[...] Naomi wrote a post about dropping comments from her blog, Harry wrote a post about what he thought was wrong and John wrote a post about the reaction to Harry’s [...]

[...] controversy started when one of Naomi Dunsford’s readers took offense at her approach to the topic. He admitted that he wasn’t offended that she stopped people from commenting on her blog. He [...]

I consider myself relatively thin-skinned, and I didn’t feel insulted by Naomi’s explanation for removing comments, as the tone was consistent with the rest of her posts.

Whether or not the decision turns out to be bad for business remains to be seen, but the bulk of comments here fail to make the distinction between the strategy and the execution.

James | Dancing Geeks last blog post..I’m calling out Men with Pens

Imagine our surprise when an industry research study told us that clients felt they could do without us pretty darn easily, since their own marketing departments could do what we did, only better. Oops – big dose of reality there.

Same with blogs. Arrogance is not an effective communications strategy. If I want people to write checks to me, I have to create and maintain a relationship with them.

While I might not have to expend the same energy on everyone, and I choose the people I invest time and energy in, I have to remember what what I post is seen by everyone. That means I have to deal with the obstreperous posters in a way that my more valuable contributors respect.

And if I don’t invest the time and thought in doing this, well, they are going to brand me with the same epithet I apply to those guys I don’t like. And they will likely be accurate.

Harmonys last blog post..Who Is A Global Citizen?

I haven’t read all the comments because I’m having a bad day, and I don’t think I could take it. Maybe tomorrow.

Before content, before pricing, before features, there is tribe. I wrote about this recently in a blog post, Why Clients Don’t Buy- The Hierarchy of Choice.

I will be very curious about what happens with Naomi’s blog as she continues forward, and whether she is able to maintain a strong sense of belonging and tribe without the comments section. Part of the value of the comments in a blog is not just whether a conversation is valuable in terms of content, but whether people can see if they are alone, or if there IS a tribe they belong to.

Because Naomi’s own authentic way of speaking connected so strongly to so many people, there is clearly a tribal thing going on.

However, the same sense of tribe has been created through email and other one-way communications- I experience tribe much more strongly with the several thousand people on my email list than with the rather anemic following on my blog at this point. Not that I don’t welcome it on my blog- it’s just my blog isn’t as visible (yet!?!).

I read a blog post by Joe Vitale once that struck me, even though I don’t often agree with the guy’s approach to life. He said that he spends over an hour every single day responding personally to emails, because that’s his business, those are the people who support what he’s doing.

I’ve taken that same attitude with my email and now with my blog. It’s not the only way to do things, and I support Naomi 100% in following what’s true for her. I’m just curious to see how it pans out.

Mark Silvers last blog post..Why Clients Don’t Buy- The Hierarchy of Choice