One question that I have been asking myself for years (literally) is whether or not instant messenger usernames should be posted on blogs. I have been testing this out recently with some of my sites and have noticed that it actually does help, and here’s why.
If a reader wants to contact you, you should give them as many options as you can. Obviously an e-mail address and/or a “contact me” form should be the first option, but IM usernames are also important. The vast majority of Internet users have some sort of instant messenger username, so by posting your own you are giving them and extra option.
What is the first thing you do when you jump on your computer for a long session of blogging? For me, the number one thing is to open up iChat and Yahoo Messenger. It is almost an automatic reaction for me. A lot of bloggers are the same way.
So should you post your usernames? Well, it depends. If you don’t want to risk being bugged all the time then don’t. If you want to give your readers more options, then do it. Having more options will probably help more than it hurts.
By the way, my AIM username is wwwnusunicom
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