Comments (on blogs/blog-posts) are defined as written remarks about anything that gets published on your blog. Comments are not be a part of writing the original post, but are just as important as the rest of the content on your blog. Comments on a blog/post are a measure of the activity going on your blog for the new visitors. So, you should seriously work out (by writing a quality blog post!) to get more of these. But keep one very important thing in mind: Don’t try to get just comments! Try to get people and thoughts…
Sometimes the discussions, that catch up in the comments to a specific post, can be more interesting than that blog-post itself. You still have to read the post to fully understand the context of the discussion, but the comments can really give it another taste. Then, aim to participate in the discussion by replying to any comments you get. Sometimes you’ll agree with points that argue your post, sometimes you’ll disagree. If you’re sure about how you feel before you post, you’ll be able to join in the discussion and put across your views. But doing this effectively is a skill that you should learn to master to make it big in the blogosphere! Now, this is the point of this particular post that we’ll now talk about.
How to Respond to Comments Effectively:
- You can not respond to comments if you have none! Work out to get comments.
Write quality posts using good titles and impressive openings. Chose your topics carefully and base your posts on your own experiences. Paragraphs and headings make your post more “readable” and easy to follow as your ideas are brought out clearly. Ask your readers a few questions in your post that will make them think and leave a comment. - Try to get a discussion started in your comments.The trick is to do wild-card-writing.
I am not sure if there’s any such term but I’ll explain what I mean with this. Keep one abstract of your write-up with yourself and don’t share it in the post. Let the commentator touch it in his response. If he hits the point, go support him stating why you agree and if the abstract is missed in a first few comments, Go ahead and hit it yourself! - Identify Comment Spam.
Like e-mail spam, Robot “spambots” flood a blog with advertising in the form of bogus comments. This is a serious problem that requires you to have tools to exclude some users or ban some addresses in comments. Identify comment-spam and delete or block it as soon as possible. - Use a threaded comments plugin. This allows the comments to be nested in a tree-like structure.
This makes it easier to respond individually to each comment as your reply will be nested within that individual’s comment. This is a clean way to increase the number of comments to your post without giving an impression that you are flooding your own comments. - When no such plug-ins are available (as in Blogger/Blogspot) then do not make the mistake of replying to reader comments by making one comment in reply to each reader!
( This way of commenting at Net Entrepreneur, if discarded makes Alex’s blog all the more better. He’s learning and I hope he’ll find this post useful.) - Your Language, Tone and Attitude is important.
Be polite & humble. Take all your comments positively! If someone says your post sucks, then take it like a man. Don’t start flaming right away but just try believing that you really suck even when you know you don’t. This will help you improve a lot and make sure that next time a commentator won’t have a chance to say so. You can make a humble reply saying that you can re-visit your opinions and ideas.
How to make a single reply to multiple comments:
This is a fairly simple thing to do. Simple highlight the name of the user you are replying to and in normal formatting add your reply. Then append the next reply to the end of first, in a similar fashion.
Here’s how I used to reply in a single comment when I didn’t use Yet Another Threaded Comments Plugin (Download Here) :::
@ Commentator1
Reply to Commentator one....
@ Commentator2
Reply to Commentator two....
... And So on ...
Or another simple method :::
Commentator1 :: Reply to Commentator one
Commentator2 ::Reply to Commentator two
... And So on ...
These are some great ways to get into a healthy relationship with your readers through comments. You and as well as your readers will love this spirit of participation at your blog and hence you can lay the foundation of a healthy and active readership base! Enjoyable to already-your-readers and Inspirit to the new visitors…
Like my post?
Any ideas, suggestions, opinions and view-points are most welcome through the comments.
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Great post man, wow your site is looking really good these days.
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You make some very good suggestions/reasons. I think the one I have the most problem with is the one about taking it like a man…lol…sometimes I get very passionate about my topics, or views on things…and when someone comes in being rude about it, it just gets too me too quickly…
I have no problem with someone disagreeing…it’s just when people are rude about it that bothers me…I’m working on it though.
You can always add me at any IM and give me all the hard words… I can be very patient, and easily ignore shit to be at comfort and keep my cool
🙂
See, I’m getting really interested in what you call: Wild Card Writing trick. My blog is a tutorial blog, which is rather technical in all senses. How can I have a better abstract to get more feedback, has always be a challenge for me. The comments seems to be much sort of nice appreciation rather than new ideas to get variation of post topic. The feedback I’ve received always too technical (ex.:supported file format to download freebies, file size and etc.) but to me, these kind of comments are more worthy than just nice flatters..
😀
by the way, Abhi… your article is a wonderful idea and makes me remember that comments to our blog are long term assets to stay with good quality post.
Thank you!
I’ll probably write something about this new concept that came to my mind, aboutWild Card Writing. I just hope you don’t mind hanging around till I find little time to do it. And yes, the kind of comments, you said, you receive… Indeed they are more valuable as These are the opinions , suggestions and feedback that are helping you to get better. But don’t ignore the “nice flatters” even! Your readers are compelled to write something like that only out of genuine appreciation.
Thank you for all the good words you said, and for taking some time to drop by and leave your comment.
🙂
😉 wow…, thanks. (Now I made a very short reply, doesn’t it sound “effective” too LOL , just kidd). Looking forward for the following article related to this blog thread!
Excellent site – do keep up the good work.
This is a great list, Abhinav! I try to respond quickly to every comment, but always thought it more personal to do it individually. I will consider your points about nested comments. I have not yet seen one for WordPress that I like. I’ll look again. Another thing I have come across is people complaining about nested comments when they are following a thread because sometimes a new comment gets inserted way up above and is easy to miss.
Lots to think about!
-Will
Its not very easy to find the best WP plugins out there, but to my knowledge from reading other blogs YATCP was doing a great job. I installed it back in the early stage of my blog and I am at comfort with it.There were a few glitches but were sorted out pretty soon after I submitted a bug report to the plugin author.
About missing a comment up the tree, I actually follow all the comments from my mailbox when a notification arrives. So I don’t miss out any. Try doing this way.
These are the points I have been trying to get across to those who are using EntreCard. Commenting and responding to comments, in my opinion, will either make or break a blog. I use threaded comments to try and reply to each person on an individual level, but if I notice the commenters are saying basically the same thing, I reply to all with one comment-and it still works. Interaction with readers is what keeps a blog alive, not numbers alone. Great post by the way.
This is a great idea, that I already practice on my blog… By the way, Did this clear up Wild Card Writing concept, a bit or not?
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Thank you for the tips! I have thought about leaving out key points in my posts so other people can reflect on them their own way. I tend to add important notes in my posts to make it longer… but after reading this, I will give it a try. 🙂
Be careful with the use of Wild Card Writing trick. Don’t skip a point that takes away the essence of your post. And yes, try not to write very lengthy posts unless everything you write means a thing. Good posts that are longer are so because they can’t be any shorter. And the ones that can be shorter, are never long if they are good.
I appreciate this article and most of what you have to say. I think I disagree with your admonishment to not respond to each individual comment, though.
My habit is to only respond to a commenter on the post if their comment requires discussion — if all I need to do is thank the commenter for their comment or visit, I do that with a private email.
If the commenter has something I should answer or respond to, I will respond to their comment and not demean their question or discussion by muddying it up with other peoples’ whose questions or comments aren’t pertinent to that individual’s.
All in all, I really believe responding to comments is something that has to be the blog author’s choice and shouldn’t be a hard and fast rule.
Other than this sticky point, your article is right on!
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Yeah, I think it’s important to reply to comments on our blog, but I dont’t want my name to be on the “recent comments”‘s category. Any suggestion?
While I think, it is quite possible to use some PHP function to exclude your own name from the recent comments list, I do not suggest messing up with the code if you’re not a good programmer. Requesting the plugin author for feature-addition seems like a good idea to me. Thanks for taking time to share your opinion.
🙂
I think I don’t want to mess with my code.
Interesting points you have here. I’ll always make it a point to visit the first-time commenter’s site and reciprocate the same.
Thanks for the heads up on YATC plugin, I’ll see how I could use it on my site.
Yan
Thanks for helping me with the plugin Abhinav. I appreciate it.
Site really resource
Wild card writing, huh? Neat 🙂
Anyway, I like the way you structure multiple comment reply. I think I’m gonna use it.
Gunadys latest published blog-post ………. Creativity and Innovation in History
I also love the involvement of Blog owners regularly commenting on the comments by people, I think it helps to grow loyal readers by replying to their concerns and appreciating their time and involvement to the blog.