Nick's Random Gibberish (17) : The Art of Commenting

Nick's Random Gibberish is a weekly post here at Nick's Book Blog where I, Nick, will talk about random topics from personal posts to discussion posts.

Hi guys!

Today I'm here to talk about commenting. This post is partly inspired by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings' fabulous discussion post on commenting. I thought I would add my part to the discussion as well and share my thoughts.

I personally strongly believe that commenting is one of the most important parts of building your blog's audience. And by that I mean, commenting on other people's blogs and inviting them to visit you, indirectly. Commenting is an extremely time-consuming process, for me. It usually takes me about an hour and a half to go through my feed and write something thoughtful. I actually wake up an hour earlier than I need to so I can get some commenting done before I get to class. So, it can be a huge let down when you take your time to write something encouraging on someone's blog and they ignore you. 

One reason I believe commenting is so crucial is because it has helped be build all these great friendships. Commenting has always been that first step towards nearly all of my online friendships. It not only creates dialogue and help you find your book soul mates, but it's also a way to build a beautiful relationship. There are people who I befriended via comments that I now consider very close friends and who I talk to almost everyday via text messaging (Nereyda, Rashika, Danielle, Siiri). I consider all of my commenting friends some of my best friends. Not only has that allowed me to discover awesome books, but it's also given me people who I feel comfortable sharing my happiness and grievances to. Those are all special kinds of relationships, guys, and I'm grateful to each and everyone of them for playing such a crucial role in my life. 

I do my best to respond back to every single comment on my blog by visiting the commenter's blog. I might not do it right away, but I try to get to them on weekends. To me, that's important, and I like reciprocating the act, mostly  because I like having discussions and also because I personally know how much time it takes to leave just one comment. I appreciate each and everyone of them. It's extremely disheartening when you visit a blog regularly and the blog writer doesn't even acknowledge you. More likely than not, I ignore such blogs. Listen, I know that everyone is busy and have lives outside of blogging, but it's still important if you want an audience and if you want to make bookish friends. You don't have to respond to every single comment, but it's a nice to do so once in a while. I bet the person who commented would feel appreciated and acknowledged. 

So, it annoys me a little bit when I see people who I never ever see commenting around the blogging sphere, complain about the lack of views/comments on their posts. It actually more than annoys me and I have been tempted to say something to these people, but I've remained quiet because I'm not here to make enemies. If you're not contributing to commenting, you really shouldn't be complaining about it in my opinion. 

All in all, commenting is truly an art!

What are your thoughts on commenting? How much of an effort is commenting for you? Do you respond back to comments? Why or why not?
Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!