Dosh Dosh on Blog Comments
blogging April 30th. 2008, 6:00am
Maki does it again over at Dosh Dosh with his latest post: Rethinking Blog Comments. I highly recommend his blog if you are interested in social media, Internet marketing, or blogging in general.
In summary, Maki advises his readers to think long term when commenting on blogs. You can use blog comments as a way to interact with a blogger and build a connection between the two of you.
I know from my own experience that I love it when people comment on Broadcasting Brain posts. Blog comments have allowed me to connect with other bloggers.
The downside of blog comments, especially if you’re an established blogger, is that your comment section will mutate into a gigantic bulletin board where any greedy soul will post just to get their name noticed, plus the backlink that comes from a Do Follow blog comment section. Maki describes one scenario where an internet marketer mass-posted the same comment at multiple blogs as a means to promote himself.
I’ll be honest: I’ve posted comments on some of the A List blogs as a means to get some exposure. Caroline Middlebrook and Darren Rowse have both written useful posts about ways to use blog comments to make contact with other bloggers. I figured, “Hey, if they recommend it…”
However, on the other side of good taste, there is the obvious link spammer, not unlike the gentleman that Maki describes in his post.
I’m sure that it’s a bit discouraging to know that some people are commenting on your blog just to get some attention for themselves.
However, if they are contributing to the conversation in some way, then I think it’s perfectly fine to give your commenter a chance to be contacted by other like-minded individuals. Most blogs were designed to allow the commenter to be contacted, after all.
Yes, it’s an opening that some people will try to take advantage of, but when you’re a beginning blogger, every little bit helps. 
Maki wrote a great post, as usual, so please check it out, won’t you?
(And why not leave a comment here while you’re at it?)
(For that matter, why not subscribe… you never know what kinds of goodies I’ll be presenting here…
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April 30th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Well, it also depends on what you the blog owner wants from the comments. Spam happens. You could probably move comments to disqus.com to get a more pleasant comment experience as well. You also have to remember, the blog is not the only place the conversation happens (shameless plug) that is why services like YackTrack.com start to appear
Check out YackTrack, Tracking Distributed Conversations from Rob D
April 30th, 2008 at 8:19 am
@Rob D - actually, I have a mental note to try YackTrack - sounds useful
April 30th, 2008 at 8:45 am
My pet hate is inane/generic comments that add no value or thought to the conversation… particularly when I see the behaviour repeated by the same individual across various blogs/social networks. Clearly the person has read an article such as Maki’s and is attempting to implement their own commenting strategy… without realising that benefits derived from commenting occur only when additional discussion is insightful and informed. I’ll get off my soap box now…
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April 30th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Mark, I can attest to the fact that it is
With regards to commenting I think the summing up is spot on. There’s a fine line between a bit of self promotion and spamming but the key is to participate in the conversation. As long as you are having an input I don’t see the problem.
Check out Social Media Marketing - it’s not about the hard sell. from Colin Walker
April 30th, 2008 at 8:59 am
@James - no problem, consider this comments section your soapbox.
April 30th, 2008 at 9:54 am
@Colin - agreed.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Great points. I have a client who’s working his way into the blogosphere and have tried to explain this to him - it’s okay to promote yourself, as long as you’re doing it tastefully, and actually adding value to the conversation. But a comment section is not the place for a hard sell.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
You don’t think twice about walking up to someone at a party whose work you admire and introducing yourself. You inject witty comments into the conversation and get some attention while contributing to the conversation.
That’s totally different than walking up to total strangers and handing out your business card at a party.
I think commenting on blogs is a lot like networking at a party…it’s one thing to stop by and drop off your card. It’s entirely another (and better) thing when you join the conversation, make intelligent remarks, and maybe make a few new friends.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
@jhirsch - ah, the “v” word. Hopefully value for both sides.
@Sandie - unforunately people do use these “cold” thrusts into conversations without warning or without regard for the blogger.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I think @Sandie summed it up nicely (I wanted to say “analogized it”).
I had similar thoughts about this post’s reference to a Dosh Dosh post. It could have gone something like “Here’s a link to someone else’s content because I have no value to give.” vs. what you did: “Here’s a great post you might benefit from and here are my value-added comments”.
rk
Check out Ubiquitous Computing Is Not Cloud Computing from reddknight
April 30th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
@reddknight - if someone just wants to see what I’ve read and liked, with little explanation, they could just follow my StumbleUpon submissions. However, if I’m going to take some Broadcasting Brain space to mention a link, the least I can do is to write what I think about it and to explain how it fits into a greater scheme of things.
April 30th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Why does anyone even bother putting a link in a comment unless it’s useful and relevant to the conversation? I mean, even to go back to Sandie’s analogy, do you give everyone your card at a party?
No. You give it to the people who would most likely be interested in what you have to offer. To me, a relevant link is a relevant link. So long as it is directly tied in to what’s being talked about, then it’s fine.
And I mean directly. If you’re talking about getting traffic in a post, and some spammer decides to comment “hey this is great, we do targeted traffic too” - that’s not directly related. That’s a hard sell.
However, if you were talking specifically about the different ways to buy traffic, then that comment would be relevant. It’s a fine line, but it’s one a lot of people trip over.
April 30th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
@Trisha - as I’m sure you know, a number of bloggers set their blogs to automatically put comments into moderation when they include a link. I don’t put links into comments unless absolutely relevant to the conversation. The link that the commenting software allows is free exposure anyway.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I moderate all my comments, but if someone says something that is considered inane and doesn’t add value I don’t discount it and delete it.
I know that a lot of bloggers get riled up by that and think that the person is just a spammer, but I kind of give people the benefit of the doubt and think
“Hey maybe this person is shy or just wants to let me know they read my blog and they aren’t quite sure what to say.”
It’s obvious when something is spam that’s why I use the spam blocker that blocks over 700 spam comments a day on my site.
But who know that- little comment where someone says just “Hey- luv your site”- well they might turn out to be your new best blog friend.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
@Michelle - it’s true, you do never know who you’ll meet through your blog comments.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
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May 30th, 2008 at 7:23 am
i agree with Gartner some ppl r really shy…and some think r introverts .
its really hard for them to communicate with others!
say me!!!
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