For blogger blogs and profiles it is how you set up your profile, that makes a big difference. Let me show you!
Go to your dashboard, click edit profile. From here you may elect to 'show my email address' - if that box is not checked, there is no way to contact you. Those are the comments that show up with 'noreply-comment' in my inbox :( and no chance of conversation. I must say it is equaling frustrating on this end to have no way to respond to your question, or get in touch with you, say if you win a giveaway!
On the same page there you can hide blogs from your profile, like if you've started 5 different blogs but really only use 1 it may be a good idea to hide them to drive traffic to your blog without confusing readers.
Go back to your dashboard and click settings. A few must do's in my opinion--
Basic tab - there's a new post editor! You have to tell blogger that you want to use it, I think you will want to - it feels more like a word doc, with more options.
Comments tab - scroll to the bottom to add your email address for comments to be sent to you as people leave comments on your blog. Also here is where you turn on and off the word verification, I've had some spammers recently, so it's on for now. I also added comment moderation to posts more than 2 weeks old - hopefully that will help!
I hope that this is good info for some of you, and that it's put to good use! Consider it my blogger public service announcement! :)
Amy
PS - if you are looking to update your 'look' I posted some tips here.
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27 comments:
Very difficult to contact a giveaway winner when they have a no-reply feature in their profile too!
This post may be helpful too: http://ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/2009/11/no-reply-comments.html
SewCalGal
www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com
Great post Amy! It makes me sad when I can't respond to comments:(
Great post! I thought I was kind of savy, but you had great tips! Thanks much!
Amy, thanks so much I need these tips! I could not figure out how to add my email. Thank you so much for helping out this new blogger.
Thanks for the tips! I am going to try the new editor.
Thank you, Amy. Now, how does one go about typing up a future post, that you wat to show tomorrow, but you have time to type it up today?
just wondered. . . .
Great post Amy! It's so frustrating not being able to reply to comments, Thanks for sharing this :o)
Thank you for that, Amy! I hadn't even thought of adding my email address. But it's there now! :)
Thanks! so helpful. I was thinking of starting a second blog in 2010 and wanted to keep it 'hidden' from my identity....now I know how. :-)
Woohoo! Thanks Amy - I had NO idea about the new editor and I've been SO frustrated lately with blogger and editing posts. :) Can't wait to have some time to do a new post now with the new editor enabled. You, Joe and the kids have a very Merry Christmas!
Nice PSA! There are a few people who regularly comment on my blog, but I have no way of contacting them. Sometimes I reply to my email notifications on autopilot and only later realize that I sent a message to "no reply". Since they never bounce back, I always wonder where they end up. If people don't want to be contacted, that is fine, but I sometimes wonder if people don't even realize that they are set up as no reply.
joan
I made the changes you suggested a few months ago, and it sure made a difference. Now, I see the comments in my email and I can respond to the comments. I think it has helped me connect on a more personal level with other bloggers. I highly recommend others making these changes.
Karen
Thank you for informing. This I too wandered about this before.
thanks for this Amy, I also get frustrated when I can't reply,
So well said, Amy! I am announcing a giveaway on my blog, just as soon as I have a chance to write the post and was going to mention this "problem" in the rules, but now I'm just going to refer to (link to) your post! Thanks!
Thank you for the information about the new post editor. Wow, it really is an improvement!
Thanks for the tips, Amy, I didn't know about the email option for comments! Lots easier than checking the blog!
Merry Merry!
SheilaC
good information! I thought since my email was visible on my profile page, that I could be contacted thru my comments on blogs... but I was wrong! Thanks for helping me figure that out!
The problem with leaving comments on Blogger is that there is no way to do so and not show up as "no reply" if you do not have a Blogger account. A Google account/OpenID/etc. are not enough.
There are a lot of people who read blogs and like to comment who either don't have a blog or have Wordpress/Typepad/etc. As one of those people, I HAD to set up an empty Blogger blog just to leave comments and not show up as "no reply".
It is also impossible to tell that you don't show up as "no reply" unless some kind person tracks you down and lets you know.
awesome post! I need to link to this! I get sad when I can't email people back too.
I'm so glad you've posted about this Amy! I get incredibly frustrated and dissappointed when I can't reply to my comments because that's part of the fun of blogging is making contact with like minded people. I have told a few people about this no reply problem and they all had no idea that they couldn't be contacted. Now I can just link to this post.
I don't want spam, etc. I have a link to an email form on my website in my profile. I hope people actually read it and don't just see that I don't have an email and give up. Blogger makes it hard because you can't put something that isn't an email in that field, and you can't add a field to your profile, or format your "about us" with line breaks to make it easier to read.
Additionally... if I ask a question, I expect to go back to your blog to discovere the answer. Very frustrating to readers who have the same question if it isn't answered in your comments. Also, likewise if you ask a question of me, come back to my blog as I answer in my comments only.
Thank you for this post. I didn't know that my email wasn't automatically out there with my comment posts. Now I know for sure it is. Thank you again!
Thank you very much, Amy! This was a highly useful tip. As a fledgling blogger, I appreciate the way more experienced bloggers have looked after me. :-)
Thanks for these tips! I am a team member on a blog so it isn't my own. When I'd sign up for giveaways, people were always going there and leaving a comment which I wouldn't see till team leader sent me an email. This can get annoying for her, and your tips showed me how to turn off that feature...she'll love you for it!
Blogger must have changed something on defaults lately because this is happening more and more. And more of us bloggers are finding the need to do posts like this.
Ok, but is there a link somewhere that we can reply to the person commenting on our blog? There has to be an easier way that is a direct button.
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