3 Tips for Managing Blog Comments

Blog comments are normally a good sign since it indicates people are reading your posts. If fact this form of participation should be encouraged by asking your readers to post comments at the conclusion of any of your blog entries. Most popular blogs are generally littered with user comments and this is something you will want to strive for on your site as well. Now the point will come where you will experience an increase in participation on your blog. Eventually your readers will begin to post comments faster than you can read them. This is great, your site is gaining popularity, congratulations! OK now what do you do? Here are 3 tips you can use as a 'rule of thumb' when managing comments left on your blog. Discard Unrelated Comments Invariably you will receive many comments that are unrelated to any blog entries or subject matter being discussed on the site. Upon closer inspection you will likely also find many links in these comments. You are dealing with spam which is the online version of junk mail. Discard these comments since they serve no other purpose than to clutter up the blog. Respond to Direct Questions Questions that are directed at you should be addressed as long as they are related to the subject matter spoken about on the blog. To ignore these questions would be the equivalent of snubbing someone and you want to avoid knowingly doing this. On the other hand you may find a question that is not aimed at anyone in particular and these comments should also be allowed. It is also quite common for readers to post comments that ask questions not always directly related to what you may be discussing. In effect they are taking advantage of the community spirit that exists and are looking for help/advice. You have a choice here of either discarding the comment or allowing it. I suggest you allow it since you want your readers to know your site can be considered a 'resource' for them. Post Good and Bad Do not be too 'thin skinned' about any comments you receive that are not as flattering as you may want. If the comment is well grounded or meant to be constructive than let it be. Even though you may not want to see it yourself there are others who may have an interest in such a comment. This may be YOUR blog but you have built it for the readers so do not withhold any comments from them just because of your own personal bias. In the end readers will admire you more for being so open and humble. Blog comments are something you want to see more of on your site. Looking around the internet you will find that most popular blogs also have active readers who litter the site with their comments. This is good since it shows your blog entries are generating a reaction and better yet they are even being read. At a certain point you may begin to find that as the number of comments increase so does the difficulty in managing them. The 3 tips we discussed here today serve as a guideline for helping you 'navigate' and categorize your comments. Using these tips merely as a 'rule of thumb' should succeed in helping you to place, discard or respond to comments in an orderly and sane manner.