Blog Comments: Useful or Not?

[Guardian Angel]

Hi! I have read from one of Steve's articles about having disabled his comments for some reasons. I just made a post out of it but not really convincing to do what Steve did, but to give bloggers a choice. Because prior to this, I made a post about "How to make your Readers post a Comment".
Now, if you are were to be asked, are comments to blog posts really useful in general? Thanks!

[jamestl2]

I think one of the reasons he disabled them is because he would have too many comments to moderate (and you can tell the discussions his entries generate by looking in his forum section).

Originally Posted by Guardian Angel

Now, if you are were to be asked, are comments to blog posts really useful in general? Thanks!

By useful, what do you mean? (general's to broad)
For networking? (Yes)
For SEM? (No)
Or........?

[Guardian Angel]

Actually, as I have read his article, he disabled it because he is loosing an oppurtunity to do some other things like making another good article.
Anyway, I think I have to rephrase my question. What I really want to ask is, do you think it is fair enough to disable them because you it does not increase your traffic?

[Brutha]

Anyway, I think I have to rephrase my question. What I really want to ask is, do you think it is fair enough to disable them because you it does not increase your traffic?

The point of having comments is not to increase your traffic directly but to get feedback.
If you are starting out and you get no feedback for your blog posts they are valuable.
If you already have a bigger blog moderating them takes time and you also get more quality feedback via trackbacks.

[Guardian Angel]

This makes sense. Comments really do not help to increase traffic but rather to evalute yourself how interesting your posts are and make people react on them positively or negatively. With this, you can have tips on how to improve your posts. Now at least I hear that someone agrees with my article. Thanks.

[teatree]

Steve Pavlina is in that rare category where he has so many readers and so many people want to comment that it gets over-whelming.

However, most bloggers love to get comments. To us it's a sign that someone read the article we wrote and it stimulated them enough that they took time to post a comment, even if the comment is negative! And also the people who post comments often write interesting stuff or post info that helps out the blogger. So for the ordinary blogger, comments are good!

[Eggzachery]

I think comments are a good thing for small to midsize blogs. The why not for large blogs has been covered by previous posts on why Steve Pavlina does not have them enabled. So why are they good? Well, not for the reasons most seem to talk about. I haven't seen that comments on your own blog help it build traffic.

What comments on your blog are good for is measuring how interested your readers are in what you're posting. Steve's were too interested (I kid), and he chose to close it off. But for young blogs, it's the best kind of feedback they can hope to get.

[AndrewPavelski]

As you can tell from the forums, Steve's site gets a lot of visitors. Moderating the comments he would get from each post would take too much time -- which is why he's opened these forums and disabled comments.

Comments to blog posts are useful because it lets visitors know that other people actually visit your site and have something to say about your article. When you are reading other's sites, seeing no comments gives you the impression that "nobody visits this blog, neither should I." Since I have a newer blog, I really enjoy each time I get a new comment notification.

I also think that comments are a great way to learn what type of material your readers enjoy reading and are great for promoting a site community. Comments also encourage returning visits from readers that enjoy interacting with the blogger.

I highly recommend having a comments section in your blog -- if you don't already!

Best wishes,

Andrew

Originally Posted by Guardian Angel

Hi! I have read from one of Steve's articles about having disabled his comments for some reasons. I just made a post out of it but not really convincing to do what Steve did, but to give bloggers a choice. Because prior to this, I made a post about "How to make your Readers post a Comment".
Now, if you are were to be asked, are comments to blog posts really useful in general? Thanks!

[yogesh sarkar]

One of the major reason behind Steve’s decision to disable comments in his blog was the fact he wanted to drive traffic to his forum. My suggestion would be to only disable them for the sake of site structure and your future goals, else stick with the comments, since they provide an easy avenue for readers to interact and thus help build community feeling.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Guardian Angel

Now, if you are were to be asked, are comments to blog posts really useful in general? Thanks!

I think for many bloggers attempting to build a sense of community comments are useful. It builds a sense of ownership by the readers and commenter's. On Steve's site the forums provide that same sense of ownership and participation without cluttering the actual blog for readers uninterested in the comments.

[Guardian Angel]

Well, I am happy again to know that more and more are agreeing with me. Having someone who thank me for a nice post is such a great help to me to increase my morale as a blogger. I do not consider them a burden to increase my traffic just because I spend time to read and send a reply. Thanks!

[Ali from The Office Diet]

I think it can also depend on the area your blog's in. When I launched The Office Diet, I deliberately chose to switch comments off. There were a few reasons for that:

- Dieting/health blogs seem to attract a disproportionate number of weirdos and spam comments

- I'm trying to market it as a "website" rather than just a "blog" (aiming at people who don't usually read blogs).

- I don't want content on my site which I haven't written or selected myself

- I hope my site is one day as popular as Steve's and has lots of similarly-engaged readers

The main drawback for me is that I love getting feedback, and although I've had some lovely emails and comments on various forums, I'd probably get more if I had comments on. It also makes it hard to build up a relationship with readers.

Perhaps it's worth sitting down and thinking through the pros and cons of having comments on your blog?

Best wishes, and good luck blogging,

Ali

[Guardian Angel]

There were also some annoying comments to my blog posts like non-related comments. That is why I enabled to "moderation" page. With this, I usually check the site first before approving the comment.
But if the comment is simply asking for an advice with no relation to the post, I still approve it and help as much as I can. It is being courteous I guess.

[AndrewPavelski]

It definitely helps to have a filter on your comments section in order to weed out the spammers. I too have a "moderation" page where I can choose to approve comments. Comments build up a sense of "community" and are especially good to enable on small to midsized blogs. You could also install a contact form for others to ask for advice if you don't like them posting irrelevant questions in your comments section.

Originally Posted by Guardian Angel

There were also some annoying comments to my blog posts like non-related comments. That is why I enabled to "moderation" page. With this, I usually check the site first before approving the comment.
But if the comment is simply asking for an advice with no relation to the post, I still approve it and help as much as I can. It is being courteous I guess.

[Jcs]

What if you have comments enabled, a handful of articles and all of them shows "0 comments"? That gives me a sense of, "ohwell, no one here, move along" for some reason.

Andrew, please, please read Posting style - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It so difficult to read sometimes .