Today, I’d like to make a comment about comments. Blog comments, to be exact.
One of the best things about writing a blog, is the interaction between people in the comments section. That’s why I believe you should look after your comments section, so that it’s as valuable a resource for your readers and yourself as possible.
Both this blog and my marketing blog, have a commenting policy. The policy is designed to do a few simple, yet important things:
- It explains that comments are welcome, even if they disagree with me.
- It explains that I won’t publish comments, which threaten or abuse people.
- It asks people not to leave comments, using just a SEO keyphrase, service name or the name of a business. However, it welcomes commenters to use their name, nickname or handle, with a short descriptive of what they do, like; “John Smith – WordPress developer” or “Scobleizer – Tech reporter.”
- And finally, as the blog owner is liable for any comments made, which could result in criminal proceedings, I explain that potentially libellous comments will not be published.
Comment policy: There are no rules
Of course, there are no rules regarding commenting and comment policies. As a result, very, very few blogs even have a policy. There are no guidelines for commenters to adhere to, which means we often see someone calling themselves things like “cheap web design in Lincoln” leaving low quality comments and sometimes ruining the flow of conversation, for the genuine commenters.
It’s totally up to you, what you decide to do. All I can share with you is my own experience, however, with well over 20,000 comments on Jim’s Marketing Blog, I do have a lot of experience with comments. After applying my comment policy earlier this year, I found that the quality of comments increased, the level of spammy comments from people only interested in backlinks dropped and the general atmosphere improved enormously. All this, by having a simple, common sense commenting policy.
Your comments on comments
Do you have a commenting policy on your blog? If you do, tell us about it. What do you require from people? I’d value your experiences, so please share them with a comment!
Photo: Andrew Hyde
Hi Jim,
I think it makes good sense to have a commenting policy. I don’t currently have one as I’m operating with a temporary blog whilst I’m building my main site. I will be having one there though as I hope to start attracting a larger audience so looking after comments will take a high prioity.
Particulary the point about you as the blog publisher being legally responsible for all content including that of the comments.
I can fully appreciate that the quality goes up, however I am gusessing that there are still a proportion of spammers out there that won’t even take the time to read a commenting policy.
Cheers,
Alex
There will be spammers, Alex, for as long as Google rewards them with link love.
Once Google figure out how to fix the algorithm, there will be no point spamming and we can all get on with communicating like humans.
Oh well; Maybe one day!
Great idea to have a brief page on commenting. I have not had too many spammers except on a word press blog but WordPress takes care of them immediately. Even blogger catches spammy comments too. If they don’t I just delete.
Thanks Lisa.
Great post Jim. Some excellent tips here. I strongly agree with the need to both respond to each and every commnet and also that it is necessary to reach out and return the favor by commenting on other blogs. I try to practice what you preach on mine.
People like (maybe need) to be recognised, Tyson.
Thanks for the comment, sir.