Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Email, and Other NOT Scary Things

You know one thing I really love? I love when I comment on someone's blog, and they email me back about the comment. I try to do that when people leave thoughtful comments on my blog, but here's the thing. Most of the people who comment on my blog do not have their email enabled.

If you've enabled the email on your blog profile, it associates your email address with your comment in my inbox. Do you know how incredibly convenient that is? All I have to do is click on your name, and a little email message comes up addressed and stamped and everything.

Sometimes? I would love to send you back a private reply. (Usually it's some flippant excuse for a joke, but that's not really the important part of this post.) But if your email doesn't pop up...well, I mean, If I REALLY think my joke is funny, I will probably see if I can hunt down your email address anyway, but my jokes are rarely worth the time it would take to do that. So if I click "reply" and it comes up "noreply", well, usually, I just say - meh - and forget about it.

I think a lot of bloggers are the same way.

So if you're not getting ANY replies to your comments, you might want to consider opening up a separate new email account ( lots of people use gmail!) especially for your blogger account. Then give people access by enabling the email feature.

Go to:
(sorry- I only know how to do this in blogger)
  • Dashboard
  • Edit Profile
  • then check the box that says "show my email"
  • then a few lines down from that, make sure the email address shown is the one you want everyone to have.
See? Quick and painless. And you haven't given the world your private email.
Really you'll have more fun with this option on. And if it doesn't work, you can always shut it down.

I just read this and it sounds like an advertisement for something. I can assure you, no one is getting paid for this post. Though if you can think of a way, I'd be open to it. If I got a dime for everyone who opened a gmail account as a result of this, I'd probably have more from that than I have in my 401K right now!

19 comments:

goddessdivine said...

Are you doing an info-mercial?

I've never put my email on my profile because I didn't want people with my private account (I've had only two for forever: work and private). I'm sort of paranoid like that.

But....I did just create a new gmail account that coincides with my blogname, and I don't really use it. Maybe I will! (Until I get creepy stalkers and cyber bullies).

Sue said...

Wow, do you still have a dime in your 401K?

Annette Lyon said...

I recently added mine for this very reason. Yay!

Jillybean said...

Amen.

Quite a while ago a blogger hunted me down and told me to do the very thing you are talking about so she could reply to my comments.

I'm glad I did!

jjstringham said...

And hello? It's TOTALLY COOL that you actually respond to comments via email. But I'm a little disappointed. I thought I was the only one who was special enough to get those replies from you. Turns out you're really just a comment-emailing-whore. :-P

Super Happy Girl said...

Yeah, what jjstringham said!
;)

Val said...

I hear you. I like it when you can just click on their name or reply in the e-mail that I get letting me know I have a comment.

Yvonne said...

And I LOVE IT when you respond. I guess I should do it that way rather than do it at the end in the comment section.

The Dillon 6 said...

I didn't even know what that meant until about a month ago...it's great!!! :)

mikelle said...

Done! I've never heard of that feature before - pretty awesome!

Chell said...

I didnt even know you could do that until I got an email from someone who had read my blog a little while ago! I was like Huh? How did that happen? Then I did a little investigating and found how cool it is!! :)

Ok, now you must email me ok?

No pressure.

:)

Anonymous said...

Ha, Ha!! I do have my email enabled, but I just thought you guys were so thoughtful and responded to everyone that commented by looking up our blogs, searching for our profiles, clicking on our email links, and sharing your love. Now that I know it's that easy, I might just have to return a few comments myself! Thanks for the tips!

LisAway said...

Thanks for spreading the word. I sent out a plea on my blog recently, too. I love the blogging community, and somehow it gets so much closer when you can email each other.

And I hate when I really want to respond to someone's comment but the only way I could do it would be to comment on their blog, but I also am not a fan of comments left about something other than the post.

Shauna said...

I agree! I like to being able to e-mail people :) ♥ Hugs!

Caroline C. Bingham said...

YES! enable your profile people! I talk back ;)

beckers said...

You are the smart one!! I had no idea that this is the way I'm supposed to answer questions that people ask me in the comments section!!! Thanks!

Heather said...

what? I'm with jjstringham... now I feel totally duped. And to think I thought we had something special.

Busy Bee Lauren said...

I LOOOOOVE when people have their e-mail enabled. I love it.

The Motherboard said...

Amen! I couldn't agree more! It's an easier way to communicate... except then I forget to go check out the blogs.