Today I want to talk about the comments section of your blog and how you might not be using it to its best advantage. Now I’m part of a group that does a blog hop every weekend. A blog hop is a great way to get readers and attract some attention to your blog. And to help each other out, most of us try to leave comments on each other’s blogs. But that means we often have to help the new members over a bit of a learning curve when it comes to making it easy for people to leave comments on your blog. Now the operative lesson here is that you want to make it easy for people to leave comments on your blog. Yes, we all want to avoid spam and there are tools to help with that without limiting the ability of real readers to contribute.
First, make it as easy as possible to find the comments section. Usually I look at the bottom of the post, but I’ve seen some blogs where the comments are indicated by a tiny thought bubble mixed in with 5 different social media icons. This isn’t a method I’d recommend. Next, make sure that the reader doesn’t have to register with a service in order to comment. This means that they need to be able to leave a comment with nothing more than a name and URL or email. You don’t have to go as far as anonymous but depending on how controversial your blog is, that could get you more comments. But I strongly recommend avoiding services such as Live Journal which can actually force a reader to watch a commercial before they can leave a comment. The moment that commercial starts, I close the page and I don’t go back.
You can use CAPTCHA codes or limit the number of links a post can contain. These can help keep out spammers and with link limits keep people from cross-promoting in your blog, if you object to that. But test your prevention method first. Would you be able to leave a comment on your own blog?