Handlling Dialogue on Your Blog
One of the biggest areas of concern on a blog is the comments section - both in the comments themselves and how you, the writer, handle them
/READ MORE// Viewing Your Blog Posts
Comments are an important part of any blog, and they deserve the time, attention, and response you give them. A Blogger than neglects to read comments in a timely fashion and respond quickly will lose the community of commenters - they will simply get frustrated and leave.
Be sure to read your comments regulariy, especially if you have an active blog that recieves alot of comments. Think of what you are reading as a conversation and respond to any comments that ask questions, make you think, or simply interest you.
You can respond to a comment by leaving a comment yourself. Or, if a comment inspires you to write another blog post, you can mention the original comment in your new post. Whatever technique you use, don't ignore your commenters.
Unfortunately, not all comments will be fun or inspiring to read, or are even remarks you should leave up on your blog. When it comes right down to it, you are in control of the content on your blog - including comments - whether you moderate them before they can appear on your blog, or after they are posted. Moderating is absolutely necessary in blogging because many of the comments will come from spammers, or bots, and add nothing to the conversation. Sometimes, you'll need to delete comments that are from real people and on-topic. As a blogger, you will have to make a choice about what kinds of comments you will and won't allow.
Bloggers often choose to delete comments for many reasons, include:
- Comments are off-topic from the post (common with spam comments)
- Comments are personal attacks on the blog, blogger, or other readers. Many bloggers quickly draw the line at comments that are or contain racial slurs, name calling, hate speech, or questions anyone's sexual orientation. People who leave these type of comments are called Trolls.
- Comments left anonymously, or with a fake name.
- Comments that include URLs intended for marketing purposes.
- Comments that are obscene.
- Comments that could be libellous
- Comments that contain plagiarized material.
- Comments that contain personal information which should not be public.
Deleting comments is a personal choice at some level, and it's one that all good bloggers will run into. You want to get people talking, so you need have opinions that will start a conversation. A vanilla opined approach will never make an interesting blog even if it does manage to keep the comments from being offensive.
Most readers simply accept that this is your blog, and you get to make the call about which comments stay and go. Nobody likes to have their comments deleted, some many bloggers find themselves criticized when they do delete comments, especially when it might not be clear why've you've done so.
Some blogs and bloggers choose to institute a comment policy that outlines for readers what kinds of comments will be removed. The image below shows the blog comment policy written by the folks at WellnessMama.com, a lifestyle blog for busy moms.
For the team at WellnessMama.com, it all comes down to having courtesy and respect for the writers and readers - no mud slinging here.
On Michael Hyatt's blog/website for leadership and business excellence, he asks readers to simply be honest and treat others with respect.
"In short, my goal is to host interesting conversations with caring, honest, and respectful people. I believe this simple comments policy will facilitate this."
You can read Micheal's full blog comment policy here
If you are thinking about writing a blog comment policy, take a quick look at what other bloggers have done. A quick Google search will turn up some well thought-out, smart, and informative policies that will give you some ideas. Remember, you can always add a blog comment policy at any time or amend your original policy as needed.
About This Is Ions
No comments