Joyeux de Blogging: The Gold is in the Comments

I wrote this a few weeks ago on my ActiveRain blog. I am reposting it here because it speaks to my hopes for this blog. As we continue our move over here from blogger.com, my hopes are high that I will create something here that doesn’t die on the vine.

This morning I was musing about what is making ActiveRain so wildly successful. I’ve been blogging for a couple of years (3 to be exact), and try to maintain a blog about Birmingham and the Oakland County real estate market. But in the last few months I’ve found it challenging to post much. I tell myself that I have been busy selling houses, but I know that is an excuse. Have I lost “the joy of blogging???” Unfortunately, I’ve been in something of a blogging slump.

At the risk of sounding like a gushing suck-up (which I am NOT). ActiveRain has put the joyeux de blog back into my life.

What’s so different you ask? Well, it’s really in the dialogues that are taking place here. My other blog is admittedly a bit dry. Market statistics aren’t that sexy. Informative, yes. Sexy, well, not the way I do them. That blog does serve me well in driving leads and traffic to my main Oakland County real estate site, but it’s becoming a responsibility for me instead of something I really enjoy.

Here is the problem. Nobody ever leaves me any comments. I am blogging in a vacuum. I know people find me, and even read some of the things I write there, but they never say anything. It’s hard to carry on a conversation with yourself for too long. At least it is for me.

Recently Maureen McCabe and others suggested that ActiveRain stop awarding points for comments. I think that would be a mistake. Frankly sometimes the comments are better than the original post. If anything, I would suggest bonus points for great comments, along the lines of the bonus points for better blogs.

Without dialogue a community is not much of a community. It’s just a bunch of people with billboards flashing as we pass each other on the Al Gore’s information super highway. Soon enough, we would stop noticing the billboards as we try to get to our destination more quickly. But blogging, like life, is enriched by the pit stops we make along the way.

So, please, leave me a comment when you see one of my blogs. I don’t care if you agree with me or disagree, just share your thoughts. Make my day and add me to your blogroll or your daily reading list. I am really happy to know you are out there!

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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