We’ve all been there before.  You receive an email notification that lets you know that someone has left a comment on your blog.  Finally!  Finally, people are beginning to read your blog posts and appreciate what you have to say (at least enough to respond to it).  However, when you open up your blog editor, you soon realize that the so-called “comment” is nothing but a spammer.  It has all the signs of being a spammer because the content and quality of what the person had to say has almost nothing to do with your blog directly and most certainly doesn’t do anything to contribute to the readership or exchange of ideas.

The comment? “Great post.”

Blogs are like plants in terms of their progression.  As a dedicated blogger, you feed your blog by trying to write posts that are near and dear to your heart and with a little social networking and a few readers to start out with, you get to watch it grow over time.  So, then why should blog comments matter at all?

Judge a Person According to the Content of Their Comment

There are some people out there who are more than satisfied just to receive a stack of comments, even if the vast majority are spam, because some comments looks better than “no comments”.

WRONG ATTITUDE.

Part of the reason that people write blogs is as a means for expressing their opinion about something and/or as a means of eliciting some sort of response from their readers.  Blog comments that are meaningful mean the world to those of us who are putting ourselves out there each and every day by way of our writing.  We open ourselves to all sorts of criticism as well as deep, well-thought out responses.  It let’s us know that our efforts aren’t in vain.  After all, there isn’t much of a difference between someone who writes in their diary versus someone else who writes a blog post that no one sees or takes the time to comment on.

Do Unto Others…

If you see a blog post that interests you, and it allows you to comment, COMMENT.  But only leave a comment if you actually have something to say other than “good job” or “nice post” or “That was really interesting”.  The more meaningful comments you receive on your blog, the more driven you’ll be to not only respond to commenters and check out their blogs, but it will also inspire you to maintain a high level of quality in your own writing- which will hopefully attract more readers!

When it comes to blogging and social media, feedback is of the utmost importance. We cater our content writing and site design sometimes so that we can attract readers and/or consumers who will listen to what we have to offer. But when we make comments on other peoples blogs, there are mistakes that we make. Here are five common mistakes to avoid making when commenting on other peoples blogs:

5 Common Blog Comment Mistakes

1. Not Saying Enough- When you leave comments on a blog, blog owners typically like to see that you have something more to say besides “Nice Post”. When you don’t say enough in a comment, you may be perceived as a spammer and/or you may insult the blog writer who will interpret it to mean that you didn’t really take the time to read through what they had to say.
2. Including Links- Most blog comment boxes will allot you space to include a link to a website if you so choose. Taking it upon yourself to include a link back to your site within the body of the comment is typically frowned upon. Unless you know the blog writer personally and have been given the ‘ok’ to do it, leave your links where they’re supposed to be left: not in the body of the comment.
3. Misspellings- Though you may not mean to do it, you should really take the time to proofread what you write-even if it is only two lines long. What you write is a representation of you…that and the fact that every time you spell something wrong, it means that the blog author will have to go in and fix it, creating more work for him/her.
4. Ignoring the Content- Recently, I spoke to someone who was frustrated with some of the blog comments they had received saying, “It’s like they totally ignored the rest of the content to only respond to one part..” When you comment on a blog, even though you may want to focus on one part that struck a chord with you, it’s still a good idea to acknowledge the rest of the post as well.
5. Comment Wars- There are some people who will comment on a blog just to pick fights with other commenters as a means of drawing attention to themselves. While this may temporarily seem like great publicity, it’s not a good idea, and it begins to draw questions as to your ethics and morale. If you truly disagree with someone about something, try to be respectful or send them a personal message outside of the comments section.