Excellent blog!

Well, thanks for yet another excellent blog post. Enjoyed reading your thoughts. I am starting to become a fan of your blog.

It's funny that you mentioned Johnny B. Truant.

Johnny's by far my favorite blogger, and I only discovered his blog recently thanks to Charlie Gilkey of Productive Flourishing (check it out, folks!).

I am a quirky sort of fella–and a born eccentric–so I really appreciate bloggers with an individual style.

(But that's just me; you may disagree.
It's just that we have different tastes and preferences, that's all.)

A blogger like Truant has found his unique “voice.”

Plus, he writes interesting stuff and knows what he's talking about (although sometimes I disagree with Johnny, with due respect). That's what I look for.

Plus, I like Johnny's blog because he packs a comic punch and has an awesome sense of humor. Wow: Johnny cracks me up each and every time.

And he looks like James Dean and I want to look like James Dean too coz the chicks dig James Dean and think he's cool and groovy like Woodstock.

Jokes apart, I think it's important for bloggers to respond to comments and stuff like that, but sometimes due to the sheer volume of mail and comments and other distractions, it become difficult. (Think about it).

Without mentioning any names, quite a few bloggers have complained to me that they just can't keep up. They already have too much stuff going on.

Hey, life is difficult, so let's give these gals and guys the benefit of doubt, if not a shoulder to cry on.

And many of these people–like Jay White of Dumb Little Man–blog on the side. They have lives too and full time jobs, you know. Time is limited.

So, I think it would be helpful to be compassionate towards bloggers who try their best, but can't always make the grade. We all fall short, sometimes.

Sometimes, it is easy to judge others, but more difficult to understand where they are coming from.

We snap to judgment when we don't have all the information on the table, and this is what I have learned, over time, having interacted with so many bloggers, commentators and critics.

Anyway, hope this perspective helps. And folks, cheers and have a nice one!

I am embarrassed to say that it never occurred to me until recently that a blog, my blog, should be part of the social discourse. A few months ago, I sent out a message on FB and Twitter asking what people would like to see on my blog, I did not know what to expect when I asked the question so when I got 2 or 3 suggestions I felt discouraged. Thank U! your post is a key reminder that a blog isn't just a platform, but a way to contribute to the human dialogue.

To me the readers of my site are everything, they are the reason why I am here and the reason I keep going.

I reply to everything you have to it's so important if you ever want to survive

With respect to comment “leaders” who answer other commentators' comments before the poster/hoster does – what do you think motivates them?

For pages with static content it is of less importance, they can be nicely SEO'ed.

I like your use of the following; “It is necessary for you to be relevant to your readers, not relevant to search engines or for SEO.” This is so true many blogger who are selling have affiliate links on their blogs have a habit of writing content for SEO purposes.

Readers and your relationship with them is like any other relationship, offline, it has to be built and developed with care.

Regards

Paul

Anyways, on topic – I've found that with my own site, I have a hard time getting comments, but because of interacting with the readers that's becoming less and less of an issue.

You have to show you care about your readers, and if you can manage to do that (not only by replying to comments, but also by commenting on their blog or communicating via Twitter and Facebook), you can create an amazing community.