Megaphone Blogs vs. Telephone Blogs
by Antone Roundy | 6 Comments | Blogging, Social Media/Networking
I was thinking this morning about blog commenting. Lots of people are sharing lots of opinions on it lately:
- Commenting is in decline -- everybody's sharing via social media instead.
- Commenting isn't as valuable as it used to be -- all the links are no-followed, and nobody reads the comments anyway.
- You may as well turn comments off on your blog because most of them are spam, so you'll just waste your time moderating for nothing.
- You're better off posting your comments to your blog and linking to the original, because that way, you're creating content for yourself, and you can have keywords in the trackback link you get without looking like a spammer.
There's some truth in each of those statements. In fact, the last one is my own...though, as I've said before, it doesn't mean that commenting isn't good too (see "Completing the Connection"). There's another side to each of the other issues too.
- If less people are commenting, the blogger is going to appreciate your comment more.
- Value is value, even if it's less than it used to be (and as I just mentioned, in some ways, the value is now greater).
- If you've got decent spam protection, you'll block a lot of the spam. And if you hold comments from first-timers for moderation, all you'll need to do with most of the spam that does get through is ignore it.
On an increasingly social internet, it's odd that many blogs are becoming less social.
A blog without comments is like a megaphone. It's all about the blogger and what they want to tell you. No audience participation is allowed.
A blog with comments, and a blogger who responds to them is like a telephone. "Hi, this is Antone. Let's talk about internet marketing."
Which one feels more like the future of the internet to you?
September 15th, 2011 at 8:21 am
I love the comments I get to my blog posts. They often inspire me to write new blog posts, and they serve as dialog starters.
Sometimes, I get really great questions that makes me think a lot to come up with an answer that I also learn from myself.
I'm guilty of not writing many comments myself, unless I'm really trickered into doing it like I was with this blog post :)
(I hate captchas, though! It's always difficult to read the letters.)
September 15th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Thanks for the comment, Britt. I love getting comments too!
Sorry about the captcha pain. I've got something in mind to try in its place...when I get the time to implement it.
September 15th, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Another great post Antone.
Often I read a really good post and all I really want to say is something like "Great Post I really got a lot out of it" but I often stop myself from commenting because who wants to read a spammy comment like that right.
Si I sit there for a minute or two thinking of something intelligent to say and end up leaving without actually sharing my thoughts.
I guess the best I can do for the blogger is FB like or +1 the post.
Keep em coming I really enjoy your posts, even if I don't comment ;-)
September 15th, 2011 at 2:59 pm
I appreciate the comment, Jeremy.
Your point about sometimes wanting to say something as simple as "great post", but refraining is interesting. I hadn't thought of that. Often, comments like that will be deleted because they LOOK like spam, even if they're actually sincere.
If someone who's posted meatier comments on my blog in the past were to leave a comment like that (eg. someone like you), I'd trust that they really meant it, and weren't just doing it for the link. But even then, a little extra thought and a comment that adds a new or deeper perspective is always appreciated.
September 15th, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Nah, I respectfully disagree. I mean comments may be in decline, I defer to your knowledge on that subject because I don't know. But, I for one read comments when I am truly interested in the blog post and almost never fail to be rewarded with the additional input from comments made by others interested in the same post. I also appreciate the opportunity to add to the conversation when I feel I have something to add. Finally, I think the more specific the niche is, the higher the value of comments. Thanks for the post, I wasn't aware that commenting was in decline, that's interesting.
February 7th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Hi Antone, firstly; great post.
Secondly, I have found with my personal blog that getting trackback links approved is much more difficult than getting comments approved on many blogs (especially non-techy/internetty blogs). I believe that the reason for this is that many casual bloggers who get trackback links on their wordpress blog (for example) don't really know what they are, and simply delete what looks, to them, like spam.
I mean, if we didn't know that trackbacks and automatic pingbacks existed, it would just look like a random section of text copied and plopped into the comments section, right?
For this reason, I personally like to use a mixture of comments and trackbacks, depending on what feels natural -- and on whether I really want to get involved in a discussion on the terms of the blogger, or on my own terms.
Comments on my own site are, in general, useful for when I know more about the subject than the blogger in question, or around the same amount but I have a vastly different opinion to the blogger and/or their community.
Comments on their site are useful for when I'm interested in what they or their community have to say about my comment.
That's just the way I do things! I think it has some advantages, but I'm more than willing to listen to other opinions.