Commenting is such an important part of blogging. It’s what often separates the blogosphere and other more traditional forms of media. And while we all set out in the blogosphere to receive visitors to our blogs, it’s comments, or the lack of them, that really worries us in those early months. “Why is nobody commenting on my blog?” is a frequently asked question in any blogosphere circle. Far more frequent than “How do I get more visitors?” and other such questions. Blogging is, after all, community based and connecting with other people and seeing them connect with us is what often drives blog authors.

I’ve always prided myself on the amount of interaction I’ve been able to attract from you, my readers. Each morning your comments are a fantastic source of new information and motivation. That’s why I’ve often spoke about what it takes to help us comment. But today I want to do something different. I want to share my reasons for why I won’t comment on your blog.

Why I Won’t Comment On Your Blog

1. I Reach the Conversation Too Late

Have you ever seen a post hit your feed reader only for it to already be five hours old? You read the post and really enjoy it. You want to comment, if only to pay back the author for the fantastic content they wrote. But as click through to the post from your feed reader, you find there are already 15 or 20 comments on the post. Suddenly, your motivation to comment is lost. Suddenly, you feel everything you want to say has already been said and if you comment now, you’ll be lost in a sea of other words. There are other reasons this may be a problem. As much as I hate to admit it, many people comment on blogs just for the sake of getting traffic. These people like to be at the top of the comments list to maximise their click-thru rate. If they get to a post and see 20 comments already in place, they’re far less motivated to write.

So How Do You Ensure People Arrive at the Right Time?

It’s impossible to ensure all your readers arrive at your post in a timely fashion. But you can maximise the amount of people who see your post straight away.

Write Your Posts at a Good Hour

Test and measure to see when the best time of day is to publish your posts. Check your stats to find out what time zones your visitors are in and what hours of the day your blog gets the most visitors. Publish your posts during this time.

Send Out RSS Emails Straight Away

My regular readers will probably have noticed the recent change in publish time and the change in time that the RSS email is sent. I made this change after testing the waters for six months, publishing posts at different times of the day. 7pm GMT eventually proved to be the optimum time for me to publish, and now my RSS emails go out between 7pm-9pm. (And for all you smart ass readers, I do realise it’s 9pm right now and I’m a couple hours late publishing this post. )

Once you have decided what hour of the day you’ll be publishing your posts, you can alter your RSS settings so those subscribed via email receive the email within an hour or two of the post been published. If you’re using Feedburner, here is how to change the time your RSS emails are sent.

Change Your RSS Email Send Time in Feedburner

1. Login to your Feedburner account

2. Click the name of your feed

3. Click the ‘Publicize’ tab

4. Click the ‘Email Subscriptions’ tab

5. Click ‘Delivery Options’

Then simply choose your time zone and time and click ‘Save’.

2. You Possess All The Knowledge In the World

Or so you like to think.

As much as blogging is about sharing your opinion and teaching others, a large part is about being open minded and learning new things. If you approach your post with your big ego and “I know everything” attitude, I’m going to leave your blog in an instant (but not before vomiting outside your virtual doorway. Hey, you asked for it!).

Don’t lecture me. Express your opinion. Share your experiences. And accept your opinion can be challenged.

3. You Don’t Give Me Direction

It’s often hard to know what to comment about. You may have answered so many of the questions I had that I don’t know what to write. Or you may have taken so many directions in your writing, I’m not sure which area I should focus on with my comment.

The solution to this is to always ask two or three questions at the end of your blog post. Simple questions that can be answered with a paragraph, yet complex enough to spark thought and discussion.

In the past, when I’ve asked my subscribers what helps them write a comment on my blog, 90% always say it’s the questions at the end of my posts that spark their typing fingers.

4. You Make Me Register

Over the years, I’ve seen countless studies that show the percentage of customers lost when an online store requires a user to register in order to buy a product. The numbers are staggering, and they’re no different with blog comments.

If you make me register either via a 3rd party commenting system or through your own system, I won’t comment. Simple.

Don’t make me register. There’s no need.

5. You Fill Your Comment Area With Trackbacks

I hold my hands up and say “I’m Guilty!”. I’m guilty of not separating my trackbacks from my comments. There’s nothing worse than reading a blog post and then seeing a comment area filled with trackbacks from other blogs. Sure, it’s nice to see the post is popular, but it breaks the comment conversation and detracts from the community.

If you’re using WordPress, you can use the Separate Comments & Pings Plugin to enhance the flow of conversation in your comment area. (I’ll be installing this plugin tomorrow)

6. Your Comments Are Full of Spam

There’s not much to say on this one other than ensure you keep on top of your comment spam.

In my early days as a blogger, I suffered from a lot of comment spam that got through the cracks of my spam detection software.

Today, some still get through the cracks that I swiftly delete, but by using a combination of the Akismet and Bad Behaviour WordPress plugins, I’m able to automatically catch most of it.

7. The Atmosphere Is One Sided

It’s rare I’ll comment on a small to medium sized blog whose author doesn’t reply to comments. Over the years, many of my subscribers have said the one thing that made them subscribe and kept them writing comments was my replies.

Reply to all your comments with something meaningful. Even if you’re just agreeing with what the reader had to say, it’s better than “Thanks for the comment”. If responding to all comments is too much work, respond to all comments that come in within the first 12 hours of the post. By doing this, you’re likely to respond to most of your regular readers without straining under the pressure.

Those are my seven reasons that stop me writing comments on your blog. Now it’s your turn. What turns you off? What stops you writing comments and connecting with the author? Maybe it’s the ‘Mr Know-It-All’, or something I haven’t mentioned here. Please let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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