Also, I write and respond to over 200 e-mails daily [average from the last 7 days], and it takes me a maximum of 1-1.5 hours. Therefore, it boils down to whether or not a person wishes to spend more time promoting their own blog or money or both or spending time communicating with others sincerely.

One important thing: acknowledging comments and simply saying thank you or responding to comments just to fulfill an obligation to respond to all comments does not work. Very few, probably less than a 100 blogs that I have seen so far, really communicate with all of their readers. The bigger people grow, the more they focus on other things.

Also, Chris, I return comments on around 5 different blogs, totaling more than 300-400 daily, and they also take around 1-2 hours. I guess it boils down to where one would like to put their priority in. For me, online and on any site, one of the top two priorities that I do not want affected is the content and my communication with readers.

I am against automated methods and messages, including the one that Chris talked about, unless the automated method saves me time by allowing me to write personal, unique messages faster. Otherwise, such automated methods are simply assembly lines classifying all customers and readers into one, the same way many offline businesses do. I am glad slowly more and more people are starting to realize such trends online, specially with the help of RA Project. Automated methods are how a further classification of blogs will come down to: people who really want to appreciate and actually do appreciate each and every reader, and people who appreciate since showing appreciation will result in more attention and thus automated methods can help save time in the appreciation arena while one focuses on other things that are considered, by that person or entity, to be more important than appreciation and readers.

Andrew,
I agree completely. The only time I have ever e-mailed commenters is when I felt that private correspondence would serve the reader better than public correspondence. Sometimes I would do both since more than often the e-mail I send ends up in the spam box.

Chris,
E-mailing and commenting would definitely be difficult, even on a lightly commented blog. I prefer Alister Cameron’s approach mentioned in the post above where he adds a little personalization to the e-mails he sends to first time commenters.

Simonne,
More often than not, this is the approach I take. For support questions, however, most of that is done behind the scenes.

An example, I have come to this post and commented (It wasn’t the first time but in theory it could’ve been). You have followed up with a further question, i.e. what do you think about it in this light?

Now this is clearly an appropriate ‘on-blog’ discussion and doesn’t need an e-mail. As Rory says, I don’t see what purpose an e-mail would serve for me, the reader. Especially when there are good things like comment subscription.

In other cases you might be writing about a product you have an issue with that someone has produced. You want my opinion on it, or possibly just want to converse on it more specifically, but don’t want to publish the product name on the blog. Well then e-mail away. I certainly see no issue with that.

Ultimately I agree with Rory, I just go one e-mail further. If a first contact e-mail is sent without a specific reason why e-mail contact is needed then I see little benefit. I don’t see the need to say thanks for commenting when that could be said ‘on-blog’ as part of a response.

Though well-intentioned, the automated e-mail intends to draw the reader back because they are personally cared about. It’s more likely that an authentic personal e-mail would reach further than an automated response – although that might be difficult when a blog gets high traffic.

Perhaps a little off-topic, but you mentioned receiving e-mails from a comment. As a blogger, I have access to all of the e-mail addresses of anybody who ever commented here. Sometimes I use that information to e-mail that commenter directly. Do you see anything wrong with that? Or, is this only problematic perhaps when the correspondence is automated?

Okay, I’m just kidding about the auto-commenter (good idea, no?). I totally agree about ‘off-blog’ conversations. I typically e-mail commenters on support issues or other issues if I don’t want the conversation public. Otherwise, as you have stated, a on-blog response is perfectly acceptable and will also show others publicly that you do indeed take the time to respond to others.