A Little Advice, Please?

I'm just curious... how do you respond to your readers? When people comment do you answer them in your own comments, do you e-mail them, comment on their sites, or address it in another post. I'm just not sure what is the general concessus on this and sometimes I feel I should be doing a better job of responding to you all. I DO read each and every comment and some do deserve a response!

Along the same lines, how do you know if someone comments on your blog from an earlier post? Do you have an e-mail sent to you or do you use something else. I've never gotten "into" some of the extra programs I think you can use to do this stuff... Hey! I've only been here a couple of years! Give me a break... :)