4 simple tips to help you get meaningful comments on your website

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Lately, I have seen several WA blog posts trying to educate members on how to provide meaningful comments on their website posts using the site comment platform. Today, I want to share four simple suggestions that will help people as they write content for their websites that will help engage readers to provide meaningful comments.

First, what prompted these suggestions?

In the last 24 hours, I took the time to comment on a BUNCH of websites for which members had requested comments. Overall, I truly enjoyed the opportuntity to be able to be able to visit and comment on a number of other people's posts. I was awed by the quality of the posts that I read. I was even more awed by the wide variety of topics that people are writing about. It was also interesting to see different themes in use and how the simple ones seemed to be the most effective.

Admittedly, I did a lot of pretending today. I pretended to have a baby. I pretended to be planning a wedding. I pretended to be a purchasing agent. I pretended to have a sick pet. I pretended to be shopping for a boyfriend. Yet despite all of my pretending, there were a handful of posts that truly challenged my ability to provide meaningful comments.

As I considered what made these posts so challenging to comment on, I came up with four simple tips that should help each of us get better quality comments from readers on our websites.

1. If you have an online store, you need to talk to your readers if you want them to be able to comment on your post. It is challenging to look at a list of products and to provide a meaningful comment on list of items for sale. In order to get the WA system to accept my response, I had to use my imagination to invent something to talk about. A simple, "I like the selection of products you have" was not acceptable to the WA system. I ended up pretending like I was talking to an imaginary sales person about a gift that I was wanting to purchase.

Alternatively, consider requesting comments on a page or blog post that is not the online store itself.

2. Try to include some basic background information for the topic of your post. There were several posts that I had to do a little research on Wikipedia and Amazon before I was able to provide a meaningful comment. I am not sure how many readers will take the time to do additional research so that they can provide a meaninful comment or ask a relevant question.

- For example, if you are reviewing an product for sale, it would be helpful if you shared the the price or general price range that the product will cost. Once I was able to establish the product's price, I was easily able to formulate a comment that I felt like was a decent comment.

- If you are discussing something that potentially has multiple applications, it would be extremely helpful to include a sentence or two about reason why somone would want to do the "something" or to purchase the "something" that you are about to spend the next several thousand words discussing. In this particular instance, the long post was well written. I just couldn't figure out exactly what the suggestions were supposed to be used for without some additional research.

I don't want anyone to feel embarrassed, so I will use jogging as an example. People jog for different reasons. Jogging may be utlized as a way to lose weight, as a form of a warm up exercise, as a form of stress relief, as a way to prepare to run a 5K race, or as part of training for a marathon. If my post will discuss jogging as a way to build up to a 5K, it would be helpful to have a sentence in the first paragraph that states so. That way the commenter does not have to try to figure out what type of jogging is being discussed in the article.

An avid runner may be able to figure out the difference. However, the random commenter on WA may be trying to figure out if the article is discussing a jogging as a way to lose weight or to build up for a marathon. Comments along either of those lines would seem really out of place on post discussing training for a 5K.

3. Try to avoid writing posts that require the reader to follow lots of links, to join mailing lists, or to watch long videos in order to understand what the basic purpose of the product that you are promoting is. My definition of a long video is one that lasts over two minutes. To me, this type of post comes across as spammy and is a BIG turn off. A HUGE turnoff. Had I not already known a little bit about the product the post focused on from past research, I would have willingly taken the hit for skipping this member's post.

4. Ask the readers one or more questions that do not involve a simple yes or no response. A bunch of the website posts I commented on asked the readers one or more questions. Sometimes, the questions were in the middle of the post. Often times the questions were at the end. These posts were by far the easiest to comment on. Similar to real life, the questions made it easy to engage in a converstation with the person that wrote the post.


I am certain that I probably forgot some other good tips. Please share anything to this list that would make it easier for writers to engage their readers and obtain meaninful comments?

Also, if you have faced similar problems figuring out how to give meaningful comments, I would like to briefly hear your experiences so that I don't feel alone in my distress. Thanks in advance.

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Recent Comments

38

Sondra,
Thank you for the excellent tips I do the same when I am
giving comments pretending to love whatever the
post is about so somedays you are so right changing into
someone we are not does help :)
AS for the writers of the posts - not too sure they will get
the meaning of you - they figure only the people that
are interested in the niche are going to be reading not
anyone else :(
Susan
Thanks so much for sharing good blog post.

Hi Susan,

Glad that I'm not the only one that "pretends" when writing posts.

Unfortunately, you are correct about the writers not getting my meaning. I spent a lot of time considering that suggestion. Yet, I decided that if someone is searching google using a keyword, say jogging for instance, it is highly possible that their post could come up and yet not really be what the reader is looking for. If they are clear about their topic, the reader will be more likely to stay on their site rather than leaving frustrated. But, then maybe not....

I hope you have a productive week.

Some excellent tips and advice Sondra, commenting can be an art form, to scale those heights good content can be the starting point, having congruent calls to action, and all the information contained within the post can be so helpful as well.

Thanks for sharing,

Those videos that go on forever can be so painful, 15 minutes later and we are still waiting for the punchline.

Alex

Hi Alex,
I like that description, "Comments can be an art form." That is so true.

Well, I hope that you can have a week that does not include any painful videos.

Sondra

Thank you for your tips. Sometimes it is not that easy to provide a meaningful comment. I get the idea that people don't spend much time on your site and want to get out as soon as possible. Unfortunately they have to give comments to receive any and that is what it is about for them. To give a proper comment is time consuming and people don't want to spend that time on your site.

Hi Andries,

Yes, you are very correct. In all fairness, it is challenging to read posts that we are not particularly interested in. Yet, doing so is a way that we give back and help others.

Hopefully, your website will gain so much traction in the very near future that it will not be necessary to ask WA members to make comments. That is my personal goal.....

Best wishes.

Your tips are all good. Thanks for sharing them.
Unfortunately, as JKulk1 pointed out below, some people are offering comments for their own benefit as pointed out by the fact that they only manage to average 32 seconds on a page. So it doesn't matter how good the site is. It is more important to get comments from people with integrity who are doing it for the right reasons- to assist other members with meaningful comments.
Cheers

Hi Andrew,

I read that comment last night just before I went to bed. It is beyond my wildest comprehension to be able to understand how someone can glance at a page in such a short period of time and to be able to comment.

Last night, I tried to think of ways to encourage people to spend more time. This morning, I have decided to focus on what I can control. Creating and publishing more great content that will allow more visitors to find my website organically. In that case, I would not need the assistance of WA members.

I hope you have a wonderful and productive week.

Awesome guidelines, Thanks!

You are welcome. Thanks for commenting.

Great advice. I will keep that in mind as I make my posts and am looking for comments.

Thanks. Maybe one day I will have the opportunity to provide you some comments.

Excellent points...it all goes back to writing meaningful, good quality content. Good content produces good comments.
Debbie

That is so true Debbie. Good content also helps us get those comments organically without having to request them through WA.

Hi Sondra. One thing I'd like to add to your list. Make sure you spend enough time on the website, if it's a Normal niche, click on some of the internal links. My bounce rate is shocking thanks to WA commented. When I checked Google analytics yesterday I had a bounce rate of 70 and the average WA person stayed on my site for 32 seconds. I know everyone wants to make some money from site comments but in reality it's not set up for that purpose. It's there to help us achieve Google trust and hence good rankings. When completing site comments, I always read the blog completely, leave it open for at least five minutes and click on at least one internal link. It's not as if my site isn't interesting as my organic traffic is staying for around 5 minutes. Jim

Jim,

That is an excellent suggestion. If the average WA person stays on a site for 32 seconds, Google must think that I decided to spend camp there. lol

While I don't necessarily visit other pages on every site that I visit, I do stay on the page and refer back to it as I write my comment.

In my humble opinion, people that do not spend enough time on other people's websites are hurting themselves. By commenting on other members websites in a thoughtful fashion, we can learn much that can be applied to our own websites.

If you would ever like me to comment on your website, please feel free to send me a private message with the link. I would be more than happy to help improve your rates as my time permits. If your site is about a topic that I am truly not interested in, I'll let you know after the first comment.

Great guidelines and proof that the fault sometimes lies with both parties

That is true. I am finding that commenting on other people's websites is very educational. I see things that people do that make it easy to comment that I want to incorporate into my own writing and things that I want to try to avoid.

I hope you have a great week.

I need that help

I am glad that you found it helpful. Best wishes on your journey of creating an online business.

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