Give and take needs some give and take!
Hiya, to my creative companions!
I wanted to talk about the Give and Take Comments Thread, which is a great way to get comments on posts we have written, which are not yet getting organic comments online. Yes, it skews the rankings, but if your site's keywords haven't ranked, like mine, it is a great way to fake it till you make it...!
Here is the link: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/authoring-writing-content/th...
I have noticed that while I take the time to read through a post and leave a valuable comment, the same, unfortunately, is not true in reverse. The whole point of leaving a comment is to help the site gain authority, and ultimately, rank. In doing so, it is best to follow the guidelines that Kyle talks about:
- The comments need to be absolutely relevant to the post, and not too vague, as though the comment could be copied and pasted into any other post.
- Please make the comment longer than one sentence. I get a lot of comments that are just one sentence long, which isn't nearly long enough. A couple of sentences, relevant to specifics, is much better. I realize it takes a few seconds longer, but ultimately, is what this is all about.
- If you are not going to take the time to make sure your sentence structure is correct, or that the punctuation is correct, then please don't leave a comment.
- Another key point that Kyle talks about is leaving a comment that uses key words from the post -- mentioning an item that is an affiliate link, or talking specifically about one of the items that are being reviewed and why you like that item, etc.
- Lastly, the more detailed you can get with a comment, relating back to the post, is key.
I'm not asking for a short story, but please reconsider how comments are created. Here is another training article that may be helpful: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/how-to-leave-an-ama...
If we are taking the time to create content and and are seriously trying to build our businesses, then please consider the value that your comment can bring to someone's site!
If you have any suggestions on how to leave a valued comment, please let me know in the "comments" below, and thanks!
Amy
Recent Comments
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I added some of these sentiments to my post in the give and take thread today. I don't wish to seem ungrateful but saying "I have never had a horse but your article seems interesting" is really of no benefit to me.
As Bald Eagle says below, do we consider correcting more than just the spelling and grammar!
I had to come back in and say I have just received two of the very best comments I have ever had. Maybe your blog is working miracles Amy :)
That is hysterical...!!!! Laughing out loud.
How about: "I've never seen a horse but now I will go out and buy one...." OR "Thanks for the great info about horses. They come in such nice colors."
:-D
Exactly!! I’ve commented on dark circles under the eyes for men and made it more engaging than that lol.
I know people are trying to help out, and as I said don’t wish to appear ungrateful for comments, but I don’t want every comment on every post to be “I’m actually scared of horses and don’t want to get too close to them”.
But as I said I did get two wonderful comments yesterday so I’m well impressed.
I hear you -- all it takes is a few more moments of someone's time to think it through and write something that is engaging and believable...!!
Point taken Amy. However what if someone finds your website through an organic search and finds it interesting and because you have a CTA at the end of your blog and the person decide to leave a comment?....(S)He don know about anything about SEOs and keywords and all the fancy stuff, and don't have any WA training and just decide to ask a question and just decide to leave a two line comment. that is what most ordinary people do..they write two line comments. As a WAer, i usually follow the Kyle and Carson Sitecomments rule though. Was just thinking!!
You bring up a good point -- my only response it this -- that if I am LUCKY enough to be getting organic comments from the world-at-large, then I will make the assumption that I will get more than just a one-or-two-liner, and the smaller comments won't make or break my site. Know what I mean?
But you're right -- it's not a perfect situation either way.
Getting quality comments has been a huge and recurring issue for my two years here. I blogged about it about 1.5 years ago, and it hasn't improved. I've provided hundreds of comments and always take the time to provide something of substance relative to the post. Most of the time the comments I receive in return have little to nothing to do with my post. There's no indication that the post was read at all and the grammar is terrible (although I can at least edit the grammar).It's disheartening!
Found the same problems.
The grammar is still acceptable (the world seems to be headed that way) and can be fixed as you say.
But relevance!
You can of course change the entire comment to be relevant and thereby provide your own comments under someone else's name. In other words correct more than just the grammar.
;)
Yeah, but I'm just not comfortable doing that :) If the comment is really bad, I reject it. I've spent too long working on my blog to publish nonsense.
VERY disheartening, especially since I hear that it has been going on for so very long. Maybe it is just the nature of things -- some people "get it" and some don't -- and it is up to us to cull out the quality sites to leave comments for, in order to get quality comments back.
That's what I've sort of been doing.
I think the best place to do it is in the "comments" section of SiteRubix where the request is made and paid for with credits.
Seems to produce better comments and of course to gain credits you have to give comments.
You don't get as many as each one comment costs you 2 credits (meaning you have to post 2 to get 1)
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/websites/comments/requests
Yes I tend to agree -- plus, the comments have to be longer, otherwise they aren't accepted -- maybe that's where we have to end up! Thanks.
Thank you for bringing this up again Amy. I have addressed this and others have too but it always comes up again and again as a problem.
It is really annoying when I have intend to leave a detailed comment but then someone leaves me a one sentence comment. Do I leave a detailed comment on their site anyway? Do I delete their comment since it does my site no good so they are getting a good comment and I am getting nothing? Do I edit their comment and add on to it (I am totally not comfortable doing this but many here recommend it as a way to get around the problem). Do I explain the problem to them and ask them to edit their comment? Some people recommend that also, but frankly it seems like more trouble than it is worth.
I always stress over what to do with these lousy comments. I have some sitting unapproved on my sites right now and I haven't gotten around to figuring out how to deal with them!
I like to think these are new members who don't understand the need for longer comments. There should be more training on this perhaps, but thank you so much for pointing out Kyle's recommendations here!
Hey Jessica,
I feel your pain and totally share your frustration. The one-line comments do us no good and it is truly unfair and annoying that we took the time to leave quality comments and get unusable content in return.
Seems to me that the comment thread should only be open to those folks who have taken the training on how to leave a comment and understand the core reason for doing so.
I agree that it is a waste of time to ask someone to edit their comment. I also don’t feel comfortable editing it for them.
I think we have to come at this a different way, and that is to read between the lines on the reciprocal site. By that I mean that sometimes when I click on a post as a trade for a comment, I notice that the post has bad grammar or a misspelling in the title of the post, or random words will be capitalized.
That is always a red flag for me that the person writing the post is a newbie or doesn’t care or whatever, and in the past I have gone ahead and left a quality comment. I am not going to do that anymore and will just find another site that is content-rich and looks more professional. I think THAT is how we will get the quality comments we need.
So it’s a matter of being one step ahead and being very critical about the sites we choose to play “give and take” with.
Ultimately this is about building our businesses and in doing so, we need to look at this with different eyes.
That’s my take. What do you think?
/a.
I am using the same tactic now Amy. try to focus on sites that have quality content. Of course I hate to not help out new sites so I am not too critical and I will still comment even if they don't have much content.
I also do this which kind of feels like cheating. If I ask for comments on the thread and get a lousy one with only one or two sentences and see that they always leave short comments everywhere else, I will sometime just leave them a short comment. I feel guilty since I am perpetuating the problem but if they left me a short one then it seems fair and it is the easiest solution to the problem. I tried explaining why we needed longer comments to one person and went ahead and left them a good comment though I did not approve their comment on my site. So they got a good comment and I got nothing. A month later they left another short comment on my site again from the comment thread! So clearly, being generous as well as explaining the situation got me nowhere.
I tend to agree with you -- while it is good to be critical, we can't discount those who are learning and may be able to benefit from a gentle suggestion about leaving longer comments, etc... It is a tough balancing act -- we will have to take it site by site!
The bottom line is that one day I hope that our sites are generating enough traffic on their own so that we are not relying on the comments thread for comments to our sites...!
Onward!
I agree with most of these posts. My question is, The benefit of having site comments and gaining an advantage on the community. So why do it.. It applies only to your personal account, not a bad thing, it bolsters your authority, It is that authority of
WA is why we ask others to be honest and continued success by addressing. Like me site comments on lessons to discussion reflect and learn thru others so that we all learn...... with self promotion is doom, and in a sense same promoting someone else. yes or no.... WA is built on honest self performance attributed to the founders intention of self work is self promotion
So site comments are not only good for our rankings and engagement within the WA community, but first and foremost to gain authority on our sites and eventually get more traffic, have the site rank, etc...
Does that address your concern?
I don’t use the comments thread much precisely because there’s no control. I like site comments better because at least it makes you leave a somewhat thoughtful comment. Even though you have to leave 2 to get 1. It tracks both sides too, what you’ve given and what you’ve received. The thread can be 1 to 1, or is supposed to be, but there are still those who abuse the system.
Grant
You are right. I like using the Site Feedback option but I have been a little reluctant and too busy to use Site Comments
But let me pose this question.
How do we feel when we hear a restaurant has had employees and friends write good reviews on Yelp and other review sites?
Good morning Amy,
In the early days of the Internet and review sites many restaurants (and to some degree other business but especially restaurants) were strongly criticized for having employees, family and friends write very positive reviews of the meals they were served and often not served to attract new customers.
My question is:
Is having other WA members write reviews of each others posts and sites, with the writer's ability to reject or have them changed to be more positive, to get higher rankings different or the same as those practices criticized when restaurants did/do them?
Just asking for discussion purposes. I'm interested in other people's opinions on this and not judging one way or the other myself as I have not yet formed a decision.
Okay I get what you are asking and not sure that is relevant here because by the very nature of the “give and take” thread, we are leaving appropriate comments with the implicit understanding that those comments will be supportive and “nice”... The times I have had to edit those comments had more to do with punctuation and improper use of the language than anything else.
Does that answer your question...?!
Not sure I’ve addressed your concern.
/a.
Amy,
My experience in commenting on another's post has always followed a certain guideline which falls into my own belief that we are all in this endeavor working toward the same goal: To learn the foundations of this platform that we might publish and drive an audience to our Website...I see you as a different me
The quality of support and encouragement that I receive from others is directly the result of my engagement with their involvement as member of WA. I have found many times that I gain more often by reading another's thought in process than I my own simply because I am new to this whole concept of online marketing, while so many here are already further through the training...so I see great benefit.
In summary of my feeling in being here,Wa represents a learning environment that becomes functional when I engage and use the full benefit available..which includes interacting in a meaningful dialogue with others... I proceed thoughtfully
A love for bright/sunny people, positive outcomes...respectfully, David
Hi David,
Thank you for expressing such a great concept, which is that we are all here together to achieve the same goal. You’ve said it better than I could have and thank you for weighing in. Yes, I am a different you — wow that’s heavy for a Monday morning but I know what you mean...!
Amy
Hi Amy,
How right you are. Unfortunately that thread is not what it used to be. It is still a way to get/give comments, for sure. But, as you've experienced, there's really no quality control. I find that using the SiteComments feature is much more effective as comments not only are controlled by their length, you can reject spammy/bad comments and save the comment credit for a worthy comment.
That said, you are right. I think there should be a bit more training on leaving strong comments. Having come from an SEO background I always tend to go a little overboard with my comments.
Hi Deven,
You are so right that the comments thread isn’t what it used to be. Even going back a couple of months it was so much better, and I think that people are rushing through just to satisfy the requirement for a comment, so that someone will do the same for them, without any consideration for what constitutes a quality comment. Maybe I need to jump back to the Comment section on SiteRubix...
Thanks...
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Amy, I certainly agree with you. I make giving comments and feedback part of my website tasks. I think the official comment and feedback pages are great but are not being used properly or enough.
I usually don't give comments/feedback when people just post a link and ask for it because I think it validates that it is ok to do that instead of using the official pages where this should be done.
Just the other day I spent time doing comments and I keep getting the same requests over and over again. I have been wondering if that is because not enough people are using these sections. With over a million people here, I would expect to have a lot more to choose from.
I have experienced that as well -- on the main Comments section, and that's probably because most everyone are on the Give and Take thread.
Either way, it is very time-consuming and a drain on the process.
Ugh --
Thanks so much,
/a.
Exactly. I wish Kyle would make it mandatory to go to the official Site Comments page to get them!
Take care.
Maybe one day!!