SiteComments 2.0 - A Significant Upgrade Has Been Released!

Today we're happy to announce that one of our most highly used, and integral platforms to the website building process has been fully updated and is available now. I'm really excited to tell you all about SiteComments 2.0, the improvements that have been made, and brand new features that we have packed in :)
To access SiteComments click "Websites" from the main menu and you will find it under the "SiteComments" button in the submenu.
At Wealthy Affiliate we have long understood the importance of engagement on a website to not only help with building trust, validity, and legitimacy with your content, but also how discussion plays a huge role in the world of SEO!
In 2018, you want to be writing your content to engage your audience. Questions, discussion, debate, customer reviews, and clarification are a few ways that comments can improve your content and overall publication on the subject matter.
You want to encourage comments on your website - think about the last website where you were researching or browsing something online. Did you scroll down to see what other people had to say about the content? I know that I certainly do. This is a trend that has been here for years and is continuing to be an important element of validity of content. A blog post without comments seems "suspect" these days, and it's much less valid and trustworthy than a similar post with loads of comments and discussion.
We understood this years ago and created a platform called SiteComments which provides a medium for people to spark discussion on their sites from others here at WA. SiteComments was groundbreaking in terms of the technology that was required to pull it off and we were extremely happy with how well-received and widely adopted it was with the WA community.
Part of building an online business and publishing content online is to ask for engagement and facilitate discussion. This is something that we suggest in our training and it's something that 1000's of people do on a daily basis when publishing content through WA.
However, as with any platform there is always room for improvements.
Receiving Comments Took Too Long.
SiteComments is a give-and-take system. It works when people offer comments to others, and in-turn gain credits to request comments of their own. One problem with our initial release of SiteComments was that folks didn't have adequate notifications within the platform. There were also issues with certain types of websites and the algorithms of deciding which websites to display for folks to leave comments on.
This eventually led to the platform taking too long to deliver comments. If you're waiting on comments, you're much less likely to offer comments since you were not getting all the comments you are asking for in a reasonable amount of time, and this cycle continued until the average wait time for comments was unsatisfactory.
So, we went to the drawing board and came up with some ideas to help get people the highest quality comments quickly, efficiently, and within the requested time-frames. Among many updates to the system which will help with this, we came up with two incentives which I'm going to explain below.
Introducing Comment Boost.
First I'd like to mention that there are some incredibly talented authors of comments here within the SiteComments platform. Folks who really offer a lot of awesome comments while waiting for their own comments to be delivered - now we have a system called Comment Boost which gives everyone an opportunity to boost their own comment requests in the queue if they are offering a lot of comments to others. The more you leave, the more you get!
Comment Boost works like this...
For every 10 comments that are offered to others in a 24-hour period, you get all of your requests added to a priority queue. This means that you will get comments that you've requested faster. There is no "Cap" to SiteBoost either. If you would like to offer 30 comments in 24 hours, you would add your requests to the Comment boost priority queue for 72 hours, thus having your requests displayed to others at a higher rate.
For those that leave comments in the platform, you are now rewarded with the opportunity to get your own comments faster!
Comment boost has already shown that many people are working toward boosting their own comments and this is really helping the system tick along and fulfill requests at the highest rate ever that we've seen!
However, Comment boost is not the only incentive that we've come up with. I'd like to introduce our brand new "Certified Commenter" status!
Become Certified & Earn Revenue.
For those that can maintain specific criteria in the SiteComments platform, you can not only earn WA Community credits to put towards requesting SiteComments or SiteFeedback, you can now earn WA Cash credits that have a value of $0.50 each. Maintaining certified commenter status will pay you for comments that you are offering in the form of WA Cash credits that can be exchanged for USD through your credit dashboard!
The criteria to become a certified commenter is based on a 30-day history.
- Minimum of 50 comments offered
- Minimum of 80% approval rate
- Maximum of 20% skip (not interested) rate
Certified commenters offer high quality comments on a wide variety of topics on all kinds of websites. Earn $100's a month by offering comments to others, it's a pretty great way to provide our BEST comm enters some incentive to continue being awesome! We all appreciate your help with sparking engagement and discussion on our websites :)
Reminders.
When you are requesting comments from others, we now have a little pop-up that reminds you that you've got some pending requests and that you could speed up the delivery of your comments by offering some to others. The more comments you offer, the quicker you will receive comments for your website.
It's far too easy to forget that you've even requested comments and it's equally easy to forget to leave some for others. This is one of the reasons why SiteComments 2.0 is going to work much better - we'll let you know with a reminder popup that offering a handful of comments will help you with fulfillment of your own requests!
Have you ever been in the SiteComments platform wanting to leave comments but found that you did not feel you had interest or experience with a topic in order to leave a relevant comment? Well we understand that a great comment can come from someone who is interested or even knowledgeable about the topic. We're really focusing on the alignment of interests as a high priority.
You'll start to notice the odd email here and there letting you know that a fellow member at WA has requested comments on a topic that you have selected as an "Interest" in the system. When you receive such an email it's a great opportunity to leave a comment because it's a topic that you've marked as an Interest from your SiteComment settings.
Requesting "Types" of Comments
One of the most common requests for the SiteComment platform was the ability to specify the kind of comments that you are requesting. We also realize the importance in this and we've updated the process of requesting comments.
Now when requesting comments you can choose up to 4 types of comments.
Requesting a specific kind of comments can give fellow members some more direction with what you are after, and it can really simplify the comment offering process.
Choose any that apply to you, in some cases that may mean choosing all 4 options, and that is perfectly fine. When leaving a comment for someone else, you will now see the types of comments being asked for and you can base your comment on one or more!
** Comment requests made from the old system will not have this "type of comment" criteria, so don't be alarmed if you are offering a comment and you do not see these guidelines.
SiteComments has been improved from the ground up and we've spent a significant amount of time putting thought into how this platform can continue to function and offer the best possible medium for getting engagement on a website.
We love the new UI and the new features are already being utilized. I think that as you use SiteComments 2.0 that you will really enjoy and benefit from what it has evolved into.
There have been a number of discussions already in the past few hours about the updates and feedback has been incredible!
We would love to hear what you have to say, so please leave us a comment below.
Enjoy!
Carson
Just a note, but you've probably heard. The quality of the comments via SiteComments has really gone down. It looks like people are just leaving comments to collect credits.
I do my best to try to work with the comments that I get, and I was fully fine with them until recently.
The quality has really plummeted. Not sure if there are any fixes in the works, but just wanted to be sure you are aware.
- Christina
In practice, I have made a strange experience though.
My first four credits I used up to get two comments and got 5 back. I liked that.
The next request I did was for 1, giving two credits, then I received 4 and the next time even 5 for one request.
I got excited and fulfilled 10 comments within 24 hours and had the 24-hour priority queue status and then things changed.
I asked for another 4 comments, spend 8 credits and received only 7 in return.
I wonder now, is it that you reward little involvement over high?
So my questions are this:
Are recipe star-ratings important for rankings in Google?
If yes, is there a way to use SiteComments so that people can leave star-ratings as well as leave a comment?
Also, I haven't used any of the credits I've gotten.
Thanks so much !!
For me it has gone from one extreme to the other.
Before.. you could wait days/weeks to get a comment request through... but you could always offer and gain credits, they were always available.
Now. I have been trying to make a credit for 4 days... both on comments and the feedback platform and nothing at all has been available.
I know the reason... people are now turning the wheels to get to the Certified Commenting level .. so they earn revenue ... Ie .. they are soaking up all the requests/offers... and cashing out ... not asking for comments back..
Or am I wrong?
Just a little frustrating .. as I have one new post up .. and I am not able to make credits at all to get comments back .. they are always permanently taken.
Chris
Referring to my attachment below, I find this so untrue and unfounded, my percentage of comments being fine is 83%!
Why is there this Warning that is telling me I cannot comment further?!
Please advise soonest so I can continue.
Looking forward to your reply
Regards
Edu
I find the WA name is now omitted. Why is this so and why not put it back. I always checked up the person's profile to get to know them and now I can't do this!
I think this a wonderful way of looking out for the most dedicated people here at WA - and to those who take the time to read the complete articles and offer genuine comments for the website owner.
Thanks for being so awesome I am loving every minute of being
on the WA team :)
I go websites and then site comments. I then click offer comments. Then I view a website. when done I do not leave a comment on their site but I come back to site comments and leave a comment down below and also leave my email. I then go and push the button that says submit my comment. Then it takes me to the top immediately and I don't know if the comment is placed. I reckon it is not as I have not earned any credits nor does the status bar say I have 1 comment out of 10 comments. I have tried getting help from the community but no luck. Thanks
In as much that even when I have credits some of my posts are without comment.
Because of the length of time, it takes to get a comment I lose interest. With this facelift, I can resume offering and requesting comment.
Thanks again
DorcsW
I can't wait to try out the new SiteComments! Thanks for all the hard work, and this is just another reason why I have stuck with WA for so many years. You guys are always "ahead of the curve", and provide us with all the tools we need to succeed. Something you just can't find anywhere else.
Thanks!
A little off topic here, how many comments you guys request for a blog post?
Is long pile of comments necessary?
I have comment on some websites, I see the comments was too many so scrolling the blog post is very long to the bottom and it is over 100 comments.
I see that this is kind of too much?
Want to know your opinion.
Quick question though, about Jaaxy, my auto site rank scans have not updated for October and I wondered it Lite has been removed again? xxx
I just read something on another thread which kinda got me worried...
If SiteComments is delivering a load of comments to our sites so quickly (in the space of 24 hours) and all from the same source (WA), how is Google going to perceive this? Can we run the risk of getting penalized by Google, despite lots of extra "quality" content being added to posts?
Or am I just worrying for no reason?
Thanks
I think it's a magnificent idea. Not only will we receive quality comments, but also cash credits. Wow! This is going to make our websites super engaging. Once people see comments on articles they like, they're going to want to join the conversation.
Can't wait to start using it.
Have a great day!;0)
I figured maybe the issue was it was out of the 24 hr. range but thought the counter would start over so I refreshed my screen and it dropped down to 6.
I'm gonna keep writing comments until I see how the meter reacts!
Let's see what happens
Edited:
Just reached priority queue not sure what happened there but anywho I am loving this format.
Have one question with re to the comments platform:
I've noticed that if I write a comment directly on the blog itself and not via the comment platform of WA (the regular old way), As part of my details, beside my name I can also leave a link to my site. But I didn't found how to do that on the WA comment platform... :(
Am I missing something or is it not possible yet?
Thank you in advance.
Any help would be lovely!
Thanks In advance for any help offered :)
I'm very excited about using the new SiteComments 2.0!!
I've updated my interests, removing family, kids, babies, etc. yet I still get this to review:
"best-baby-strollers-of-2018-there-is-something-for-everyone"
Even when I say I'm not interested I get it right back. Now we can only say I'm not interested so many times before we break the limits so how do I fix this?
I love the idea for getting paid for the effort of commenting.
I have limited time for my wa project each day, which splits between completing my training, working on my blog, commenting on others blogs and giving feedback and engaging here with the community. With the new upgrade, commenting is going to get a larger slice of the pie.
Wow, these changes all sound like great improvements to Site Comments...I'll definitely have to check it out when I get a chance to do so since comments are something I've been needing to add on my own sites as well. Sounds like a win win situation for all involved, so I'm looking forward to checking it out soon!
Thanks again, Carson, for all the hard work and continuing updates you guys do here at Wealthy Affiliate!
Best wishes :) ~Sherry
I have used it and learned from the last version to be wary of where I placed my comments as on a number of occasions I went to great lengths to comment only to find I had submitted directly to the site and not through the WA platform. The end result being that the comment was received but I never got the "credit" for it. An easy mistake to make.
The only issues I have with these requests for comments is on occasion I have come across badly written content that should be pointed out for the benefit of the WA member who owns the site. I have just found two such posts but have no idea who the members are and I cannot PM them.
In both cases there were no names in the "About" page so I had no way of tracking them down and sending them a PM.
The alternative is to let them know in the comments and that would probably result in the comment not being approved and hence negatively impacting my rating.
The solution is to have who the article is written by or at least some info on the "about" page.
Hate to be negative folks - only trying to help
I have said yes to all the categories but today I got 4 posts I didn't feel comfortable commenting on. 3 were about penile disfunction and one on a horny granny. I think they were under health topics.
The 3 came in a row so my percentage is now about 55%.
I clicked "not interested" for a website, but then after a few rotations the same website comes back again. I'm still not interested cause I don't know anything about the topic. But I have to click "not interested" again, so does that increase my skip rate twice for the same website?
Once again you guys have hit the nail on the head in your many improvements. WA has always been fantastic but you keep coming up with new ideas to improve it anyway. Thank you so much for all your efforts. You make us all proud and show us what an amazing company you are as a result. I'm sure this new system will move everyone even more forward with their SEO efforts.
Ange
I do think some tweaks to the algorithm is required:
My interests are automotive, entertainment, gaming and music, but I'm only getting pages about IM, Health, something with candles and even a Spanish website.
Also, the pages that I skipped, because I can't give a quality comment on a specific topic keep coming back, which is not good for my skipping rate.
Then the delay in getting comments was increasingly slow. I usually pay for them and I also had a lot of site feedback instead of the required comment meaning i had to disapprove quite a few. So not only was it taking a long time they were not even comments.
I have been waiting since Kyle mentioned that the 2.0 version was coming and now I'm psyched that we have the ability to get comments flowing in again.
I have already been playing around with it giving a few and requesting a few. WA rocks!
This morning I qualified for the 24 hour "Turbo Boost" and got 10 quality comments in the space of just 30 minutes!!
This is the fastest time I've received comments, EVER!!
At this rate, my Google rankings will also go into turbo boost mode lol.
If you haven't used the new updated SiteComments yet, I encourage you to start right this very second. You'll be pleasantly surprised.
Cheers Kyle and Carson, you guys certainly overdeliver with the AWESOMENESS!
Neil
Thanks to WA for yeat another great innovation.
Terry
I spent almost an hour responding! Much, much faster than the old Site Comments.
Since I use it quite a lot, it definitely makes a huge difference in turnaround from request to reply and approval.
Thanks a lot!
I so very much appreciate how you and Kyle act and react upon the communities requests and wishes. That's what make a successful company, you two are great role models.
:-) Pernilla
A great upgrade, to one that I have not used previously.
I just need to get active & learn so much more. I have been in a "holding mode" & not progressing as I know (with all the support here at WA) I am capable of doing.
Denis
There are so many avenues to take here in WA that are helpful to both the giver and the recipient. Thank you for that. It is a great incentive to achieve and it builds self-confidence, too.
On my way to Site Comments,
Karen
I spent an hour and a half tonight to write comments on all kinds of websites. That was a nice experience again.
Many thanks,
Oscar
I also love now that you can request the type of comments you're looking for so this will now hopefully reduce the type of comments that don't offer engagement or has nothing to do with the topic/post at hand or stop getting those comments where people talk about the website as a whole and not the specific post. I'm excited to start using SiteComments more and my aim is to definitely become a certified commenter so I can start earning some cash that way :)
I suggest you solve this problem as soon as possible.
The new comments system looks great..!
I have a question:
On the old comments system my analytics showed that all the comments on my articles from WA members came from the same URL - which was the URL of the thread.
This raised an alarm for me because the search engines would see that and may assume that I'm part of a blog comments network - which, I guess we are - and penalise our sites as a result.
Already, posting articles with links to WA on Google+ results in an immediate rejection (classed as spam) so my question is: with the new system will comments all come from the same WA URL..?
Many thanks!
Martin.
I wrote a lengthy comment, and tried to submit it, and wasn't able to do so. I am putting it here because it deserves a comment.
Tiffany, I looked at your website, and found it to be very interesting. You have some very interesting business topics, and I wish I had the time to take advantage of some of your offers. BTW, I didn't list my website because I have no content in place yet. I see that you have WA listed as one of your business opportunities. I am a member of WA , and I have committed myself to learn everything they teach me. That means a lot of reading, and watching videos that will help me to succeed in putting my business idea into action. I have to admit that have you several subjects that interest me, and for that reason I am going to keep you in mind for future use. One suggestion: proof read everything you write. As I was reading your site, I noticed that you spelled "their" when you meant "they're" ( they are ). I proof read my comment, and saw that I left out a word. Good spelling shows your intelligence. Other than that, it's a nice website. IMHO.
I am actually longing since I became a premium member of WA in 2016 to have the SiteComments be upgraded and make it a little bit more driving and energizing.
To be honest, the previous SiteComments is lacking fire on itself. But today, the improved SiteComments 2.0 exceeds more than what I expected.
Not only that you can now get comments faster than before but you can also be rewarded with cash credits if you will become a Certified Commenter. For me, that is more than enough! It's the true spirit of generosity and give-and-take relationship.
I do believe that SiteComments is not dead. Let us pave the way to the new outlook of SiteComments 2.0.
Thanks to Kyle and Carson and the rest of the team for giving attention to our concerns about SiteComments.
Cheers!
You guys don't cease to amaze me, every time new, pleasant, bigger surprises 😍
And honestly, SiteComments are a great way for newbies to make some cash while learning.
I remember when I started my journey, I was excited to create WA tutorials to make extra cash but unlike being a Certified Commenter, first I had to be a Premium member of the community for 3 months.
Thank you!
I tried it out today by asking for a comment on two different posts, then I gave 10 comments to see how it would boost.
Within a short time after I finished the 10 comments, I received great comments back on the two requests. Plus I received an extra comment on each of my posts. Awesome!
My first experience with it was positive for sure. I'm looking forward to using it regularly.
Thanks again to you all!
Stella :-)
Thank you for the updates to the platform, it sounds great and I am sure I will begin in the near future using this feature again.
Mary
To me this is more than an update. It should be called "The new SiteComments" since it's way more than what it used to be.
The best part about it is the incentive for everyone to participate and benefit from it, and even earn money with it!
Like you mentioned in your post, engagement, trust, validity, and legitimacy with our website content, plays a huge role in the world of SEO!
This "new" tool will give everyone that want to use it a great opportunity that we cannot get anywhere else but here!!!
You guys keep on amazing me every time you come out with an upgrade. Like I mentioned earlier in a post, you guys keep the ball rolling all the time!
Thank you for being such great leaders!
Cheers ! 😃
Denis
I started to use the site comments two weeks ago, and I have to say that it is AMAZING.
I can't wait to post more helpful comments in order to get some for my own posts.
But for some reason, when I am asking for comments It takes a really long time, I hope that from now on it will get better because I'm definitely going to get the Comment Boost!
However, there's a problem I encountered which could ruin members chances of qualifying for "Certified Commenter".
I came across a few sites that I was forced to skip because one post wasn't even published in English.
And then there were posts that requested me to share "personal experience" which I had none of. For example, I came across a post on breast cancer which I couldn't add any insights on.
If we get enough sites like these that we have to skip, then the percentage rate is gonna be higher than 20%.
It's saying that my skip rate is 100%, which could prove difficult to lower.