5 Ways to be a Better Commenter

Posted on 16. Dec, 2009 by Isaac Yassar in Blogging

commentAre you a good commenter? Or a bad one?

There are plenty of reasons for a blogger to leave comments. However, merely leaving comments does not show that we are nice persons who care. There is the “how”. How do we write the comments?

The way we leave our comments reflect our selves. Some ways make us good commenter, the rests make us bad ones.

OK, time to get personal. From my personal experience, here are some ways that I think can make us better commenter:

1. Reading the article

Everyone can leave comments without actually reading the article. But it doesn’t make things any better, right?

And if we do read the article, prove it ;-)

2. Formatting carefully

Everyone can see if we write our comment carefully or carelessly. It is wise to pay attention to our format and avoid any typing, grammatical, and structural mistake.

If a ghost suddenly chases you when you are about to write your comments, just run. Write your comment on the next day ;-)

3. Gravatar

A good commenter gets Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar). Why? Because a good picture can say more than 1000 words. Link it to our emails and it will show up everywhere we comment. Nice.

A good gravatar of yours means at least 1001 good words about you ;-)

4. Being someone

Be someone, don’t be something. Writing our name plus linking to our website is the nice way. We are humans, not keywords. Keywords can’t leave comments by themselves ;-)

5. Adding some value

This value can be our expertise, something interesting, opinion, etc. By adding value we contribute to the discussion.

The phrase “I agree with you” can’t add any value by itself, can it? ;-)

Well, that’s my opinion folks. Feel free to share yours.

Tags: Blogging, comment

22 Responses to “5 Ways to be a Better Commenter”

  1. Extreme John

    16. Dec, 2009

    Great tips for any new blogger looking to earn a little respect in the blogging community.

    Reply to this comment

  2. Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com

    16. Dec, 2009

    I totally agree. I like to think I’m a good commenter. This month I’ve set myself the challenge to write 300 blog comments. It has been a very time-consuming task, but that’s because I am reading every article I comment on and then I am writing a valuable comment and trying to add to the conversation and not just say ‘hey great post’.

    As I said, it’s a very time-consuming challenge I’ve set myself. Roughly 7-10 comments an hour but it’s worth it. It’s not just about backlinks either – It feels really good to be able to connect with bloggers I haven’t connected with before and establish deeper more meaningful relationships. :)

    Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      16. Dec, 2009

      Wow that’s great. I usually leave a set of two comments whenever I have spare time. Because leaving good comments needs time and thoughts. I can’t do it very often.

      Reply to this comment

  3. Jim Hardin

    16. Dec, 2009

    The pressure is on now…I can feel it. What do I do? Now I have to write a meaningful quality comment because everyone is watching me, especially because this post you wrote about, Isaac, is about comments.

    You definately have to be someone when you comment not just a robot that states “Great Post!”. I think it really important to read the article or post and leave a meaningful comment. You should be yourself also. It will reward you in the end because you will gain respect from the owner of the blog and people that see the comment might actually go visit your own blog. Its a great way to get readers to your own blog.

    Jim Hardin

    Reply to this comment

  4. san-sama

    16. Dec, 2009

    I’m not a native English user either. So regarding to point #2, how can we avoid those mistakes? I’m sorry that I don’t have any picture of me.
    (by Three sasing 06 konco ngeband)

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      16. Dec, 2009

      Hi buddy. What’s the “how”, you are educated in English Literature. Don’t just watch anime all the time, learn and practice English too hahaha :D

      Btw, why don’t you create a blog? Trust me, when you are graduated, you’ll be grateful to have a blog running, because it is your portfolio of your writing ability. Contact me if you need any help about it :-)

      Reply to this comment

  5. Dana @ Online Knowledge

    16. Dec, 2009

    Reading the article is a must to produce good comment.

    Btw, i become bad commentators some time when a ghost chase me. ;)

    Reply to this comment

  6. Rajesh Kanuri @ TechCats

    16. Dec, 2009

    as a blogger posting the comments is as important as posting articles.. One should not be careless while commenting on other blogs.. the commenting is the not the task of getting or increasing back links it is more and it resembles the individuality of the person or a blog..

    Reply to this comment

    • Isaac Yassar

      16. Dec, 2009

      Hi Rajesh, so true. The better the comment the better the blogger. We should craft our comment carefully so that we can be better bloggers.

      Reply to this comment

  7. George Serradinho

    17. Dec, 2009

    Nice tips mentioned above. I hate it when someone comments on my posts and I can clearly see they have not read my post at all. Maybe they ask a question which has been answered in the post.

    I have noticed that many users have gravatars, but there are still those few who don’t and it’s really sad.

    Every webmaster would love to have a community around their site/blog and they have to remember to check all comments if they are valid or not. Some users have 2-5 words and think thats a decent comment.

    Reply to this comment

  8. Codrut @ Blog Post Ideas

    20. Dec, 2009

    I used to blog comment without actually reading the post; I also neglected the avatar part. That was pretty dumb as I got some of my comments removed, plus leaved “branding” on the table :)

    Reply to this comment

  9. Leif Andersen

    20. Dec, 2009

    And I quote from comment #4: “Keywords can’t leave comments by themselves”. I don’t know about that…I get twice as many comments from spam bots as I do from actual people, and some of the time, I wonder if some of those people are just unusually good spam bots, that trick me into thinking that they’re people. Unless of course comments advertising short skirts over and over again is an actual person.

    As for my gravitar. Hm..I thought I had one, but I think it will finally show up for this comment.

    Reply to this comment

  10. Dick

    22. Dec, 2009

    Hello Isaac, thanks for the great tips on how to be a better commenter. With your permission I am going to re-post this on my blog with my review and links back to you.

    My problem was (until I met up with Extreme John) I was so caught up in getting my blogs built I neglected the most important aspect of blogging, interacting with other bloggers by commenting, guest posting, etc. I was going to build this vast network of blogs, landing pages, etc, (this all started in early 07 by the way) and sit back and get rich from the ad dollars that advertisers were going to throw at me! Man, did I have an awakening, and 09 was the year, thanks to guys like you, Tycoonblogger, diTesco, Extreme John and a bunch of others!

    Reply to this comment

  11. Dick

    22. Dec, 2009

    Yo Isaac,

    I gave this post the full treatment on my new blogger blog Payson Web, hope you like it! http://blog.paysonweb.com/post/293661674/5-tips-on-how-to-be-a-better-commenter

    Reply to this comment

  12. Keith

    22. Dec, 2009

    I think something that most people forget about commenting is it is building community around you. I love to comment on blogs that have interesting and valuable information, I especially like to see the writer reply to good comments. I realize it isn’t always possible, but when it is possible, it brings out the interaction that I think blogs were meant to have.

    The real problem with disingenuous comments (spam) is that the commentator places more value on the link they are dropping than it is actually worth. In my opinion, it would take 1000+ comments to equal just one good “natural” link.

    At the same time, commenting on blogs is like advertising for yourself. I can’t count the number of blogs I have discovered by clicking a link from a great comment on a blog I frequent (the content of the comment sometimes compels me to click through) or someone that commented over at my blog. So, it also brings in discovery through comments.

    Another note, don’t make your comment longer than the post, like I am coming close to doing right now ;-)

    Reply to this comment

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