With the emergence of modern technology, there are now so many ways to keep a person entertained.
And if you’re anything like me, you probably would find that browsing through reader comments in popular blog posts is another way to keep the amusement level up one notch.
The most recent places I’ve been so far are Yahoo! and Sarah Pope’s blog post re plagiarism committed by Senator Tito Sotto’s minions for a speech the senator delivered against the RH Bill on the Senate floor.
Comments on Ms. Pope’s post were particularly enlightening, with RH Bill proponents collectively shedding light on what the bill is all about. Of course, there were those against the bill’s passing as well, and the regular, well, trolls that, even for their obnoxious ways, keep the ball rolling.
If you’re a new blogger, comments on your blog posts may skyrocket your endorphin levels all the way to the moon and back. But wait, before you go dancing around in excitement, remember that as in any coin, comments on your blog posts have two sides, too – an advantage and a disadvantage.
Advantages
- A blog without comments is one-sided – the basic characteristic of a static website. Comments make a blog social and interactive, keeping readers involved in the discussion. Remember, if you take the social out of social media, all you get is a news report.
- When readers leave comments, they usually leave links pointing back to their sites, which can further the discussion. This also is a way to connect with like-minded bloggers, find new blogs to read, even ideas for future blog posts.
Disadvantages
- The biggest drawback in enabling comments in a blog is spam. Most blogging platforms have spam detection capabilities and/or widgets to save you time manually filtering out spam. But of course, not everything gets filtered out.
- Comments like “Nice post!” or “Thank you for sharing” do not at all add value to your post. In a nutshell, a relevant comment is one that keeps the discussion going and gives a new perspective to the blog post.
- With commenting, be aware that your blog becomes a target for entities that see your blog as nothing but an advertising vehicle to promote their own blogs or websites. This, of course, is deceptive and manipulative, a black hat SEO technique these entities employ.
Why commenting is good for bloggers
As Chris Garrett points out, blogging is not just about saying your piece. It’s all about joining the conversation where it is happening. Mr. Garrett shared ten benefits associated to going out there and commenting, but here are five that especially resonated with me:
- Do unto others what you want others to do unto you. The golden rule is not the golden rule for nothing. If you want people to comment on your blog, take time to comment on their blogs as well.
- Commenting allows you to become visible to other bloggers, and make friends in the process.
- Commenting helps you develop new perspectives, especially if you take time to visit blogs you’ve never visited before.
- There are blog posts you would readily comment on and others you just couldn’t no matter how hard you force yourself. Given this, you get a better sense of content worth commenting on, something best remembered when creating content yourself.
- If you’re a decent enough commenter, you know better than think of a blog post as nothing more than a way to promote your own blog. But it cannot be denied that if you leave valuable comments, people may take time to visit your blog and see what else you’ve got to say.
If you’re a blogger and haven’t been doing much commenting lately, it’s probably time you joined in the fun.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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I agree, I always do link building this is proven effective.
Building relationships with other bloggers pay off handsomely in the long run. Thanks for dropping by, Jo-Ann!
Nice and very well explained post Maricel , Having a comments enabled blog has both good and bad sides… good is that you get to interact with your readers , know what they think , clear their doubts and much more but at the same time their are people that comment on your site just for the sake of a backlink i just simply trash their comments.
Good take, Shubham. Better not have comments if all you’ve got are spammy comments that don’t add value to a blog post. Thanks for visiting!
Commenting really helps the buzz out on the blogging world. Great article, sis!
The buzz keeps the blogosphere going, doesn’t it? Thanks for the input, Rizza!
Yes Comment are the most important part of every blog though commenting people share their personal ideas. Thanks for the help full post
Ideas, indeed, are meant to be shared. And commenting is one way to encourage that. Thanks for visiting!
I just been victimized by online attackers thru leaving rude and below the belt comments to my blog posts. So what I did, I disabled my “anonymous” comments and moderated my comments. At least now I can review the comments before I published them.
I think it’s really important that we moderate our comments because whether we like it or not, it’s our blog and the comments somehow will reflect on the blog owner if he/she just allows everything.
You have stated everything loud and clear 😀 Commenting is the best tool if done properly.
Thanks for saying so and for visiting, Herbert!
I appreciate comments. And I do leave one to posts. It builds conversation, like you said. Sometimes comments are not returned, I understand that because others are busy.
I always do moderate comments also. Because there are some that are not acceptable at all.
Marms
Ensuring comments are not derogatory or a way for annoying spammers to use our blogs for their own agenda is important. Marms, thanks for visiting!
Commenting is very important for link building as well as make good relation with bloggers
Two birds in one stone, huh? Thanks for your input, Ahsan!
ha ha..good quote 🙂
Hey, thanks for dropping by again, Ahsan! I’ll go over to your site and return the visit in a bit. 🙂
yeah, it allows people worldwide to help each other promote each others blogs, especially when they have similar interests and they can relate with one another.
Thanks for dropping by, Fifi. I definitely agree with you on that as one purpose of commenting on blogs.
Through comments,different perspectives get shared and discussed, adding to the value of the content.
It’s also a great way to connect with other people.
Right on you are, Gaori. Thanks for visiting!
I am so lazy interacting on my comments form, now I will try to interact from now on since I drop some of the sites I mingled to
Sometimes, we can get really busy. But yes, like you’re doing now, it’s also important to be mindful that there are things we sometimes neglect.