Don’t Be ‘That Guy’ when Commenting

As a blogger I understand the significance of comments, they mean a lot to us. Some bloggers more than others, the recent parody by Telling Dad was a huge hit because of the truth in it, just knowing people care enough to stop what they are doing and post a comment can mean so much. We all know comments are important, they provide support for the writer and can be a great place for lively debate where appropriate.

There is another side to comments too- they can also benefit to the commenter, a comment can bring readers to your blog, can help move you up the social ladder by having your ‘avatar’ and blog name seen in multiple places, a good comment on a popular blog can gain the attention of the writer, potentially resulting in a mention or another form of help from the esteemed blogger. The right comment can reap multiple rewards for you if you play your cards right, along with knowing you have made someone’s day brighter by leaving a comment!

So who is ‘that guy’ you ask? That guy is the one who posts a comment that is not contributing to the post, not helping support the writer, and certainly won’t result in any gained influence for the commenter. That guy leaves comments all over with no regard, resulting in posts like this that try, unsuccessfully, to help change the world… but ‘that guy’ is probably not reading this, he probably does not spend his time reading blogs that will help him become a better blogger, otherwise he would have learned a long time ago that spam does not equal love. So these posts are written for the bloggers, the ones who will read this and instantly recognize the behaviors below so we can all comment and share our worst commenter experience, laugh about it, hit empty spam, and continue to write and strive for those comments that mean something.

“That Guy” is the commenter that is…

Outright Spammy- Oh yeah, thank goodness for askimet, run a blog for more than a day or two and forget to activate it and you will be flooded with spam! Not even trying to act human, they just blast the internet with useless junk.

Irrelevant- this may be a genuine person, not trying to spam, but when they leave a random comment on a post that would be served up best in your email, twitter, or even facebook. It is rude, just like in real life and someone finishes a story and you jump in and talk about your car… rude!

Everywhere and Nowhere- some comments make you wonder if they are commenting for the sake of commenting, just to see how many they can leave in a day, and never reading a single word of the actual blog post- commenting with things like “Great Post!” or worse yet, the comments you get from blog hops or memes= “Popping in from xyz bloghop!” – Yeah, but what did you think of the post?

So Shameless- commenting to leave a link is another way ‘that guy’ pisses me off. “Check out my post SPAM”, if your post is that good then you should feature it somewhere on your blog, easy to find, then leave a relevant comment where people will want to visit your site and in turn find that well placed article. Or better yet, if the blogger uses CommentLuv then register, upgrade, and add that incredibly helpful post as one of your options on all blogs with the plugin- see, a NOT-spammy way to advertise.

Egotistical- when ‘that guy’ gets a comment on HIS blog, he returns the love, he visit’s the commenter’s blog and leaves a comment… nice thought right? All bloggers should strive to return love, but visiting a blog, picking a post and commenting with something like “Thanks for visiting my Blog” is just plain rude. If you do not have time to read the post and leave a good comment in return, don’t bother, it is much better than a comment just to let everyone know you got a visitor today.

Your Turn

I am sure you have more to add, I could go on and on if I really wanted to bore you! What are your least favorite kinds of comments? Have a funny comment to share? Whatever you do though- don’t be ‘that guy’.

This post is part of our amazing Blogging Contest, plz add a comment and tweet it to support the author.

Tagged as: Blogging, Comment, commentluv, contest, humor, spam, that guy, tips, writing

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Article by evelester

I am a web designer, a blogger, and a work from home mom. I run three blogs currently; Money Hungry Momma, Everyday Eve, and Letters to Breathe. I have been a blogger for as long as I can remember, have sold many of my older blogs to focus on new projects and family.

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