Do subscribers comment?

I read all of my blogs via a reader and still comment fairly regularly. There are some I never comment on because the blogger hasn't engaged me when I have tried to comment. I save my commenting time for bloggers who seem to value my comments. Not all bloggers do.

I also tend to get more comments from other bloggers than from non-blogging readers. I think they understand the value of comments to a blogger.

Hmmm... have you considered the possibility that people are completed bonked out after they've read your posts? Particularly the ones with an educational or referential intent? Readers find that the post makes so much sense, that they've got little to add.

Or you gave them a lot to think, and they were thinking... and thinking... and when they finally get it, they might feel it's a bit late to comment.

I know I do. Maybe it's just me...

Yep, the do . . . I just did. Sometimes people are in just too much of a hurry to bother, even though they may have something valuable to add. I think the trick is to entice them to make that first comment. Then the floodgates will open. I used to be a lurker for years, but once I started blogging and posting, I really enjoyed the experience.

Lightening, you list some good fundamentals for why we leave comments on blogs. Vincent, that's a good point. The shorter posts generally seem to do better.

Welcome, Top Rated. :) So have I opened the floodgates with you? It's always good to see new people joining in the discussions here.

I know I leave infrequent comments here, and subscribe via a reader. Although overall my commenting on blogs in general goes in cycles. Although I comment much more regularly on blogs I subscribe to than those I do not.

I don't read any feeds. I subscribe when it's pushed on me but I never read the subscribed feed. I like the blog, the site itself. I want to see all the goodies and clutter in the sidebar. I want to see how the blog was put together and what may have changed since I was last there. You can't see anything except content in a feed reader. Seems to me you are settling for less that way.

I also don't read feeds cause it would be one more thing on my to-do list. I'd rather go to the blog, read, comment if something comes to mind and wander off to the next thing. I don't want to waste time going to a feed as a middleman and then go to the blog to read the rest of the post, or see the graphics, or check for an older post to understand something referred to. Feeds are just a nuisance to me.

I like reading through EntreCard. It's like window shopping. I just skim the first post and see if I want to read more. If I come back to the same blog a few times and like what I read, leave a comment here and there, next thing it's become one of the blogs I visit regularly. I don't always comment. I don't reply to comments left on my blog all the time, though I try. Even in my own blog I don't reply or comment unless I think of something to say.