this for several reasons.

1. The big ol' comment thread largely gets ignored, but it's a great 'I'll scratch your back, and then you scratch mine' way of getting comments. Since that thread gets ignored, I am thinking most people don't care about comments.

2. Comments are part of conversation?? I blog because I want to share information, and so to me comments are critical to having a conversation on my site ... but looking at the threads on bloggeries, I think maybe many think ads and traffic to ads are more important??

Are comments important to you? Why or why not?

[Nathan]

Comments are great. They are indexable content that search engines can use to measure the quality of your writing. In addition they are the pulse and life of a blog, proving that you have real readers.

The only reason why I haven't participated in the comment thread of late is that I have been far too busy. I ought to get back to it.

[intmktr]

It depends on how "social" you want your blog to be. Personally I don't care about comments very much because I am not much of a social blogger, but some people put a lot of weight on them. It depends on your style. Usually a blog that gets mainly search engine traffic won't have a lot of comments and a blog that gets a lot of traffic from other blogs and social networks will have a lot of comments. I prefer search engine traffic.

[Betsyanne]

I really value comments on my blogs. The reason is that I can learn a lot from them. People will say if they like the posting, or may even bring up points that I didn't write about that make the posting even more interesting. I can even find out about mistakes or things I need to write more about.

Comments can be a lot of fun to read. To me, comments make the work it takes to write a blog worth it.

[lilymom]

I don't really care too much about comments. My blog is basically advertising Etsy shops for other people and while its nice if they thank me, I don't find it necessary.

[derekanders]

I love getting comments, it means that people are reading what I am writing and getting involved in the conversation.

[QuirkyMomma]

I love receiving comments but I also recognize that some blogs are more conversational/relational or controversial and they will generate more links than my informational site will. I loyally hounded several sites for years before I ever left a comment, I assume there are a ton of readers out there like me....

that, and most people who comment are fellow bloggers who are out to get link juice... who am I marketing my blog to? bloggers (who leave comments)? or readers? I look at total views a post got and number of incoming links to it in order to gauge it's popularity or "worth".

[WavecrestLtd]

I echo what some of the others have said here. I love to receive comments. It makes it feel like someone is really interested in what I'm writing.

Plus I'm a Leo and we love to have our egos massaged now and then!!

[keym4k3r]

Comments from real people are really invaluable. I have a blog, where I approve all the comments that do not look like the spam.
However another one has the comments closed, due to enormous number of spammers.

[Scribnia]

Comments are huge for me. On my blog and our website's blog, building relationships and building a community is extremely valuable. Sometimes I'll put up blog posts that are more meant to educate than to trigger discussions. Usually, I like nothing more than getting a good heated debate started in the comments. I respond to every real, thoughtful comment I receive to show my appreciation and to show my readers that I am listening.

Depending on your goals, comments may or may not represent success of your blog. For me, comments absolutely represent how successful my blog is.

David
Scribnia.com