Blogs are sexy again. As we move away from social media sites and toward a more decentralized social web experience, people and businesses are devoting more time to their blogs as a way to connect with readers and potential customers. If you’re devoting more time to your blog, don’t forget to focus on writing better blog comments. Whether you are replying to a reader on your own blog or leaving a comment on someone else’s blog, commenting is one of the best ways you can connect with new readers/customers, and build exposure for your business. Let’s talk about how to write great comments whether it’s on another blog, or on your own.
How to Write Great Blog Comments on Other Blogs
One of the best ways to grow your blog, is to leave it. What I mean by this is leaving comments on other blogs is a great way to create value for others, and ultimately grow awareness for your own blogging efforts. This is especially helpful for new bloggers that are looking to build a readership or following as compared to established bloggers.
But not all blog comments are created equal, and here’s some of the tips I’ve learned over the years for writing great blog comments:
1 – Add something to the conversation. Often I will read a post and think ‘wow, great post!’ But go past that, highlight issues that the blogger addressed, and add your own take. You don’t have to agree completely, and you don’t have to stick with their point. If one example they mentioned reminds you of another instance from your own experiences, mention that. But try to avoid simply repeating what others have said. And this is easier to do when you…
2 – Comment early. Sure it’s nice to let a few people comment first, so then you can build off what they say, as well as the blogger’s post. But what if you wait too long and everyone has addressed the points you wanted to raise? Don’t be afraid to put your thoughts down and to share your opinions. This is how you generate conversation and attention.
3 – Don’t over-promote yourself. No one likes reading a comment that’s blatant self-promotion. We’ve all seen these comments, “Hey Mack, really great thoughts on this topic, I recently blogged about this as well…”, then they include a link to their blog (In fact, I often delete these comments if someone attempts to leave one here). Obviously, the only reason they left the comment was to link out to their site. Remember that you aren’t leaving the comment to promote yourself, you are trying to create value for the blog by adding to the conversation. If you’ve done your job, you’ll get promotion as an indirect result of your efforts.
4 – You can disagree, without being disagreeable. I might be a bit different from some in how I approach disagreements in the comments section, but I love it when readers disagree with my posts, and challenge my points. The biggest reason why, is because when you bring in alternative points, that extends the conversation and gives more people a chance to jump and leave their point of view.
However, always remember that it’s ok to ‘attack’ the ideas, but not the people presenting the ideas. Challenging stances and ideas are fine, but personal attacks add nothing to the conversation, and make you look like a jackass. Not what you want. Feel free to disagree, but don’t be disagreeable.
5 – Ask questions. What if you find a post and agree with the post, and everything the commenters have said. Now what? Why not ask a question or bring up a point that no one has raised yet? One thing that often happens, especially on blogs where the writer is very popular, is the readers may all agree with the writer. Why not offer a contrarian view and bring up the other side of the issue? Again, this helps extend the conversation, and you might find that others will then chime in saying that they agree with your point of view.
6 – Know why you are commenting. Are you leaving a comment to draw attention to yourself, or to add to the conversation? As with most everything else in social media, blog comments work best as a way to INdirectly promote yourself. Write a comment that others find value in, and that encourages others to check out your blog, follow you on Twitter, etc. Write a comment that was clearly intended to promote your blog, and you will likely gain nothing, and hurt your reputation.
How to Write Great Blog Comments on Your Own Blog (And Tips For Leveraging Great Blog Comments Left By Your Readers)
So that covers how to write great blog comments on someone else’s blog, but how do you handle blogs written on your own site?
My over-arching rule for comments on your own blog is Reward the Behavior You Want to Encourage. If your blog allows readers to comment, then you want readers to comment. So if commenting is the reader behavior that you want, then you need to think about what you can do to encourage more readers to comment. Here’s some of my tips:
1 – Reply to as many comments as possible. If a reader comments on your blog, you want to reply to that comment if at all possible. This signals to the reader that you read their comment, and that you appreciate their comment enough to take the time to respond to them. This also ENCOURAGES this reader to comment again, since they know you will reply to them if they do.
2 – Ask the reader to expand on their thoughts. If a reader has left an indepth comment, then feel free to engage them in your reply and ask them to clarify or expand on a point they raised in their comment. This doesn’t always work as the reader that left the original comment may not see your reply to them or they may not feel like replying. Still, by replying to the commenter you are signaling to them and all your readers that you value their comment and that encourages your readers to comment more often.
3 – Add great reader comments to the body of the post they are commenting on. This is a great way to acknowledge and thank your reader for a great comment, and it encourages them to comment again. If a reader leaves a comment that I want to highlight, I will add it to the end of the post (or in another part of the post, if relevant), and make special mention of the comment, and the person who left the comment. If the commenter added a link to their blog when they commented, I will add a link to their blog when I add the comment to my post, as an extra incentive for the readers to comment more often, as well as an additional way to acknowledge and thank the reader for their great comment. Also, doing this encourages readers to check out the comments and may encourage them to leave their own comment.
These are some tips I have learned from my own experience in writing blog comments. What did I miss that works for you?
It helps me to realize the blogger is another person just like me. If I’m pulled into what’s been written, it’s hard for me not to respond. I just feel like I’m having a cup of coffee with the author.
I like how Mary put it above: connecting with the blogger like you’re having a cup of coffee and a conversation… That is a great way to approach commenting on blogs and building a community in general. Too often you see blog posts with spam comments or, as you mentioned, just the quick “great post” types, no added value = no one clicking your link anyways so what’s the point? Most likely you’ll just annoy the author and every future reader. I’d rather have one less backlink or one less click through than to leave my mark in such a way.
as you mentioned, just the quick “great post” types, no added value = no one clicking your link anyways so what’s the point? Most likely you’ll just annoy the author and every future reader. I’d rather have one less backlink or one less click through than to leave my mark in such a way.
Im not that much of a internet reader to be honest but
your blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back later on. Cheers
Wonderful post however I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this topic?
I’d be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Thank you!
The problem is spam. There is so much and so long ago that most webmasters will discuss removing options. Valisoso comment with a link related is very difficult if we continue down this way.
Hi would you mind letting me know which webhost you’re utilizing? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different browsers and I must
say this blog loads a lot faster then most. Can you suggest a good
internet hosting provider at a fair price? Thanks, I appreciate
it!
Exactly what I was looking for. Your points seem very obvious but despite that I haven’t started interacting with articles I read yet. What I occasionally do is sharing my story with the topic stated in the article, it’s also always interesting for me to read about the story of others.
i would like you guys to help me out on my blog please. am new and i dont even have an idea to what it is and how to make cash out of it, ut i know i can do it. thanks
Great and awesome post.It is very helpful.This blog shows the importance of blog commenting. Thanks Mack
Good information. I have started to change my commenting method after reading your blog.
For sure I will do improvement the way I used to do commenting. Helped me lot to upgrade my knowledge.
Well crap! I made my first comment on your blog and already I did it wrong.
😉 But seriously…. this is the type of thing I would have never ever thought about! Great info and I’m trying to take it all in. Thank you for sharing.
Carol any comment from you is a good comment 😉
This is really valuable article. As you told me that how we can drop our best review on any blog post but i saw many blog that users are only put the thanks and nice post. Actually i have one of the question that many people say that we always write to technically so i want to ask that we can’t write a general comment.
Thanks Macks for the post. It is really helpful. I was really searching that kind of post.
But one thing I want to ask, How can I be disagree without disagreeable?
Can you explain this please?
or you’re saying that I can write my points whether I differ from the authors opinion,, but without attacking him personally..
Good sound advice. Point 4 is right. Whilst everyone is entitled to their own opinions, it’s important that it is not stated aggressively. I’ve seen many a words war breaking out on the most simple of postings. Some folk just simply like the sound of their own voice in real life and also in cyberspace 🙂
I just started to change my commenting method after reading this post. Thanks , good work
Yes i agree with the point above. Some time comment too short it does not make sense, at least two or three paragraph to make sense.
“Add something to the conversation” make you the best blog commenter. All it takes is to read the blog post carefully and see if you can contribute to the topic.
I like your point about not overly promoting oneself. I think the problem is that many people are too anxious to drive traffic to their sites. They forget that it takes time to build a solid foundation that will eventually drive traffic to your site.
I recently found that commenting on related blogs is useful for ranking or promoting but often my comments started going in spams after reading this article it seems like I got direction how to post comments.
My grandson keeps reminding me that I need a blog. He keeps telling me that I would be just great; he thinks I can do everything. (Am I the lucky one!). Well, I did not think about it for quite a while but today I heard from him again and he has not forgotten this and will haunt me until that happens. If I were to get a blog, I would definitely go into cooking, short cuts, and everything that I learned about cooking. Been on local TV cooking, wrote a cookbook and self published it that sold very well, and feel that I can offer my expertise in that area. I have a whole lot to say about this subject. What do you think of this?
Blog comments are a reaction to a blog post, so it should be your opinion to what you’ve read. Thanks for sharing such a nice topic. I will surely maintain this.
It annoys me so much when people comment on your blog and clearly haven’t read what you’ve wrote. The wonderful thing about blogging is that you can become apart of an online community, and there shouldn’t always be a hidden agenda.
Great article, Mack. Let’s hope a lot of people read it.
Your Blog is really appreciable. Content given in this blog would really help for the perfect blog commenting. Thanks to share.
I think comments are the most important aspect of blogging. They are how the user interacts with you though the blog. I will be using Facebook, my own email, and other video game sites to promote my blog.
I got some important tips for the blog commenting. Really a nice article regarding the commenting. Keep it up!
Your blog is provides the great information always.Thanks to sharing the great information..
Nice tips on writing blog comments! Thanks Mack 🙂
I generally leave blog commenting for self-promotional purposes up to my cat. I just hate it when I look through the spreadsheet of all the comments he’s left and half of them are, “I can haz cheezburger?” – that’s not funny, and he keeps getting my URLs blocked by CommentLuv.
I think the best way to write a great post comment is to give an additionnal ressource to th article.
I think that knowing the subject well makes you a great contributor to a blog post. Does not matter what is the tone of your comment: helpful, informative, controversial, if your know the subject well, a writer can always appreciate your input even when there is a difference in opinion.
“You can disagree, without being disagreeable”
Yes thats true but may be there will be less chances that your comment will be approved.
I am new in blog commenting. I hope this post will help me to learn more about SEO strategy, and my blog will fruit full with traffic. Thank you very much.
As someone who is constantly writing blog comments, I find this post to be extremely useful. Especially the part about over promotion and commenting early.
Asking questions are really pleasant thing if you are
not understanding anything totally, however this piece of writing offers nice
understanding even.
Writing a great comments should mean writing a relevant comment to the post for which you are participating. A nice article here with some useful tips for those who are not used-to comment that frequently.
Great and really helpful article! Adding to the conversation, providing more information, or expressing a new point of view I suppose is the meaning of commenting. Taking for granted that blog commenting still is a great SEO tactic, it should at least be done the right way. I mean you want to promote your article or service? Then find posts that are relevant. This way you may add your link as a resource page, that adds value to the conversation.
As long as you take the time read the blog post and have an opinion that you want to share, you just go for it. No special rules needed.