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How to Use Internal Cliffhangers

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Microseduction.
I consider an episode of The Lede wildly successful when we create a new word. In this episode of The Lede about using internal cliffhangers, Demian Farnworth does just that.
Here it is:

miåácroåáseåáducåátion
noun

  1. a slow, patient process for creating a emotional tie in an audience member to a piece of media
  2. The ‰ÛÏdribbling of bread crumbs so the bunny rabbit follows you back to your house.‰Û

synonym: internal cliffhanger

But how do you use that word in a sentence? And how will it help you write copy that your audience finds irresistible?
Listen and find out.
In this episode, we answer a number of questions about internal cliffhangers, such as:

  • What are internal cliffhangers and how do they work?
  • Do internal cliffhangers have to be sensationalized to be effective?
  • Do they need to be witty or clever?
  • Can internal cliffhangers begin as early as the introduction?
  • What, specifically, should writers be doing to get better at incorporating internal cliffhangers?

Listen to The Lede ‰Û_
To listen, you can either hit the flash audio player below, or browse the links to find your preferred format ‰Û_

The Show Notes

The Transcript
Click here to read the transcript
Please note that this transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.
The Lede Podcast: How to Use Internal Cliffhangers
Jerod Morris: Welcome back to The Lede, a podcast about content marketing by Copyblogger Media. I‰Ûªm your host, Jerod Morris. If you want to get a content marketing education on the drive to or from work, this podcast is the way to do it.
Last week we brought you a special edition episode: The Hangout Hot Seat, with Copyblogger CEO Brian Clark. If you missed that episode, be sure to go to http://copyblogger.com/hot-seat to get caught up.
Today, Demian Farnworth and I resume our series on the essential ingredients of a blog post with another ingredient designed to keep readers attached to your words and desperate to find out what you‰Ûªre about to say next. What‰Ûªs the ingredient? Keep listening, and we‰Ûªll tell you.
Okay, Demian. So we‰Ûªre continuing here on our journey along this path of the 11 essential ingredients of a blog post. And we started out with magnetic headlines and openings, how to grab attention. And now as we‰Ûªre here in this middle part we‰Ûªre talking more about how to keep attention. How to keep people going down the page, keep them engaged with exquisite subheads and telling a seductive story, which we‰Ûªve addressed in these last two episodes. Now we‰Ûªre talking about how to keep attention with internal cliffhangers.
So tell us, Demian, what is an internal cliffhanger? How does it work?
What are internal cliffhangers and how do they work?
Demian Farnworth: Okay. So let me just go back to an article that I mentioned a couple of podcasts ago. It‰Ûªs ‰ÛÏYou Won‰Ûªt Finish This Article,‰Û by Farhad Manjoo in Slate, and basically Farhad was making a point in his article saying that most people don‰Ûªt finish an article. Only about 50% of the people get 50% of the way through it. So this is a little bit relevant to our discussion about the internal cliffhanger because really, now that you‰Ûªve got their attention with the headline, you‰Ûªve pulled them in with the seductive image, you got them to read your first sentence, and so on, now to keep them coming down that page you use such tricks like the internal cliffhanger.
Internal cliffhangers are statements or devices that stitch your story, article, or podcast together using emotions and shock. And it‰Ûªs inside a piece of content that entices a reader to keep going.
So, for example, we‰Ûªre all familiar with cliffhangers in culture, right? Soap operas. At the end of the episode the patriarch discovers that his wife is also his daughter, right? So that‰Ûªs a cliffhanger, and you‰Ûªve got to see the answer in the next show. There are episodic TV shows like Lost. I‰Ûªve never seen that. I know that you have, Jerod.
Jerod: Yeah.
Demian: But I‰Ûªve heard that they were very, very good about keeping you glued until the end of the show, and then just sort of doing something that startled you, kept you wanting to see the next one.
And of course you see this also in newscasts, where the anchor will say, ‰ÛÏAfter the break we‰Ûªll learn which city politician confessed to smoking crack with a 10-year-old kid,‰Û something like that, where you‰Ûªre like, ‰ÛÏOh! Okay!‰Û So I‰Ûªm‰Û_
Jerod: I‰Ûªve got to hear that, yeah.
Demian: Right. Exactly. And so that‰Ûªs the same point inside of your article, your post that you‰Ûªre creating, and of course this same technique works inside any kind of content that you‰Ûªre creating, any kind of media that you‰Ûªre creating, whether it‰Ûªs this podcast, for example. You can do it inside there. You can do it inside of your blog articles. You can do it inside of videos where you‰Ûªre using suspense, humor, challenges, dramatic surprises, positioning something is at stake so people want to find out what happens to the main hero, or whatever. And something is withheld, too.
Jerod: So if I were going to use an internal cliffhanger in this podcast, I could say something like, ‰ÛÏMake sure you listen all the way to the end, when Demian provides some essential tools for adding internal cliffhangers to your post.‰Û
Demian: Yeah.
Jerod: That‰Ûªd be an example of an internal cliffhanger?
Demian: Yeah. Absolutely. And of course, you‰Ûªve done that early on, so people are then sort of invested. At least they can make that evaluation. They can make that evaluation, whether they‰Ûªre going to stay through whatever. So it‰Ûªs going to be a good one, right.
Jerod: Right. Okay. And to everybody listening, make sure you listen ‰Ûªtill the end when Demian does provide some tools that you can use to add internal cliffhangers to your posts. But before we get there ‰Û_
Do internal cliffhangers have to be sensationalized to work?
Jerod: So we hear about cliffhangers, and especially like you mentioned on episodic TV. A lot of times cliffhangers are kind of sensationalized, right? You know, hyperbole, kind of crazy. Can you do them without being sensational?
Demian: Yeah. That‰Ûªs a great question. So there‰Ûªs this great example of that, and this is kind of what got me started on this thread of thinking about internal cliffhangers.
I was reading a book a couple of years ago by Jim Holt called ‰ÛÏWhy Does The World Exist,‰Û and it‰Ûªs basically a journalist who explores all the philosophical ideas behind the existence of the universe. So he‰Ûªs interviewing scientists, philosophers, theologians, and getting their take on it.
For most people it‰Ûªs probably a dry read. I like the topic to begin with, but even then there had to be reasons to keep reading, and he did that with internal cliffhangers. He would string together statements throughout the chapter, like even within the chapters, statements like, ‰ÛÏOf course orthodox believers can always respond to a scenario like Lynn‰Ûªs by saying, ‰ÛÏOkay, but who created the physicist hacker? Let‰Ûªs hope it‰Ûªs not hackers all the way up,‰Û where it‰Ûªs a turn of phrase or a way he positions something. He makes some sort of challenge that‰Ûªs believable, and it‰Ûªs credible, and it‰Ûªs not full of hyperbole or sensational, emotional, heartstring tugging.
One of my favorite quotes that he did throughout that book, he said, ‰ÛÏOne can only hope it doesn‰Ûªt turn out to be a bridge of asses,‰Û and of course, all of this really makes sense only if you‰Ûªre reading the book. But that, in a sense, shows Holt‰Ûªs wit and humor as he is writing this book, which kept me wanting to keep on reading. So that‰Ûªs the internal cliffhanger.
Do internal cliffhangers need to be witty or clever?
Jerod: And everybody has a different skill level as a writer, so not everybody may be able to use wit and humor, effectively anyway, to string a post or a story along. Are there some more, say, pedestrian ways to create suspense, perhaps in ways that aren‰Ûªt quite as taxing on the brain or require so much skill?
Demian: Yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head by saying that. This is a skill that you develop, and I think a great place to start is to simply just think about phrases like, ‰ÛÏfor example,‰Û or ‰ÛÏlet me explain,‰Û or ‰ÛÏhere‰Ûªs what I mean, here‰Ûªs why.‰Û Those are probably the most well-known, overused ways of thinking about internal cliffhangers.
But if you think about it in that way, you can use those almost sort of like a template or formula where you make a statement, and then you say, ‰ÛÏand let me explain.‰Û That‰Ûªs just encouraging people to keep on reading. And so what I found, too, in just looking back over the history of learning how to write, that‰Ûªs one of the very first things that I learned, and they call them transition statements, where they make the transition from one idea to another one easy.
If you think about it in that way, that helps train you to think about as you‰Ûªre writing that every time I make a statement, I need to think about how I‰Ûªm going to turn the corner with that statement. Whether it‰Ûªs going to be something sensational, or it‰Ûªs going to be a challenge, or if it‰Ûªs going to be my wit, or something. But you can start by doing that. Just training yourself to recognize those times by using these sort of pedestrian ways of ‰ÛÏlike for example,‰Û ‰ÛÏlet me explain.‰Û
And of course, I think a really great sort of internal cliffhanger is dialogue. I don‰Ûªt think a lot of people probably think about that. But dialogue in articles stops people. We know that there are studies that have been done that people will stop and read dialogue, because they sense there are two humans connecting here. There is a human interest sort of bonding going on, so they‰Ûªre interested in reading that.
Jerod: So as we talk about this, it sounds to me like there is some overlap between our last episode. We talked about seduction, right?
Demian: Mmm-hmm.
Jerod: And we talked about kind of pulling the reader along, and even giving them a little bit, but not everything. It sounds like internal cliffhangers, in a way, are a lot like that. To where you‰Ûªre kind of seducing the reader. You‰Ûªre giving them a little bit, not everything, to keep them engaged, keep them wondering what‰Ûªs next. What‰Ûªs around the corner? Would that be a fair assessment and accurate assessment?
Demian: Absolutely. Like I mentioned at the beginning of the show, internal cliffhangers are just one trick, you know, one trick out of the tool box as far as keeping that reader reading throughout there, inside the actual text. So yeah. It‰Ûªs a great way to position it.
Can internal cliffhangers begin as early as the introduction?
Jerod: Would one way to include internal cliffhangers be ‰ÛÓ because I‰Ûªve seen this a lot. You use them in your introduction, right? And almost kind of hint at what the conclusion might be. Obviously, you don‰Ûªt give it away, but you kind of hint at it.
Demian: Mmm-hmm.
Jerod: And then save it all the way for the conclusion. Do you want internal cliffhangers that have that big of a gap between the payoff, or is that not an advisable way to do it?
Demian: No, that‰Ûªs a perfectly acceptable way to do it. You have to keep in mind, though, don‰Ûªt let that be your only internal cliffhanger.
Make a great promise, great tease at the front, but then throughout make what I call microseductions. The sort of dribbling the bread crumbs so the bunny rabbit follows you back to your house, right? It‰Ûªs really just a slow, kind of patient process.
Certainly, making a huge promise and some kind of payoff at the end is acceptable. But don‰Ûªt forget to do that throughout to keep people reading.
What should writers be doing to get better at incorporating internal cliffhangers?
Jerod: Okay. So any final tools or tips that you can share with the listeners about how to involve internal cliffhangers in their posts? Any additional ones, I suppose?
Demian: Yeah. So I think this one is really just about being observant, right? And I think that‰Ûªs a lot about what ‰ÛÓ as a writer yourself you can probably relate to that, this idea that you‰Ûªre really just paying attention to what other people are doing, how other people do it.
So keep your eyes open. Watch reality TV. Watch the news. Watch shows like Lost. Watch movies that do this really well. Read or watch plays.
And there‰Ûªs one book that I read that was called ‰ÛÏEmotional Structure,‰Û and it‰Ûªs by Peter Dunne, who‰Ûªs an MENP body award-winning producer. But he wrote a book called ‰ÛÏEmotional Structure,‰Û and in that he just spoke about this idea of creating a sort of emotional tie. Because really, I think a lot of times we writers underestimate the power of internal cliffhangers, the power of a seduction, the power of an emotional plea. We think we have to sort of pour on the emotion, pour on the sensation, in order to keep the reader. But we vastly underestimate their ability to hang on to something that may not be as substantial as we think that it should.
So in other words, all basically that I‰Ûªm saying is sort of respect your readers‰Ûª intelligence, and realize ‰ÛÓ pay attention to the books that you read, and realize that yeah, there is an emotional pull going on there. There is something about that article. Figure out what that is, but also realize it‰Ûªs not really heavy-duty kind of, industrial-level sort of work. It‰Ûªs really just sort of simple ‰ÛÓ creating somewhat of an emotional tie. And that keeps people reading.
Because when we can relate to a character, when we can relate to a problem, you know, we keep reading. Because as long as we‰Ûªre interested it doesn‰Ûªt matter how long the copy is. It doesn‰Ûªt matter how long your article is, as long as you‰Ûªre interested, that‰Ûªll keep you reading.
So that‰Ûªs your job, is to pay attention to the things that are going on out there. Sort of study and deconstruct the way other people creating persuasive and compelling content, and try to adopt and adapt that into your own work.
Jerod: Good advice as always, Demian. All right, everybody. We will be back soon with another one. Only three more of these ingredients to go.
Demian: Thank you, everybody. Appreciate it.
Jerod: Thank you for listening to The Lede. If you‰Ûªre enjoying these episodes, please consider giving us a rating or a review on iTunes. You can also tweet about the show or share it with a friend. We appreciate any and all love you can send our way.
Tune in next week when Demian and I are joined by Sonia Simone to discuss the controversial decision to remove blog comments on Copyblogger. Talk to you soon, everybody.
# # #

*Credits: Both the intro (‰ÛÏBridge to Nowhere‰Û by Sam Roberts Band) and outro songs (‰ÛÏDown in the Valley‰Û by The Head and the Heart) are graciously provided by express written consent from the rights owners.
Have any questions?
If you have questions about Hangouts or how we created any of the content in this post, join the conversation over at Google-Plus.
About the authorJerod MorrisJerod Morris is the Director of Content for Copyblogger Media. Get more from him on Twitter, , or at JerodMorris.com.

The post How to Use Internal Cliffhangers appeared first on Copyblogger.

Squidoo or Squidon‰Ûªt‰Û_THAT Is The Question (Among Other Things)

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Ahhh‰Û_social media.
So many platforms, so little time
So many, many ways to link back to your website, so little time.
And yet, they‰Ûªre not the keys to the kingdom. åÊIn fact, there‰Ûªs a method to the madness that is social media and we got a great question from a listener named Billy about Squidoo and what he can do with little or no SEO budget.
A few years ago, Squidoo was getting a good amount of press, but they‰Ûªve gone a bit under the radar‰Û_but are they still valid as a part of the mix?
Things that make you go hmmmmmmm‰Û_
Like our parents tell us as we‰Ûªre growing up (yes, just think of MIND as your folks), live in moderation. åÊToo much of anything can be bad for you.
In this week‰Ûªs podcast Dave, Mark and Russ discuss Billy‰Ûªs questions and give answers about how to use Squidoo and other social media properly‰Û_AND how to do some effective DIY SEO if you don‰Ûªt have a budget.
Any questions? åÊ Make sure you click the provocatively provocative ‰ÛÏYour SEO Podcast Questions Ask Now‰Û button on the right to submit a question for us to answer on an upcoming podcast! åÊWe love your input:)
P.S. åÊLet us know if you do/don‰Ûªt want us to use your full name.

International SEO ‰ÛÒ Felice Ayling and Gerry White ‰ÛÒ Podcast Episode #241

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In this week‰Ûªs internet marketing podcast Andy talks to Felice Ayling, Digital Content Director at SiteVisibility, and Gerry White, Technical Director at SiteVisibility. They discuss international SEO and how to improve your website appropriately for international markets, focusing on the differences between translation and localisation. Gerry talks about the benefits of using ‰Û÷hreflang‰Ûª coding to target users at a more granular level. They then discuss the problems associated with Google Translate, and finally they give some pointers on how to assess what your site looks like from other countries.

http://isearchfrom.com
‰Û÷hreflang‰Ûª help
åÊ
Post from Apple Pie & Custard blog by SiteVisibility – An SEO AgencyInternational SEO ‰ÛÒ Felice Ayling and Gerry White ‰ÛÒ Podcast Episode #241

Removing Blog Comments: The View So Far

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Shockwaves.
That‰Ûªs what this post by Sonia Simone sent through the Copyblogger community.
The post, you‰Ûªll recall, announced our decision to remove blog comments and gave the reasoning for why we decided to do so ‰ÛÓ reasoning that some accepted at face value, others parsed for hidden meaning, and the rest ignored before ZOMG‰Ûªing to their social account of choice to share the headline.
Agree or disagree, trust or question, the one constant was that everyone had a reaction.
Now almost three weeks later, it‰Ûªs time for us to react to the reaction.
In this episode, Sonia, Demian, and I shed light on the following:

  • The super-secret, ulterior, Machiavellian motives that did (or didn‰Ûªt) influence the decision to turn off blog comments
  • Why comment moderation is an underrated time suck
  • What it means when a company says it has ‰ÛÏoutgrown a comments section‰Û
  • Why content is an asset to be controlled ‰Û_ but conversations might not be
  • Why a business never outgrows the need to listen to its customers
  • How removing comments has changed the experience for Copyblogger authors
  • What the ‰ÛÏnumber one, most important reason to keep‰Û blog comments is
  • Guidance on whether you should consider removing blog comments from your site

Listen to The Lede ‰Û_
To listen, you can either hit the flash audio player below, or browse the links to find your preferred format ‰Û_

React to The Lede ‰Û_
Now it‰Ûªs your turn to react to our reaction to the reaction.
Tweet me and let‰Ûªs discuss, or you can join the discussion over at Google-Plus.
The Show Notes

The Transcript
Click here to read the transcript
Please note that this transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.
The Lede Podcast: Sonia Simone Discusses the Fallout From Removing Blog Comments
Jerod Morris: Welcome back to The Lede, a podcast about content marketing by Copyblogger Media. I‰Ûªm your host, Jerod Morris. If you want to get a content marketing education during a walk around the block or your drive home from work, this podcast is the way to do it. Today Demian Farnworth and I are joined by Copyblogger Chief Content Officer, Sonia Simone, to discuss blog comments.
As you probably already know, we removed blog comments at Copyblogger recently, and the decision created quite a bit of discussion. Sonia shares her thoughts on how the experiment is going so far, and how she would advise any site owner considering a similar course of action.
How super-secret, ulterior, Machiavellian motives did (or didn‰Ûªt) influence the decision to turn off blog comments
Jerod: Okay, Sonia. So about two weeks ago, March 24th, we announced that we were removing comments from Copyblogger. And it‰Ûªs obviously too soon to make any data-based judgments about the impact of that decision, but I‰Ûªm very curious just to gauge your feelings, your general feelings, about how it‰Ûªs gone so far.
Sonia Simone: Yeah. It‰Ûªs been really interesting.
One of the things that has come out that I did not expect is the number of people around the web who believe that I have super-secret, ulterior motives, and they‰Ûªre trying to read the tea leaves to figure out, ‰ÛÏWhat are they really doing?‰Û Like, what‰Ûªs the real strategy here?
So first thing is, I am really flattered that people think I‰Ûªm that Machiavellian. I think that‰Ûªs kind of a great compliment. But there are no tea leaves to read. Pretty much we said everything. Those were the real reasons that we laid out in the post.
And I think it‰Ûªs been an interesting mixed bag. I like comments. I like blog comments. So it took me a while to lose that muscle memory of going into the dashboard and checking for the unread comments. But I‰Ûªve got to say, I‰Ûªm spending about the same amount of time in conversation. I‰Ûªm just spending a lot more of it having conversations with people, and a lot less of it looking at comments, trying to figure out whether or not I should be approving them. So that‰Ûªs kind of a win.
Why comment moderation is an underrated time suck
Jerod: And that is part of the problem. The time spent. And that‰Ûªs one of the responses that we‰Ûªve gotten as well. Spam filters catch everything, so that‰Ûªs really not that big of an issue. But as you kind of alluded to, it really is, isn‰Ûªt it?
Sonia: Yeah, and I think ‰ÛÓ it‰Ûªs hard to talk about this without sounding incredibly snotty ‰ÛÓ but there are issues that come up when you have a lot of traffic that don‰Ûªt come up when you‰Ûªre not at that level of traffic.
I don‰Ûªt like to get into ‰ÛÏbig blog, little blog‰Û kind of nonsense conversations, but there are some issues that come up when you have a lot of traffic, and one of them is that your site really becomes a platform for a lot of grandstanding, for a lot of showboating.
I had an amazing number of e-mails from people, many of which really gave me kind of a chuckle and made me smile, from people who said, ‰ÛÏYou know, I wish you hadn‰Ûªt turned off comments because I used to get all kinds of traffic to my site from leaving comments on Copyblogger.‰Û And there were some other quite creative and innovative ways people would use Copyblogger comments to get traffic to their sites.
And I applaud all of their resourcefulness and initiative. I think that‰Ûªs great. But there is a flip side to that, which is the conversation becomes skewed in the favor of a lot of self-promotion. And a lot of people ‰ÛÓ it‰Ûªs almost like they‰Ûªre on stage, you know? They‰Ûªre using the stage, they‰Ûªre using the blog comments as a platform. That doesn‰Ûªt necessarily come up on a blog that doesn‰Ûªt get quite the same amount of traffic.
And so a lot of people said, ‰ÛÏWell, I don‰Ûªt understand the problem they face.‰Û And I think it‰Ûªs just a question of we‰Ûªre in really different contexts. So yeah.
The spam filters definitely caught almost everything that was posted by a robot. What they didn‰Ûªt catch was a lot of seemingly innocuous posts left by various people, a lot of SEO firms leaving comments that really were not tremendously valuable. They really weren‰Ûªt part of the ‰ÛÏconversation.‰Û They didn‰Ûªt add a lot. They just created a lot of clutter.
And I hope nobody takes that all of the comments on Copyblogger were of low quality. And some people are saying that. ‰ÛÏOh, it‰Ûªs worthless, the blog comment conversation‰Ûªs worthless.‰Û I don‰Ûªt think that‰Ûªs true at all.
I also don‰Ûªt think that we cut off the most valuable conversation arena that we had just because of the nature of the platform, the visibility of it. People just tend to be more relaxed, more themselves, more genuinely conversational in our social accounts. Particularly our Google Plus presence.
What it means when a company says it has ‰ÛÏoutgrown a comments section‰Û
Demian Farnworth: So Sonia, what does it mean when a company says that they‰Ûªve outgrown a comments section? Is that possible? What does that mean? What does that look like?
Sonia: I don‰Ûªt think every company outgrows comments, and I don‰Ûªt think any company outgrows the need to engage in a lot of very specific and very time-consuming conversation with their audience, their customers, their vendors, the general public.
Conversation is part of how 21st centuries do business. And I‰Ûªm for that, and I think that‰Ûªs a wonderful thing. The one thing our company was not lacking was opportunities for conversation. We have an embarrassment of riches there. So I think Copyblogger was in a very specific situation because we are very high visibility, and we do get an awful lot of traffic, and people use the comments section on Copyblogger the way that they might not in another company. So I don‰Ûªt know if it‰Ûªs outgrowing the blog comments.
I think it‰Ûªs just more a question of making a call, making a business decision, about whether the comments are serving a valuable business purpose, or could that purpose be served a different way?
You know, any business owner, big company, small company, $10 million dollar company, $100 million dollar company, you need good listening posts. You need ways to observe how people think about you, feel about you, feel about your products, how they‰Ûªre using your products. That‰Ûªs important for a company of any size, and so we just happen to be really blessed with opportunities to do that because of the nature of the kind of business we are.
Having grown out of a blog, we have so many conversations around our business. But no, it‰Ûªs important, and I don‰Ûªt want anybody to take away the idea that companies should stop listening to their audiences, because that would be very foolish.
Demian: Mmm-hmm.
Why content is an asset to be controlled ‰Û_ but conversations are not
Jerod: Now I want to ask you how the concept of digital sharecropping played into this. It seems like there are two ways to look at it:
One way, that we talked about even when we were making the decision, was about wanting people who left these really substantial comments on the Copyblogger blog to use those to seed blog posts on their own site, and start conversations with their own audience. And then you‰Ûªve also got ‰ÛÓ I guess the argument could be made that we‰Ûªre even digital sharecropping some ‰ÛÓ having these conversations on Google-Plus. How do you look at those two different areas?
Sonia: Yeah. And that conversation came up a lot, and I was glad, because it means that people who care about our stuff are really taking that digital sharecropping message to heart, which is awesome.
And just for the record, here‰Ûªs how I see it. I don‰Ûªt put my business assets on a platform that I don‰Ûªt control. So I don‰Ûªt put my content on a platform I don‰Ûªt control unless I have it somewhere I can keep it and benefit from it. I wouldn‰Ûªt post original content to Facebook. I would just never ‰ÛÓ it doesn‰Ûªt make a lot of sense, other than just a post, a simple throw-away kind of a post. So our content lives on our domain, in our e-mail lists. These are assets we can control.
I think the difference is I don‰Ûªt see the conversation as an asset. I see conversations as an experience that the business does not own, and I think actually businesses are delusional if they think they do own the conversations around their product, their topic. The conversation is an experience a business has that it uses to get better, and that it uses to grow and evolve and serve the audience better. And so conversations are meant to be ephemeral.
It‰Ûªs funny because we‰Ûªre in this 21st Century digital age, and we want to archive everything. We want everything to be, you know, backed up and triple backed up, and if a meteor comes tomorrow and takes out all the servers that house Google-Plus, and we lose those conversations, that‰Ûªs a shame. But they‰Ûªre conversations. To me they‰Ûªre not meant to live forever. What they‰Ûªre meant to do is educate me, inform me, change how I think, change how I feel.
The change, the transformation that the conversation creates takes place in me, so it‰Ûªs fine with me if it‰Ûªs on another platform. And you know, I‰Ûªm a control freak about everything. But I am not a control freak about my conversations because the valuable part is how it changes me, not the words on a server somewhere.
How removing comments has changed the experience for Copyblogger authors
Jerod: And to close this out, Sonia, I do want to get your thoughts on, guidance for other people who may be facing this decision.
Before we do that, though. Demian, I‰Ûªm actually curious to get your perspective as a writer who‰Ûªs had some posts go up since then. Has it changed the experience for you at all? Having the comments and conversation in a place other than right underneath the post where it had always been?
Demian: That‰Ûªs a great question. I don‰Ûªt think so. What changes is where you look for the responses.
The nice thing about Google-Plus is I‰Ûªm notified when someone actually mentions my name, or if I‰Ûªm following that discussion then I‰Ûªm notified within Gmail or Google-Plus, any one of the Google products. So it‰Ûªs nice in that way. There‰Ûªs a lot more ease of use.
You know, with Copyblogger it used to be we‰Ûªd get emails every time somebody commented. But that can get overwhelming if you have a lively discussion. But then, eventually we pulled that feature. And so now I just have to go on there and look. So I like the idea of being notified, and again, the only real habit change was just where to look for the comments. So outside of that, though, no.
When should you keep blog comments? When should you not?
Jerod: All right. Sonia, to close this up here, one of the ‰ÛÓ I suppose you could call it ‰ÛÓ criticisms of the decision, is that people thought that we would be leading a lot of other sites to close comments when those comments could still be valuable for them. And I‰Ûªve seen, just on our Twitter account, people talking about how they‰Ûªve been thinking about doing this, and maybe felt more empowered because we had done it. What kind of advice or guidance would you give to people who are considering possibly turning their comments off?
Sonia: First, the very first thing is, and Ramsay Taplin brought up this in his post, and I thought it was really important: If you‰Ûªre really enjoying it, if you‰Ûªre really enjoying the experience and your comments are really giving you energy and you‰Ûªre enjoying that conversation, that‰Ûªs the number one most important reason you should keep them, even if it makes ‰ÛÓ even if you could find a business reason to turn them off. If you like them, please keep them. Lots of people love the comments on their blogs. So that‰Ûªs excellent.
And I think the other thing to really keep in mind is the importance ‰ÛÓ it is still important to have those conversations and to get those reactions, and for most blogs your comments are a great place to do that. It‰Ûªs right there, it‰Ûªs all in one place, it‰Ûªs convenient. So we were in a very unusual circumstance. I think most blogs would probably want to go ahead and leave comments there.
But where I do challenge people is I‰Ûªm seeing some responses that, you know, ‰ÛÏa blog without comments isn‰Ûªt a blog,‰Û or that it‰Ûªs somehow morally or ethically not okay (chuckles) to take your comments off. If it‰Ûªs something you‰Ûªve really been wanting to do, and you have other ways of talking to people, then this can be ‰ÛÓ you know, for a lot of businesses this means taking a customer out to lunch twice a month and just sitting down and talking to them about their experience with the business. Blog comments are not the only way to talk to your customers.
So if you are dying to do it, and you feel like that value isn‰Ûªt there for you proportionate to the work, because man, moderating spam comments is the singularly low productivity behavior.
Demian: Yes. I second that.
Sonia: I mean, it‰Ûªs way down there. Having your teeth cleaned is like, way more enjoyable and actually useful. So yeah. I think it comes down to your preference, and then do you have another way to make the connections to have a conversation to listen?
What you don‰Ûªt want to do is use it as an excuse to quit listening to what people have to say, including those conversations that are uncomfortable or inconvenient. Those are part of doing business. So as long as you have that in place, then I really think it‰Ûªs up to your judgment as a business owner.
And also, it‰Ûªs not like you turn off comments on your blog and then you can never turn them on again. If you find that you miss them, or that you‰Ûªre having an unintended scenario and you think you should, bring them back on. So that‰Ûªs the great thing about these kinds of tools. They have a lot of flexibility and you can do experiments.
Ours was a little bold, but that‰Ûªs how we roll.
Jerod: Yeah, and we will be analyzing it and figuring out the pluses and minuses ‰Û_
Sonia: Sure.
Jerod: ‰Û_and the impacts, and will be reporting out on that. Well, this has been a very hot topic, Sonia, and I appreciate your taking the time today, and letting everybody get your insight on it.
Sonia: Awesome. Thanks, Jerod. Take care.
Jerod: All right. You too.
Thank you for listening to The Lede. If you like what you‰Ûªre hearing, please consider leaving us a rating or a review on iTunes. You can also tweet about the show or tell a friend, and to those of you who have included The Lede in your best-of podcasts posts, like James Dillon of Gorilla SEO, thank you so very much. We greatly appreciate any love that you all give us.
We‰Ûªll be back next week with another episode, most likely the next in our eleven-part series on the essential elements of a blog post. Talk to you soon, everybody.
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*Credits: Both the intro (‰ÛÏBridge to Nowhere‰Û by Sam Roberts Band) and outro songs (‰ÛÏDown in the Valley‰Û by The Head and the Heart) are graciously provided by express written consent from the rights owners.
About the authorJerod MorrisJerod Morris is the Director of Content for Copyblogger Media. Get more from him on Twitter, , or at JerodMorris.com.

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