I Have Issues With Site Comments
I've decided to take part in the whole comment offering thing to contribute to the community and to get this adventure in learning to market pay for itself, not as a way to earn income, just self fund. So I read content instead of write content.
As I approach the site comments concept, I'm thinking that people need posts on their web pages and I have no idea what they are going to have me read about, but I am going to take the time to read the content that they pointed me to and formulate a decent comment for that web page.
So as fate would have it, I come across a request to comment on a page about breast pumps.
Honestly, no comment that a man is going to leave on an article about breast pumps will be valued. I would have expected my comment to be rejected so I passed on writing a comment there.
Here's the catch! This counts against me! My passing on an article about breast pumps caused me to have a skip rate!
The next thing that happened is I wrote a comment in reply to an article about found footage films. It was a review of such a film. I mentioned in my comment that I didn't know "Found Footage" was a genre. For all the rest of my comment there was no regard. The administrator rejected my comment because I would never have found their website on my own.
Alright...how about this?
Leave your website out there where people can only find it on their own if you only want organic commentary!
You ASKED me to come to your site by way of requesting comments!
Don't forget you have the ability to edit the comment before you approve it. You could easily have taken that line about genres out.
But that's not the final straw that caused me to rant right now.
I posted a comment on a site about shoes. Specifically, Converse Chuck Taylor shoes. I mentioned in my comment that I had low top converse shoes, not the Chucks that the article was about. So, in the article, the writer described "Chucks" as being high tops with the star on the ankle. I did not know that the converse low tops were ALSO called Chuck Taylors.
If you happen to be the author of this page, my comment afforded you a teaching opportunity to teach me and others that just because your site only described Chucks as high tops, that the oxfords are also Chucks.
My comment was rejected because I didn't know this.
I had also included a short story about letting my friends write on my soles and getting to start new when I washed my shoes, so I DID write about my experiences with the shoes (The picture up there is a screen shot of the actual rejection letter).
I don't have that many comments out there, so I'm starting to recognize these ridiculous reasons for rejection as an affront against my plan to self fund.
I'm sorry to the WA community, but if things like this are going to discourage me from being active in the community, I will probably just sit this feature out. It was fun and educational but there are some real snobs out there who don't know how to use editing to remove a line that they feel isn't in line with their page. I'm not talking about changing what I wrote, I'm talking about one or two short sentences that amount to small talk.
Remember folks, that as you're requesting site comments, you're doing so because you want activity on your posts.
Also keep in mind that a reader from WA may not know what they're getting into by clicking to read and comment on your post.
We're scratching each other's backs here, people!
Recent Comments
12
Sorry about the frustration, friend! You wouldn't believe a friend got so hurt when one of the comments he left was disapproved. He had to copy the comment he posted and pasted on the live chat to ask everyone if what he wrote was not relevant to the content of the post.
The only thing I said was that he should forget that lest he deteriorates. I made him realize that he could get back to his 100% approval rate once he could forget that frustration and he promised to work on this. Thanks for letting us know this!
Israel Olatunji
Thanks Israel! Ranting about it is my first step to forgetting about it. It's like a steam vent...I have to air off this frustration somehow then get on with my life.
Hi John. I got that very same blog on breast pumps. What a shock... I was tempted to comment but thought better of it. Unfortunately site comments is a difficult way to earn money. Everytime I get a chance to get stuck into it, after 3 comments I get that dreaded message about no more comments available. Personally I think the whole thing would work better if you received $1 a comment but had to remain on the site for at least 3minutes and use several internal links. I'm not sure how they would go about this but it would drop the bounce rate, which has gone through the roof on my site. Jim
Thanks for replying, Jim! I know that there are a lot of people out here trying to make this make money for them. I figured that once I make my 50 comments and become a certified commentor, I need to do 6 comments a day to have comments pay enough to pay for my annual membership.
I have not had difficulty in finding 6 articles to write comments on, but I do have difficulty sometimes in getting one to write on while I have time in my day to do so.
So for me it's not about finding the articles, it's about finding the time.
What I need to do is make a list of what I want to get done for my own site each day, perhaps with a time allocation, so when I sit down with 30 minutes to read an article and write a comment, but there are no comments available, I can find a 30 minute job in my to do list and work on my site with that time, instead.
I think I have an easier time finding articles to comment on because all of my free time is in the wee hours of the morning, like between midnight and 4am.
Like you my friend, I'm using it to make enough money to pay for my annual membership. But at the rate I'm going that might just be November 2019. The next Black Friday deal. All the Best. Jim
I understand your frustration and it's really hard to know what the person requesting the comment wanted.
I understand that there are going to be topics or posts that you don't know much about.
Have you thought of maybe going back through the topics you checked for having an interest in/or know about?
Also, and this is just a suggestion since your wishing to use your earnings to offset the cost of membership. (An excellent idea I might add)
Maybe you could ask questions about the topics I understand the one about the breast pump (still not sure why that would even match on that one?)
An idea would be to ask questions I don't know if u have children or are married, but you could've asked a question about recommendations since you are a guy and say something like
"This post really helped me understand the importance of breast feeding I really had no idea that ....(and state a fact in the post)
Also asking questions is a great way to engage and start a conversation.
What I think probably has happened is that they had gotten their recommended request and tried to choose the ones that lead to the most engagement.
While it's great to include personal experiences I think some people here are lightweight fishing for compliments. Yes, they want to improve engagement authority and site rank. However, they may want you to tell them how great they did on the post especially the part about (a certain fact they mentioned)
I'm not saying you aren't doing these things or have done anything wrong my advice is simply to offer you solutions to an issue your having with Site Comments.
I hope these suggestions help and wish you the very best here at WA!
Thank you for the advice, April!
I think the breast pump and the sneakers both showed up because I chose the health category.
It doesn't bother me that it was there, but it put in between a rock and a hard place.
On the side bar, the author indicates what kinds of commentary they are after. This shoe article asked for personal experiences. I gave one.
Maybe I didn't stroke the writer like they'd like me to, but I didn't say anything negative...until after the rejected my comment!
Thanks again, I appreciate that you are helping to calm me down!
Your welcome I know how frustrating these things can be at times. I really hope you stick with participating in Site Comments and I would hate to see you lose interest and not continue because of someone else's issue.
Although easier said than done try to not take it personal, and focus on your goals while continuing on your personal path to success within the Wealthy Affiliate Community and with building your business.
John,
I in a way agree with you in five months I have had comments
rejected the one was because it was a cat website and the
only part of my comment that could have possibly been the
reason for rejection and it was, as a matter of fact, was my
first statement of the whole comment which was I am not a
cat person LOL but I am an animal lover I have 3 dogs the
rest of the comment was very thought out and dealt with cats!
They could have edited out the NOT and kept the comment
which was very well written and engaging for their site.
But hey whatever if you think I am ever going to comment
on another cat post again - no way :)
Finished with my rant now!
Susan
Ah...That person probably has 16 cats that they claim to love but don't know where they are.
Just kidding...nah...not kidding.
I'm not a cat person either, but I have two of them that think I am, especially when I dress nicely in something dark.
I have a 3-legged golden. That's my girl!
See more comments
Say it like it is. I commend you for your long awaited rant. Excellent post. Thank you for sharing.