The Wordpress comment is called Comment Relish, available from http://www.justinshattuck.com/comment-relish/, and replies only to the first time a user comments on a blog (based on the email they used), so, thankfully, does not swamp all commenters with bacn.

Replying to blog commenter or emails in general can seem like a full time job. But, I believe I owe it to the people who take the time to respond to an article in my weekly column or a blog post.

I never sent a “Thank you, please subscribe” email in response to a blog comment myself. If it is just one or two, I respond the same day. When it is more, I leave them for Saturday which is my designated “correspondence day”.

Spam! never though about it really, but I suppose it is.

Hey, I hardly have time to comment here often but I sure do relish the chats.

Kudos to you Deborah and all the readers and subscribers who keep this site alive, well and yes, lively.

@Katherine Actually, I rarely read Problogger. If I see an interesting tweet I may stop by, or maybe an RSS headline that pops out at me but I don’t read Darren daily. So, no, I don’t remember the 31 Days blogging course. I also don’t think just because one blogger does something that it means it’s right for me anyhow. Me sending thank you emails, because Darren says to, would still be lame, because in the back of my head I’d still be thinking, “Well, this is a bad idea.” My e-mails would likely feel false.

In most cases, no matter who says what to do, you should still go with your gut, and do what’s right for you as a blogger.

@Julie What you said is right. I forget that not everyone gets so much email. The other day a non-blogging friend said she had too much email (10 in one day). 10! Can you imagine?

We are writers discussing tactics on a daily basis. I don’t think that this will ever be totally settled because you need to know the opinions of the readers who do not write, who do not know about marketing, and who do not get 500 emails a minute from clients, spam, blogs, and other areas that we do.

Your daily job posts are thanks enough.

My apologies if you thought I was implying anybody who sent emails in response to a comment was stalking. I had the “please subscribe to my rss feed” sort of generic email that Jennifer was taking about. There isn’t a lot of personality there, and hardly any desire to get to know the other person or form a relationship. That’s merely a calculated move to up your rss count which would be a little off putting.

If you did it in a specific situation where the comment was of extraordinarily high value, then yeah, that might deserve an email.

Also, Wordpress does have the “subscribe to comments” option. So, it’s easier to keep the conversation going!