blog post comments: the be all and end all?

*appropriate picture with glasses to make me look intelligent and my opinions seem credible* jokes, of course

so often i see bloggers complaining about losses of followers and receiving little to no comments on their blog posts. i can understand concerns about a loss of followers, as you're actively losing your audience, however i always scratch my head a little over complaints of not receiving blog post comments, and here's why.

1. total blog comments doesn't equal total blog readers
so, a post receives zero comments, however your google stats show that it was read by the majority of your followers - what's the issue? your post has reached the people you intended it to, so why does a blog comment mean the difference between a 'successful' and 'unsuccessful' blog post? what even are successful blog posts? the whole idea of blog success seems to confuse me a little anyway as it seems to defeat the object of a blog being a blog, but that's only my opinion. in my eyes, if your post is being read by your audience, it's doing what a blog post is intended to do.

2. your blog can grow without seeing an increase in comments
it's very rare that i receive comments on my blog posts, perhaps a few a month, however that doesn't mean that my blog isn't 'growing'; by growing i mean gaining followers. sure, i've only recently exceeded 150 followers and i may only acquire a few new readers a month, however it's an increase in readers and not a decrease, so is there any need to be disheartened about whether or not my blog is receiving a 'sufficient' amount of comments on posts?

3. blog comments are often a bit pointless and spammy
concluding my previous two points, i kind of feel that blog post comments can often be a little pointless. "great post!" and "thanks for sharing!" are two comments i spy on a lot of blog posts, and part of me wonders why the poster bothered to post them, unless it was simply just to provide the blogger with a feeling of satisfaction because "yay, they gained a blog post comment!" or to simply share a link to their own blog; which, by the way, i'm fine with if the comment has some relevance to the topic of the blog post. if it doesn't, and is preceded by a "great post!" i kind of just see it as a form of spam. i know blogging for a lot of people is about being part of a community so sharing links is totally okay, but when you're essentially advertising your own blog without engaging with a blog's content, it seems a little bit shallow. llymlrs is one of my all time favourite bloggers, however it's very rare i comment on any of her posts. is it because i don't enjoy her content? no, i bloody love it, i just don't really have anything valuable to input other than "i love your shoes!" so more often than not i don't bother, and instead choose to silently support her blog with my follow and continued reading of it.

i was going to conclude with a paragraph asking how you find my occasionally chatty, rambly posts, but then i thought to myself: is there much use in asking? will i continue to post them regardless of the feedback i receive? and with that i realised that i keep a blog for reasons other than the feedback i receive for it, and that i keep it because it provides me with a space to discuss whatever's going on in my head, regardless of how big, little or responsive my audience is. as much as it's nice to have a following, it's also nice to be able to let things out every now and again, and so for that reason i'll keep on using my blog to occasionally vent about the things that are occupying my mental space alongside my usual illustration, style and beauty posts. if you do read my blog, i thank you and i hope you enjoy what you read, regardless of whether or not you feel the need to tell me in a comment.

now, to contradict the entirety of this post, i do find the subject of 'blog success' and 'blogging intentions' to be something of an interesting one, so if you have any thoughts on the matter to share, feel free to leave them below; if you don't, that's also fine, and congratulations for making it to the end of this completely rambly post!

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