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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{ 339 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
(6 comments) August 24, 2010 at 9:15 am
Congrats Donna on a well deserved prize in the Comluv contest!
Joe
Joe@Toronto Dentist Smile Blog´s last blog ..Smile Makeovers- Are You a Candidate for Cosmetic Dentistry
(192 comments) August 24, 2010 at 9:17 am
Thanks, Joe!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Hacked Blogs- Who Ya Gonna Call
(1 comments) August 6, 2010 at 9:46 am
I cannot remember the last time I made a comment on a blog that was not simply thankful or a response to comments on something on Outspoken Media. It’s shameful really. I can get easily distracted, so I try hard to just focus on what’s in front of me which has for the past year and a half been clients, work and internal communications. I try to read what I can, but I’m relying on email, calls and Twitter almost entirely to maintain relationships. This was a great reminder that when I consume a piece of content that is original, provocative or simply well-said I need to take a minute out of my schedule to honor them. It’s absurd to expect that in return and never give it. I’m going to give myself x time per day to actually read and comment on posts from those I trust. Donna, you rock, thank you.
(2 comments) August 6, 2010 at 10:05 am
The best way to thank someone is not to leave a comment on their blog (although this can really help in a bricks and mortar business where the “thank you” is a testimonial for a good job done) but to write about your good experience on your own blog, or elsewhere, and link back. This should benefit them more!
Jon @ Lose Belly Fat´s last blog ..The New Rules on Losing Belly Fat
(192 comments) August 6, 2010 at 10:57 am
I’ll appreciate a thanks in whatever form it’s given, Jon, and of course I know you do too. But you’re right – an excellent way to thank someone is to share a link to their efforts either on your own blog or in the social realm (or both).
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Social Media Marketing – A Book Review
(192 comments) August 6, 2010 at 10:55 am
Always happy to be a reminder that we need to practice what we preach.
Thanks for reminding me that I’m not the only one who doesn’t always live up to that goal.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Social Media Marketing – A Book Review
(2 comments) August 5, 2010 at 2:57 pm
I can’t argue with any of your points there, Donna; in fact, you may have heard the faint distant echo of my “Huzzah!” when I hit this line: “I want to know what you think about the topic I spent time writing about.” Not because I mind getting off-topic comments (as long as they’re related to the topic of the blog as a whole) – sometimes people just want to ask you for help on something, and there’s no clear-cut place to do so that exactly matches or they’d have to search through oodles of old posts to find a more appropriate post)… but because, as a blogger, I guess that’s what I’m looking for / hoping for most of all in comments: an idea that what I’ve researched and thought about and written up has been received and proved useful to the reader.
(Um, you’re not really truly all that jaded, are you? All the people – me included – you’ve helped over the years… hope your devoted readers have given you a bit of juice to go on with!)
Rebecca Leaman´s last blog ..Voice Over PowerPoint: Free GoldMail for Non-profits
(192 comments) August 5, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Ah yes, it’s that feedback that actually helps us to grow as bloggers too, isn’t it? If I know if my post has struck a chord – or not – then I know better how to post next time. But if they are just talking for talking’s sake (like a spambot would do), then that valuable feedback is lost.
Am I truly jaded? Good question. I know that just when I think I might be at that point, I usually have something happen to make me change my mind. Naturally, it’s usually people who do give me that extra juice. But I’m definitely more jaded than some; perhaps less so than others.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Transition From a Personal Blog To A Business Blog Without Losing All Your Regular Visitors
(2 comments) August 5, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Well, I guess if you are feeling a tad jaded, it’s been rightly earned by six years of exposure to the inane, abusive and just plain irrelevant; to bots and new-and-improved bots; to scrapers and scammers and self-servers; and the rest of the lowest common denominator. Glad to hear that those precious rays of sunshine & feedback are still finding you from time to time!
(192 comments) August 5, 2010 at 3:54 pm
I can promise you this – no amount of exposure to the inane, abusive, irrelvant; bots, scrapers, scammers, or self-servers can possibly make stand up to comments like the ones that have occurred in this very post. And that makes the writing of this post all that much more worthwhile for me. There have been rays a-plenty here. Rays a-plenty.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Ways To Make Money Online
(1 comments) August 5, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Couldn’t agree more, Donna: What you’re essentially pinpointing are all those factors (both “small” and “big”) that make up what – well, human relationships in general, no? If we forget about this little fact (and it’s pretty easy to do in an essentially faceless, eminently anonymizable virtual environment), we might as well drop blogging (and tweeting, and facebooking etc. etc.) altogether and leave it all to the bots. Because then, we ourselves will be just as interchangeable as they are. Which, of course, really translates to “expendable”…
(192 comments) August 5, 2010 at 3:27 pm
We’re all just bots anyway, aren’t we? LOL, right, right, exactly – It’s important that the person commenting doesn’t come off sounding like a bot. It’s getting harder and harder to tell these days – those bots are starting to look a lot like humans, ya know. In fact I know a few humans that could learn how to be a little more human from a few bots I know.
But no matter how good a bot may be, they probably won’t be good enough to actually impress me – fool me, sure – impress me, no. Not yet. Unless you’re working on something I didn’t know about. 
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Transition From a Personal Blog To A Business Blog Without Losing All Your Regular Visitors
(9 comments) August 5, 2010 at 4:02 pm
I think it may not be all that long before one of the idiots that has enough spare time to design smartbots will come up with one that can fool some of us, at least some of the time. Sad, but true, I think.
As for the comment stream, I think that’s the best measure of our success as bloggers. When my traffic recently managed to climb out of the cellar to a more decent level (10 or 20 hits a week, up to over 100 a day), I was thrilled! But in analyzing how and why it happened, I realized that the number of comments remains about the same as before. From that point of view, I don’t think I’ve accomplished anything but perhaps some more effective SEM.
And that’s not why I blog.
If I look at it from an SEM standpoint, it takes on a different perspective: Traffic is great, but only conversions pay the rent. And for me, someone that leaves a comment (excluding our little-blue-pill-peddlers) is a successful conversion. An RSS subscription is better than nothing but until they leave a comment, I’m left with an empty feeling.
(192 comments) August 5, 2010 at 5:10 pm
So what are you doing to encourage more comments, Doc? What do you think you could do better?
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Transition From a Personal Blog To A Business Blog Without Losing All Your Regular Visitors
(9 comments) August 5, 2010 at 5:22 pm
A fair question… one that I should have seen coming.
I got VERY busy a couple of days ago, and haven’t been able to give it a hard look yet, but one thing that jumps out at me is that I was putting up information, with a call to action… off site. No questions, no asking for suggestions… rookie move, ’cause I gave them no reason to believe I even WANTED them to comment! I definitely need to correct that.
The particular push I was on my last three or four posts did accomplish their purpose, but I might have gotten some really good suggestions, had I thought to leave the door open.
Ah well… we live… we learn. Right?
Doc´s last blog ..Three-time Cancer Battler Needs Help to Get Urgent Bone Marrow Transplant
(6 comments) August 5, 2010 at 5:40 pm
One day it will be just bots/machines running the Internet. They will slowly take over all operations, take over the bank accounts, domains, servers, and we will have no place here. Bots creating comments, content, discussions, news. Suddenly reminded of a comment someone once made about tracker funds (investments) – if everyone decides to run tracker funds, what are they all tracking? We are the market, we track ourselves? Or chose the path? Same with the Internet. Don’t let the bots take over! Judgement Day for the web?
Jon@Motley Health´s last blog ..Why You Should Invest In A Power Rack
(192 comments) August 5, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Ah, the rookie becomes the master with one simple word, “Right?” Of course, you knew that all along but just forgot. I’ve forgotten more times that I care to think about. It’s ok to have to be reminded once in a while, right?
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Transition From a Personal Blog To A Business Blog Without Losing All Your Regular Visitors
(192 comments) August 5, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Jon, if and when the bots take over, then you and I have will have the perfect opportunity to create the next big thing. We’ll start fresh, creating Internet 10.0 or whatever version it might need to be by then. And of course we’ll become rich from our efforts.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Transition From a Personal Blog To A Business Blog Without Losing All Your Regular Visitors
(1 comments) August 5, 2010 at 11:07 am
Hi Donna,
Just thought I’d also mention that when commenting, you should make sure you’re not bringing out something that was in the original post. There’s no need to repeat information that’s already been presented – it just wastes space & time.
Oh, and sometime a little humor helps
jsteele823´s last blog ..Types of Linkbait
(192 comments) August 5, 2010 at 11:38 am
Oh heck yeah, humor is a great way to get my attention. Anyone who gives me a good chuckle will definitely be remembered. Even a good knock-knock joke – if it’s relevant to the conversation – would work, but seriously, just an all around good sense of humor thrown into a comment can sometimes make my day. And that’s always memorable. Great point!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Transition From a Personal Blog To A Business Blog Without Losing All Your Regular Visitors
(1 comments) August 5, 2010 at 7:38 am
Donna, I have to agree with your points. From the first 10 comments or so, though, I have to say that I don’t find keeping up with several dozen blogs difficult. Of the major ones I follow, most post once or twice a day. I tend to carve out chunks of my weekend or early morning to catch up.
But reading big comment trails? That’s hard. And this may be repetitive.
I wanted to share though that your comments about respect are key. When someone comes to my corporate blog or to a blog on a site I have an interest in and trashes people because they think they’re anonymous, I often have to restrain myself. I’m not talking about the con artists (someone posts from an IP associated with a company I didn’t write nice things about), but the nasty, mean comments. Them? I have no problem blowing away their comments.
(192 comments) August 5, 2010 at 11:30 pm
I totally agree, George, that it’s really difficult to read such a long comment trail. I’m really thinking hard about how to handle this in the future. Is there some way that comments can be structured differently, to make it easier? I’m not sure but that’s where my thought processes are heading.
And oh yeah, those trolls that show up now and then deserve to have their comments blown away. No doubt!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Transition From a Personal Blog To A Business Blog Without Losing All Your Regular Visitors
(8 comments) August 6, 2010 at 12:06 am
Donna, I remember at least one blogger’s solution to long threads – he collected the best of them and created a second post with all of the comments!
You have about a week’s worth of material, right in this post
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allen´s last blog ..Caught In the Web
(192 comments) August 6, 2010 at 12:11 am
Totally right about that Mitch! And in fact, I do plan on putting together all the great ideas (and there were so many!) into one or more posts. It would just be crazy not to sum up all the incredible information that flowed here. I’ll be sure to let everyone know when I’ve done so!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Transition From a Personal Blog To A Business Blog Without Losing All Your Regular Visitors
(9 comments) August 6, 2010 at 12:17 am
That’s a great idea, Mitch!
Donna, with all these responses, you could write a BOOK!
(192 comments) August 6, 2010 at 12:23 am
Or an ebook at the very least! It actually will be interesting to see how many different topics – different, and yet still related – I can summarize into posts. We’ve covered a lot of ground here. It’s been fun.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Transition From a Personal Blog To A Business Blog Without Losing All Your Regular Visitors
(4 comments) August 3, 2010 at 7:22 am
Out of curiosity, of the people who are commenting here, including Donna, of course, how many venues (blogs, your own blog, forums, etc) can you effectively monitor and add comments to?
I stretch the opportunities at more than 4. I may read through venues but not comment. In fact 4 is definitely a stretch.
(6 comments) August 3, 2010 at 7:36 am
That is a good point Dave. I struggle to follow more than 2 forums, and this is the only active blog I am commenting on at the moment, other than my own site.
This is really the key to building a loyal community. Like any service you need people to want to come back and catch up. In a way this is how forums have worked well in the past, at least the smaller more personal ones. Large forums like digitalspy just have too many users, you never get to know anyone. Maybe I will have to drop a forum to spend more time here….. but who to drop. Cre8 or Fud?
Jon@Motley Health´s last blog ..Why Should We Care About Celebrity Diets and Workouts?
(192 comments) August 3, 2010 at 8:43 am
Well, for blogs, RSS feedreaders make it easy to keep up with lots of blogs. I have 58 subscriptions in Google Reader now. Of course, I don’t comment on all of them, but it would be fairly easy to do so if I wanted to. Time of course is short, but as long as you have the time, it’s not as difficult as it might seem, at least for the first comment. Now, keeping up with a thread of comments later requires some kind of reminder or else it would be a huge stretch.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Conference: The Integration of Social Media and Email Marketing
(2 comments) August 2, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Donna: Earlier you referenced how even opinions that bother you are okay as long as they are courteous. Well, what happens when one person keeps commenting and this person always has a contrarian view……and it starts to aggravate you?
(192 comments) August 2, 2010 at 5:00 pm
At some point, I’ll usually just say something like, “Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I think we’ve argued the points completely now, and there’s no use beating a dead horse, so let’s just end the back and forth now.” I’d probably let the commenter make one final comment, and then just trash any further comments if he continued on and on and on.
Now, if the person is commenting on different posts, that’s a different story. Assuming I didn’t think he/she was just a troll, I’d let it play out as above each time. But if I really thought he/she was just a troll, I’d ban him/her. It’s still MY blog after all, and in the end, I get to make that call. (Obviously this is assuming we’re talking about MY blog – and not one I’ve guest posted on like here).
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Oh Stop Being Such A FussyPants
(4 comments) August 2, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Donna: (I remembered) Of the many comments here I’d love to generate conversations on a blog with 3 or more participants. It would replicate the kind of interaction on forums and give a real sense of community. Creating a sense of community with commentators is a big task.
(192 comments) August 2, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Ya know, Dave, because of this very post and the 300 or comments on it, I’ve been thinking about better ways to handle the conversations. Obviously, once the number of comments grow, it’s harder to converse with 3 or more people, and harder to keep the community united. The current mechanism doesn’t handle it well. I don’t yet have an answer, but my brain has been working overtime to try to come up with a solution. If we can make WordPress comments work better (from all standpoints), then it would be great to do.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A Quick Site Audit
(1 comments) August 2, 2010 at 2:59 pm
I sometimes wonder if the best approach to encourage conversation is to only allow registered users to comment. If someone is registered they may feel more committed. The “subscribe” plugin really helps things (I am here now due to an email update) but not everyone ticks the box. The problem with blogs is really what makes them so much better than forums – it really is a double edged sword. It is easier to comment, to join the discussion, but likewise it is easier to forget and drop.
I am a member of many forums that often send me “missing you” emails. If wordpress could do the same this may help.
Building a community on a blog is the key. Maybe the real answer is not commentluv but registered users only.
Jon@Motely Health´s last blog ..MCD Weight Loss System
(192 comments) August 2, 2010 at 3:19 pm
A long time ago, I used to make people register before commenting. I can tell you that forcing registration is a bad idea if you’re trying to encourage conversation. No one wants to go through the extra effort required. So I strongly recommend against requiring registration.
There are some plugins that will send missing you type of emails. Might be worth checking those out.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A Quick Site Audit
(9 comments) August 2, 2010 at 4:30 pm
I have to agree with Donna on the registration issue. We are an inherently lazy species, for any number of reasons. I think, Jon, that you would be robbing yourself of potential new contributors, by requiring registration.
In addition, it is most often the “new blood” that keeps a blog really alive. Nobody wants to read comments from the same people all the time, whether there are two or twenty of them.
(6 comments) August 2, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Yeah, you are probably right. Well, definitely. I guess forums are not the best example of an ideal system as so many seem to be fading away, and mostly because of all the conversation on blogs!
@Mitchell Allen I also find myself unsubscribing. Strange that it seems to happen more on blogs than in forums too. A forum thread will generally die a natural death, but blog comments seem to have a habit of lingering on and becoming mundane. I think this is partly due to the new voices, and a lack of actual conversation. Sometimes you do not want to hear 100 different opinions, but to be involved in a discussion between fewer people.
Jon@Motley Health´s last blog ..Why Should We Care About Celebrity Diets and Workouts?
(192 comments) August 3, 2010 at 8:45 am
That can kill a forum too. Maybe not short term, but long term, the same voices over and over again just become a loud buzzing hum in an empty room.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Ways To Make Money Online
(8 comments) August 2, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Donna, this is a very interesting turn of events. I’d like to throw out a couple of points from a personal perspective:
1. While WordPress certainly is capable of receiving and permitting a large number of comments, it relies on the perseverance of you, the owner, to manage the flow.
2. Disengagement becomes a real possibility, once the conversation becomes something other than a magnet.
On the first point, have you ever considered using a forum plugin? I’m seriously thinking about it for my new site, not because I expect a lot of conversations, but because of the potential to serve as a “support” platform. In your situation, I’m curious as to whether the overhead would be worth it. Of course, this isn’t your site, but I’m sure you get plenty of massive activity on your blog
On the second point, I routinely unsubscribe from blog comment notifications after a week or so. In fact, this one was on the chopping block until I happened to notice this thread between you and Dave. Specifically because he mentioned three-way conversations, I was interested in his ideas and where you two were going with them.
Dave’s remark about the similarity between active blog comments and the sense of forum community points out the major flaw in BOTH formats: heavy reliance on the original poster. At least on forums, there is a tendency to keep a thread alive despite the “OP”s participation.
That’s what makes Jon’s input intriguing. Now we have the question of how much effort should the platform put into keeping the members engaged.
And on it goes.
Cheers,
Mitch
P.S. Now this post will be saved from the chopping block in my email for at least six more days
Mitchell Allen´s last blog ..Caught In the Web
(192 comments) August 2, 2010 at 5:06 pm
LOL, glad the post managed to survive the chopping block. You bring up excellent points, Mitch, and I’ve been thinking along the same lines. There are some forum plugins and I’m thinking about trying them, but I’m not sure I want to move the conversation from one place to another (even on the same blog). Perhaps they work right within the post, and I’m just not realizing that – in which case, they may be awesome. I don’t know because I haven’t yet investigated.
But definitely, there needs to be some sort of in-between “marriage” of sorts between commentings and forum threads. A mashup of the two would be perfect, although I’m not sure exactly how that mashup should be conceived.
Keeping it alive is another issue, regardless of the format of the conversation. Should it be kept alive for a long time? Maybe not, as many blog posts aren’t evergreen. Perhaps the blogger should have a mechanism to decide on a post-by-post basis, just as we can currrently turn off comments on individual posts now.
There’s lots to be considered. I’m not sure I can come up with the solution alone. It may take a convergence of minds to create the perfect system, if such a thing can be created. I think we’ve definitely made a good start though!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Ways To Make Money Online
(192 comments) August 3, 2010 at 8:49 am
Wouldn’t it be cool if we could “tear off” individual pieces of a blog post’s comments and monitor just those? For instance, what if you and I could just drag this individual threaded mini-conversation out to a section of the screen – and doing that drag and drop would let the system know that we wanted to monitor and continue that conversation in the future but we didn’t want to monitor any other parts of this entire comment thread – unless of course we also dragged another mini-conversation out of it as well.
I’m not sure that would totally satisfy the issue, but it might be a start. WDYT?
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Ways To Make Money Online
(9 comments) August 3, 2010 at 9:47 am
I only very recently downloaded TweetDeck (and was immediately addicted). My first thought was, “why can’t someone develop a BlogDeck?” Following along with three or four interesting blog exchanges would then be easily done.
I think that would accomplish what you’re talking about, Donna, and then some!
Any developers out there, with nothing but time on your hands?
(192 comments) August 3, 2010 at 9:49 am
Hmmm…Interesting…columns of blog post comment streams – perhaps categorized (as in tagged or lists).
Hmmm….that’s worth thinking about. Thanks for the idea, Doc!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Ways To Make Money Online
(8 comments) August 4, 2010 at 11:30 am
Hey Doc, that’s sweet!
I was all set to reply to Donna’s idea in a different way. I thought the question was about following a sub-thread on a single post. Anyway, BlogDeck – trademark it, now Doc
Donna, Gmail let’s me focus on your comment thread. If I wanted to filter just this portion, I could tell it to look for the words relevant to the sub-thread. However, I might miss a new contribution if the words were not in the comment!
Since Doc brought it up, I just thought of something else from Twitter – and, I bet you could do this with the WordPress Loop, somehow – create a #hashtag for the comments. Now, instead of relying on your visitors to include it in the comments, just have your blog software insert the hashatag automatically. The benefits are twofold:
1. You, as the post owner, control the creation of tags – thus prevent tag spam
2. Email subscribers can filter on the hashtags!
See what you started, Doc?
Cheers,
Mitch
(192 comments) August 4, 2010 at 11:45 am
Totally interesting idea, Mitch. Oh, soo many ideas have come out of this post. I think I’ll go back through, summarize them, think about them, and see what’s possible, what’s doable soon, etc. Awesome stuff!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Ways To Make Money Online
(9 comments) August 4, 2010 at 11:53 am
@Mitch-
Strangely enough, “see what you started” is a phrase I’ve heard for as long as I can remember.
Thinking that such a concept might already exist, I did a simple Google search, and found nothing, beyond a reference to BlogDESK (blogdesk.org/en/index.htm), which is more focused upon blogging than commenting.
So if we have any developers reading this, put on your thinking caps! There’s money to be made, and I’d be quite satisfied with a 10% cut.
(192 comments) August 4, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Doc, I may try to do something along those lines myself (or try to get it done), but definitely, it’s something that I think has some real potential if anyone wants to tackle it.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Ways To Make Money Online
(1 comments) August 1, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Donna, You’ve always been inspirational to me and I know to others. I wish I could show you some of the verbal conversations I’ve had where you are cited as the inspiration that helped move them along.
I’m sure you’ve gotten so many connents that you’re impressed
and that many have impressed you and I’m just another voice in that forest but sometimes I guess it’s nice to know you’re remembered 
(192 comments) August 1, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Thank you so much, Judith. You have no idea what it means to me to hear you say that. Even if you were just some strange voice here, your comment would have ensured that yours wasn’t just another voice in the forest. Not because you complimented me, but because you gave specifics. You mentioned verbal conversations, and that caused me to imagine the situations in which those might have occurred. Those words inspired images in my mind, and those images ensured that I would remember your comment. That’s an excellent way to make your voice stand out, even if the blogger has never heard of you before. Of course, yours isn’t a strange voice, and you’ll always invoke thoughts of chocolate in many people’s thoughts. That’s another great way to stand out. Consistently associate an image with yourself. You do that well.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Great Example: Using An Interesting Story To Lead Into Your Point
(1 comments) July 30, 2010 at 11:14 am
Donna,
Some great points. I had not spent time thinking about the result of becoming “jaded” as a result of comments. Of course! Sometimes it’s so obvious that a commenter never even read the post, just wanted to be seen or drop a link. The following should be a mantra, byline near the “Leave a Comment” area:
“Make sure you’ve really READ the post before commenting. ”
Welcomed reminder!
Dana Lookadoo´s last blog ..DNF Tour de Blogging – But Here’s What I Did Win
(192 comments) July 30, 2010 at 12:28 pm
It’s similar, Dana, to the way many people will automatically vote up an article in Digg or Sphinn or any other social voting site – without even reading the article! Motives vary, of course, but attention is usually involved, I think.
I don’t mind giving attention to someone if they’ve earned it. In school, for instance, there’s the clown who just keeps interrupting the class with irrelevant antics, wearing the teacher down. Instead of being able to focus on the students who have some very interesting viewpoints to share, she has to continually deal with the clown.
I guess the key is finding a way to get through to the clown – make sure he listens – make sure that when he says something – he’s actually saying something relevant to the conversation. That’s the right way to get attention, and the right way to avoid making the teacher (or blogger if we leave our example) less jaded.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A Quick Site Audit
(2 comments) August 4, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Dana, “Read the post ” is my favorite point in the article as well I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen comments on my posts or other people’s who not only didn’t read the article, but they also have no idea what the site is about.
(6 comments) August 4, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Oh yeah, I see this so much. I write 2000 words on how to do something, then get a pile of comments asking me “how do I….?”
I guess there are 3 groups of people that comment:
1. People that read the title and have an opinion to share with the world on that subject and are not interested in what the article or the other users are saying.
2. People that Skip the article and read a few comments and just pick up where the last people left off.
3. A rare few that read the whole thing and all the comments then say something useful.
But saying that, I really do not mind when people come and ask the obvious, as it means I can still help them. Not everyone absorbs information in the same way. Some like to read, others like to ask and be told. But now I am guilty of digressing.
BTW, is it just me or are these threaded comments often hard to find to reply to?
Jon@Motley Health´s last blog ..Why You Should Invest In A Power Rack
(192 comments) August 4, 2010 at 2:36 pm
It’s not just you, Jon. I’m having a heckuva time finding the comments. I’ve resorted to choosing a word from the email I get sent that is semi-unique, doing a Ctrl-F to open up the find dialog, and searching the page for that word. Otherwise, I just scroll and scroll and ….
Another reason for me to work on finding a better way to manage so many comments…
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Ways To Make Money Online
(6 comments) August 4, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Well done, you passed my test. You read the last line.
Jon@Motley Health´s last blog ..Why You Should Invest In A Power Rack
(192 comments) August 4, 2010 at 2:34 pm
LOL, Lauren, I almost thought you’d gotten my name wrong, and called me Dana instead of Donna. I was going to make a snarky remark that using the blogger’s name WRONG was another way to get her attention. But see, then I re-read the whole comment thread, and realized you were really speaking to Dana and not me, so you didn’t get it wrong. Moral of the story: “Read the post” and “read the comments” before mouthing off. LOL!!!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Oh Stop Being Such A FussyPants
(1 comments) July 30, 2010 at 3:42 am
One thing I have noticed in the few years I have been running sites is that some blogs do attract a lot more spam than others. I get very few spam posts on my fitness site, almost all comments are genuine questions and answers, but on techy sites most are blatant attempts to bypass askimet.
My approach to comments is to moderate everything, only publish ones that add value or ask a question. However, rarely I get a genuine question with a url attached, so I guess my job is easier.
I make a point of replying to every comment too. For me comments is like a telephone help desk and feedback forum.
Oh, and I almost never close comments, but had to once as there were too many on one post so I wrote a final comment pointing to more relevant posts to carry on the discussion. After about 500 comments the page loads slow. But pagination failed me seo-wise when a well commented article was dropped when 500 comments was reduced to 50 on the main url.
Oh, and yeah, I agree with you opinion and will bookmark this site and subscribe to your rss and tell my mum about it too.
Jon @ motley health´s last blog ..Tennis Workouts and Fitness Tips
(192 comments) July 30, 2010 at 7:30 am
Bwahahaha! Love the last line, Jon. For anyone who doesn’t get spam comments (lucky you), that is a typical spam line. Good one, Jon. That’s a good idea of closing comments at 500, and then pointing them to more relevant posts to continue the discussion. I like that lot. I’ve never personally gotten 500 comments, but if I ever do, I’ll try to remember that idea. Thanks for your thoughts on this. I’ll tell my mum too.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Great Example: Using An Interesting Story To Lead Into Your Point
(1 comments) July 30, 2010 at 12:47 pm
“However, rarely I get a genuine question with a url attached, so I guess my job is easier.”
I take exception to that – don’t let spammers wreck social sharing for everyone else. I love to get a url with comments – it gives me an opportunity to learn more and interact with the commenter.
The line between self-promotion and spam is also grey – your post at the end of your comment has 2 paragraphs of content and just under a dozen ads, yet I’m sure you don’t classify yourself as a spammer. Hell, if a spammer can contribute something valuable to the conversation, I’ll give them the link.
Vergil´s last blog ..Remarketing: Hit up a user a second time for another chance at conversion
(192 comments) July 30, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I obviously can’t speak for Jon, but I think he was saying that he isn’t bombarded by the type of link drop spam that some of us are. I think we’d all be happy to include a url that makes sense and adds value to the conversation. I believe it’s all about intent – Is the intent just to drop a link and run? Or is the intent to share a link that helps further the conversation?
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A Quick Site Audit
(6 comments) August 2, 2010 at 7:10 pm
I tried replying to this before but the reply was lost….
so, yes, Donna can speak for me as she got it right.
I do not block all comments with a URL. For any comment to be added it has to add value. I accept repetition also though, as often the comments are a way to address specific problems, and although it is often the same question I do feel compelled to answer. I never take the approach “they should read everything before asking”.
So yeah, if they add value, and have a URL, even a relevant one, I will still add. The fact is, even on the rare occasions that there is a URL it is not relevant to the site, it will be their personal blog about fly fishing or a Myspace page and not a rival website.
As for the other comment (somewhere…) about Askimet and errors (false negatives you know, spamming good stuff?) I never have the time to check. Maybe some good comments get spammed, but there are so many coming in at times it is not worth checking. I just put my trust in Askimet in the same way I put my trust in a firewall or web host – I let them get on with it and trust all is tickety boo.
Jon@Motley Health´s last blog ..Why Should We Care About Celebrity Diets and Workouts?
(2 comments) July 29, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Solid advice. I’m perplexed at the number of ’social media’ gurus who close blog comments altogether for this exact reason – answering a few comments on someone’s blog is the number 1 way of first connecting with a blogger bar lazy ass Twitter which isn’t as nearly as personal.
I’ve made some cool connections with top folk in my industry and it starting with a comment that took 10 mins that wasn’t just looking for links.
If you’re blog commenting ONLY for links, well, I guess you didn’t get the memo…..
Hobo´s last blog ..Blog – Subdomain or Subfolder? Which Is Best?
(192 comments) July 29, 2010 at 9:34 pm
There are a couple of SEO gurus I know who’ve done the same thing. It makes no sense to me at all. I guess if you just want to stand up at a pulpit and preach to the masses, in a “I’m the god, and you’re the worshipers” kind of way, then go for it. But yes, it’s those awesome connections that are made when the conversation is allowed to take place that makes it so great.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Totally Rockin Make Your Own Newspaper Thing
(2 comments) July 29, 2010 at 10:35 pm
It’s interesting how well the threaded comments and the “most recent first” comment on this site works. I think I will pinch it lol
Thanks for the reply Donna and I agree.
I actually close old posts comments purely because I want comments when I post, not when I am knee deep in a project and I don’t have time to chat. It REALLY CUTS DOWN spam comments doing this, and after a few days after a post, the chat goes quiet and I can concentrate on my work…..
It works for me as an easy way of moderating and spam fighting while keeping the recent posts the centre of commenter attention.
I’d never kill blog comments completely. Those crazy social media consultants…..
Hobo´s last blog ..Blog – Subdomain or Subfolder? Which Is Best?
(192 comments) July 29, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I don’t automatically close old post comments, but I have chosen to do so a few times – manually – when a couple of old posts started getting a tremendous amount of spam for one reason or another. Either way, as long as there can still be some kind of connection, I’m ok with that.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Challenge Yourself To Create An Exciting Piece of Content
(8 comments) July 29, 2010 at 7:41 pm
The Power of a Smile
It struck me that in the physical world, if someone else smiles at you, it is infectious and you smile back. Perhaps there’s an analogy in the blog commenting world. Clearly a little bit of humour never hurts.
Also if you can personalize the encounter (as a smile does), rather than just giving all the facts, then you’ll get a richer interaction.
Barry Welford´s last blog ..Google Duplicate Content And WordPress – An Unresolved Problem
(192 comments) July 29, 2010 at 9:36 pm
I do wish emotions and meaning could always come through the written word, but very often what we write doesn’t convey that as we’d like. If we can manage to convey that all-powerful smile – through our warm, thoughtful comments – then we might achieve that rich interaction. It takes time to make sure what we write does convey the emotion behind it, so taking that time can mean a lot.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A Quick Site Audit
(1 comments) July 29, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Comment threads are sometimes where the best action is – I’ve often retweeted articles simply because the comments have heated up and people of authority and experience have begun exchanging view points… or worse
Donna I’d love to hear your thoughts on coaxing jaded experts into commenting
(192 comments) July 29, 2010 at 7:02 pm
The best way I know to coax a jaded expert into commenting, Garrett, is to use that expert’s name in vain. Ok, maybe not in vain, but if you can say something like, “I bet JoeJoe would hate to hear me say this, but…” and then of course, link JoeJoe’s name to his blog or his Twitter account. When JoeJoe knows he’s being talked about, he’ll have to comment. If only to clarify that he does or does not hate to hear you say what you said.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A Quick Site Audit
(12 comments) July 29, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Ping them in a way that gives them something to talk about. Be interesting! A ping is just a ping, but conversation is a meeting of the minds. Don’t be too heavy handed, and don’t be bothered if they don’t bite.
Some people (hi Donna!!) are especially friendly and easy to strike up a conversation with. Start there.
(192 comments) July 29, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Pinging the friendly ones is a great way to handle it. And they may bring others into the conversation as well, Liz. And if they don’t bite, maybe they will the next time. Or maybe someone else will. As you say, keep it interesting. That’ll attract someone!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Great Example: Using An Interesting Story To Lead Into Your Point
(1 comments) July 29, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Donna (see I used your name?) the points you make here remind me a lot of customer service in general, particularly in keeping commenters returning.
It’s like a cell phone company that offers new clients promotions galore, but offer existing companies nothing. Where’s the incentive to stay? There isn’t one, we feel ignored and abandoned.
If only all businesses took your advice when it comes to commenter/customer retention, we’d probably all be a lot more satisfied!
Lyndsay Walker´s last blog ..Love Note from a Stranger
(192 comments) July 29, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Yes, Lyndsay, it is like good customer service – or even just good manners. And incentive is a good word, but I’d even add an adjective to it and call it “human incentive”. Just giving and receiving that personal human touch goes a long way. Thanks for that analogy. It’s got me thinking…
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A Quick Site Audit
(2 comments) July 29, 2010 at 3:07 pm
[bites lip]
[My own lip, not Donna's - doh]
Wit´s last blog ..Sure wanna be… Painting Dog
(192 comments) July 29, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Now, Wit, behave yourself.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A Quick Site Audit
(8 comments) July 26, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Donna, if you want to really impress the blogger, engage her commentators! Every so often, I see a three-way conversation living in the comment stream. It’s a little harder, as it requires the visitors to opt-in for followups. However, it is well worth it.
In fact, such engagement takes the comment box from the realm of an “email-like” single event to the heights of a “forum-like” on-going activity. UTG, indeed.
Technological limitations aside, I’m sure the blogger appreciates the sustained attention
On the subject of spam in comments, I had fun reading your conversation with Sheldon Campbell (@Doc626) regarding the future of spam on cell phones.
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allen´s last blog ..Agility or Ability – Which Is Better?
(12 comments) July 26, 2010 at 7:09 pm
I lurrrve multi-person comment conversations. Them’s the REALLY good stuff. Community rocks.
(192 comments) July 26, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Excellent point, Mitch. If the conversation involves more than just you and me, and her and me, and him and me, instead becoming you and me and her and him, then it’s a far better conversation, and yes, I’ll definitely be impressed when you interact with others besides just myself.
I’m hoping one day in the future, Doc and I will still have memories that work well enough so that we can see who had the better instinct on the topic of cell phone spam. More likely, however, is that neither of us will remember ever having the conversation at all.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Challenge Yourself To Create An Exciting Piece of Content
(7 comments) July 26, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Great point, Mitch! Nothing builds interest as well as a sense of community (well, that and free beer!). In the SEO/SEM world, we’re fortunate that many of us know each other, even if we’ve never had the opportunity to meet face to face, so we see a lot of such sideline conversations take off. Like Donna, for instance, implying that my memory may soon not be what it once was… I seem to have lost my train of thought.
(8 comments) July 27, 2010 at 4:38 am
Well, here’s another sideline.
I only managed to get half-way through the comments on my first visit. My memory isn’t what it used to be – I need an upgrade! Lucky for me, the subscription will send me whatever comments are to come.
Donna, I wish all blogs had threaded comments – including mine! What plugins make that happen?
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allen´s last blog ..Agility or Ability – Which Is Better?
(192 comments) July 27, 2010 at 6:34 am
Mitch, re: threaded comments, WordPress has the ability built in these days. I forget which version started it but it was a while back so if you’re current (and you should be if you want to be secure), then you may just need to “turn it on”. It depends upon your theme, and whether or not it has the needed code in it. If not, you can either add it , or use a plugin.
Here are two good tutorials to guide you through it.
http://just-ask-kim.com/social-networking/blogging/how-to-enable-threaded-thread-comments-in-wordpress/
http://www.blogtap.net/wordpress-threaded-comments-how-to-install-them-on-your-theme-a-guide-for-dummies/
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Challenge Yourself To Create An Exciting Piece of Content
(8 comments) July 27, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Thanks, Donna! I’m working through Kimberly’s tutorial now…
{tinkering noise in background}
It worked! Now, to play with the CSS.
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allen´s last blog ..Agility or Ability – Which Is Better?
(192 comments) July 27, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Oh good, Mitch! Glad you got it working easily. Have fun.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Challenge Yourself To Create An Exciting Piece of Content
Oh my when I first read your post I didn’t know what you are really talking about but then I scrolled down and saw lot of comments! Lol I must say I rarely see blogs with tons of comments.
For the rest of the people here who also left comments, thanks for the tips. I might try out keywordluv.
Meili@Writing´s last blog ..More About Mei-Li
(192 comments) July 26, 2010 at 10:43 am
Mei-Li, I’m sorry if I wasn’t really clear in my post. I’m glad the comments helped clarify things, but if there’s anything I could have said differently to make it more understandable to begin with, please let me know.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Challenge Yourself To Create An Exciting Piece of Content
(4 comments) July 25, 2010 at 12:55 am
The relationship thing is a terrific perspective. Its not always part of a blog/commenting thing, but it can clearly occur over time, especially with multiple comments on several blog posts, which occurs. Its a great point
(192 comments) July 29, 2010 at 11:11 am
True, Dave. Certainly, as someone communicates with the blogger over time, and via different blog posts, a relationship is bound to form. The blogger will start recognizing the commenter’s name as she sees it again and again. Obviously, a commenter won’t want to inundate the blogger with lots of meaningless comments, just to get the “name recognition” factor going, but if the two begin to have natural conversations over various topics, a bond of sorts is inevitable.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A Quick Site Audit
(2 comments) July 24, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Hi Donna,
There was one sentence in your post that I wish we could make stickers and have every blogger who goes out commenting put right up on their screen …
The real Value of commenting is in the relationships.
“Getting Links” is a secondary effect. And in fact, it’s my opinion that people who comment primarily for immediate links are really missing the forest for the trees.
Taking the time to leave good comments, and getting to know other bloggers makes it relatively easy to get truly valuable “in content” anchored links when you launch a new site, or decide to target a specific keyword.
Whereas, popping onto random blogs where they don’t know you, and leaving at best moderately relevant comments, with a keyword anchor, instead of your name, is much more likely to land your email/blog address in Akismet, than actually help your blog’s rankings.
For me, and easy and fast rule is that if you’re commenting on any blog primarily for the purpose of “getting a link” you probably need rethink your strategy … because it’s going to come back to bite you eventually.
Todd Morris´s last blog ..My MacBook Pro Dual Monitor Mashup
(192 comments) July 24, 2010 at 12:27 pm
I like that idea, Todd. That would make a great fake captcha in fact – Every commenter must enter “The real value of commenting is in the relationships.” into the antispam captcha field.
I’m diggin’ it. hehe.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Oh Stop Being Such A FussyPants
(2 comments) July 24, 2010 at 12:50 pm
lol … now you’ve got my creative juices flowing. I don’t know about a captcha, but I bet it wouldn’t be terribly hard at all to modify a challenge question plugin with something like a multiple choice …
The real value of commenting is :
a) building relationships
b) getting a link
That would probably stop more “questionable” commenters than even Akismet
(192 comments) July 24, 2010 at 12:59 pm
That’s a brilliant idea! Seriously, I love it. And yes, it should be fairly easy to modify an existing plugin (like the math plugins) to do that. Brilliant – on multiple levels.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Oh Stop Being Such A FussyPants
(141 comments) July 24, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Not least of which is saving ME from having to do “higher math.” Seriously, Donna. 9+15?? That’s like…a two digit number.
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..The Top Common Tater
(192 comments) July 24, 2010 at 3:47 pm
LOL, not illiterate, Holly, I know, but I also don’t want to present a trick question in which there might be more than 1 correct answer.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Oh Stop Being Such A FussyPants
(141 comments) July 24, 2010 at 3:50 pm
I majored in English. I thrive on ambiguity and subjectivity. Hit me.
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..The Top Common Tater
(1 comments) July 24, 2010 at 1:04 pm
I love that!! I’ll add one —
The real value of commenting is :
a) building relationships
b) getting a link
c) impressing all the other bloggers ;-p
(7 comments) July 24, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Hey, we’re on a roll!
How about:
The real value of commenting is :
a) building relationships
b) getting a link
c) impressing all the other bloggers
d) building a greater appreciation for Akismet
(192 comments) July 24, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Hmm, we can’t get too carried away if we do this for real. I wouldn’t want to make it impossible for the average human to correctly answer. But of course, if we didn’t do this for real, and we were just goofing off, then the list could get pretty long – and pretty darn funny.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Oh Stop Being Such A FussyPants
(141 comments) July 24, 2010 at 2:54 pm
I’m math challenged, Donna. Not illiterate.
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..The Top Common Tater
(7 comments) July 24, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Good point, Todd. And I love your idea of modifying the challenge plugin.
Some folks just don’t seem to get the point, that quality comments can bring quality visitors to their site. Fluff isn’t likely to bring them anything.
Since many blogs’ links are nofollow, the only real gain in terms of links, is new visitors. If the comment left is garbage, how many people are really likely to follow the link to see more of the same?
Not I, said the Little Red Hen! (now tell me THAT didn’t take you back to memories of your toddler years)
(1 comments) July 21, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Donna: Real conversations with meaty comments are the basis of any kind of learning whether its on the web or in person. Substitive commenting is positive and spam is spam no matter how you look at it whether its on the web or inane comments in the midst of genuine conversation. I do get a lot out of substitive comment streams like this one. In many cases the points that grab me the most are not necessarily from the topic and blog piece itself but from a stream of thoughtful comments.
Its a shame that blogs do lend themselves to spam attacks. Its an unfortunate unintended consequence of the nature of the web. Ridding a blog of spammy comments is similar to admining a forum and ridding the forum of spam.
Unfortunately there is a lot of it. In fact I was surprised to see Debra reference that 1/2 of the comments on her blog are spam. Only 1/2? More power to you, Debra. You must be either 1. writing great stuff; 2. writing on meaty topics or 3. under the radar screen of the spamming world. (or all of the above)
In any case I suppose spam is a consequence of the way the web works through links. Maybe we should go back to a web world with rankings based on human directory systems.
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 5:22 pm
LOL, yeah, cuz directories never get spammy! HA! If there were real consequences to people who spammed that would go a long way towards ridding ourselves of it. Of course, there’s no spam god that has the authority and trust to zap spammers into oblivion, so I guess that’s out of the question. But I wouldn’t mind being able to be spam goddess for one day, with a stun gun in my hand…zap! zing! [evil grin]
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(12 comments) July 21, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Mike —
Or 4. Not counting what Akismet & other spam screeners automatically sweep aside.
BLESS AKISMET!
LOL
No, seriously, can you imagine blogging without the Akismets that help us out?
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 6:13 pm
I cannot. I know Akismet gets some flack at times (perhaps rightfully so), but it’s amazing positives far outweigh any negatives in my mind. It does a stupendous job.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A FamousBloggers ComLuv Contest Sponsor That I’m Already Familiar With
(1 comments) July 21, 2010 at 11:51 am
Nice post Donna! The biggest thing that causes me to take notice of/appreciate a comment is “newness”. Agree or disagree the introduction of a new thought or concept or tool or blog post on the topic of my post is awesome, because the commenter is effectively creating content for me and augmenting my post. That really helps in grabbing attention and generating good will (do me the favor of adding value and original content to my posts and I’m far more likely to help you with your own promotion, etc.)
Tom Demers
Tom Demers @Internet Marketing Software´s last blog ..How to Target Keywords with Blog Posts
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Ok, a server crash seemed to eat my comment, so I’ll try to recreate. I said something like:
Ah yes, Tom, the wonders of UGC – User Generated Content. And when that UGC is also quality, which it would be if the person commenting was trying to impress the blogger, then it’s a huge win for the blogger. And since you’re willing to return the favor, that also brings up the point I made about future benefits to the commenter. Wins all around!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(3 comments) July 21, 2010 at 11:37 am
Donna,
Y9u’ve touched on one of the most vital aspects of a truly honest to goodness social Internet. In the early days before blogs, we had forums and message boards, where real conversations could be found. People WANTED to talk and share information and ideas, not market themselves or their sites. There’s this terrible selfishness today that corrupts today’s forums and blog comments. Is it any wonder you and others are jaded?
I long for the days when people spoke in sentences with real words and didn’t limit themselves to 140 characters. Let’s start a genuine conversation revolution!
(12 comments) July 21, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Selfish? More like busy and tired. The more inventive spams are kind of funny — I’ve had naked acrobat spam and hobbit spam (no naked hobbit spam.) The machine-generated ones that probably get sent out to every blog with the right keywords do tend to wear a person down. One machine can send out hundreds plus, one person can only do so much.
I think that the same people are out there, they’re just eclipsed by a lot of other stuff, and it won’t go away any time soon. As things “computers” get to be more mainstream and user-friendly there will be more activity, not less, real people and bots alike. A few years ago you had to be a passionate nerd to run *nix on a home computer. Now you can do it all from the comfort of a user-friendly GUI, and carry a telephone that has more memory than my first PC, and that’s just counting the camera.
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Possibly, Liz, once the revolution moves into small form factors like phones, more than desktops or even laptops, possibly some of the spam will go away. I’m not quite sure why I feel that way – I surely don’t have anything to back that up – but it’s just a hunch I have. Take that for what it’s worth, lol!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(7 comments) July 21, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Donna, I fear just the opposite: as more and more mobile devices began to dominate (I suspect they’ll eventually become the standard design criteria, rather than the exception), there’ll be more and more attempts to spam users. Adequate protection against spam and malware takes significant amounts of memory… something that mobile devices may lack.
I’d LOVE to be wrong on that, BTW.
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 3:13 pm
I hope you’re wrong about it too, Doc! And honestly, I have no idea why I’m so optimistic about it – it’s kinda crazy, really – but that’s what my gut says, and I usually listen to my gut.
Of course, I did have a funky burrito for lunch today.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(8 comments) July 26, 2010 at 7:07 pm
I’m afraid I have to side with Doc on this one, Donna.
Unless the industry changes the way texting is delivered, your cell phone is just another email address to the spambots.
I was shocked to receive spam texts in my Verizon cell phone a few years back. I thought it was because I had signed up for Yahoo alerts. When they continued even after I cancelled the alerts, I learned about email address gateways.
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allen´s last blog ..Agility or Ability – Which Is Better?
Donna-I’m a relative newbie to blogging. I do love it and put care into what I write, so when someone takes the time to leave a positive comment that shows they have appreciated my work, it is rewarding!
lol
Doc-let’s hope the mobile device makers take your points into consideration!
My only regret is, to date, Ihave not recieved ANY nude acrobat spam!!
(192 comments) July 22, 2010 at 11:01 am
Heh, Jo, if I ever receive any nude acrobat spam, I’ll be sure to forward it on to you. I’d hate for you to live your entire life with that one regret hanging over you.
Ooooh, you have a teddy bear site. How awesome! Will send my sister there – she’s crazy about teddy bears.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Don’t Forget These 5 Things On A New Site
(7 comments) July 22, 2010 at 11:17 am
@Jo – Something I recently saw from Matt Cutts indicates that he has an opposing opinion, regarding security on mobile devices. He seems to think that crackers will be focusing less on individual devices, and more on servers. For the same reasons I stated earlier, I don’t see the logic of this. Logic would dictate that they’ll go after the devices seen as most vulnerable.
(192 comments) July 22, 2010 at 11:33 am
I guess, Doc, it depends on a few things. If they go after a device, theoretically it would be easy for the device maker to get rid of it forever, as opposed to being stealthy and hitting the sites of naive bloggers for example. But maybe I’m the one being naive, LOL.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Don’t Forget These 5 Things On A New Site
…ooh, I need to make sure that ‘edits’ accept my edit!
…..that last sentence was a bit of a mess! I’ve tutored in English-how did I mistype ‘received’?? lol Sorry-I’m fussy! lol
Thanks Donna! …for the (possibly) impending nude spam in my inbox (lol). Teddies and old dolls are a passion for my daughter and I too, and the site is a new way to pass on some of what we know!
Doc-thanks for the link to this site! I agree, mobile phone users are far more vulnerable and open to spam attacks than servers!
(192 comments) July 22, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Jo, I got my Bachelor’s degree in English Education, and you don’t see me giving a rat’s patooty about typos, grammar problems, or anything else. I totally understood what you were saying – that’s communication – and that’s what matters, imo. What’s a little typo amongst friends – even ones we’ve just met in a virtual world?
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Don’t Forget These 5 Things On A New Site
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I think there’s a place for both the 140 character limited conversations and real sentence and paragraph conversations, actually, Kim. I would like to think though that we aren’t completely veering away from the genuine conversations that you mention, and only limiting ourselves to short tweets. Both are useful, but tweets alone will never be satisfying enough. If we could get Google to get rid of ranking via link popularity, the spam problem would mostly disappear overnight. That would be a welcome relief.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Wanna Know The Real Reason To Heart CommentLuv?
(3 comments) July 21, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Heh…You and Ablereach are more positive than I am. Agreed there is a place for different kinds and modes of conversation, and I enjoy the variation. But, I have zero tolerance for automated keyword bot spam and human trolls. I think both types are extremely self centered and anti-conversation…and they’re wrecking the social nature of the web by making it all about them or whatever they’re selling.
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 2:18 pm
My mom used to call me Pollyanna. I do try to be positive about many things. But of course, she never got to see me ruthlessly whack spam with my invisible sword either! So I can be both positive and ruthless at the same time, Kim. Just depends on the situation.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Wanna Know The Real Reason To Heart CommentLuv?
(8 comments) July 21, 2010 at 2:14 pm
I must pick up that theme, DD, re Google being at the heart of the problem. I’m trying to spread the word as much as possible.
The whole PageRank concept is now flawed and broken because the whole world has reacted to it in a way that renders the approach useless and dangerous. In fact Google really gets no value out of this approach so it would be in their own interests to abandon it. However they strike me as a very top-down run organization and who wants to fight the boss.
Barry Welford´s last blog ..Tips on Making Your Senior Home Office Alive And Green
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 2:24 pm
And this is indeed a topic that we could discuss for days, I’m sure, Barry.
Maybe we should all write a blog post that asks Google to please do something to put an end to this. Obviously one or two of us moaning and groaning about it will never cause a dent, but who knows…maybe a blogger revolution could make ourselves be heard. Muwhahahahaha! 
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Quickly Assess The Competition In Any Niche
(8 comments) July 21, 2010 at 2:56 pm
… which gets into the interesting question of who is this Google you’re talking about. Is it a very top-down directed company stifling all internal debate so you really need to get the attention of Brin and Page. Or could it possibly be a grass-roots leadership kind of place where the front-line soldiers can really have a voice. It would be nice to hear from a Googler what is the reality. However such an individual would like be asked to leave by the nearest exit.
Barry Welford´s last blog ..Google Duplicate Content And WordPress – An Unresolved Problem
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I’d bet the front-line employees have a good bit of input. Can you imagine Matt Cutts NOT being listened to? I can’t. I assume there are lots of other Matt-lets working there as well whose voices are routinely heard.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Wanna Know The Real Reason To Heart CommentLuv?
(1 comments) July 21, 2010 at 10:52 am
Another good way to impress the blogger — agree with them!
Seriously though, if my post makes an argument, I appreciate when a commenter takes a side (agree OR disagree) as long as they make a thoughtful case and add something new to the discussion, rather than just saying “Yay, great post.”
It’s also nice when commenters have obviously read all the other comments, not just the post itself.
Elisa´s last blog ..How to Target Keywords with Blog Posts
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 1:17 pm
LOL, Elisa, agreeing is definitely nice, but yes, a thoughtful case of any sort enhances the conversation immensely. And yes, it is great if they’ve read the comments as well, although in cases like this one, with 200+, everyone can be forgiven for not reading them all. Bonus points for those who do though!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Blog Commenting, Contests, and Reach, Oh My!
Now I understand why comments like, “great blog post,” and “keep it up” are not the most welcomed comments, even though those are comments that I might be inclined to leave (but I don’t because I know it’s discouraged). It’s too bad because in real life, it’s perfectly fine to only say those few words in a conversation. I think those succinct comments would be meaningful to a blogger, as well, but I guess that’s life on the internet. Unfortunately spammers are out there so vigilence must be high.
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 9:40 am
Risa, I will always let that type of comment through if I recognize the person. That’s another reason to make an impression on a blogger from the very beginning. Later, your “great post” comments will be trusted.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Blog Commenting, Contests, and Reach, Oh My!
(3 comments) July 21, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Risa, I ONLY allow those comments when I recognize the user that left it.
9 times out of 10 though it is just someone trying to link drop with keyword loaded anchor text.
Stever @ geolocalseo.com´s last blog ..Building a Mobile Version of your Website with Wordpress (CMS)
(7 comments) August 1, 2010 at 7:10 pm
If someone said “great post” and did not leave a link, I would consider it genuine – although still keep a beady eye out for the 2nd comment. Default settings (still?) for Wordpress are to moderate first comment then let the rest through the gate. A lot of spammers know this and will write something “nice” on a blog that they know to be moderated and then send in the real comment once the first is approved. Of course, you can switch this off, but the spammers often prey on those least prepared.
Jon´s last blog ..Dannii Minogue’s Apple and Kale Weight Loss Diet
(192 comments) August 1, 2010 at 7:23 pm
True, Jon. It would be nice if WP had a way to control that setting – Instead of allow thru after 1, it would be nice if we could change that number to whatever we want – allow thru after 2 or 3 or whatever number we choose.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A Quick Site Audit
(1 comments) July 21, 2010 at 2:11 am
A very good post here Donna. Almost made me not to post a comment though as I don’t have any thing else to say other than this post is really good and everyone should consider what’s written here before adding a comment on any blog.
Jun´s last blog ..Google Adwords Broad Match Modifier
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 7:37 am
That’s ok, Jun, after reading more than 200 comments, you probably would have forgotten what you wanted to say in the first place. LOL. I know I do! If you have any experiences to share about commenting, especially if anyone has made an impression on you with their style of commenting, do come back and tell us about it. We’re all eager to learn.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(1 comments) July 20, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Hi Donna, I just wanted to stop by and say that I sincerely think you’re one of the best bloggers to learn from. Not just because you know more than most about the game, but because you’re also truly one of the nicest people I have come across online, and you make the Web a nicer place to be!
Patricia Skinner´s last blog ..Web Stats? Learn from the Pros!
(192 comments) July 20, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Aw, thanks Patricia! I can tell you that you are one of the people who made a huge impression on me. You’ll always hold a place in my life. One day, I’d love to meet you in real life. Until then, I hope we continue to bump into each other across the vast web.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..7 Tips for Outsourcing Your Web Development
(1 comments) July 20, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Probably half my comments are spam drops but I do look at all of them before deleting
Sometimes, the good comments are so good they push me to do another blog post so I keep comments open.
(192 comments) July 20, 2010 at 3:29 pm
LOL, when I read the first half of your first sentence, Debra, I thought you were telling me that half of all the comments you MAKE are spam drops. Luckily, the rest of the comment clarified that you meant half of the comments you RECEIVE are spam drops. Glad to hear you keep comments open. It’s just not a blog without comments, ino.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Quickly Assess The Competition In Any Niche
(2 comments) July 20, 2010 at 10:08 am
I was referred here by a friend. Nice post, Donna (I read your post). Lots of stimulating comments. I was intrigued by the comment by Sorvoja about commenting for future gain.
Some of the most stimulating comments by people have gotten me to do further research on the person, their websites, blogs, etc. and to contact them for assistance, help, questions, business interactions, etc. Sometimes a specific comment generates a specific helpful response. Sometimes it generates a trip into another area with all sorts of interesting opportunities. Elizabeth described the perfect scenario.
Sometimes building the relationship with the blogger leads to unexpected opportunities. In fact, just reading through the various blogs here, via commentluv opens up doors for me that I never would have considered.
This has been a worthwhile (if long)
coversation.
(192 comments) July 20, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Glad your friend referred you, Mike. Sorv did make a good point, and I probably should have expanded upon it in the initial post, but that’s part of what makes the comments so valuable – different brains coming at a problem create unique and interesting perspectives. Sorry the conversation has been so long, but glad you got something out of it. I know I have!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(1 comments) July 20, 2010 at 7:45 am
Jaded blogger here too Donna. Do you find it hard to come up with fresh interesting topics that are fun to write about? I’m starting to see myself going in circles when it comes to my blogging, rehashing old topics from way back when.
(192 comments) July 20, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Oh definitely, Barry. After all this time, I often think that I have absolutely not.another.thing.to.say.
I’ve decided it’s ok, and maybe even a good thing, to rehash old topics. First of all, that gives us a chance to reconsider things that may have changed, and it also introduces the topic to people who haven’t seen the old posts.
One of the things I like to do most, though, when searching for inspiration, is look at photos at places like Flickr. It doesn’t matter what the pic subjects are – just a random collection of photos works well. I try to find some sort of meaning in a photo that I like a lot – and some sort of connection to my blog’s topic. That kind of mind travel almost never fails me. Try it sometime.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Quickly Assess The Competition In Any Niche
Hello Donna,
This blog post and the discussion in the comment field was a nice read. The concept of blog commenting as relationship building is intriguing, but I fail to understand it. It would be of great benefit to me if you could provide a tangible example of a “future gain”.
I have always considered the possibility to provide feedback and ask questions the primary reasons for commenting on a blog.
Thank you
Trond Sorvoja´s last blog ..Sorvoja: RT @DonnaFontenot: If u comment on my post (http://bt.io/Fcx9) & RT this, u will make my day a kaleidoscope of joy. #FBCLcontest @GrowMap
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 6:13 pm
I was thinking along the lines of collaboration, partnerships, etc, Trond. For example, if someone comments on a blog post in which I’ve complained about WordPress not working the way I’d like it to, and they have a solution for me, I may hire that person in the future to solve another problem. Or, if someone is a skilled writer, I may partner up with them on a content project in the future.
Certainly, the primary reasons for commenting are feedback, questions/answers, and conversation, but the ones that make an impression may end up being the catalyst to some future collaboration.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(12 comments) July 19, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Future gain is a yummy topic –
Comment for fun!
Ever feel like you’re the only nerd of your own particular brand in the whole wide world? Go play @ some niche blogs. Sometimes they come back & play @ yours, too.
Comment for networking!
Someone else posted about an idea on their blog. I liked it and wrote about it on my blog — not just reported on it, really thought it through, took it for a walk around the blog. They liked it and took it a step further, linking back to me. Idea city, plus questions about what sort of work I might want to do. What’s not to love?
Comment to Stir up interest.
The mundane but oh, so useful — I reviewed a bunch of plugins, reported on what I wished one of them all did, and one of the plugin designers saw the pingback and dropped a comment to say they’d add just such a thing.
Social Causes – give Chez Pim’s Menu for Hope a google. It started as one person’s idea – a foodie-community-based, blog-funded fundraiser. After the big Indian Ocean tsunamis of 2004, foodies were blogging about wishing they could do something. When we blog, we ping each other. Voila! After starting from scratch, Menu for Hope gathered steam and over the last few years they’ve raised a total of about a quarter of a million dollars for the World Food Program.
Comment because blogging is good for Search – blogging is good for Search Engine visibility, and commenting encourages bloggers. Hakuna matata.
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 6:43 pm
Those are some awesome examples of possible future gain. It’s not so much that there’s a plan in place when commenting. Future gain may never be realized on most comments, but like your example of the Menu for Hope program, things can happen just because someone made a statement somewhere. One blog post, or one comment, can turn into an incredible future gain. You never know what will spark a storm. And really, Liz, your final statement really hits home with me. Hakuna matata.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Quickly Assess The Competition In Any Niche
(2 comments) July 24, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Thank you Donna and Elizabeth for your replies.
I have been thinking about this “future gain” issue. And what is comes down to is the equivalent of giving someone your business card after having any sort of business related chat. What is important is not the initial talk itself, but the increased chance of being remembered at a later time.
To sum it up, the talk is the comment you are leaving. And the business card in this setting is the link you are leaving behind.
This got me thinking, it might be better to leave a link to a page with your contact information and summary of what you do than to leave a link to the front page of your latest project. I would love to get your opinions on this.
Thank you.
(192 comments) July 24, 2010 at 2:44 pm
The initial talk is the MOST important, I believe. When I look at your business card, the only way I’m going to remember you is if our business talk left an impression on me (preferably a favorable one). But the link can be important too. In fact, if the link’s title intrigues me (like any good title should), then the chances of my clicking it are vastly increased.
Now, I can see how your idea could be an excellent one in many circumstances. Especially for people who do work for hire or take on clients for any reason, then a link to your About Me page, or your portfolio, etc. might be an excellent link to leave.
If you’re just the average blogger, however, who doesn’t have a coordinating business, then a link to one of your best posts might be better.
There are tons of possibilities here, each depending upon who the commenter is, what your goals are, etc.
So, yes, in some cases, it might be better to leave a link to a contact / summary page. But regardless of which link you leave, that initial conversation should really be the initial spark that makes the blogger want to know more about you.
All in my most humble opinion, of course!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Oh Stop Being Such A FussyPants
(1 comments) July 19, 2010 at 3:59 pm
I am also impressed when a reader takes the time to point out a typ0 or broken link in the post.
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 4:07 pm
That’s a good point, Tim. That can be extremely helpful as long as the reader isn’t just being a grammar nazi, LOL. There have been a couple of times, however, that a reader has let me know that a link in my post was borked, and I was very grateful to the reader for that. The last thing I want is a bad link in my post. That just frustrates the reader when he/she tries to click through. So yes, that will get my attention every time, for sure.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(3 comments) July 19, 2010 at 3:23 pm
The debate over keyworded anchor text in the commentators name continues.
I do like how KeywordLuv is set up to do a middle of the road/best of both worlds approach. Use your real name, or online nickname, AND toss in some anchor text.
Stever @ geolocalseo.com´s last blog ..Building a Mobile Version of your Website with Wordpress (CMS)
(3 comments) July 19, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Donna, I see you are ordering comments by latest first. Do you always order them like that, or only on posts that garner a large number of comments? I have a few posts on my personal blog with 200 and 300 comments. In those cases, new posts going to the bottom might make it a little less useable, even though natural conversation flow would be older comments at top, newer below. I’ve not switched the order on those posts, but have had a few emails from users suggesting I should.
Stever @ geolocalseo.com´s last blog ..Building a Mobile Version of your Website with Wordpress (CMS)
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 3:36 pm
This isn’t my blog so I’m not actually controlling the order of the comments. Personally, I like seeing older comments at top, with newer comments below. That would definitely be a problem with paginated comments, however. For that reason, I decided on my own blog, to not paginate the comments. No matter how many comments there are, they are all loaded on the same page, in the order from top to bottom of old to new. Having them all on the same page might slow down a page load somewhat, but it shouldn’t be a big problem unless lots of posts have hundreds of comments. If it’s only a few, I think the tradeoff is worth it.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Right, luckily KeywordLuv is the middle-of-the-road, and in some circumstances, I can see not being adverse to using it. I think it just depends upon how spammy the keyword phrase might seem – sitting right there next to my name.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(1 comments) July 19, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Hi Donna, first time I’ve come across your blog so it looks like I’ve got some reading to do! I think there’s nothing more disrespectful than comment spam, especially when bloggers are taking the time to put so much into their posts. Askimet is a god send, but wouldn’t it be great not to need it in the first place.
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Hi Gareth. Hopefully, you don’t mistake FamousBloggers as my blog. That’s Hesham’s site, and he’s creating a mega-blog out of it. I’m just humbly guest blogging here. But you can definitely find lots to read either here or on my own blog. I’ll be reading yours as well.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(3 comments) July 19, 2010 at 7:45 am
Hey, Donna.
Not sure if this has been covered in the comments (note: I DID read the post, but not all 167 comments
but a lot of of the economic and financial blogs I read regularly I read specifically FOR the comments. In many cases, the commentary from the “regulars” are so meaty and so poignant and so insightful that they’re the best part of these blogs. So clearly having an active, knowledgeable community that adds real value to your blog and returns regularly to contribute and further the discussion is a tremendous asset and can turn a good blog into a great blog.
Cheers!
Ken
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 10:49 am
This post itself is a perfect testament to your point, Ken. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’ve personally learned a few things just from the comments of this post. That’s powerful.
It’s also a great way to come up with new blog post ideas, based on reader interests and comments. But that’s another topic for another day…
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Blog Commenting, Contests, and Reach, Oh My!
(3 comments) July 21, 2010 at 7:03 am
Hey, Donna.
Yeah, totally agree about comments being great fodder for future blog material. Some of my favorite posts have been spawned from the questions and commentary of others. It lights a creative spark. Plus, the questions demonstrate real demand for more info on a specific topic, so you know people want to learn more.
Rock on!
Ken
(192 comments) July 21, 2010 at 7:33 am
Exactly, Ken. It’s one thing to look through your server’s logs to determine what keywords brought people to the site. That’s a good way to determine what topics to write more about. But it’s even better when there’s zero guessing involved, and answering direct questions from people’s comments makes the content generation process a cinch.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Blog Commenting- Contests- and Reach- Oh My!
(3 comments) July 21, 2010 at 2:38 pm
So true, Donna.
I often find myself writing these elaborate responses to comments and I stop and think, “hey, let’s turn this into a post.” I’ve also reached out to and recruited one of my most active and engaging commenters to turn his comments (and emails to me) into a featured series on our blog called “SEM Questions.”
So again, it just speaks to the premise about the value of good comments.
Ken
(1 comments) July 19, 2010 at 3:23 am
I want to agree with you, but people shifted their attention on the social networks (facebook in particular is a great conversation starter) and i noticed a decrease of conversation in many historically successful blogs.
It’s particularly noticeable in nations where the communities were smaller (eg: italy) so for a time the remote provinces of the digital empire get to experiment the “new world”.
Fortunately, your advices are fit for social media too!
Garethjax´s last blog ..In viaggio…
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 10:54 am
It’s true, Garethjax, that the focus has shifted somewhat from conversing on blogs to conversing on various social networks. I think this might make the value of good comments even more valuable, since there are fewer of them these days. And as David Harry mentioned in one of the comments here earlier, there are moves afoot to create technologies that will combine and merge all the conversations – across blogs, twitter, facebook, other social platforms, etc. etc. – into a unified conversation. Apparently Google is working on one such technology, but I’m sure there are lots of folks working to do the same. If we continue to hold conversations on our blogs, even if the public is having the conversation elsewhere, then the new technologies may be able to tie it all together at some point. That would be cool.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Understanding Your Site Needs – Shared, VPS, or Dedicated Hosting?
(2 comments) July 18, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Great points, Donna! I’ve been at it nearly as long as you, and I’m on my third one, now. Your statement about the majority of comments these days being spam are spot on! (if not for Akismet, I’d go nuts! ) Unfortunately, even some loyal readers tend to leave comments that fall short of the mark.
)
Like you, I enjoy hearing from people that disagree. Even if we both walk away unconvinced, I think there’s still something to learn, if we’re willing. A little controversy in the comments column can spark some great participation.
I also keep notes of the names of the folks that comment, so I can reference their earlier comments, and tailor my responses to them. Readers enjoy being recognized, just like we do. (maybe it’s something about seeing our name in print.
(192 comments) July 18, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Doc, I love the idea of making notes about the people who comment, and then tailoring future responses based on those notes. Fabulous way to really connect. That’s not something I’ve done in the past, but it’s definitely something I’ll start doing now. Love it!
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Quickly Assess The Competition In Any Niche
(2 comments) July 19, 2010 at 12:13 am
When I started doing that, I noticed a rapid build-up of repeat visitors. Someone might mention that they’d had the same problem with their shopping cart, or their teenage son’s biology teacher, and when I asked them weeks later if they’d ever gotten that straightened out, BANG! I had an addicted commenter!
Any salesman on the floor will say that remembering insignificant personal details is the secret to repeat sales.
(141 comments) July 19, 2010 at 7:04 am
One thing that helps me, as a commenter – if you think I SHOULD have replied (and past behavior has indicated that it’s kind of out of character for me NOT to), come find me at my blog – my “online home” – and give me a nudge. Sometimes, the other magpies eat my breadcrumbs. Seriously. Blame it on bad memory, failure to finish subscribing to comments (have I mentioned I HATE wordpress.com’s subscription triple-opt-in thingy?), bad memory (did I say that already?), or “blogger’s ADD” (ooooh, here’s another pretty, shiny blog and the comments are more ACTIVE!).
I never mean to be rude. Sometimes, I have a lot of time on my hands. The next week or two, none. Come find me and gently lead me back. Of course you shouldn’t have to, but it does make my “commenter loyalty score” SOAR, because it tells me “I actually MATTER!”
Sometimes, the kids do this best – and that never ceases to amaze me. One blog that, on the surface, looks completely impersonal and MMO oriented, and yet is very welcoming to commenters and guest posters, is SmartBloggerz. (I’m even attempting a link here in the comments on Sushant’s behalf! I’ll probably end up in comment Hell for that…) He knows I’m busy – he also knows I can comment like crazy when I have time on my hands. So he checks now and then to see if I’ve died or something (not really, but he has been known to follow up and see where I’ve been).
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Blogrolls Are a Pain
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 7:51 am
Both of these activities – remembering details from previous comments to mention later, and nudging someone to comment – would fall into the “above and beyond” category, I think. I can see how some bloggers may not have the time to always go that extra mile, but I can also see how it would be very much worth it if they could find the time to do so.
Maybe, at some point, we’ll have tools to help. Imagine, for instance, a plugin that allowed us to make sticky notes for ourselves on each person who comments. Those sticky notes would appear only to us (the bloggers) whenever we see new comments by that same person. So, if I’d made a sticky note on Holly or Doc to myself that reminded me of personal things about them, I could easily use those notes in the future. I’d love a plugin like that.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A FamousBloggers ComLuv Contest Sponsor That I’m Already Familiar With
(141 comments) July 19, 2010 at 8:07 am
Microsoft Office OneNote serves this purpose pretty well, if you keep it open while you blog and surf. But a plug-in? I’d never have to leave my blog! I love it.
Any plug-in authors out there? New idea for the taking!! Let us know when you’re ready to test it.
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Blogrolls Are a Pain
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 8:15 am
Not sure why I can’t reply to your comment below, Holly, but the little Reply button refuses to show up for it. Sorry, I’ll just have to reply to myself instead, which is kind of a drag.
With any solution that isn’t directly tied to the blog’s backend, it won’t have the essential feature that would make a plugin so useful. With an outside notes application, I’d have to search to find a note. With a plugin, it could display it automagically for me, or at least give me a little icon indicator next to the person’s comment to let me know that I’ve written notes about the person in the past. I could then just hover over the icon to display those notes. (Or at least, that’s how I design it).
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..How To Quickly Assess The Competition In Any Niche
(141 comments) July 19, 2010 at 8:20 am
Donna, we’ve hit the limit on levels of nested replies – that’s why we don’t get a button.
Over on nanowrimo.org, there’s a tradition we dubbed “the royal flush” because the forums (at least prior to now!) did not have such a limit. Each level of nested replies went into a square box surrounded by a square box housing the comment being replied to. After a while, it was kind of a trip just to scroll up and down – but it also made the center comment box really, really small. And drove a few readers completely batty (which is why we delighted in doing it, year after year).
Anyway, I agree – having the info right there, with an icon (preferably one that ONLY the blog owner could see, though!) alerting us to the fact that we had notes on a commenter to help follow-up – that would be very cool.
Anyone else seeing the huge potential here? We design, you code… hah!
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Summer Camp
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 8:24 am
Ah, that makes sense. Can’t have the nested comments column get too narrow to read…
And yes, certainly, the sticky notes would have to only show for the logged-in blog owner/admin.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..7 Tips for Outsourcing Your Web Development
(1 comments) July 18, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Wow Donna, six years is a long time to be blogging. I have been blogging for less than a year, but I already relate to your article. The types of comments you have encouraged here are the ones that catch my eye and the bloggers who capture my imagination and heart. My absolute least favourite comments are the “Great post. Come over and check out my blog” comments. How rude. If they had bothered to leave a nice comment I probably would go visit them, but instead they just left me a big neon sign saying avoid that blog! After writing this down, I think I have just made myself a new policy…. I am not even going to publish that sort of comment in the future!
(192 comments) July 18, 2010 at 6:04 pm
I never let those types of comments through, and I’m pretty sure no one is missing out because of it. Ya know, sometimes, it’s the oddest things that catch my eye as well. For instance, those who know me, know that I’m absolutely bonkers about the color purple, so when I saw your link, I was compelled to click through to your twitter account and your blog. See, sometimes you don’t get noticed for reasons unknown.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Wanna Know The Real Reason To Heart CommentLuv?
(4 comments) July 18, 2010 at 4:09 pm
I don’t know about the rest of you, but twitter has moved me from commenting at blogs, and other forms of communicating. In fact I’ve received some tweets with great ideas and instead of commenting in the blog, I’ve retweeted. In fact I’ve done that a lot. Its cut down on making depth of commentary. In fact, this article got me to refocus on some tremendous writing that clearly merited comments and I only RT’d them.
And with that I’m off to comment…hopefully with something meaningful, thoughtful, and possibly memorable
I’ll use a first name
(192 comments) July 18, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Twitter has not only caused a slowdown of commenting, but a slowdown of blogging as well, imo, Dave. What I might have once blogged about, now gets tweeted instead. I do think this entire contest has taught everyone some really valuable lessons, and for that reason, it’s probably the best contest I’ve ever seen within the blogging sphere. It went way beyond “just a contest” and became a great learning tool – on many levels. Very cool.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A FamousBloggers ComLuv Contest Sponsor That I’m Already Familiar With
(7 comments) July 19, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Donna, I don’t think Twitter is likely to adversely affect blogging very much, mostly because of the 140 character limit. The things we’re passionate about, or have a lengthy comment on (something better than “Must read! Pls RT) will nearly always need more space than Twitter allows. Granted, Facebook may be a different story.
I look at social media as more of a complementary tool. It helps me attract NEW visitors, to give me a chance to “set the hook”. It has helped me multiply my unique visitors tenfold, since I started using it.
(192 comments) July 19, 2010 at 4:03 pm
True, true, but I do see a change in one thing that I believe Twitter affected. Remember how we all used to write roundup posts of the cool blog posts we read that week? Or how we would quickly write a post to share someone else’s post with our readers? That’s the kind of blog posts many of us stopped writing when we were able to start tweeting about the cool stuff we found instead. Those posts weren’t always valuable from a content standpoint, as they were really just RB’s (reblogs as opposed to retweets, lol). But they did have some value – if nothing else, they would supply solid links to other blogs that Twitter only supplies in an indirect way.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Use Coupon Codes For New Site Ideas
(1 comments) July 18, 2010 at 11:55 am
Great article and some of the things that many of us bloggers understand completely. Unfortunately I have turned comments off on some of my blogs…
(192 comments) July 18, 2010 at 1:30 pm
How many blogs do you have, Jesse? For the ones in which you’ve turned the comments off, are they non-personal topics?
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A FamousBloggers ComLuv Contest Sponsor That I’m Already Familiar With
(1 comments) July 18, 2010 at 6:01 am
Donna, sometimes I get a real kick out of some of the spammers trying to emulate actual commenters when they leave comments on my blog. I am not talking about the automated bots, of course, but the real people who try and make a stretch between what your blog post is about and the link they want to surreptitiously drop into the comment.
One of my favorites comments in this genre, for instance, was left on one of the guest posts on my blog. The post itself was written by an awesome blogger I know, and was titled “Video Games Requiring Physical Action Burn Calories – Duh”. I didn’t approve the comment, since of course it was spam, but I did save it, because the spammer put such obvious effort into trying to get it approved (the blog post in question mentioned the Wii):
Nice segue, eh?
Another point I wanted to to touch on has to do with what you mentioned in the post, about appealing to a author’s ego (ie. using the blogger’s name in the post, making sure by the content of the comment you let the blogger know that you actually read the post, etc). I think that sometimes you can significantly increase this effect if within the comments you somehow tie in the current post with some past post that the author wrote. That not only lets the author know that you read the post you are commenting on, but it also tells them that you know who the author is, because you have read (and remembered) material that they have written in the past. This is definitely a way to get your comments remembered.
Michael VanDeMar´s last blog ..zOMG! Jason Calacanis Lied Again?? Shocker!
(192 comments) July 18, 2010 at 11:21 am
Michael, although that type of spam is a lot harder to spot, I have to at least give them credit for going above and beyond the normal bot generated crud. Of course, it makes our job even harder, but maybe we need some intelligent spam once in a while to keep us on our toes.
Your second point – bringing up a past post by the author – would impress me a lot more than you might imagine. Why? Not just for the reasons you state – although those are good ones. But also because I often forget my OWN past posts, so for someone else to remember them is very impressive.
(12 comments) July 17, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Here’s one for you.
What tips & tools are out there to keep bloggers keep track of commenters, once we have noticed you. Some commenters here I recognize because I’ve been lurking/active/around for several years. Some, not so much, and that’s a shame. Threaded comments help to keep mini-conversations readable. Some blogs show the number of comments by each author – if I know I’ve heard from someone 10 times before I probably don’t need to check their URL for viagra, if you know what I mean.
Is there a good plugin that adds contact management capabilities to WP’s back end? There should be! People who come back over time are precious – they’ve chosen to be part of my online life. They could also be part of a blogger’s networking community. For instance, some one who has commented more than once on posts about blue widgets might appreciate a heads up about a new blue widget gizmo. If I was a programmer, I’d be looking to see if there are hooks in the software.
(141 comments) July 17, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Why yes, I think Contact Commenters would fit that description. I love it, don’t use it often enough, but highly recommend it.
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..5 Ideas to Get Your Kids to Embrace Summer Reading
(12 comments) July 17, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Thanks, Holly, I’ll check it out!
(12 comments) July 17, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Shoot. I put my URL in the Twitter ID spot on that last post, & the form linked to a non-existent Twitter account, “twitter.com/ablereach.com.” That brings up another point — what we are doing is still a work in progress. In a few years, there will be a standard that these forms do some error checking to detect characters that should not be there. Right now, though some of us have been using this WordPress thang for years and years, it’s still new enough for even the most professionally done setups to have spots that don’t have the new & novel awkwardness worn off of them.
The same thing goes for comment policies and commenting etiquette – we’re making it up as we go along, by participating in conversations like this and noticing what’s been working for ourselves and others.
(192 comments) July 17, 2010 at 4:02 pm
It is amazing, that even with years under our belts, we’re still learning, but that of course helps keep it all exciting. I just returned 5 minutes ago from a flea market, where I saw an old Radio Shack TRS-80 for sale (my first pc). But even though I’ve been mucking around with computers and then the Internet for all those decades, I still get to learn new stuff about it every day. Blogging and commenting is just one of many. Good times to be had by all.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A FamousBloggers ComLuv Contest Sponsor That I’m Already Familiar With
(1 comments) July 17, 2010 at 6:27 am
Donna (great start right?), fantastic post with some really pet peeves of mine. I hate the ones that don’t address me by my name. On the flip side, I hate commenting on blogs where I have to go out of my way to find out who the author is by trawling through the “about” page or god forbid, the whois (I’d usually give up before that unless it was an attack or something wrong).
On the topic of spam, on really long posts, some get pretty sophisticated and copy a sentence each from other comments and merge them all into one that sounds *almost* non automated. Your first point usually is the first step to combat that and in fairness Akismet has usually gotten to it as others report the IP/URL as spam anyway.
In the process of creating a comment policy to stop anchor spammers, I think you just wrote it for us
(8 comments) July 17, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Dave, your comment reminded me of the importance of Akismet for Wordpress blogs in this particular topic. Akismet also takes into account your own spam assessments too so it really should be doing the spam elimination process as you like it.
Once Akismet is in place, it provides a way of avoiding needless debate with some who might question why their comments were trashed. It’s out of my hands. Only if you’re pure as identified by Akismet will your comments see the light of day.
Barry Welford´s last blog ..Google Adsense Split Post Shows Power Of LMNHP
(192 comments) July 17, 2010 at 4:05 pm
I generally notice that the harder it is to find the blogger’s name, the more likely it is that he/she didn’t want a conversation in the first place. And while I’ve used a blog as a CMS in the past, and really had no need to have dialog, I’ve just removed the ability to comment at all. Those who keep the commenting system in place, but then don’t really encourage conversation are straddling a fence, and it’s often not a very good solution.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..A FamousBloggers ComLuv Contest Sponsor That I’m Already Familiar With
(2 comments) July 17, 2010 at 2:11 am
Hi Donna, I have a couple things to add. I haven’t been blogging as long as you, but certainly long enough to know the trouble of spam. I always wanted to write my own blog engine, and the first one I tried was with rather poor PHP skills. At some point some spam bot must have caught on that an amateur was at work, and I started getting many comments an hour. After fighting it for a while, I finally deleted the entire blog.
Having learned the hard way, I have two things to add to your story:
1. From a blogger’s prospective, I think that we need to feel more free to delete comments. My policy is, if the comment is half good, but the link looks spammy, I just disable the link. If it is just plain spam, delete. I know that once you are getting 50 or more comments a post it becomes unmanageable, but most of us aren’t, and every comment is precious.
2. From a commenter’s prospective, one good way to judge your own comment’s worth is asking yourself, ‘could the author have included this in their post’. Does it really add to the conversation? Does it help develop the point being made? I get many comments that are on topic, but add little, but if I’m actually thinking “I wish I thought of that when I wrote the post”, then the comment is really worth it. I read a lot of programming blogs and at times I find that the comments are actually the thing that helped me understand the whole thing. Those are the comments you want.
(192 comments) July 17, 2010 at 7:40 am
I agree, Vernon, that comments are precious. For that reason, I don’t want to discourage people from writing comments that aren’t solid enough to have been included in the post. Not every comment has to be *that* good. But definitely, if the comment is that good, then it will positively catch my eye and go a very long way towards “impressing” me.
I think some people may have gotten the wrong idea about the word “impress” that I used in this post. Hope not, but just in case, maybe I’ll take the time here to explain. (offtopic to your comment). By impress, I mean, “make an impression upon” or “get noticed in a positive way”. I’d hate for it to come across as some kind of egocentric thing but maybe it does have a bit of that connotation. Ok, enough of that offtopic stuff. Sorry for hijacking this comment.
Thanks for the thoughts. They were excellent ones. Not sure why my mind wandered offtopic. I blame not having enough coffee yet.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Wanna Know The Real Reason To Heart CommentLuv?
(141 comments) July 17, 2010 at 8:07 am
Vernon, that’s a good point. I try to look at deletion from my POV as a commenter.
I’m fine with you deleting my post provided you’re not attacking me personally and not allowing me the right to defend myself.
I’m fine with you deleting my link; that’s a privilege, not a right.
I am so NOT fine with you editing my comment in any way, shape, or form unless I’ve slipped and written profanity (you may remove it and add a proper [Ed. note] to explain to the world I’ve been a naughty girl. I’d say that fixing my spelling errors or other typos is fine, too, but only if you’re a better writer than I am and you’re sure you’re right.
I do not take kindly to blogs that have implemented any sort of in-context text link advertising (Infolinks, Kontera, and the like) that spills over onto my comments. I do not grant the blogger anything beyond non-exclusive rights to display my comment on the post where I wrote them. I do not grant the right to make derivative works. I don’t care how trivial the comment is; it’s the principle of the thing, and I won’t comment on blogs I KNOW have implemented these plug-ins in comments. I’ll request deletion if the blogger chooses not to remove the links. Having said that, it is absolutely the blogger’s right to add these links to the blog – I’m not trying to be bossy about it and say “I won’t ever read your blog again if you don’t get rid of this thing!” But don’t apply it to anything I contribute, including comments.
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Little Clauses Grow Up Too Fast
(2 comments) July 17, 2010 at 10:31 am
Just to be clear, Holly, I very rarely do anything to a comment left on one of my blogs, and the only things I would ever do is either disable a spam link or delete. I don’t even do that to often. I often write travel related things, and I find that those articles/posts just seem to get a massive amount of spam. Considering I rarely get more than a couple comment per post anyway, when I suddenly have 10 spam comments, I start deleting. Mostly I’m super nice to any visitor kind enough to leave a comment. [ sometimes I beg them to:) ]
Vernon´s last blog ..New blogs, the thrill
Donna, perhaps my familiarity with blogging on these terms of impressing the blogger themselves was never my intention, but to give response to by way of comment concerning a given blog entry. Topics should actually be the measure for which a comment would be given, at least in my own perspective… not just the subject concerning comments themselves… though here I am submitting a comment. We all learn by taking in the different viewpoints of various responders. One would now only be left to ponder the creative aspects behind this.
(141 comments) July 16, 2010 at 8:04 pm
I’m not sure I follow you.
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..5 Ideas to Get Your Kids to Embrace Summer Reading
(2 comments) July 16, 2010 at 4:39 pm
What I found amusing reading this is that many comment spammers try to automate many of these points. They take the username of the author of the post (“Nice post, admin!”), copy and include some random sentence from the post (“Click here for more info”), and then attempt flattery (“I learned a lot from reading your post. Great work. Keep it up!”).
Of course, none of these points can be automated elegantly and a quality comment is really easy to identify.
(192 comments) July 16, 2010 at 5:04 pm
“Keep it up!” is always a giveaway to me, Pierre. There are a handful of other phrases that these bozos use over and over again. Luckily, it’s easy to spot those kind. Click. Gone.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Wanna Know The Real Reason To Heart CommentLuv?
(2 comments) July 16, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Another give away is all those people called “Buy Viagra Online” posting praising comments on my blog
I should write to Mr Online and ask him to stop doing that.
On a more serious note, we have to pay tribute to Akismet which automatically spots all these fake comments, making our lives as bloggers just a bit easier.
(192 comments) July 16, 2010 at 6:21 pm
I can’t imagine what life would be like without Akismet. It’s not perfect, but my goodness, I’d have quit blogging long ago without it.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Wanna Know The Real Reason To Heart CommentLuv?
(2 comments) August 4, 2010 at 2:24 am
Pierre,
I always get comments like those on this hanjie blog. Stuff like “I’ve learned a lot from this article” or “I like your writing style”. But this blog has no articles of any kind: hardly any text at all apart from the blog post titles
Of course I’m still flattered hehe. Anyway, those automated muppets always crack me up.
Wit´s last blog ..029 Man in the Mirror
(192 comments) August 4, 2010 at 6:21 am
Once in a while, Wit, when I can use a little pick-me-up, I’ll purposely go through the spam comments just to feel good about myself. All those little fake flatteries are good for the soul.
Hehe, ok, maybe not, but they do make me smile, even if it’s just because I’m laughing at the insanity of their wasted efforts.
DazzlinDonna´s last blog ..Ways To Make Money Online
(3 comments) July 16, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Donna, Holly: Thanks for your comments and experiences with keywordluv. That is exactly what I needed, experience and perspective.
I see a great application for it, specifically for local…but it may well have only limited application should it lead to an explosion of comment spam above the existing endless torrent.
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