I created the Blogging Etiquette Series to provide some clarity on the “industry standard” with regard to blogging practices. You may not agree with some of what I have to say and that’s fine. The main question I want you to ask yourself is, “would I do (insert action here) in real life” and if you answer “no”, you probably shouldn’t do it in the blogging world either.
This is not a useful or acceptable comment on any blog. We’ve all seen comments like this. It offers nothing constructive. It mentions no part of the content, so clearly the person didn’t even read the article. Then to top it all off, they drop a link to their own site. Why the heck would anyone want to visit your site? Because of the awesome comment you left above your link? Hmm.
Let’s talk about the right way.
How to Leave a Comment on a Website or Blog
There’s no one right way to do it, but there are a few things you can do to make sure your comments are constructive and appreciated by everyone.
- Make sure to actually read the content that you are commenting on.
- Please, for the love of God, use proper grammar and check spelling errors. Especially if you are attempting to correct someone else with your comment.
- Don’t start a comment war. If you disagree and feel like you have to say so, state your point intelligently and appropriately and walk away. Then stay away.
- If you can help it, don’t leave a link unless one is asked for.
- Don’t be weird. Don’t ask awkward questions. Don’t tell your life story.
- Do respond to other people’s comments if you have something constructive to add, or if you simply want to kindly agree.
Notes:
– I understand that everyone has to start somewhere, and that leaving links gets a few people to your site. But it’s generally regarded as tacky. Website owners like to be able to control the links that show up on their site. There’s an icky feeling that happens when you see someone else dropping their link all over your site. You’ll notice the “bigger” blogs don’t leave links with comments. That is not because they “have enough followers”, it is because they know how annoying it can be. Most often, your name will be a clickable link and that is enough.
– Give your opinion if you have to. But if you know it’s going to start a huge ordeal, think twice. Nobody wants to bear witness to a useless online blogger fight.
– By all means, practice on this post!
Hey! Leave me a comment! 🙂
LOVE THIS. These are all great tips!
xo
Thanks boo!
This series is very well timed, sir. I think those are really good, constructive tips on commenting. I haven’t been around the block for long yet but it makes me cringe inside when someone drops their link. I comment to get to know people, not for pageviews. And amen about thinking twice if it’s going to start a big ordeal!
Thanks! It should definitely be a fun series! 😀
And for having not been around these parts long, it’s nice to see that you “get it” already!
Great post! Check out my site!
…KIDDING.
This was seriously a really great post. Nothing is more annoying than someone trolling blogs, just leaving their link in a comment, begging you to follow them. I can’t even count the number of times someone has left a comment like that with a “New follower!” tacked on, and then they don’t actually follow my blog. Those comments…are immediately deleted. I don’t even visit their blog 99.9% of the time, because I don’t see the point.
Plus, there’s really no point to leaving the link to your blog in your comment, anyway. Most of the time, if someone is doing it right, their name automatically links back to their blog.
Haha!
Thanks! Eew people actually do that?! Say they are a new follower and are actually not? Crazy! Crazy lame!
All the time!! VERY lame. 🙂
hehe I was about to do the same thing- “Great post! Check out my site!” 😉
Some people use bookmarks. I do, although you might very well be right in your judgement of those spam-like peeps. 🙂
“Doing it right” yeah, hm. It’s not even like a URL is better SEO than a first name. And no it’s not good SEO to skip the name and use the blog name, they’re usually nofollow and just to get visits back, which is also valuable.
The world doesn’t revolve around Google … or even Blogspot. 😉
Super embarrassed to say the I’ve done that as a new blogger! I’ve seen other people do and thought it was the thing to do. Now I know better – thank you!!
Don’t fret! Everyone starts from the same place and we all learn something new every day! While a lot of people do it, it is generally frowned upon in general. If you name is clickable, that should do just as well for getting clicks!
It’s like a lot of things on the web. Blogs have been popular since before(?) 2004, and have stayed similar “enough” since big systems like WP became players, so we’re used to the process.
What do you think about leaving a comment that disagrees with an opinion or is just constructive criticism? I never leave them but I want to. But a lot of blogs say, leave only nice comments! So I guess most people only want warm and fuzzy comments.
While I think there’s nothing wrong with disagreeing with a post, I am a proponent of just moving on if you don’t agree with a post. It’s really hard to get the right tone across online when you are disagreeing or offering criticism. People are generally inclined to take things the wrong way. It’s a really delicate area.
“Most often, your name will be a clickable link and that is enough.”
What is your opinion of when the name is not clickable to even a Twitter account (etc.) or leads to an annoying (for almost everyone) profile page?
I don’t mind seeing that as a reader and I know most other readers agree, but I’d suppose the blogger has it set that way for a reason. I just don’t think it’s “cool” to only allow that kind of one-way discussion. They can’t find me, and that’s good for the bloggers how?? 😉
I just ran into some weird “squarespace” commenting that had me log in with Twitter, but I didn’t even see a link to my Twitter page. Sigh.
The odd thing is I usually mark the “Great post, it helped me!” so-called comments as spam and thought they were bots. I even put it in my FAQ, lol. However, recent reading tells me they’re sometimes human. Eek!
By the way, this
” – See more at: http://morefromyourblog.com/blogging-etiquette-series-leaving-comments/#sthash.BgaaFiSC.dpuf”
… was still added when I tried that Pinterest URL thing. (I’d used that Pinterest feature before, but wanted to again now, and didn’t have my new site saved anywhere / was not sure of the URL yet.) Anyway, I don’t know if you can fix that or not.
Also, do you mean to display some Comic Sans? I noticed there’s a Google Fonts bug related to “handwriting” or “cursive” – something like that – backup.
If the name is not clickable at all, I would say leaving a quick link is fine. Like you said, there should be a two-way discussion and people who want to find out more about a person who left a certain comment should be able to.
As for the code that was added. I have that automatically add to anything copied and pasted from my blog. Unfortunately people like to steal good content, but many times they don’t stop to check for things like that. This way, at least I get a little bit of credit.