There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about blogging and one of them, that I hear regularly from business people is the idea that the number of comments that a blog receives is an accurate measure of its success.

Not necessarily.

Don’t get me wrong, there are few things that make me feel as warm and fuzzy as getting complimentary and/or insightful comments on my blog posts. But as much as that strokes my ego and reinforces my self-important perception of my standing in the universe, the number of comments I get — or whether I get any at all — has little to do with how successful that post ends up being for me down the line.

The business objectives for this blog are:

1. to be an effective sales and marketing tool for my business
2. establish my credibility as an expert in my field — which helps me secure both clients and speaking engagements
3. help me develop content useful in non-blog-related marketing activities like social media, white papers and email newsletters
4. aid in search engine optimization efforts for my site

I can achieve each and every one of these goals without getting a single comment on my blog. Ever.

If you’re spending the time and effort to engage in an activity for the purpose of marketing your business, don’t forget to ask yourself why you’re doing it in the first place and what you really expect to gain from the endeavor. And then write it down.

Because if the goal of your blog is to get traffic, credibility, SEO, to write a book or to help generate leads, it’s silly to measure success by the number of comments you receive. If the goal of your blog is to get comments, that’s a different story of course.

So the next time you’re bummed that your last blog post didn’t generate a long line of praise or a pithy debate, keep sight of your goals and press on.