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Notes to Self
Along the Ray  

..musings on old-school-web livelihoods & creative pursuits

#blogging Discovering each other in the comments https://notes.alongtheray.com/discovering-each-other-in-the-comments Comment sections open doors to serendipitious encounters of the small web kind and re-connect us to each other May-12-2024 00:00:00 -0400
May 12, 2024 updated May 12, 2024
#blogging

Discovering each other in the comments

Do not comment on another website, when you can write on your own by Disassociated →

Blog comments were also a great way to build rapport and network, but I almost think the case can be made that they spelt the end of the personal website. Now that readers of a website/blog could respond to a post in the same place, many people no longer needed their own website to do so.

I get it. And the spam, whoa.

Yet I loove comment sections. Why?

Because I gain unique insights or personal perspectives from others by browsing the comments. And discover new bloggers to follow.

It’s the joy of discovery that makes comment sections so worth it. Pure serendipity. They often send me down wanderous1 rabbit holes in my noggin and the web.

An unexpected bonus: I comment on your blog, curious readers discover me. You comment on mine, they find you and so on in a ripple effect. More serendipitous cross-pollination in the blogosphere.

It’s no different from how we communicate in the flesh either — some folks are talkers (bloggers!), some are commenters (readers!), some lurk on the margins (introverts?). It’s a great way to meet new people, just like bumping into someone on the street or in a park and making a new friend.

Not everyone can blog (nor want to) so it’s nice to provide a place outside the mayhem of social media for readers to chime in and be a part of your little commons in the comments.


  1. Ayup, I spelled it that way on purpose. I’m a wanderer, after all.↩︎

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BACK TRAILS How do I get new readers? UP NEXT Writers who take risks ‟I like writers who aren't afraid of thinking out loud on the page and sharing bits of themselves that might present as awkward or uncooked.” How do I get new readers? “Tell everyone you have a newsletter. Make a clipboard for your stand at the farmer’s market. Be on other people’s podcasts. Borrow audiences.”
NEWEST Stop wandering about! Be wary of growing too fast or big Liberating space-time from email Kickstarter book on running your own email server goes hot Turning trees into local reporters The Great Print Revival Fail and fail some more How do we get around gatekeepers? Don’t aspire to be someone who writes Painting without the mind “Be comfortable with being shit at first” How do I get new readers? Discovering each other in the comments Writers who take risks Two guys and a $3 million podcast Laissez-faire blogging Casting your art into the universe The chick’s in the mail “Book this ad slot” 500 Words or 5 minutes Starting small

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https://notes.alongtheray.com Along the Ray

..musings on old-school-web livelihoods & creative pursuits

Notes Along the Ray

Somewhere on a river...

North American continent usually

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