Ladies and gentleman, as my contribution to the new movement to encourage comments from blog readers, I present...


Brought to you courtesy of St Claire's Safety Sign Builder.

Real and made-up statistics

For every 100 internet users, only 1 is producing content. Bloggers fit into the producer category.

According to a Problogger serious statistic,
For every 400 visitors to a blog, only 1 person leaves a comment.

Why comment?

Blog content is avidly consumed, day after day, for free, by fans and casual visitors alike. You wouldn't think twice about paying for a magazine, so why not at least tip someone who entertains you for a few minutes, especially if you call by every day?

I am not making a case for tipping cash, or micro-payments, I am talking comments. Most bloggers will say that the best reward for writing a post is not mountains of money, but a comment - good bad or indifferent. A comment is a sign that there is life out there, a sign that we are not writing into a vacuum. A comment is worth a lot to a writer, it spurs them on and feeds the quality of the content for fans.

I think we all deserve to die if we can't schedule a couple of comments into our surfing schedule!

Conclusion

To all you good people, if you are one of the 99 visitors out of a hundred who doesn't want the hassle of writing their own blog, at least write a comment or two - good, bad or indifferent - on your favorite blogs. A comment is free and takes about 60 seconds in its shortest form, a small price to pay to keep blogs alive and real. Remember, if you don't comment more, you could die a slow horrible death...

PS Bloggers, feel free to use the 115 wide mini version. (Right click and Save image.)

Comment contest

I have totted up the comments from around the site and Hari is this week's most prolific commenter on the Pisstakers. I will be forwarding his name to RT, the Comment Mesiter / Comment contest leader who raised this issue in the first place. Comments mean prizes!

And just to throw in another comment happy card, MyBlogLog Sunday 33 is tomorrow. It is my way of commenting on 10 blogs!