Note the pronoun, we, which I used. I'm as guilty as anyone. All of us bloggers need to change some of our bad habits. It doesn't matter if the habits are forced upon us or if we've developed them out of sheer laziness. One of the bad habits is not commenting and/or replying to comments. While I'd like to blame feedreaders for the lack of commenting that's going on, it's really just a bad habit we've developed. Read the final section to see what I plan to do about it, at least for a period of time.

Responding to comments on our blogs:

When visitors make the effort to comment on our blogs, we need to reply to those comments when the situation calls for it. Granted, not all comments warrant a reply, but it's our responsibility to make sure we check. Even a late reply is better than none at all. No one likes to be ignored. You want your visitors to return, don't you? When in doubt, reply.

Commenting on other blogs:

We all read other blogs at one time or another. We have to or we have no idea what's going on around us. Why is it then that so few of us comment on the blogs we read? I realize some blogs have comments closed and there's nothing we can do about that. Still, we need to make a concentrated effort to comment on every blog we read (where the comments aren't closed), not just those we like.

Comments are appreciation.

Regardless of what you may think, even negative comments are appreciated. How can we improve as bloggers (and we all need improvement even if we won't admit it to ourselves) if we always get nothing but positive comments? I don't know about you, but I not only like being told I'm wrong, I need to be told I'm wrong, even if it pisses me off. I know I'll get over it once I calm down.

Comments are motivation.

A blogger who receives a lot of comments on a particular post/article is motivated by those comments. What kind of motivation am I talking about? The kind that makes a blogger want to improve. The kind that makes a blogger want to keep writing. The kind that makes a blogger keep going.

As one of my frequent contacts (Hari) mentioned to me, all of this one-sidedness is starting to make some bloggers bitter. They're taking the time to comment frequently on other blogs but that effort isn't being reciprocated by but a fraction of those other bloggers. This tells me that we're not doing a good enough job. We harp about getting more traffic to our blogs and we won't even take the time to do something basic that actually drives traffic.

The "Comment King (or Queen) Award".

For those of you who are willing to participate, I'm starting a comment contest as of right now. Make a comment on a blog you read (but not as the sole comment — just as an aside or something) and let the blogger know about the contest. I'll create the image or have one of my more graphically-oriented online friends do it for me.

You, as the blog author of your own blog, need to count how many comments per commenter you receive. Every week, ending in Saturday, send me the name, URL, and comment count of the person who commented on your blog the most (ties are okay). I will pick a weekly winner from all the submissions.

Needless to say, while I'll be participating myself, I won't by vying for the award. If no one else participates, I won't have a much of a list to pick a winner from, will I?