Consider These Things When Commenting‏

If you haven't noticed, some blogs are a lot stricter with their comment policies than others. Share your thoughts on comment etiquette.

Marketing Through Comments

I have recently advocated using blog comments as a way of promoting your site, but not in a form that is in any way spammy. What I had to say about that was this:

You don't want to go overboard in the linking and branding in blog comments, because the line between promotion and spam is very fine in a venue like this. People reading blog comments want to see insightful conversation and points regarding the article expanded upon and discussed. They don't want to see you advertising your business.

The best way to get traffic from blog comments is to link your name to your site. This will give them the opportunity to see what your business is all about if they like what you have to say. They are not going to click on your link if you just comment to say that you sell jewelry for example. (emphasis added)

Appropriate Marketing Through Comments

After I wrote that article, which was fairly popular, I started noticing a lot of my commenters doing the opposite of what I said, and leaving comments with their links prevalent, and in some cases even inserting their logos linking to their sites.

Now while this tactic may be appropriate in some venues, like say a forum signature, a blog comment is not really the place. I have left a number of the comments up, because I feel like often times, the commenters mean well because they do actually contribute to the conversation. I don't like to delete comments that contribute, and I am happy to have the comments themselves.

The Rules

Other sites and blogs are not as forgiving as I am, however. Many are much more strict with their commenting policies (not that these policies are always visible to the user). Andy Beard for example, just posted his warning for comment spam, which clearly illustrates his take on the matter.

Daria Black has a good set of guidelines to generally follow when it comes to comment etiquette. No set of blog comment rules is universal, but I think Daria's article is a pretty good indication of the average way of thinking for those who are running the blog.

If you stick to those, you'll probably be able to feel confident about your comments not being deleted at just about any blog.

I think the most important rule that probably is universal to all blogs that actually moderate their comments, is to stay on topic. If you have something to say on a different topic, chances are there is a better place for you to be leaving your comment.

Just put yourself in the blogger's shoes before leaving a comment, and ask yourself if you would accept it.

I'd love to hear your comments on commenting. Please share!

About the Author:
Chris is a content coordinator and staff writer for SmallBusinessNewz and the iEntry Network. Subscribe to SmallBusinessNewz RSS Feeds.