Should I have a comments section on my blog?

by 41 replies
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After quite a headache with facebook comments, I decided not to use it because I read people are too afraid to comment anyway because the comment will get broadcasted to all their facebook friends.

So I switched comments to Disqus, and was please with it for about a whole minute.

Needless to say, I'm a very picky person and just can't get the comments right.

So I'm deciding whether I should just go with out a comment area altogether. I read another guy's opinion who said comments just invite spam and arguements and you should never have them on a blog.

What do you guys think: Should a blog have comments section?
Please explain your reasoning
#main internet marketing discussion forum #blog #comments #section
  • I personally think yes, I think having conversations on blog comments are some of the attractions for people. Yes it can invite spam, that is inevitable, anything that people can spam they will try to, however just have your comments said to moderated, and control what you allow to be shown. Either that or delete them soon after if you want to encourage real time conversation. Arguments can happen but this is not always a bad thing, if it is an argument about something you have on your blog then this shows people are at least passionate about your content, which can only be viewed as a success.
  • May be but Comments also help you to discover what your audience think about you and give an opportunity to staying close to your blog readers.
  • Banned
    Buy in the answer of Derek. That's true. Allow your readers to comment. All you need to do is moderation. By allowing your readers to put in their feedback on what they've read, you'll surely learn a thing or two from them.
    • [1] reply
    • Well put. Comments will help you understand who your fans and readers are, which will give you insight into future marketing choices. Spam is inevitable. Just moderate the forum and keep movin!
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  • You're in luck, I wrote a blog post recently about this. Check out my favorite Wordpress comment plugins.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
  • There's been some talk that the comments say 10 to 15 good ones can help you climb in the search! Just make sure you manually approve comments or you will be asking for trouble! One of my blogs in like a week got over 1,800 comments mostly spam! Software programs.
  • You could get alot of spam comments. I would offer a way for your visitors to sign up to your blog or RSS feed, and give them the option of contacting you via email to get their questions answered.
    • [1] reply
    • I do both, and plus, they can post on the facebook page, twitter, google plus; the list goes on. It's not as if they have no voice.

      But I can't understand how comments can have much of an impact on my blog; Besides a nice compliment, they really don't do much for me. They can offend my readers or worse yet, send them away to another link.

      And I have better things to do than moderate all the comments coming in.
  • I have both a social commenting option and also a normal form type comment box.

    Ideally, I want my visitors to comment using the social option as that appears more credible to other visitors to my website/blog.

    Abul
  • It is important to have a comments section for any blog. Through the comments section, we can interact with people who are interested in our blog, in our niche, etc.

    It's true that the comments section can attract spam comments but at least we still have a choice on which comments should appear on our blog and which should not.
  • Vorsiedious,

    Allowing or not allowing comments on your blog will really depend on your goals for the blog itself. Many people and businesses start blogs to invite conversation or engage visitors. In these scenarios, disallowing comments defeats that purpose. If all you want to do is present content for people to read and you do not want to engage visitors or invite conversation, then commenting is not necessary.

    This post gives a spirited discussion on the topic,

    Coding Horror: A Blog Without Comments Is Not a Blog

    Here is another post on the topic,

    Blog Comments : Should You Allow Them on Your Blog? - - - -Tips In A Blog - - - Blogging Success Tips, Improve Search Engine Rankings

    Hope that helps,

    Shawn
  • I guess it depends on what you want to do with the blog. I usually do not add a comment box to areas that I want to remain static, such as main pages on the site where comments would serve little purpose to me. However, if I write articles I always leave a comments section after those because it invites feedback and can get some interesting conversation started based upon what I wrote. I've read that comments also count toward unique content on a site, but I'm not sure how accurate that is, or how much it really helps. If it were merely spam you were concerned about content management systems have plugins and things that can greatly reduce that worry.
  • I recently redesigned my personal website, I switched it from a personal blog, to a site more focused on my work.

    Part of this redevelopment was to switch over to Facebook comments. I have to say that this has cut down on the volume of spam considerably, and it also seems to encourage more thoughtful comments. Overall, its been a very good decision and I would recommend it.
  • Adding comment section in a blog is a very good way to attract a lot of readers. People will be interested to comment in your blog and you will get some valuable thoughts to make your blog better. Sometimes, good quality comments also bring a lot of visitors from google.
  • Yes you need blog commenting section because the visitors will expalin the faults or mistakes or appreciate the blog content and help us to improve ourselves.So its is good to keep blog commenting section
    • [2] replies
    • yes you are right .
    • But to me a whole section below each post of people pointing out mistakes and criticizing my blog won't have a real good effect.
  • There are always too many SPAM comments on my blogs, and I have to delete them often, and I want to disable comments now.
    • [1] reply
    • This; exactly the situation I dread. Are comments really that blog changing?
  • If I were you I would go back to the facebook comment plugin for the following reasons...

    1. Helps eliminate spam comments.
    2. Makes your blog post viral. When people comment it goes to their wall and it go entice their friends to visit your blog.
    3. It turns people who try to give spam comments on your blog into advertisers for your post. Each time they leave a spam comment..your link still ends up on their wall.
    • [1] reply
    • But the bad side of this is people are AFRAID to comment because they don't want it on there wall for all 500 friends to see. People are self-conscious of there comments I guess.
      • [1] reply
  • That's a tricky one to answer, but I would say yes. All feedback is good feedback positive intent or negative. Of course you have to look over ignorance here and there but you could get really useful information as well.
    Good luck
  • I agree with the other warriors .
    you will be able to hear from your readers , and you can focus on what they want and need.
  • It all depends upon what type of blog you have. I prefer NOT to have comments option on information/reviews type of blogs.

    But for topics related to news, buzz and other hot stuff, comments are always welcome.
  • I suggest putting up a moderated comment box. It will require more time and effort from you but a lot of people keep coming back to websites where they can interact with the author and other visitors.
  • ok. i put comments.
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  • For me it depends on the blog, but I prefer to have my readers to leave a comment. It's important to know their reactions and somehow it could improve your write-ups. The disadvantage is, you can't avoid those spammer if you allow this thing.
  • What is the best facebook comments plugin?
  • Banned
    i generally prefer blogs with comments, too monotonic w/o some type of 3rd party feedback/reactions
  • What a douche bag that guy is.

    If your site doesn't have comments then I would find it hard to call it a blog. The whole point of a blog is that you have regularly updated content AND you invite interaction on that content. Otherwise all you have is a static website.

    Forget Facebook comments and forget Disqus. Why on earth would you want to build content for other people's sites? Use the regular Wordpress comments form and install the following plugins to eradicate 99.9% of all spam.

    - Akismet
    - Bad Behavior
    - SI Captcha (optional)

    Oh, and don't listen to the person telling you to forget comments because you are inviting arguments. That actually makes me laugh. An argument is something you love to see in your comments because it gets people commenting like mad -- all the time building fresh and unique content for your website.
  • I say heck yea because google will love it and rack you up in the search engine.
  • I guess comments are not necessary unless they play an integral part in your blog
  • Comments are really are a must have for 3 reasons:

    1) It incites discussion, and causes visitors to come back to your site.
    2) Your readers can cover things not in your article, and for unique terms this can cause you to get extra traffic through Google when someone searches for that.
    3) You will get thoughts / corrections / new ideas from people who comment
  • Well blogging seems to be in a habit of frequent updates...

    IN that case comment section is necessary...

    Cheers..
  • I have a blog that is related to Celebrity News / Gossip and think that having a comment section is great. It allows people to share their opinions on topics being reported and I think helps motivate people to want to return to the blog to check on any responses etc. The feedback I get I use to learn more about the niche and what my readers are looking for and interested in.

    I think having a comment area on a blog can be beneficial depending on the audience you are targeting, the content of the blog and the purpose of your site.
  • Depending on what type of blog you have, having a comment section is a good idea.

    This helps you get a discussion going and you can find out who really reads your content. People who take time to leave a comment or ask a question obviously have something in mind and would like to either know more or voice their opinion on the subject matter.

    The more people that comment on your blog post, the more activity will happen and thus lead to more readers for you in the future, given of course that your current readers find your posts and the discussion going on worthy of a share to their other contacts.
  • Actually, its funny i found this thread because my facebook comments plugin was causing my site some technical difficulties so I deactivated it.

    I still got my on blog comment area and that gets all the comments i need.

    Like u said ppl might be timid to broadcast the fact that they are on a "get ur girlfriend back" site to their facebook friends but they might not mind putting in their two cents if they had some anonymity.

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  • 46

    After quite a headache with facebook comments, I decided not to use it because I read people are too afraid to comment anyway because the comment will get broadcasted to all their facebook friends. So I switched comments to Disqus, and was please with it for about a whole minute.