Why Your Blog Should Be More Open to Comments
Some bloggers still don’t quite grasp the social networking part of blogging. That’s not to say there aren’t sometimes valid reasons for limiting comments or denying them altogether. For example, if you have a personal blog that you just post for your friends and family, you might want to limit commentators to just your friends and family. In that case, you might also want to keep your blog private so only your friends and family can see it. Another example might be if you just use a blog for an announcement or news site where you share the latest information with your customers, and don’t really see a need to open it to comments.
But, if your goal is to make money with your blog, whether by earning income directly on your blog with advertising and affiliate programs or by earning income more indirectly by promoting your product or service, you should keep your blog more open to comments.
Always keep the purpose of your blog in mind too. If you want to moderate comments, that’s fine. But, bear in mind that moderation can slow the conversation down, so if you’re trying to drive traffic to your blog, moderated comments might hurt you. People often like to discuss issues with each other as well as the blog owner, so if their comments don’t get posted right away, they’ll move on to another blog where they can have their discussion.
If you choose to moderate, you might want to limit it to a person’s first post. That way, you can first check their blog to see if they are a legitimate blogger (and not a spammer) before allowing them to leave a comment on their blog. If you wish, you can also go through their blog to see what type of blogger they are. If they use language or post content you find objectionable, then you might want to be more careful about allowing them to post on your blog without moderation.
If you use something like WordPress, you’ll have a variety of options for managing comments, so you can probably figure out some moderation tactics that best suit your blogging goals.
Something else I notice is the users of “big name” blog sites limiting their comments to other users of the same “big name” blog site. Again, if your goal is to promote your blog or product or service, why would you want to turn other bloggers away? Do you think only the other “big name” blog site users are legitimate bloggers? If so, you are wrong.
Plenty of big name bloggers don’t use the “big name” blog sites at all. Many of them use WordPress on their own servers. I’m not sure what the statistics are, but it seems to me that WordPress is the market leader and, if not, it certainly has a large chunk of bloggers.
Why would you want to eliminate a large chunk of your potential readers? I can’t be certain, of course, but I’d bet that many people prefer to read blogs they can comment on. If they can’t comment, they’ll move on to other blogs. And, by “other blogs,” I mean blogs other than yours.
Ego rules. A lot of bloggers initially leave comments on other blogs in order to promote their own blogs. If they can’t leave a comment, they move on to the next blog. And, they probably will not return to yours, because they’ll be returning to blogs they can comment on, to continue to promote their own blogs.
Lastly, if you just blog for fun and to make a few friends, again, you want to be open to comments. What? Only a user of a “big name” blog site can be your friend? How silly. As I said, a lot of bloggers will initially leave a comment to promote their own blogs. And, they’ll return to blogs they can comment on to continue promoting their blogs. Sooner or later, friendships can form, but only because they were able to leave a comment to begin with!
If you want to make friends, open up your comments!
If you want to make money with your blog, open up your comments!
If you want to promote a product or service on your blog, open up your comments!
Excellent advice, Dan!
Comments are so important to a blog–no matter how you look at it. They add value to our posts. Allowing–and replying to–comments also help us show our readers that we value them and their opinions. I couldn’t even imagine having a blog without comments! Comments are a blogger’s “vote of confidence” from his or her readers. Why on earth would any blogger not want them?
When I first started blogging, I remember how hard it was for me to wait until I finally began getting comments. It felt so much like I was talking to myself up until that point, which was very unnerving and made me feel rather self-conscious.
Comments make blogging worthwhile–in more ways than one!
Great post!
Jeanne
I had my first comment within 24 hours of setting up this blog. Of course, I had also read John Chow’s eBook, so I think I was probably commenting on other blogs shortly after getting this one up and running. Plus, my third post (which was the first that got comments, and the second post of my second day) was a post about making money blogging, so that’s always a popular topic.
Wow, that’s great, Dan!
Don’t really remember how long it took me. I’d have to go back and check. Can’t remember back that far! And, yes, I think making money blogging is a topic that’s bound to get attention. The interesting thing, though, is that even when people aren’t commenting, they’re reading; and we need to remember that. It’s always great to receive comments, and of course we prefer that because the conversation and community we build around our blogs are important. But, it’s easy to forget when we have a zero-comment post (always a disappointment!) that people are still reading–and enjoying–our work. Knowing that can be an encouragement during those comment dry-spells.
Jeanne
Great post Dan! When I do get around I get to blogs that do moderate and others that don’t. I think some people moderate because of spammers. Others, just because they want to screen their comments for ’stuff’.
I wish I could get around like you and others as I used to. I like blogs that don’t moderate to keep the conversation going as you say, but I’m not a good conversationalist because I normally have time to go back and follow up.
My internet usage lately has been mostly research instead of blogging. I think my shoutbox has more comments that my posts, lol. Maybe that’s a quick way for newbie bloggers to try to get feedback on their blogs without actually commenting on posts.
Commenting back is important and I used to be better about it. So for people in my situation it’s probably better to leave comments open (not moderated) because I don’t know when I’ll have time to go in and moderate.
In that cause maybe my readers feel like they are talking to themselves too, lol.
I think responding to comments is something you can be more selective about. I try to reply to comments, but I don’t always. I think it’s important to reply to first-time commentators or infrequent commentators, but I don’t know that it’s as important when you’re dealing with people that you interact with frequently.
The reason being that, if you’re interacting, it doesn’t really matter where the interaction is taking place. Whether you’re commenting on each other’s blogs or even just eMailing back and forth, there is interaction taking place and it’s not as necessary to respond to every comment they back, especially if you don’t have a response beyond “Thanks for posting.”
Plus, a lot of times, you don’t even look to see if a blogger has replied to your comment, because you’re probably reading the next day’s post!
Dan,
I always try to reply to each comment–unless it’s directed at another commenter–for the simple reason that I want every commenter to know that I appreciate the time and effort it took for them to express their thoughts. It’s always so much easier to simply read a post–or a comment–and move on; and thinking about that makes me appreciate my comments all the more.
I’ve also been in the position where I’d taken the time to leave a thoughtful comment and the blogger replied to everyone else’s comment but mine. I don’t want any of my commenters to feel the way that made me feel. So, I just make it a practice to reply to every comment–except in the case mentioned above or when I and a commenter have been involved in a protracted exchange and the commenter’s final remark has basically concluded the conversation. Sometimes, even then, I’ll reply, thanking them for the ongoing exchange.
Every blogger handles comments differently, though. Many reply to several–or all–commenters in a single, group comment–which is fine. Some mention names, offering a personal remark to each commenter, and others thank “Everyone” for their comments. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. Personally, though, I always like to mention every commenter’s name in my replies, so they know I appreciate them specifically–which can, of course, always be done in a group comment, if time constraints prevent individual ones.
I do agree, however, that people with whom we exchange comments on a more-or-less regular basis tend to be more understanding about these issues.
Jeanne