I'll Now Open the Floor For Compliments! (Frustrating Stuff!)

Dang! I meant to say comments!! Oh well, I guess either is suffcient.

There was this comedy-drama movie I saw years ago with some conceited model-like, wealthy woman (no connection with WA) who thought she was the Gift. At some event where she was speaking she finished and said, "Now, I open the floor for compliments!" (She meant about her beauty) Obviously, that was a play on words as normally one would say, "I now open the floor for comments", meaning anything legit, good or bad.

Sometimes I receive comments directly on my WordPress site that are so legit that I have to do a little seraching to determine it was a WA colleague. But sometimes, often in huge spurts, I feel like the comments received by some WA members are watered down. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate ALL effort to help out. But sometimes the comments will sound so patronizing that I wonder if people think they are fake comments by our moms or best friends.

There are times when I leave comments on sites that are just my everyday browsing and searching for a product or some information. and even when I love the site and the info, rarely do I use an overabundance of highly positive adjectives. It's just not what we typically do.

In giving comments I'm sure I've been guilty of the same, but what many of us seem to be facing is a gross abuse of the comments platform. So, if I may, I'd like to propose having a discussion where we outine a few dos and don'ts when leaving comments for fellow affiiates.

Sure, admittedly, I want mainly, if not all, positive comments. That's human nature. But I'm not opposed to someone giving a real opinion on a product that they have heard negative things about. After all, that preserves the purity and integrity of what affiliate marketing is all about. It's about real information being given to real people to help them make the best decision about the products they are considering.

Now, frankly I will err on the side of being extra positive and I'd hope we would all do the same unless our personal knowledge brings someting different to the table. However, sometimes I'll request many comments in one day and I'll find comment after comment where they just don't sound legit. Then I have the choice to reject the comment, edit the darn thing, or use it as it is, and none of these options are good in my opinion.

Have you ever requested several comments only to find the same people commenting on ALL of the posts!?

Apparently, quite a number of commenters are sitting by the computer waiting on a new comment request so they can cut and paste a bunch of generic, patronizing comments followed by one or two lines reciting one or two of our lines from the post. After spending time fixing that one, I move on to the next to find it's the same commenter with the same basic comment. There are sometimes 4 or 5 from the same commenter within an hour or so. And there are several commenters that seem to operate that way. I've had 12 requests on 4 posts submitted by the same four people within what seems like minutes. Certainly I'm not the only one to experience that, right?

Paying for comments or going through the motions on WA to get one comment for every two completed for others, I wasn't expecting that I would have to edit and re-write almost every comment I receive, or reject the poor ones.

Here's One Tip That May Help Get Different Commenters

One tip I found useful when requesting comments through the WA platform that will help to reach a diverse set of individuals, is to change our website's classification in the "Request Comments" area. I don't mean we should change it to something it isn't, but try another category in which it fits. I've had a hard enough time deciding within which catergory certain sites or posts would fall since the categories aren't exhaustive. When we change the classification as we request comments, we will reach different commenters. We all set preferences and interests that determine which comment requests we receive from other WA members, and we all set our website classification or category which determines which WA members will receive our requests for comments. Changing this category or classification can help diversify the pool of commenters.

Conclusion
Maybe some of the others are right who preach that we should just reject those comments that suck. Perhaps if we all do that, obviously within reason, poor commenters and/or the cut-and-paste artists will give up on the futility of doing so many comments a day when they are all being rejected. But for that to work, we would all need to decide to roll that way.

Thanks for letting me rant. Sometimes it helps!

Darrin