Tag Archives: comments

Blogging

You’re Not Even Trying To Leave Good Comments

19 Comments

I’ll own up to this one fact; I’m a different kind of person when it comes to comments I’ll accept on my blogs. Like almost everyone else, I love getting comments on the articles I write. I also hate spam, which is easy to pick out. Where I might differ is that I’ll also get rid of comments that don’t add anything to the conversation, even if I decide it’s not spam.

Last week I wrote an article discussing the topic of social media sites and suppression of different topics here and there. It actually got quite a few comments, but if you check out the article and look at the comments you’ll only see 3 of them there, along with my responses. Why?
Continue reading You’re Not Even Trying To Leave Good Comments →

Blogging

Ending The Ability To Leave Comments When You’re Shutting Down A Blog

14 Comments

Anyone who’s visited this blog over the years known I’m not big on turning off comments on my blog posts. It’s something I’ve never actually done on this blog or my business blog, because I’m not fearful of writing a post that’s going to generate a lot of negative publicity… not that I’d care all that much if I had something I felt needed to be said.


 

With that in mind, I’ve recently turned off comments on a couple of blogs I’m discontinuing… with good reason. Not only did I do that, but I discovered an easy way to do it so I don’t have to deal with the issue again.
Continue reading Ending The Ability To Leave Comments When You’re Shutting Down A Blog →

Blogging

I Wouldn’t Have Commented If…

28 Comments

I love reading and commenting on other blogs. I know some people think it’s too time consuming to do, but I enjoy reading a lot of different types of things. I also love encouraging bloggers, as well as having an opinion on stuff; hey, look at how many articles I’ve written on all my blogs. ๐Ÿ™‚

(64/365) Really really really ow...
Sarah via Compfight

However, I have some rules for blogs I won’t comment on. One, if it takes my having to create some kind of account or having to put in a password or register, I’m not commenting; sometimes I won’t even read those blogs. This means if your blog uses Disqus, Livefyre, or something like that, or if it’s on some website that requires people to join, I’m not going to bother. Yeah, it’s kind of a picky thing, but there’s so many other blogs out there that are enjoyable and easy enough to comment on without having to deal with it. After all, I don’t have unlimited time.

Ah yes, let’s look at this “unlimited time” thing. You know, visiting blogs and leaving comments does take time. When I’m in the mode though, I don’t mind that. However, there’s something I do mind, and a lot of y’all are now doing it.

I hate going to a blog, commenting, and then immediately receiving your stupid email asking me to confirm that I want to subscribe to blog comments. Come on; are you kidding me?

When’s the last time someone left a “real” comment on your blog and didn’t want you, the writer, to respond to it? I’m not talking about those lousy one line comments or those that tell you how great a writer you are but never address the content. I mean real comments, those you know aren’t bad, even if they’re not great.

I know when… never!

When’s the last time someone left a comment on your blog that was pretty good, only for you to discover that they put someone else’s email in it so that, when you responded, you got an angry email from someone saying “Hey, I didn’t comment on your blog”?

I know when… never!

So then… what’s the purpose of this double opt-in process other than to clog up my inbox? Actually, I know it’s a trick by some folks because when I read the email it actually talks about subscribing to receiving a newsletter whenever you post something new; I hate that kind of bait and switch.

For the rest of you though… come on, what’s the point of this? I’m serious; I just don’t get it.

I know what some folks are going to say; don’t click in the box. There’s another little bugaboo I’m going to gripe about.

For most blogs, if you don’t click that little box, you’re not going to be notified if the writer or anyone else responds to your comment. My blog is like that, as I had to add the plugin because my theme is older, and at the time no one was getting notified that I was responding to them.

There are a few blogs where, by clicking in that box, you end up getting that email with the subscription message, but if you don’t click on it you still get notified when someone replies to your comment. That’s not the norm though.

If people actually click on the box, they want to get comments; trust me on this one. If they don’t… well, we never know who clicks on it and who doesn’t (at least I don’t), but if the comment is good enough and you care about your blog and “all” of your readers, you’re going to respond to the comment anyway right? RIGHT?!?!? ๐Ÿ™‚

Please, for the love of chocolate, turn off that feature, whether you’re doing it for comments or trying to sneak through a subscription to a newsletter (if you are, you’re being kind of scummy). It’s unneeded… unless someone can give me a really good reason for doing it. Remember though, I’ve been blogging for more than 10 years, so it better be good!
 

Blogging

3 Things You’re Probably Doing Wrong With Your Blog

18 Comments

I often talk about the need for businesses to have blogs. I talk about how they can help with search engine optimization, promoting one services and products, and giving the business of personal voice.

Who are YOU?
Ian Sane via Compfight

All that is good and well, but now it’s time to refine things just a bit more. I am seeing more small businesses getting into blogging, but there’s a few things that a lot of them need that would really help them to go further.

I thought about going for five points in this post, but I thought that I would just stick to three and make this a quick hitter instead. So let’s look at the top three things you’re probably doing wrong with your blog.

1. Is the name that showing on your posts “admin”?

If so, this means that you haven’t gone into your users area and changed the name that you want showing from admin to your name. If you’re writing your own posts, you want people to see your name associated with your post as opposed to someone else’s name, or admin. After all, you’re looking for name recognition.

If you have a blog that has multiple writers, each writer deserves to have their name associated with their post. By the way, if you have your name associated with your post you also have a way of setting up your name with Google so that if people find your blog through the Google search engines your name and possibly your picture, if you set one up to show up with your name, will come up as well. Google says they’ve killed this, yet I’ve noticed when I’m signed into Google that I still see some people’s images next to things I’m looking for.

2. Are you linking to other articles or other blog posts that are on your site or on your blog when you write your new posts?

This isn’t something you can probably do all the time, internal linking, but what this does is gives people an incentive to check out some of your other information that on your site, and keep them on your site a little longer. Studies have shown that the longer someone stays on your site the more apt they are partake of some of your services or buy some of your products. It’s a great advertising opportunity you shouldn’t miss.

3. Are you engaging your audience by responding to comments or asking questions within your articles?

I should have started this by saying that if you don’t have comments open you don’t really have a blog at all; you’re just talking to people. This is a bias of mine; so sue me. lol

If you are accepting comments, you need to make sure you take time to respond to them. You don’t necessarily have to respond to every single comment, but those comments that are really good you should respond to.

Every once in a while in your article you should ask a question. Did you notice that I asked some questions above? Asking questions helps get people engaged, even if they may not read a comment. If you can make people think, most of the time they will appreciate that and they’ll want more from you.

There you go, three things you should check to make sure you’re doing. Are you doing them? Let me know.
 

Blogging

Spam I Don’t Understand

43 Comments

I’ve written about spam around 125 times out of the almost 1,500 posts on the blog. I’ve talked about how much I hate it, ways to identify it, why it’s important to keep it off your blog and how to move more of it to go directly to your spam filter so that you don’t necessarily have to rush to your blog to remove it from going live as often as you might without putting certain things in place.

And yet, like the reason I have to wear this mask on my present consulting assignment right now (that’s another story) I don’t always understand the purpose of some of the spam. Back in the day most spam looked to be trying to sell something. Nowadays a lot of it is so nonsensical that the only thing you can believe they’re hoping to achieve is to get a link placed on your blog so that it goes back to their page. Obviously some of those folks got bad SEO advice of a different sort than the bad advice I mentioned in that post I just linked to.

What am I seeing? Let’s chronicle some of it:

1. The long, rambling post about nothing. I got a spam comment from someone calling himself “best gym supplements for muscle growth“, and other than occasionally trying to pop a link into it the spam comment was almost 100 lines of nothingness. Someone must have been told that writing a long spam comment gives it a better chance to be thought of as being legitimate; please!

2. The comment with lots of characters in it. What the heck is this type about? I got this mess: “ั•uฯp&X6c;eme&X6E;ts mะฐy also re&X6e;ะตw the respira&X74;ory”. The thing is I get lots of these and I’m betting you do as well. It’s not even close to readable so why even bother? I’m of the opinion someone’s technology has gone haywire; I wonder if spammers can get their money back.

3. The short, incomplete and nonsensical spam comment. I can’t believe anyone even took the time to actually write this, so it must be some kind of randomizer: “Just file manufacture clear subject matter. What did you say? precisely I needed! I have been before browsing search engines like google the complete day for some correct clause such as this” That was it; didn’t even finish the sentence. Intelligence obviously belongs to other family members.

4. Spam that attaches itself to an image. This one is totally incomprehensible. It shows up at the blog with nowhere to go except spam because it thinks the image is the blog post. I hope the spammers didn’t spend too much money on this program because it’s a total loser, like the spammer.

5. The “good post” spam. That one’s been around forever, as well as calling you “webmaster” and asking you if you’re using a free theme. I’m always amazed when I visit a blog and I see the owner actually responding to those comments; well, at least they’re trying to be a good host. ๐Ÿ™‚

6. Spam that shows up without any links whatsoever. Why did the owner even bother sending that one out? By now most blogs probably won’t accept posts without a link because those are usually trolls and what benefit is a spammer hoping to get from something like that?

7. Copying a previous comment as one’s new comment. I have to admit this one’s creative, and it can be easily missed. I’ve missed it a couple of times, even though the Spidey senses went off thinking it looked familiar. This one was actually a legitimate comment… the first time around anyway.

The first link I put up on this post links you to many posts where I’ve talked about ways to protect your blog from some of the spam. I hope you’re using the GASP plugin and, if it’s really bad, go ahead and use Akismet, even though some people run from it like it’s a bull chasing them. We own these blog spaces, not them; don’t let them get you down or chase you away.

That’s all I have. LOL