I tried an experiment this week. I've noticed more and more bloggers responding to comments by email. I usually respond in my comments section, which I realize is not ideal because there's an excellent chance that person will never come back and read the comments. I do like this method, though, because when I read another blogger's comments, often I'm interested to see what that person had to say in response to someone else's comment. Also, if I'm really interested, I will go back and check a post again to see if the blogger replied, so it's not that these return comments are never read.
So I decided to try an experiment: I would reply by email to those people who left comments on my Sunday post. Here's where the epic fail part comes in. I'm going to tell you this at the risk of looking like a complete idiot. It's important to be able to laugh at ourselves, right?
I start by going to each commenter's profile, finding their email address, and manually adding it into my contacts list. Sure, it's time consuming, but I figure I'll only have to do it the first time. So I've sent a good twelve or so emails this way before I realize that when I receive one of these response emails, my comment is printed at the bottom of the email so I know what I said in the first place. Obviously that's not happening on these emails I'm creating from scratch, so these poor people will have no idea what I'm talking about. That's when I remember the handy little "subscribe to comments by email" button that I've never used. Super-duh! So I stopped about halfway through my list. So, if you didn't receive a response from your comment, I'm sorry. If your received a completely senseless email from me, I'm also sorry. Live and learn, right?
So, I went back and subscribed to my comments by email. The next time a comment came up, I hit the "reply" button, and my email was all set up. Nothing could be easier. Even easier than responding in the comments, I'd say.
Now I've tried both methods, and they both seem to work great. What I'd like to toss around today is this: How do you prefer to have other bloggers respond to your comments - in the comments section, in an email, or none of the above. And do you have any insights on either of these methods that you can share?
Happy Thursday, Everyone!
