Be picky with site comments, you deserve the best.
Folks, I did write about this before, but it's been happening more frequently as of late...
There's an increasing pattern of people trying to "game" site comments in that they submit really poor/cheap quality ones in order to get it approved, get credits and get paid.
Such things include:
- Writing extremely general, short comments that show you didn't read my article.
- Writing things like "nice review" when I don't actually review anything (read it...).
- Copying parts of MY content and pasting it as part of your comment to write less. If you're going to do this, paraphrase and let me know you agree with my point, then it works.
- Trying to mass submit comments and basically write them in a similar way (poor effort).
- Grammatical errors, spelling errors.
- Writing as though you're texting: "Lolz, i, wazup,".
- Reviewing my writing style and telling me what corrections I need to make.
- Reviewing my article as though they are a critic.
Keep it simple please...
- Write comments that actually show you read the article.
- Write comments and talk about your experiences that relate to the context of the article.
- Ask decent question about the article (what about this, or what your thoughts on that).
- If you want to say thanks for the article, that's cool, but be more deep about it. Tell me how it helped you, it adds more quality content to the comment.
- If you have nothing to say (perhaps the subject is alien to you), then don't comment or at least say you're unfamiliar but interested in it, so ask a decent question. Otherwise, skip to a site whose topic you know about.
Your goal as a commenter is to create dialogue with the author and have other people see this.
And for the people who dont...
The best way to filter out those who do this is to simply disapprove the comment, and in mases if you have to. I certainly do this and I do it mercilessly.
It's my site that's on the line and many may disagree with my disapproval, but it's still my site and my right to disapprove and if it hurts your feelings, I honestly do not care. You will find though that find my reasons for disapproving comments to almost always be in one of the above bullet points.
This is a great system we have and it should only reward the people who truly provide us with the best comments that help our sites.
By being picky with who we approve comments from, we will be able to reward the truly honest people and in many cases, help those who aren't experienced in submitting good comments, raise their skill to be able to do so in the future.
Yes this means many people will have their comments disapproved when they try to submit them, but when you do this, let them know what they need to fix and make it clear so that they may have another chance.
That's for the good apples. And for the bad ones? You're never going to get past me with crap comments.
Update:
Good news guys, I found out that site comments has more filters in place stop those who misuse the system. Basically multiple disapproals blacklists the said person so they can't comment on your site again.
So basially being more picky about what you approve further pushes away the bad apples, even though there are a bunch of them. Either way, keep doing what you're doing folks and the system will evolve and be even better.
Recent Comments
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Great post, Vitaliy! Well said! Like you, I want quality comments, so I try to leave good, helpful comments for others. Leaving a "crappy" comment or commenting without ever reading the post is just not right. In fact, it's inconsiderate of the person who took time to write a good post.
Anyhow, here's to quality comments from now on! :)
Colleen
Exactly what I was thinking!
Just like a lot of the other guys in the thread, I was spending too much of my time re-writing comments - now I'm rejecting, with one caveat.
It's blindingly obvious when someone has taken the time to read your post and put some effort into writing a comment. It's equally clear when no effort at all has been made as in Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V
My standards are very high, I'm a professional copy and content writer, so I'm picky.
That said, I'm prepared to cut some slack for a commenter whose first language is obviously not English IF they've made a genuine effort (within reason).
C-R-A-P will be dealt with mercilessly :)
Thanks for taking the time to express what many of us were thinking Vitaliy ;)
I know exactly what you are talking about. I have gotten a lot of them. To be honest with you I get more useless ones than positive ones that add value to my website.
I believe a lot of people probably don't know they are doing it incorrectly. But, it is very frustrating!
I did create a training a while ago. Here is how you can actually leave comments of value: How To Write A Great Blog Comment
I think I should start being merciless too...
I currently have 179 comments in review because I know I'm going to have to re-write them all. I guess the nice side of me feels bad for disapproving but I know they will never change if we let people get away with it.
Thanks Vitaly, I'll start applying this.
Oh I totally feel you! Vitaliy is right, it's our businesses we're talking about and we need to be merciless when it comes to crap comments.
Hi VitaliyG it's Me ! Scotty B ♫, March 3rd, 2019 Sunday
Thanks for the extra info on responding to Comments. I feel this platform is different from the Feedback one I give in the little Bell at the top of ones who are requesting feedback on their sites. This Comment section from the Website Icon to our left seems to be Compliment Only driven. So, a critic I will not be. I think the writer also wants to use these comments to their advantage impressing others to their site. I get that. But not showing them what they can improve on might not be helping them. Oh, well, Icing and a frosting I will go..............Scotty B ♫
I almost wrote something like this yesterday. I have to edit almost all of the comments I am getting due to lack of effort. I hate to be the guy to disapprove a comment but on the other hand I don't request comments to have to go through and spend time editing them. People are now being paid to give comments so the least one can do is actually be engaging and write a thoughtful comment that makes sense.
Don't edit them Jason, it's not your job to babysit people who aren't putting in the work to write a proper comment. If it's minor changes, sure, if it's many/major ones, don't do it. It doesn't help nor does it help propel the commenter to write good comments.
Very true, I have 3 pending right now that I'm not so sure what to do with. I understand English is not everyone's primary language, so with those ones I've been a little more forgiving and spent some time to edit but the ones that I can see very little effort are going to have to go.
Totally agree. I used to approve all comments and simply edit the bad ones, but no more. Lately I have disapproved the bad comments that lack quality, the ones that need proper spelling, the ones that clearly show my article was not read, and the ones that just say great article. I do not have the time to waste editing and sometimes re-writing the comment all together.
I totally see where you're coming from on this. I've been frustrated with a lot of the comments I've received recently. Either they are poorly written (i.e. tons of grammatical mistakes), off topic, or more of a 'Site Feedback' than a comment on the content itself. What is your stance on editing comments you've received? I wouldn't edit to change what people are saying, but mainly make comments on a grammatical level. Sometimes I feel like I should change whole sentences to more effectively communicate what I THINK the reviewer was trying to say. How do you approach this?
I do correct grammar and spelling (that's not to say I don't make mistakes myself, but I have seen some obvious errors). I will not change the comment beyond that. If I feel it warrants that kind of change, I'll reject it.
Absolutely agree on that point. I had a couple today that I started editing and then this post reminded me that it wasn't' worth the effort!
If it's very minor things like a space here or a period there, I don't mind editing it, I'm not that picky, but if the person has a bunch of mistakes of falls into the bullet points I stated OR repeats the same issues, I will disapprove it.
I get really frustrated with the fact that texting language has become more and more accepted in general, not just in comments. I appreciate you taking the time to post this, it's nice to know I am not alone here!
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I get where you're coming from with comments which is an issue I've also raised a few times.
There are times when we get really great comments. And then there are those that say "Thanks for the post" at least twice (start and end of the comments), "I'm gonna bookmark your page and share with friends" - basically filler text with only 1 line providing SOME value.
What also peeves me off is when they open up with "I've never heard of product X" and even write something positive about a scam you've reviewed, clearly indicating it's a copy and paste job and they just haven't read it.
If there's the opportunity to edit a comment, I will do so before approving. But if it's just straight up crap that requires A LOT of editing and provides zero user experience or just feedback, it gets disapproved.
At the end of the day, our visitors and online businesses come first.
I guess sometimes you gotta put yourself in the shoes of hot shot bloggers like Neil Patel, etc, and ask yourself whether they would approve poor value comments on their blogs lol.
Have you also gotten comments where the commenter is inserting the post title which has your targeted keyword within their comment?
“Thank you for your article on ‘how to get started in weight lifting for beginners’”.
I’ve been getting these types of comments a lot and have been disapproving them because I don’t want google penalizing me for keyword stuffing. Especially if I’m requesting 10 comments and all 10 of them are saying it.
Come to mention it, have had a few like that lol.
I guess Google will let you off the hook with the odd few comments with keywords. But you can also edit the comments yourself (making them more natural) before approving. :)
See, I'm even okay with people who tell me they'll bookmark, because I come across a lot of valuable articles that I literally do bookmark and will post to my Facebook and Twitter network. I do think there is honesty behind it; not from everyone, but it can be valuable simply because if you get some organic traffic and they read people are bookmarking a site, even if they aren't, it might entice them to stick around and see why. They don't know we're asking for comments.
I'm the same way in that I'll edit before trashing a comment. Most of my comments actually have enough potential to be saved via this method. I'll say "I've never heard of" a few times in my own comments if I didn't hear of the product or service early on.
Some might find it annoying if a commenter states "I'm clicking through to purchase" but then again, there's value because reades see that and might very well think the commenter is purchasing. I've had a few instances where my commenter DID purchase the product after stating this.
The part where they thank you for the review twice in the same comment is pretty annoying, especially when you see 10 comments in a row that are like that.
Yeah, there are instances where some folks are being genuine. But a lot of the time, it's just for increasing the word count.
If you get too many comments that say "I've never heard of product X", it's gonna send a bad message to your actual organic visitors. They may assume you're using a comment network (I.e SiteComments) or might question why folks are dropping comments if they've never heard of the product.
There will be the odd times when some will find your review somehow and genuinely haven't heard of the product. But they're very few and far between.
Trust me, some visitors do pick up on the unnatural comments. One accused me of trying to game the search engines because most comments on a review contained the product's name too many times lol.
This is why I also read the other comments given. I don’t want to be asking the same question that two other people have asked already. If visitors saw that, they will either know something’s up or they will assume that I’m an idiot who’s lazy for asking a question that has already been answered in the comments.
You’d be surprised how many of the questions have already been answered in the comments from commenters who have the same question. Although I have accepted it on a few occasions and have called them out in my comments responses telling them to read the other comments.