How to Write Blog Comments that will Get Published
The chances are you’re reading a number of blogs like this one throughout the day and leaving comments with the hope that they will get published.
Leaving comments have a two-fold purpose:
1) To contribute to the ongoing discussion, and
2) To get backlinks to your own website unless the site owner has turned on the “no follow” setting. I do not do that in this blog. I believe that if a reader is thoughtful enough to leave a good comment, he or she should get the courtesy and benefit of a backlink. That’s the least I could do for that reader and I don’t understand why some sites deny even that courtesy to their readers.
The problem is this: we site owners also do get a lot of spam. This site, for example, on average gets about 100-120 spam “comments” a day. On some days the same number jumps up to 300 and more. It’s madness! I catch almost all of them thanks to the wonderful Akismet WP plugin. I have no problem there.
But all that spam creates another issue: sometimes I cannot decide whether a comment is a spam or not. It’s such a border-line comment that I cannot decide and sometimes I end up deleting them. I delete them because they are non-informative, not relevant to the blog topic, written in a rude and crude manner, or plugging in a product or service too hard.
So here is my advice to maximize your chances that your blog comments will get published:
1) Make sure your comment is relevant to the post topic. Do not leave a comment talking about toasters and household products for a blog post on medical writing, for example.
2) Address the site owner or the administrator by name. Almost none of the spam messages does that. So when I see my name at the top of the comment, I know it comes from a real person and not a spam robot.
3) Say something useful. Don’t just say “this was interesting” and leave at that. I sometimes get cryptic “Can I publish a link to this post?” sort of comments that I also delete since they’re probably all spam. Equally useless (and a clear sign of spam) is GENERIC “comments” like “Keep posting stuff like this I really like it”. They all get deleted.
4) Don’t include more than one link pointing at either your web site or your affiliated products. As I said, I’m willing to publish one backlink as a courtesy and by way of saying “thank you.” But I have to draw the line somewhere and I draw it at one link.
What do you think about this topic? What has been your experience with writing comments to blog posts? Would you like to share your own ideas and techniques to get more of your useful comments published?
Hi Ugur,
These are some great tips. I often wondered what the accepted etiquette was for commenting on a blog topic and your suggestions make perfect sense.
I’m planning on starting my own blog soon (still building up topic material) and knowing how to filter comments on my topics is definitely knowledge I need to know.
I think the length of the comment should be consideration as well. I’m not sure how many people want to sit and read a comment that may be as long as the post itself (I’ve seen it). I tend to skim or ignore the really long comments. Even if they have a relevant point, they violate one of the Commandments of Writing: Be Concise.
Ugur,
great post, I also have the problem with spam comment’s (well at least I did till google sandboxed my site) how does Akismet work I am relatively new to wordpress have been using blogger for years.. and have not had that much spam to contend with on blogger.
Scott, Akismet is very effective and easy to install as well. It just needs a special code that you can obtain with a few clicks. Once you enter that installation code into the special field in Akismet’s plug in, you’re good to go. I highly recommend Akismet. However, I’m also following Blogger and they really improved it compared to what it was just a couple of years ago. If there are any readers who are not aware of the improvements in Blogger, I recommend they have another look. The only downside is, whatever you post on the Blogger platform is effectively (if not literally) owned by Google. Even if you end up developing a million-dollar blog, Google can terminate it at any time for any reason. So I recommend using Blogger (or WordPress) software on your own web host account. Ugur
Thanks for the response .. I will look in to Akismet. but I think I will wait a little bit .. they say it is for free for personal blogs that don’t have any income from the site. Well I do have books on my site for sale.. so I think to be on the up and up. I really should pay for it. Honesty and integrity should always come first even on the internet in my book.
Thanks again
Scott, I totally agree with you. That’s why this web site has an Akismet Pro account. I also think it’s well worth it because Akismet works so well. Best regards, Ugur