Best way to respond to comments?

On my blogs, I usually don't respond (or approve) comments because 99% of them are spammers looking for a backlink.

If somebody does leave a legitimate comment (which is few and far between), I'll definitely respond in the most sincere way becuse it's a welcome distraction.

People actually leave real comments? ;-P

I own about 30 WordPress properties and they all get bombarded with comments, but less than 0.5% are real. In fact, I have a plugin on most sites that lets me delete ALL pending comments at once.

However, for the 1/2 % that actually leave legitimate comments, I put in as much effort to my response as they did to their comment. If they seem like a professional in my (or a related) industry and judging by their comment they have explored my site in-depth, then I will often go check out their site. In fact, I've made some great friends and valuable associates this way.

So if you're getting real comments where people are clearly actually reading your post and then responding in a logical way, I think it's important to respond in kind. This is how the REALLY big blogs got that way: by developing sincere relationships with readers.

But 99% of the time the Delete All Pending Comments plugin is the way I must go.

delete the comments and those visitors will never return to your blog.

you will be sad and alone, you took your revenge on all your visitors and deleted all their pending comments


way to go

That's interesting Russell, I have problems with spammers just like everyone, but I don't think it's ever taken up 99% of my pending blog comments.

For other readers is that something that is common for you as well? Not just having spam, but having more than 90% spam?

Here' what I would do.
Answering the selected comments contemplating what I think it's the
best for my subscribers and my business.
Depending the answers I get, I would be asking questions and/or opinions.
That way, I wont be doing something that I could have been influenced by others.
Meharis

if you really care and want to have your blog bookmarked just make a special time in the day to respond to all comments, reply sincerely and try to answer as much questions

One thing that I did that I found helped out a lot was that I got together with some friends I had made on the forum I posted on before I found Warriorforum, and one of the people I had gotten to know from Norway suggested we make a google group. Around 15 - 20 of us joined at first and we would always post our newest blog posts on there, and people in the group would always go and check out each others articles, and post comments about them if they liked them. We would give each other our thoughts, both positive and negative, and give each other support. It was really a great idea, and a really great wait to start discussions about blog posts.

In my case 99% of my blog comments are real. And I respond to each and everyone of them. That has helped build a strong relationship with my readers and I bet it has increased confidence and trust in me.

I wouldn't dare to let a comment go without an answer...

Yes I did have a spammer on Wordpress and in my email but have them blocked in Wordpress and my broadband provider in NZ Telstraclear took care of them. Havent had any for 3 months. As to comments on Wordpress I just trust my judgement and if they look and sound genuine I approve them. Otherwise hit Trash. Yes I might get it wrong sometime.

It depends on the comment.

Like has been said already,
if someone takes the time
to write out a thoughtful
and meaningful comment,
I'll respond in a like manner.

Sadly, as my blogs are still
fairly new, about 95% of
comments to them are spam.

They're obvious so I delete them.

Michael

Seems like everyone is pretty much in the same boat here. Someone needs to come out with a 100% effective way to get rid of spam, man would they make some money on that. Too bad that will probably never happen.

Glad to see that most of you take the time to respond to comments, I find that it not only helps build relationships, but is also a good way to get more conversation going on your blog and to attract more readers.

My belief is that if someone took the time to leave a thoughtful comment on my site, I should take a few moments to thank them and leave my own response. It's a matter of do unto others....

With approx. 30 sites at the moment, I would never consider an auto-responder for comments. The spam comments are pretty much weeded out and I get an email for comments that are legit - I manually approve them and leave my reply at that time.

The best way to encourage blog participation is through commenting.

That said, do you have a clear call-to-action at the end of your posts inviting your readers to share their thoughts and ideas - or to answer a specific question? Doing that might help you to get comments that are easier to answer in a conversational style.

Either way, I do not suggest using an auto-responder. I'd personally stop commenting if all I got was a canned response.

Yes Deborah I almost always end my blog posts with a question, I find that whenever I make a "list" blog post the best thing to ask is what I left out from that list, I have actually learned a lot that way.

Well I think cross questioning the topic or even sharing your own knowledge helps to promote healthy discussions and thats what you would want rather than just giving critique. Because lets admit it, we all gives false critique hoping to get backlinks.

If someone is taking the time to write a thoughtful comment on your post, it makes sense to acknowledge it and encourage even more comments. This can get sticky if your blog grows and you start receiving many comments on each post. At that point, you may need to re-think your comment response strategy your comment policy.

Response should always be polite to them and think upon their ideas and suggestions, If someone goes wrong just delete the comments.

In responding to the comment your must be be apt in your answer, it's not enough if we thank them

I've seen some blogs where multiple people have commented, and the author went through the trouble to thank all of them but it came out looking like this (I'm paraphrasing but this is what it looked like)

-Thanks John, I'm really glad for your insight
-Thanks Jill, Your words are always welcome
-Thanks Greg, I appreciate your nice comments
and so on

This is a conflicting tactic for me because 1) I'm glad the author went through the time to thank every commenter but 2) The author had 8 straight posts starting with Thanks "commenter name" and then a very short thank you that varied only slightly from the last. I can't figure out if this looks cheesy/impersonal or if the effort to respond should just be appreciated.

I think you're best off doing at least a weekly to bi weekly check on the sites. Try not to spend more than 30 minutes responding to comments made by user, but when you do respond I feel that personalized comments are much greater than auto-reply comments.