When you blog, it becomes an unexpressed expectation on the part of the reader that you are open to suggestions and queries and that you would read the comments and respond to the more important ones. That you need to have an open comments section is something that most bloggers would readily agree upon. However, the comments section assumes special significance in certain circumstances – and it is in these circumstances that you need to be responsive towards your readers.

In a normal blog that discusses issues such as business or travel, readers would have inputs and may reflect on the articles they read with comments. Such comments may be more general in nature. However, if you ran a blog that gave you specific advise on health issues or in case of a blog which deals with software patches, updates and plug-ins, readers may not only respond to the blog with general comments but may have specific queries regarding the posts which they may hope to have addressed. These could pertain to some health issues, for instance, that may require further clarification, or posts on some plug-ins that may perhaps not work when tried out by readers or some updates that may not be compatible with the reader’s systems which they may seek a clarification on.

As you may appreciate, these are more than just comments that give you a feedback – these are queries from people who may look upon you as an expert in your field who could give them guidance. Naturally, these comments could not be ignored if you are serious about your blog.

Even the best of bloggers sometimes miss out on reading out all the comments. Some may be just be overlooked or sometimes, the comments may be to posts that were posted earlier in time, not just the most recent of articles.

The solution lies in having a list of those posts that you think may give rise to such crucial comments and questions, which you may have to address. You may list them down in your own way, perhaps in a desktop document or in an online file. Of course, you would have to remember to keep checking the document on a regular basis and the posts for added comments.

Alternatively, you could also subscribe to your own comments section in your inbox that you keep checking regularly. It could so happen that bloggers allot a special purpose email address for receiving blog comments and may not check them regularly. Subscribing to comments so that they land up in your email that you check regularly, addresses the problem squarely and lets you respond to comments promptly.