If Getting Comments Is So Important, Why Do Publishers Work So Hard To Combat Spam?
Alright, that might sound a bit silly at first but let’s dive in to the question.
Facts*:
- Akismet blocks an average of 10 million spam comments per day.
- 95% of bloggers wish they had more comments per post.
- 80% of legitimate blog comments add nothing to the article.
*Most of which have been made up on the spot for your entertainment
Comments On My Blog
When I first started the Insite Design Lab Blog I was obsessed with getting comments on my blog.
I began blogging because I was inspired by blogging giants like Chris Coyier and Darren Rowse. These blogging icons often pull more than 100 comments on a good post.
Needless to say, when I first installed WordPress and started blogging, I was expecting to get at least a few comments per post. Boy was I wrong.
I spent months and months desperately searching for new and creative ways to get more comments per post on my blog.
Even still, I get so much excitement out of each and every legitimate comment left on my blog. ( So leave me some! )
The Reality Of Comments
Now, like I said, I genuinely appreciate every comment I get on my blog. However, lately I’ve begun to question what it is that makes comments so sought after for publishers.
Most comments left on most blogs are less than 25 words long and typically are of the following two schools of comments:
- Your post was good
- Your post was not good
While it’s totally endearing that a real person has read your article and taken time out of their day to leave you a comment, perhaps there are better metrics out there for monitoring your blog’s success.
Where Do We Go From Here
For those of you that are publishers yourselves, how do you feel about comments on your blogs?
I suppose my question is two-fold.
- Are you obsessed with getting comments on your blog posts?
- Do you honestly think your life would be made better if you disabled comments on your blog and just forgot about them?
Leave me a comment 
and let me know how you feel!
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I actually ended up on your blog from a comment you left on one of my blogs. I have to agree that comments are pretty difficult to get. Genuine ones are at least. I’ve noticed one guy on the Internet running a blog offering free servers so you can run apple Siri on various devices (a con obviously) but since people are so desperate to get something for nothing he’s getting thousands of comments a post. Maybe there is method in his madness
Hah, I’ve never seen anything like that before but it definitely makes sense. I suppose the point of my article is that there are so many clever ways to get tons of comments on your blog but with the massive amount of spam and so many link builders leaving insincere comments is it really worth it?
Thanks for your input! Comments like yours are definitely worth having.