This is a hot subject in the blogosphere at the moment, ever since Copyblogger announced they were closing comments on their blog and moving their discussions to social media.
But if you are thinking of following their decision and doing the same – DON’T! This would be blogging suicide for ordinary bloggers and the practice of interacting on blogs.
Just because they close comments…
The main reason why Copyblogger made their decision was because of spam. (Now I’ve mentioned spam before and how you can cope with it, so go and refresh yourself as to what I have said about this.) You may think you have a problem with spam, but apparently Copyblogger had 96% spam, which is a lot if you consider the amount of traffic they must get.
This means they wasted a lot of time moderating their comments, even the stuff that got through the spam filters, and the 4% that wasn’t classed as spam was not considered good enough or contain suitable discussion value to warrant publishing. They seemed to think that they got better quality discussion via their social media accounts, hence their decision to move comments there.
…doesn’t mean we have to
But I think for ordinary mortals, like you and me, we really need to keep and encourage comments on our blogs. Therefore I am very keen to get more people commenting on blogs. I have just found a fabulous post about this from another blogger who has created the term Blogversation, which I think is brilliant! We all ought to be commenting more on other blogs and creating lots of valuable and worthwhile blogversations!
So how do we go about getting more comments on our blogs? Well I wrote a great post about it on my own award winning blog (this isn’t a link back to my blog by the way, but another post I wrote about it), which will give you some valuable tips and insights into how to do it.
Practice what you preach
But the most important point I want to make is: commenting on other blogs. I’ve just joined Triberr which is a great place to find blogs within your niche. There are other social bookmarking sites: StumbleUpon, Delicious, Reddit, Digg (just look at all the sharing buttons at the bottom of this post!) to name but a few, and there are plenty of other sites to find interesting and worthwhile blogs that are crying out for some helpful, constructive, enthusiastic, worthwhile and valuable comments.
So my call to action for this summer is to make your main focus on leaving comments on first your friends’ blogs, and later progressing onto others, both in and outside your niche. Commenting is an art, like writing, so it needs to be cultivated, practiced and perfected. If you are worried or don’t know how to comment effectively, read other comments on popular blogs first, and make a reasonable assumption about whether they are any good or not, and follow their lead.
Why should we comment?
Now of course commenting creates web traffic! Not only does the process of leaving a comment provide a link back to your blog, especially with the CommentLuv plugin which can select your latest post, this is highlighted by the fact that comments are considered as new content by the search engines, and you never know whether a spider might go down your link, let alone the blog’s author curious to know where this latest excellent commenter has come from, and may feel compelled to leave one of their own!
And back to Copyblogger’s problem with spam – the more people who leave worthwhile and publishable comments due to the excellent content they provide, spam will start to have less of an impact or become a nuisance. There is untold good a proper and decent comment conversation can do for your blog, digital marketing, SEO and more; it is such a shame the culture of blogversation is dying out. So let’s rise up and comment!
About Alice Elliott
Alice Elliott, aka Fairy Blog Mother, is an award winning blogging consultant who has been looking after bloggers since 2006! Woah, that's a long time! She specialises in "explaining things really simply" about WordPress, and has twice been noted as a top WordPress influencer for 2019.
Tom @Ideas4Dads
Saturday 21st of June 2014
Thanks for your great talk at #BritMumsLive today.
I have always bought into commenting and think it is a very integral part of blogging. As you say tou have to give before you get. And for me I try to end my posts asking queations and a call to action to comment, together with putting out a call to action on social media :-)
Nick Boyle
Tuesday 20th of May 2014
Not sure if you get many daddy bloggers on here... but here's one!
So, I'm new to the blogging world but have already made some 'friends' (I guess you can call them that... more virtual friends than anything) by simply reading their blogs and offering my thoughts on issues they raise.
It's great. As I write this I've only been blogging for one week; but I already feel welcomed into a large community of great people; bloggers.
I got my first comment on one of my posts this morning (such an amateur...), but it felt great that someone had read one of my posts :)
I actually work within the SEO industry, so know the value of building rapport and real relationships with other influencers in and out of your niche. I have put this into practice for leading brands countless times... but doing it for yourself after that is quite alien. That being said, it's fantastic... it's so rewarding - and exciting!
Nick Boyle
Tuesday 20th of May 2014
Not sure if you get many daddy bloggers on here... but here's one!
So, I'm new to the blogging world but have already made some 'friends' (I guess you can call them that... more virtual friends than anything) by simply reading their blogs and offering my thoughts on issues they raise.
It's great. As I write this I've only been blogging for one week; but I already feel welcomed into a large community of great people; bloggers.
I got my first comment on one of my posts this morning (such an amateur...), but it felt great that someone had read one of my posts :)
I actually work within the SEO industry, so know the value of building rapport and real relationships with other influencers in and out of your niche. I have put this into practice for leading brands countless times... but doing it for yourself after that is quite alien. That being said, it's fantastic... it's so rewarding - and exciting!
Alice Elliott
Wednesday 21st of May 2014
Thanks Nick for your comment. As you claim to have a working knowledge of SEO, you'll know the value of backlinks via commenting. But SEO won't work on its own, even when keywords are strategically placed within the comment to seduce the search engines, it is the relationship building that counts.
Backlinks are more efficient if the quality of the comment persuades further investigation by the blog's author or other readers or commenters. Share your opinion and add value at the same time; make the comment interesting, good quality and show off your knowledge appropriately without undermining the post.
To make commenting more effective, consider the quality of the post you are responding to. Is the niche relevant? Does it subscribe to Comment Luv to you can leave a link back to your most recent post? How popular is the blog, eg do many people comment and interact on it? Does it enjoy good page ranking? Does it provide great content that would encourage a high readership?
Commenting can be a lot of fun, and can lead you to new friends or connections, but if you are factoring SEO into it, taking a strategic, if clinical view, could also pay dividends.
Rochelle
Thursday 15th of May 2014
Great post! I realised this quite early on. I spent a lot of time on my blog, then I started to search for other blogs and leave comments. There are times when people don't respond and at first it did bother me, but now I know not to expect a response. It is rewarding when a blogger responds and they genuinely appreciate your comment/feedback. I have discovered that commenting is a good way to generate ideas for new blogs posts also. I only started my blogging journey a month ago and I have met some great people!
To anyone that says they don't have time, it is worthwhile! If you ever have days where barely anyone visits your blog remind yourself of Alice's tips!
Alice Elliott
Thursday 15th of May 2014
Thank you for your comment Rochelle. You did exactly the right thing - went out and found other blogs to read and comment on. Even though the respond was sporadic, the repercussions will pay dividends in the future.
And yes, it is great when you get a comment - shows someone has bothered to really read your post properly and make the effort to leave some feedback. A nice warm fuzzy feeling!
Sometimes I get no comments either: #tumbleweed. But I just shrug my shoulders and carry on - and think of another excellent post I could tempt them with.
suzanne3childrenandit
Thursday 15th of May 2014
Commenting is one of the huge bonuses of blogging for me. I love to create community and this is such a great way of doing it. I do think your advice is good though - practice what you preach. If you want to get people commenting on your posts, you must comment something sensible on others. Trite 5 word comments are not what I'm talking about here! It's about building community.
Alice Elliott
Thursday 15th of May 2014
I totally agree, Suzanne, don't stint on your comment! It's important to write enough, well, coherently and with added value if you want your comment to be published.
Spammers usually write rubbish, very little and with terrible English. Don't fall into that trap, or you may be mistaken for one! Take time to carefully read the post beforehand, consider all your options, and compose a good piece of prose that contributes to the conversation. Something you'd be proud to publish and the blog's author, visitors and other commenters would want to read too.