Blogging: 8 ways to make your blog comments really count

Blogging is not just writing for ourselves, we’re showcasing content and ideas to a wide range of people who come and visit our blog. And our interaction with our readers is one of the most important aspects in blogging, not just posting the ‘daily article’.

How you comment MATTERS. We’re all looking for excellent comments, for ideas and tips provided by our readers, information that will come and make our own article more interesting and informative. It’s no secret that a great comment can bring you traffic and exposure, blog commenting being one of the best ways to promote on blogs and do it for free. This is why, posting relevant and excellent comments can make the difference between being ignored or even kicked out of a blog and getting respect and exposure from the blogger and all other commenters.

1. If you can’t contribute to the topic, don’t write a comment

I love commenting and spend few minutes daily on the blogs I like to read just to be able to also contribute my ideas. If a certain article doesn’t leave me anything to say (to really bring in more information or my personal experience), I just skip commenting. Same with an article that’s bringing so much negativity in me, that I know my comment will be disrespectful and mean.

Don’t comment for the sake of doing it, your contribution will be meaningless and will annoy the community around that blog. It’s better to look for another article, that’s more inspiring, that just leaving bad quality comments.

2. Read the ENTIRE article and ‘scan’ the comments

There’s nothing more annoying for a blogger that to see your comment that’s totally unrelated to his/her point of view, just because you read the title and didn’t bother read the article anymore. Same goes with the previous comments. If you’re not among the first commenters, make sure you read what the others have written before your comment. Repeating the same thing or posting something that’s totally unrelated is not a good way to get noticed as a valuable community member.

3. Don’t bring your ‘wars’ on anyone’s blog

Do you hate a certain blogger or commenter? Don’t bring your problems to the blog you’re commenting on, don’t gossip, don’t write about how you were mistreated on another site. I have a zero tolerance for this in all my sites and most bloggers do the same. If you have an issue with someone, deal with it privately. I don’t care about you hating someone else, while you’re on my site, you behave.

4. Don’t attack other commenters, just because you have a different point of view

There’s nothing I hate more than seeing how some people can’t argue politely. You don’t think I’m right? Cool. Show me WHY. Come up with good ideas and counter my own ideas in a respectful manner. Do you think a commenter is really off with his ideas? Again, show the person why you consider his point of view is flawed and know when to just give up. I never expected my readers to agree with my articles (you might disagree with this one, for all I care), but I don’t accept personal attacks or anyone being disrespectful. It doesn’t matter I’m a woman, it doesn’t matter what color I have or religious beliefs. Bring your ideas to the table and I might agree with you or at least learn about another point of view.

5. Always try to bring something extra to the article, even if it means writing a comment that’s even longer than the article itself

Few years ago, some of my fellow bloggers, were making fun of me for writing comments that were sometimes longer than their articles. Sure, they appreciated the comments, as they were very meaningful and interesting, bringing even more value to the topic discussed. I also love it when my readers are writing insightful comments and have never complained about any comment being too long.

You shouldn’t write long comments just to use up the space, especially if you can get your point across in 2 lines. But, if you need to write a longer comment, as long as the information is good and provides even more details than the article, you’ll be appreciated for it.

6. Don’t shamelessly promote your site

There are many commenters who will place their links in the comments, no matter if they are relevant or not. While they’re not the ‘viagra spammers’, we’re usually kicking them out of the blogs pretty soon. I have absolutely nothing against linking to a similar article of yours or a resource that would provide us with even more details. But don’t use any occasion to place your link, you’ll annoy the blogger and the rest of the community.

Most bloggers are OK with trackbacks or links in the comment area as long as you’re not doing it all the time and, of course, if the content is indeed relevant and will provide more value to their article.

Usually, just filling out the ‘website’ field in the comment form will give you enough traffic and ‘link juice’ (if the blog is dofollow), as long as your comment is good and relevant.

7. Use your name or a nickname, don’t sign your comments with your keywords

You can use your name (John Doe), just your first/last name or a nickname if you have one (dojo in my case). Do not use “shared hosting“, “original watches replicas” or whatever keyword you’re trying to plug in. I know you read in your SEO tutorials that you need an ‘anchor’ for your links, but please don’t do your SEO work on our blogs. There’s nothing more impersonal or annoying that having to talk to “French perfumes” or “free porn online“.

Many bloggers (self included) will mark your comment as spam, even if it was actually a pretty decent one. You can do your keyword based link building with your forum signatures for instance, but your name for your comment should be a nickname or actually your own name.

8. View this all as a collaboration

We cannot run blogs and not have comments (it’s pretty weird), just as you need to promote your site and the comments section in your favourite blogs is an excellent place do so so. We’re BOTH getting something out of this relationship: you’re getting few visitors and maybe a dofollow link, I am getting more tips and insights from your, making my article more valuable and useful to my readers.

Treat this relationship with care and professionalism. Just as you’d hate it to have people spam your blog, be annoying, attacking your and other readers, posting spam, imagine the blogger you’re communicating with expects the same things as you do: good, relevant and interesting comments, nice people in his/her community, no spam, no vulgarity etc.

Take these 8 tips into account and you’ll be able to gain the respect you deserve in the blogosphere. Not to mention, some decent traffic and exposure, as an added bonus.

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