I’ve been blogging for six years now. While there are certainly bloggers who have been around longer than that, six years still puts me into the “longtime blogger” category. In that time, I’ve written thousands of blog posts (on my own blogs, as well as blogging on many other blogs), so I’ve been able to experience all of the joys and all of the headaches that come with blogging. After fighting off nearly a million spam comments during those six years, I consider myself to be extremely jaded when it comes to assessing the worth of a comment.
I know that the large majority of comments are spam and are, of course, trashed. The next largest group of comments is legitimate, but very often doesn’t contribute much to the conversation. Those comments merit approval, and are appreciated, but in a month, I’ll very likely not remember the person who made the comment.
Who cares if I remember a commenter?
Big deal, right? Well, honestly, I think it is a big deal. I believe that the truest value of commenting on blogs is establishing a relationship with the blogger, and the visitors to that blog. That relationship may foster future gains that you and I cannot imagine at the moment, but may be the impetus for changing your life forever. If the comment you make on a blog makes no impression on the blogger, however, the likelihood of ever seeing any results from that comment are extremely low.
So what do you have to do to make an impact on someone like me with your comment?
How do you impress a longtime jaded blogger?
- Use my name in your comment. Seriously, if it’s at all possible to figure out what my name is, then take that extra time to find it and use it. If your comment starts out with, “Donna, …”, you’ve immediately made a good first impression with me.
- While all bloggers appreciate a bit of flattery now and then, don’t make flattery the focal point of your comment. I’ve seen the standard spam flattery too many thousands of times, so even your legitimate flattery gets filtered through the part of the my brain that houses suspicion.
- Do comment on the actual topic of the post itself! That seems like common sense, right? Sadly, many comments are completely unrelated to the post’s topic, and that just sets this old blogger’s teeth to grinding. I want to know what you think about the topic I spent time writing about. If you take the time to discuss that topic with me and my visitors, you earn brownie points with me.
- Make sure you’ve really READ the post before commenting. We’re all guilty of quickly scanning what we read these days (my best friend accuses me of that all the time). And that’s fine if you’re just quickly reading, and moving on to something else. But don’t make a comment like, “Well, you forgot to mention xyz”, when in fact, I did mention it, and if you’d not skimmed through the post, you’d know that.
- Finally, alternate viewpoints are great. If you disagree with me on the post’s topic, let me know. I’d love to have my views challenged, and my knowledge expanded. Just make sure you approach the argument with respect. If you treat me and my visitors with respect, even if you are disagreeing, you’ll make this old jaded blogger smile.
If you manage to impress an old, jaded blogger with your comment, there’s a good chance you’ll be remembered six months from now. That might mean the difference between a new project succeeding or failing. You never know, so make that first impression count!
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Article by DazzlinDonna
I'm a near-dinosaur in the SEO world, but I don't really consider myself an SEO. I'm an online entrepreneur, affiliate marketer, and ebusiness coach among other things. Mainly, I'm a geek making a living online. :)
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DONNA, I like this post. Mea Culpa…or however you spell it.
Cheers
Tina
Well Donna
I can’t tweet this as I don’t use Twitter but I wanted to let you know I appreciate your post all the same. Blog comments have been the topic of conversation betwixt another friend and myself the past few days (real conversation, not comment conversation) since I have just changed my commenting system and I was thinking of writing a post something like this to encourage my “new” commenters (my old comments did not export very well) to do a little better than before. If I get around to do that in the next few days, I will likely link back to this post since you already did such a great job putting into words what I think!
Twitter: BlogStashDotCom
September 22, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Great tips Donna.
I actually use your first tip all the time. In some case, the bloggers name simply isn’t there, because they use “admin” or a nickname. But you can be sure that you can find it if you dig dipper. The about page is one place you may find it.
Using someone’s name ads a personal touch to your comment and just like in the real world, it makes the other person more interested in you and what you have to say.
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Reading the post is a number one priority in my book.
If a commenter on one of my blogs leaves a comment that doesn’t relate to the actual post, then more often than not, it gets deleted.
I actually don’t have a comment filter because all of the filters reject legit comments too.
I actually wrote a post entitled: “The DoFollow Blog Commenting Primer” to try and help commenters.
I think it did help many of my visitors.
Thanks for the equivalent, Donna…:)
Mark
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Twitter: seekably
April 2, 2011 at 6:57 am
Thanks for sharing such a wonderful article.
you are right. Many people do engage in building backlinks on blogs these days, thus leaving invalid comments. and i think this apply’s to me also. will try to post useful comments here onwards.
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I like the point about not over flattering. It is obvious that the point is just to get the link.
Exactly, and it sounds spammy too. I think we don’t have to impress nobody, but show a genuine, natural interest in the post or opinion. And come up with our 2-cents, perhaps, a different view, and expand the discussion.
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Alright alright, I am guilty of this sometimes too
Lol
You are right John, but remember that there are many people out there that comment and have no interest in backlinks.
The web is split into two parts now – websites mostly run by businesses that are populated entirely by users, and websites geared mostly for webmasters. The latter attracts way more comment spam than the former. On one of my sites I get hardly any link drops at all, most people that comment have a real point to raise and are only interesting in discussion.
Also, a lot of SEO’s are behind comments, I often see patterns from lots of comments from certain IP ranges coming in at once, as if an SEO firm is targeting all the sites on my server, really weird. None of the comments ever get passed.
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I’m certainly impressed by a commentator when he/she calls out my name directly & mentions some additions points to add up to the list, as you’ve mentioned!
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Well blogging is all about discussion. To make your blog popular and lively you need to consider it as a social network and engage into discussion.
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Hey Donna, you are right. Many people don’t know how to engage properly on blogs these days. They only use them for their back linking. While I do try and take advantage of this I do also try and make valid and thought out comments. thanks for the post.
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