A comment on your blog post is one of the best confirmations that your words and ideas are meaningful. It’s tangible proof that someone is listening Comments give validation to your conversation, and to your site’s visitor traffic.
courtesy of Bernardo Borghetti
I am in the middle of a project with a community of great women on Blog Frog and SITS to do the ProBlogger 31 day challenge. As we reach out to support each other by commenting on blogs, I have been running into a wall. I have tried my best to comment on some sites but I had to finally give up and come back later. I tracked my time trying to make a comment on several of these sites and found it took me up to 20 minutes.
Bloggers, have you ever tried to comment on your own site? You should. No casual reader is going to put up with a 20 minute setup process. Although it does keep out the obnoxious spammers with the 3 page offers from Nigeria.
During business lunch with two friends this week, our waiter kept popping in to add to our conversation after apologizing for eavesdropping. He just couldn’t help himself. It was a fun meal.
What if our waiter had tried to join our conversation but there was a muzzle that kept him from being heard.
What obstacles face your readers when they try to comment on your blog? Hopefully your site visitors don’t feel like the people in the photograph below.
Courtesy of Kim Davies
You must put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Don’t let the fear of some spam comments strangle the dialogue on your site. The Word Press add-on Askimet does a good job weeding out most spam comments, and it should be already installed on your blog.
Remember that commenting is a spur of the moment activity for casual reader. If you force a reader to jump through a hoop and climb a mountain in order to chime in, the urge will disappear.
Check out 6 invisible obstacles.
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Yikes. Why do you think it takes you 20 minutes to comment on a site?
Commenting is just like talking. Write it out, whatever you’re thinking.
Because they only had ID logins that I don’t have. (No simple name and email choice.) I was trying to figure out what Typepad, AIM etc was and had to read up and then try to register. I had my comments all typed out. Trying to get it to be accepted by the system when I don’t have the required login is a whole new level of stress.
You preempted me Sam. I have a post ready for tomorrow listing out some exact problems that I ran into.
I know exactly what you mean i found myself in that situation where i have typed out my comment but only get discoraged by all the hype to simply comment!
My site is a wordpress org site and for some reason it is very hard to sign up to comment on a blogspot platform. I went as far as creating a blogspot account, created a blog which only has 1 post up that has a link to my site just so i could comment without any trouble!
Mayya,
Wow, just simply wow. I cannot believe that you went through that much effort.
Bloggers who want repeat readers should hear your story. You didn’t just ford a river. You went ahead and built a siege engine to storm the castle’s walls.
Oh Kim, I totally agree. Sure, once you are signed up with disquis it isn’t a problem to comment with it, but the set up bugs. I hate when a blogger on blogger doesn’t allow a commenter to use their URL to comment. Sure, I have a google account, but that isn’t where I would like the conversation to continue. I also hate when you hit submit and then the comment page reloads requiring you do enter the matching letters. Fine, if you want to require your commenter fills out the letters, have it on the same page as submitting. I’ve closed a window many times just as I realize, oops I had another step. Then that blogger misses out on at least one comment.
I agree, commenting should be easy not frustrating.
Amy, I completely forgot about that annoying situation of having the captcha on a separate page. Ugh.
Oh, I HATE word verification, and it usually sends me running.
I eliminated the word verification about a month after I started blogging. I had no idea it was reloading the page as you had mentioned. A reader let me know she was having trouble, and I immediately fixed the problem.
I also allow anonymous comments (I have blogger)
My issues today have said it was bloggers fault but I agree if it takes to long or has many steps I’m gone.
I saw the tweets you did about the effort to comment.
Totally agree! I get so frustrated when I go to a Blogger blog and it doesn’t have the Name/URL option. My Google account doesn’t link anywhere since I don’t have a blogger blog. I usually just put “Melissa from Adventuroo.com” in the comment but I hate doing that!
I can’t even do that on some blogs because it won’t take comments unless you have one of the IDs. That happened this morning again. I was on a new blog before work and I loved the post. I tried to find ways to comment but I had 5 minutes to get out the door and just gave up.
I’m with Melissa, it’s frustrating, because all that is on my google account is a blog that I created to do some coding for a blogger design. I find it tacky leaving the URL in the comment yourself, but I like her solution I will do that from now on.
It’s essential to make it easy, fast and in a way in which they are comfortable. Many people don’t even point out this hidden pitfall and I bet more than one of your post readers has just run off to their own blogs to check out their own blogs. Great post!
Oh, boy! What a great article, and SO timely, as I’m mired in the midst of 31DBBB as well. I recently got a comment from one of my readers telling me how complicated my Intense Debate system was — I had switched over to eliminate spam, but have apparently alienated folks in the process.Argh!
These are really good points. I changed my comment options because I liked how the comment section looked on someone else’s blog. I signed up and don’t remember it being difficult to comment on the other blog before I had a name and password. However, I know friends who can’t comment from their phones.
I’ve considered ditching this comment thing but am worried about losing all the comments I’ve gotten with it. How do we go back?
This is helpful info. I’m a new blogger and it never occurred to me to check to see how easy or difficult it is to comment. Thanks so much!
Yes, when I can’t get a log in to load, I eventually give up…and don’t get me started on captcha words…especially after hitting confirm and thinking I’m done.
I feel it is truly essential as well to make sure it is easy for your readers to be able to post comments. I have left many many blogs because of all the word verification.Once I see that….I’m Gone!
Gr8 post Kim!
I also wanted to mention I appreciate your post. It really helps to get the word out, because I know these bloggers that are using these systems just don’t realize how hard it is.
I liked you suggest. Comment on your own blog. What a great way to help them learn what it is like.
This was my blog today. I tried to add disqus and totally messed it up and even had to change my template design.
Excellent post! I use Akismet and it works like a charm. No hoops on my site, c’mon over, I love company! =)
Thanks for the words of wisdom about ease of commenting… I have run across the others of which you speak. Ugh.
And I thought it was because nobody liked what they were reading!
I lived and learned….the hard way. Had a troll that made my blogging miserable, so inacted the dreaded word verification AND moderation…but then I kept hearing from friends via email that they had a hard time leaving a comment on the blog…I was happy they emailed me, but I was not getting comments on the BLOG like I wanted.
So now it is all free and clear…but you have me thinking I better double check that readers will be able to leave a comment when the mood strikes.
Kelly,
I use Akismet to screen for spam but I do check my spam mail every day.
One way for you to handle that troll would be to block the IP address if they become abusive. There are addons and tools that you can use to trace and block the IP. I’ve helped women out with stalker issues before for different social media platforms. Just email me if you get the same problem in the future.
Great post and ideas! I’m going to share this with the rest of my team as we work more with enterprise-level clients.
Thanks and Regards/-
Jason Webb
Good post, I know what you mean about some blogs being very difficult to comment on, with some even having sign ups. I too find Akismet does the job in catching any spam.
You have a very nice blog with lots of interesting info!
Visiting from #31DBBB!