Blog Comments aren’t Everything: Here’s Why by @rachelccool

by Rachel Cool | Featured Contributor 

If you’re like most bloggers, you’ve probably caught yourself counting the comments on your blog and even gauging your success on how many people leave comments. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with working for more comments and tracking them can be a good way to find out if your readers are interested in your content.

There’s no question that blog comments can help you form an online following, build a community, connect with others and make your blog come to life. But, comments aren’t the only thing you should use to measure the success of your blog.

In fact, some well-known blogs like Seth Godin’s blog, Zen Habits and Copyblogger don’t allow comments on their posts.

These are just a few examples of blogs that succeed without comments, and the truth is that both small, niche blogs and massively popular blogs are being extremely successful with very few, or even no, comments

Comments don’t Mean Action

You could be getting dozens of comments on each of your posts, but if those commenters aren’t taking a desired action, your blog won’t benefit your bottom line. You need more than comments. You need purchases, email subscribers and loyal customers to really make your business work. Even if you don’t sell anything on your site, you need to convert frequent commenters to subscribers or brand ambassadors to make your business grow.

You Might say it All

In some cases, people just don’t have much to say about a blog post, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If your post doesn’t leave room for discussion, is more informative than conversational or isn’t on a controversial subject, you may see fewer comments. Keep in mind that sometimes people will read your blog posts and won’t have anything to add in a comment.

Conversation can Happen Elsewhere

If you have a large social media presence, or even if you’re just starting to see your content get shared by others, people could be using those platforms for conversations and skipping the comment section.

They may be leaving thoughts as Facebook comments, having deep discussions on LinkedIn or offering their own opinions on Twitter. Again, this isn’t necessarily an issue because people are interacting with and talking about your content, which can raise brand awareness and help you build an engaged community.

Your Time and Energy Could be Better Used

Monitoring and approving comments, removing offensive comments, replying to your readers and constantly tracking your comments takes a lot of time. If you have what it takes to do this, then go for it!

But, a lot of busy bloggers find their time is better spent developing their content, enhancing their email marketing campaigns and building their business. If this is how you feel, consider limiting the time you spend with blog comments or turning them off altogether.

Whether you decide to track blog commenting or not, don’t let the number of comments, negative feedback or comment monitoring take up all your time and limit the way you view your blog.

When you break free of the mentality that comments are everything, and realize your success doesn’t depend on them, you will open up new doors of creativity, new business ideas and flexibility that can take your business to new heights.

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Rachel Cool has a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis in public relations. She has experience working in public relations, journalism, Internet marketing and search engine optimization. She is a freelance writer and editor and teaches public relations writing and production at Brigham Young University.

Rachel’s passion is writing and she loves helping brands tell their stories, reach their markets and influence their audiences. She feels that a business’ copy, whether it is online or print, is an integral part of its marketing and communications strategies.

When she’s not writing, Rachel loves to cook and get lost in a mystery novel. She also likes to get competitive over a good card or board game, watch movies, fish and spend time outside.

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Rachel Cool