More About Comments

I mentioned comments in the last section when I warned against bashing good products.

Even is you write honest reviews, good or bad, you will get some people who disagree with your assessment and leave comments saying so. How you deal with those comments will say a lot about your integrity and can build up or knock down your site's authority standing.

One type of comment you can safely delete is from other affiliate marketers spamming your site with their own affiliate links. Just dump those right away.

Harder to deal with is the sincere reader who just prefers a competitors product and points that out in a comment. I think you should allow that comment to stand and answer with a well reasoned reply. Use a “Yes product XYZ is good but here is why I think product ABC is better” argument. Don’t bash the mentioned product and absolutely DO NOT make the poster look foolish. That won’t win you points with them or any of your other readers.

Then there is the “You don’t know anything, why do you even have a website?” type of comment. How you deal with these depends a lot on how much authority your website has.

If you have a large and loyal following then you can allow the comment and take the high ground with your reply. Say something like “I’m very sorry you feel that way. Perhaps this isn’t the best community for you.” Do that and your other loyal followers are likely to jump in a trash your detractor for you. But you, as the website owner, should never engage in a comment war.

If your site is new or doesn't have a regular following, you might be better off not approving this type of comment.

The good news is that most of your comments are likely to be from readers who found the review helpful or who already use the product and back up your endorsement. These are the comments we all love to get! Approve them at once and thank the poster.