Banking on Your Blogging

Blog comments are normally a good sign since it indicates people are reading your posts. If fact this form of participation should be encouraged by asking your readers to post comments at the conclusion of any of your blog entries. Most popular blogs are generally littered with user comments and this is something you will want to strive for on your site as well.

Now the point will come where you will experience an increase in participation on your blog. Eventually your readers will begin to post comments faster than you can read them. This is great, your site is gaining popularity, congratulations! If your blog is monetized to earn you an income all the more reason for the good cheer!

OK now what do you do?

Here are 3 tips you can use as a ‘rule of thumb’ when managing comments left on your blog.

Discard Unrelated Comments

Invariably you will receive many comments that are unrelated to any blog entries or subject matter being discussed on the site. Upon closer inspection you will likely also find many links in these comments. You are dealing with spam which is the online version of junk mail. Discard these comments since they serve no other purpose than to clutter up the blog.

Respond to Direct Questions

Questions that are directed at you should be addressed as long as they are related to the subject matter spoken about on the blog. To ignore these questions would be the equivalent of snubbing someone and you want to avoid knowingly doing this. On the other hand you may find a question that is not aimed at anyone in particular and these comments should also be allowed.

It is also quite common for readers to post comments that ask questions not always directly related to what you may be discussing. In effect they are taking advantage of the community spirit that exists and are looking for help/advice. You have a choice here of either discarding the comment or allowing it. I suggest you allow it since you want your readers to know your site can be considered a ‘resource’ for them.

Post Good and Bad

Do not be too ‘thin skinned’ about any comments you receive that are not as flattering as you may want. If the comment is well grounded or meant to be constructive than let it be. Even though you may not want to see it yourself there are others who may have an interest in such a comment. This may be YOUR blog but you have built it for the readers so do not withhold any comments from them just because of your own personal bias.

In the end readers will admire you more for being so open and humble.

Blog comments are something you want to see more of on your site. Looking around the internet you will find that most popular blogs generally have active readers who litter the site with their comments. This is good since it shows your blog entries are generating a reaction and better yet they are even being read. At a certain point you may begin to find that as the number of comments increase so does the difficulty in managing them. The 3 tips we discussed here today serve as a guideline for helping you ‘navigate’ and categorize your comments. Using these tips merely as a ‘rule of thumb’ should succeed in helping you to place, discard or respond to comments in an orderly and sane manner. What are your thoughts on this?

Your blog entries should maintain a certain consistency with the overall theme of the site itself and this is what subscribers expect. The theme your site ‘adopted’ is of obvious appeal to the blog reader or they would not continue to return. Their satisfaction or lack thereof is often reflected when they post comments in response to any changes or new posts on the site.

The blog traffic your subscribers represent is needed not only for the helpful suggestions they offer but also for any additional blog traffic their referrals may generate. It is therefore critical for the health of your blog to keep your readers happy and to make your site as comfortable as possible for them. The question now is what else can you do to maintain the comfort and satisfaction of your readers?

Here are 3 simple rules you want to follow when posting to your blog to ensure the convenience and satisfaction of readers in order to maintain their loyalty.

Serve a Purpose for Readers

Yeah I know we all have heard it before but if your information is NOT useful in some way WHY would anybody want to read it? Your entries can supply the reader with useful information, insight or even humor but your posts do need to contain content the blog reader gets something out of. You do want them to return do you not?

Plain Speak

Write in a way that EVERYBODY can understand. A strong vocabulary is a great asset but if people do not understand what you are saying what good is it? Always remember that you are trying to make a point or convey a message so do not make it harder on the reader by using words they may not recognize.

Layout

Format your post so people can easily ’scan’ it for the points you are trying to make, this will make your blog a bit more user friendly. When people read online they can be like a hawk circling their prey, they like to scan first before they decide to ’swoop’ in for the read.

The blog entries you post on your site are the focal point of the blog reader and are used to determine whether they will continue to return. The quality of the content contained in these entries is important but other factors help determine your readers satisfaction as well. Acknowledging readers’ suggestions when they post comments is also helpful in strengthening their loyalty and your blog traffic. Combining these efforts and following the 3 simple rules for posting blog entries as mentioned above will help maintain reader satisfaction. In doing so both you and your blog can continue to grow and meet the needs of the readers for whom you blog in the first place. For one of the best blogging courses on the internet Click Here!

Most any site owner appreciates receiving blog comments from readers that are ‘constructive’ in nature. Whether it is criticism, suggestions, or a compliment the blog reader generally is doing a service to the site itself by maintaining a constructive tone or spirit to their comments.

The blogging business involves a certain dedication by the site owner to keep their blog updated with useful content for the blog reader. By having to contend with useless or detrimental comments only further occupies their already busy schedule.

In deference to the efforts and commitment of these blog owners we should all learn to observe certain ‘parameters’ in the tone and language of the comments we leave.

Here are 7 things to keep in mind when you post comments on another person’s blog.

Add Value

When commenting contribute only if you can add information or insight that will benefit the other participants and/or the blog owner.

Be Nice

It is important to remember that when on another person’s blog you are a visitor so act as such. If you can not say something in a civilized tone or fashion then withhold your comment, plain and simple.

Keep Comments Brief

Try consciously to always say more with fewer words when writing anything. If this is difficult for you then I suggest you join Twitter where they limit you to 140 characters on every post you make. You will enjoy the site and have the opportunity to practice writing in a more concise fashion.

Lend a Hand

If other participants in a discussion ask something you may have an answer to then volunteer your response. This opens up the forum for even more participation and the site owner will love the increased interaction.

Keep Discussion Alive

If there is an opportunity to expand the conversation then take it. Everybody will appreciate the additional insight and this will also once again encourage more interaction.

Respond to Reply’s

During the course of these discussions you may have a response directed at you. Be sure to respond back to maintain the spirit of interactivity. This will also be noticed by others which could result in more traffic to your own site if you have one

Stay on Point

When you post comments be sure to stay on the topic everybody is discussing. Again you are visiting another persons site and by changing topics or altering discussions in any way would be disrespectful and impolite.

Blog comments reflect the active participation of the blog reader in response to content supplied to them by the site owner. In the blogging business we should recognize there is considerable effort invested in researching and composing the content posted to most blogs. It is therefore only proper that when you post comments your remarks should be of a constructive or complimentary nature as we discussed above. In this way everybody benefits from the useful remarks and helpful spirit reflected in any comments left.