Comments on: Why Care About More Comments? Drive Outcomes, Not KPIs

By: Christina

Christina — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:12:51 +0000

Very well said. More like saying do not worry too much about traffic though it’s important, in the end, what matters most is did you do well with with regards to conversion, did sales go up etc.

By: Josh Braaten

Josh Braaten — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:30:07 +0000

I usually agree with you on most things, Adam, but I’m not sure today will be one of those days:
1) You dismissively hint at social proof in your closing statement. I think it’s more important than what you suggest. New readers that see comments are more likely to read the post they’ve landed on through search or social media if they see enough reasons to stick around.
2) Search efforts are bolstered by content that remains fresh. Comments are great for this. A comment here or there isn’t going to make or break your SEO efforts but the less you have to ACTIVELY do the better.
3) Comments are a directional metrics, not an outcome metric, as you suggest. But if your readership isn’t that hot, the first place you should look for ideas on how to improve your content are the blog posts that actually promote engagement.

Two different schools of thought. You call comments a byproduct. I think they’re more of a step along the way.

By: Tamar Weinberg

Tamar Weinberg — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:25:29 +0000

“Developing a promotional plan for content (and build connections with the rest of the niche so their content actually spreads)”

That is the key, really. If you’re not marketing your content, you might as well not be writing any content at all. If the niche is so big, there are bound to be people who are interested in it who just haven’t found out about it yet!

By: Adam Singer

Adam Singer — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:08:03 +0000

Thanks for being a sport about the post Kara and not taking it the wrong way (sometimes people take feedback negatively, and I’m glad you didn’t – was just my subjective take on the situation). Good luck with the blog and feel free to ping me with questions anytime!

By: Kara Vanskike

Kara Vanskike — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:16:56 +0000

Thanks for your insight. I will begin implementing some of your tips as I am implementing tips I’ve gotten from Dan and some of the Spin Sucks readers.

At Taylor Studios, each department has a list of objectives and goals they strive to meet each year. The number of comments on our blog is not one of mine, however. As Dan mentioned, I’d like to build our community and engage more with our readers. That’s what drove my question to him in the first place. I realize there are other measurements that are more telling than the number of comments we receive.

As you pointed out, our cat blog doesn’t really fit with everything else we discuss. However, it does speak to our culture. I agree, posts like this, don’t belong on our blog so going forward, this content will stay on our Facebook page.

Social networking is only one aspect of my job, therefore I’m not able to devote 100% of my time to it. I am making it more of a priority, however. I still feel like a fish out of water though, so I appreciate your suggestions. Keep reading. We’ll keep improving.