5 reasons you may not be getting as many comments as you could (should) be.
March 5, 2010 in Beginners, Growth, Latest Posts by Kimmy 45 Comments » 2,640 views
I have spent the last week visiting blogs.
Returning the favor of some great bloggers who bothered to stop by MY blog and leave a comment. I generally don’t find the time to go blog hopping, but this week I felt like paying it forward.
Now I have a headache.
And now is where I offend some of you. I don’t care. This has to be said.
If you are using Blogger as a blog platform, in many cases you are making it PROHIBITIVE to leave a comment.
Prohibitive: adjective
So high or burdensome as to discourage purchase or use.
First, if you moderate comments, you don’t need captcha enabled. If you don’t moderate, turn it on and TURN OFF CAPTCHA. I get it wrong half the time, and I have closed the window on a great comment because I tried 3 times and still got it wrong. It’s just too much work.
Second, pop-up comment windows do crazy things to my computer. I get a weird security message every time that I have to click “ok” on to continue. The added time this takes has often made me forget what the post was about, and yes, I’ve simply closed the comment window because I wasn’t sure which blog of the 2 or 3 I had open at the time, it belonged to. I’ve seen it done, figure out how to TURN OFF POP-UPS that open in a completely separate window.
Third, using a drop-down box to tell the comment form which method I want to use to comment is annoying, but finding that I can’t simply leave my name, email and URL to comment is even worse. As a blogger, I am often interested in seeing what other commenters are all about, but clicking on their name and going to a Google profile instead of their blog URL just adds more layers to the already complicated system. IT NEEDS TO BE SIMPLE. Also, one of the reasons bloggers comment on other blogs is to get their own blog out there, and if they come to a blog that makes commenting time consuming and then on top of it, doesn’t reward them for their time there in the form of letting other people see who they are, they are more likely to skip over your blog.
Fourth, if I fill in a comment form, hit submit and then ANOTHER window pops up asking for more information, I am automatically annoyed. I may love YOU but your blog annoyed me. Do the math…ONE FORM IS MORE THAN ENOUGH.
Fifth, if your comment form automatically subscribes people to the rest of the comments that occur after theirs unless they uncheck a box, change it. If I care enough about what other people say after me, give ME the choice to check the box, but don’t make it the default, I DO NOT WANT TO SUBSCRIBE AUTOMATICALLY TO YOUR COMMENTS.
If you do any (or all – ugh) of the things listed above, you are adding complexity and TIME to people’s lives. Unless you are Dooce and have to close your comments because you get so many, you need to make a conscious effort to make it easier for people to leave a comment on your blog.
You can rationalize all you want. You can go and leave a comment on your own blog and think “that wasn’t so bad” but when people are out there blog hopping and trying to visit as many blogs as they can, taking the time to write a well-thought out comment to contribute to your discussion and are met with all these obstacles to overcome, they will leave and possibly never return. Especially when so many other blogs make it easy. It’s hard enough to come up with an appropriate comment sometimes, don’t make the act of commenting such a chore that people don’t come back.
I realize that Blogger is not set up to deal with spam very effectively and some of these measures are in place to prevent it, but at what cost? If preventing spam is preventing legitimate comments as well, are you really helping yourself?
I don’t usually get this confrontational, but seriously people, go fix your comments.
Oh and if you have a magazine style theme, and posts on the front page DON’T HAVE DATES on them…yeah, that annoys me too…but that’s a totally different discussion.
~ Kim
I am new to the bloggy world and I have no idea what im doing. Not many will leave comments and im not really sure what im looking for to fix this. I am pretty sure it is easy to leave comments. Please check it out and give me input/advice. http://wigglelove.blogspot.com/ thanks!
I agree with you about the comments completely. I hate CAPTCHA the most… can’t tell you how many times I’ve messed those up, then given up.
I think I’ve made mine as easy as possible to comment – with the exception of taking off anonymous comments – can’t stand that bitch!
OMG my friend has a Blogger account and it is way too hard to leave a comment as much as I really want to. I try 3 times and I am finished!
Duly noted. I was guilty of half of them. Sometimes we all need a reminder, eh?
I never knew it was difficult to leave a comment on a blogger blog. Mine seems pretty easy as I often answer comments on my own blog. Maybe i just have my settings right to begin with. I’ll have to look into this.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I agree, commenting on a Blogger blog is just way too much work…
Commenting on Blogger blogs is the equivalent of washing the floor on your hands & knees. It is such a chore, it only gets done when necessary. Mopping is far faster & easier, thus is more frequent.
If it takes me 3 attempts to submit the comment, because: it is first rejected, I then have to fill in captcha, and then submit yet again, I am all done.
Dear Kim,
Thanks for the good advice. I am interested in monetizing my blog. So far I have not had much since I started my blog last November. I don’t even have any followers yet. Can you look at my blog and tell me what I am doing wrong?
My blog is through blogger. Do you think I should change to WordPress. My blog is healthylifestylesforwomen.blogspot.com
Thanks.
Thanks for the tips! I’ll have to review my settings and see how I can change them. I had avoided doing moderation because when I leave comments I like to see them show up right away and I thought that with the moderation on they wouldn’t show until approved and that annoys me. Captchas have never been a problem for me when leaving comments. If I can’t read it I just click for the new words and easily find ones I can enter. I hadn’t considered that this might be prohibitive of others leaving comments on my blog.
I also like the means to include the URL. I’ll have to find out if blogger has a different comment format so that this can be done to my blog.
I don’t really intend to ever become a professional blogger, I use mine more for friends and family and as a personal creative outlet.
For me, wordpress presents the group of blogs that I will turn away from. I do most of my blog reading at work on my iphone. I have A LOT of sit around time at work. Wordpress blogs are crap on the iphone. I either have to use the mobile version which means that I can’t scroll through several blogs on one page (all I get is a list of blog post titles). Or I turn off mobile viewing and the formatting is so bizarre as to make it not worth the hassle. As I am often not connected to wi-fi when viewing, it is a total hassle to click on an individual blog title, find out if it is or isn’t something I want to read, then click back to the title list and try for the next post title. Without the wifi I have to wait too long for each page to load. I want several postings on one page in a readable format. Wordpress becomes WAY too much hassle for something meant for me to be leisure reading.
Blogger on the other hand is very readable on my iphone. So I follow more blogspot bloggers than wordpress.
Love this post! I really enjoy visiting and commenting on blogs and when commenting on one blog becomes time consuming I sometimes go as far as to stop following. Even if I like the blog, I can’t stare at the same Captcha screen for ten minutes when my Google Reader is overflowing with other blogs waiting for comments.
I’m on Blogger, but have tried to make it as easy as possible to comment. (Basically subverting all of Blogger’s “helpful” tools.) I just tested it by leaving a comment without being signed in first, and it was easy and straightforward. Good tip to slef-test like that.
Probably should switch to Wordpress, but unless someone takes my kids for a week I don’t see it happening any time soon!
Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
Christy
thx for the advice! going to check all that stuff on my blog now!
Thx for the advice…going to check all that stuff on my blogg now!
I also need more comments but so far am considering the move to wordpress….from quick blogcast
I am fairly new to the blog scene and started a blog to vent once I had surprise baby twins that were child #5 and #6
Anyway what is captcha?
…maybe I need more sleep but I dont get it
Also do you know about trackbacks?
Blessings
I’m a blogger blogger and I had no idea it was so difficult to leave a comment! I have tried a few other host sites and do I have to say this for blogger – it is very easy to use! I did put some of your suggestions to use, thank you!
Ugh I agree with the subscribing comments thing. It drives me batty and I think ooh joy lots of mail …. no a lot of it is those stupid comment subscription thingies ugh lol. Great suggestions though. I think I’ve got them down already.
Thanks for the advice. I am new and learning as I go. I am going to check my settings now. Thanks
My sentiments exactly! lol I’ve given up leaving a comment before, and leaving comments for giveaways makes me want to run away.
Plus, there have been times that I thought I left a comment but I didn’t because it needs captcha and I didn’t know (I closed out of the window too fast, etc). Good points!
Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!
Agreed. I recently switched from Blogger to WordPress and I like it SO much better. I think it’s easier to use for both the blogger and the commenter.
I am a blogger and soooo learning as I go!!! I read this and immediately checked my settings – and I changed some- thank you- I am allll about keeping life simple and sweet- thanks for the info. Keep speaking loud and bold- nothing wrong with that!
Yes, yes, yes! I couldn’t agree more!
Wow. Thanks. I am very new to the blogging world, use blogger (although I keep reading things that make me want to switch while my blog is still relatively small), and had no idea how frustrating these things could be. I don’t even know what my settings are. I will be sure to find out today and adjust them. Thanks for the great tips!
I was born yesterday, not only beginning my blog in January & joining Twitter in February, so I know practically nothing. Just want to get the message out, but with so much to know about methods, protocol, style, etc, it is overwhelming most of the time! Thanks for the advice. This is all good information and crucial newbies like me.
WORD! I totally agree with every word.
Amen Sister! LOL Great points!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for being confrontational (some of us don’t have the guts to be! Yes, I’m included!) I have thought and felt the same things you have.
Another thing that has annoyed me and just happened this week is that a blogger deleted my URL, but still emailed me. The URL was to a client’s website, a legitimate noteworthy business changing the world for good and she deleted the URL?? Just because it wasn’t a blog, but a business? The giveaway I entered on her giveaway linky was sponsored by this business on another blog and I took time to leave a comment to thank her for the opportunity. I don’t get it – deleting the URL that is.
Sorry for the vent, but it was a frustrating experience since I wasn’t remotely acting like a spammer. It just turned me off and made me not want to visit the blog again. After all, I took time to leave a comment and show appreciation. Guess it’s her blog and she can do what she likes, but still it came across as unfriendly to me. But I have to say on our family blog, not our review blog, I have done the same thing for businesses and sites that I don’t feel I can promote or that do not really seem legitimate. So am I really any different?
Gotta stop thinking or I’ll write a novel……feel free to edit this! (wry smile!)
WORD!!!!! and for the record, I ADORE blogs like this one that save my info if I’ve left a comment before. It takes down one more barrier. Is that a plug-in, a theme function, or some other voodoo? Thanks! Lindsay
You are SO right. There have been many times when I have not put a comment because it was just too hard. Things that make me leave? There are some fabulous blogs that have blocked comments from people behind a proxy. Not good because you are missing out on great comments from people who sneak blogging during lunch. Many work folks are behind a proxy. Also, there have been sites I leave because they don’t leave a place for me to put my name and url. I think people enjoy sharing their blogs with those sites they are leaving comments on – so having that ability blocked can be a turn-off, depending on the blog.
Oh, and Dooce? I have recently found her blog, went to make a comment, saw I had to be a member and went, “Nahhhh.” Then I clicked “back.” She is a good writer, but I think her popularity is from good marketing. I can’t leave a comment there unless a become a member? No thanks.
And it was VERY easy leaving a comment here. Thanks!
Totally agree with you about Dooce… I believe it’s more marketing over quality!
I’d much rather comment and follow someone who is “real” and cares about their followers and takes the time to come back and talk to them.
Me – not interested in Dooce!
Totally agree – I may like what someone on blogger wrote, but I can’t stand commenting on those blogs.
I don’t have time to jump through hoops. I don’t mind moderation if it’s someone’s first visit on a blog, but to continually moderate each and every comment drives me crazy too.
Amen to everything you said!
Amen, sistah!!
(Now I better go see what I have set up on MY blog. Never really paid much attention when I switched from blogger.)
PS I just got an error code when I tried to submit this ’cause I didn’t fill in my email. Yeah, that is annoying!
I have to agree with everything that Kim posted. I dread going to blogger blogs for those reasons. The ones that bother me the most are the ones that don’t allow me to use my name, my email, and my URL because then people can’t visit my blog, but my gmail account, which I don’t put anything there.
I can’t wait until your post about dates on the posts, if you do one, that is a big bet peeve of mine!
I actually agree with everything you said here Felipe.
Color me shocked.
Everything you said in this post, I have been saying to myself for the last week. Loved it, straightforward and to the point
Thank you these tips. I didn’t know some of this about Blogger
Found your blog and this post through someone posting in on twitter. Being new to the blogging world I was guilty of some of these. I did not have comments done through a pop up window but I did have moderation and captcha turned on. Moderation still on (I hate spam) but captcha now turned off. AND I got to find a new blog to subscribe to that I like.
We’re glad you found us!
LOL comments can be so ugh, for me captcha drives me nuts
BTW thank you for stopping by my blog and commenting! I know, I know you were sent to moderation LOL it usually sends new commenter’s to moderation or if you change email or name LOL but that’s as tricky as my comments go.
Moderation does not bother me one bit. That is completely fine and much better than captcha and confusion to leave a comment!
Agree agree agree! I take time to comment but half never make it up because of a damn captcha, pop ups or “previewing” etc etc etc. So I spend a lot of time talking to myself
LOL Sarah, that is exactly how I feel half the time – like I’m talking to myself!