A few weeks ago I came across a blog called Without Wax. While Without Wax is written by a pastor, Pete Wilson of of Cross Point Church in Tennessee, I think that all Internet marketers, social media gurus, etc. could learn a lesson from Pete.
The thing that’s so amazing about Without Wax are its comments. It’s updated an average of once per day and has 585 subscribers in Google Reader (GR).
By contrast FireDogLake, a liberal political blog with 1,449 GR subscribers (2.5x as many) and a significantly higher Alexa ranking, receives roughly the same number of comments as Without Wax.
Here’s another comparison point. Matt Cutts’ personal blog has 14,887 GR subscribers and has an Alexa ranking between FireDogLake and Without Wax. He posts 2.8 times per week and actually gets fewer comments than Pete does. While the following information isn’t super-helpful for comparison purposes because we don’t have it for any other blogs listed here, I can tell you that during 2007, Matt had 2.27 million visits and 31,373 RSS subscribers.
We can also look at another blog in the same genre as Pete’s. Evotional is written by Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church (where I attend/work). Mark has 1,114 GR subscribers, posts at a similar rate as Pete does (10x per week), and has a similar Alexa ranking. He receives far fewer comments than Pete.
What’s my point? Well, Pete Wilson, author of Without Wax, has the highest level of community engagement that I’ve ever seen on a blog. Sure, some blogs get more comments, but they’re huge. The mighty TechCrunch with its nearly 1 million RSS subscribers and 3 million daily visits doesn’t get that many more comments. The number of comments on Pete’s blog simply blows me away.
While I’m not sure exactly why Pete gets so many comments, here’s my thought. He writes relatively short posts, not Mark Batterson short but still short, and at the end of many of them he asks readers a question that they can answer in the comments. This question is written in red to make it stand out.
Maybe we can get Pete to drop by and give us some more insight. You can always ask him on Twitter. UPDATE: Pete said he’d drop by and comment later, so no need to bug him on Twitter, although feel free to follow him!
Do you have any insight into this?
Dang Will. You just told me more about my blog than I knew. I knew I had several thousand visits a day (it shows up on my blog dashboard) but had no idea how many subscribers I had these days.
I think the comments have something to do with my purpose behind the blog.
I started it almost a year ago because I was tired of preaching. Let me explain. I love preaching and I certainly think it serves an important purpose. However, I was tired of the one way dimension.
I was looking for an environment that would be more conversational. Blogging was the perfect fit for me. I write most of my posts with the purpose of engaging others and hopefully creating a community of ideas, convictions and thoughts.
Being a part of the conversation is important as well. People want to know if you value their thoughts so I try to jump into the conversation throughout the day as time permits.
Thank for the blog and keep up the great work. I’m a huge fan of National Community and what God is doing through you guys!
In my opinion, Pete is a true “internet” pastor. He makes the time to care, even if he’s never met you face to face. There’s something encouraging about that and probably the draw. I wish I’d have seen his tweet earlier the other day… he invited the first person to @pwilson him with their phone number and he was going to call them for a short talk while he was driving somewhere. How cool is that? I’d love to see that from John Maxwell and other incredible leaders. That sort of micro-contest allows the playing field to be pretty level, inviting anyone to join the conversation without limit to relationship or proximity.
Pete is the real deal. He shares authentically on his blog. His family is precious and their stories are just as engaging as Pete’s. I agree with Okjedi… Pete is the “true” internet pastor.
I would be interested to see how many comments he receives that are truly from his Cross Point members. I think his community is not only engaged on Sunday but engaged in every aspect, every day. He truly is the real deal.
I read Pete’s blog regularly and am not a Cross Point member. I commented on one of his posts and he contacted me about my blog. As unsophisticated as my blog is, it was the fact that he took the time and effort to comment that drew me back to Without Wax. He indeed cultivates community in this online environment. P.S. I do follow him on Twitter and that is what led me to Without Wax.
I have the privilege of working with Pete on a daily basis at Cross Point, and I’ve never been surprised by the interaction on Without Wax because it’s an extension of who he is. Pete’s a connector. He loves connecting with people and he loves connecting them to each other. He isn’t focused on stats. He’s focused on engaging people and helping them connect to the community (even cyber). His heart is for people and I think his readers can sense that.
By the way, looking forward to keeping up with you via your blog and twitter!
[...] Will Johnston presents an interesting case study on Pete Wilson’s withoutwax.tv blog [...]