If you are one of the many businesses that publish a blog, there is one piece to your blog that no longer works effectively … the comments. And in fact, many are saying they are dead.
After doing a little bit of research, I think there are several reasons why comments are a thing of the past.
1. Most blogs aren’t big
I know this isn’t really of much surprise, but the average business blog usually has a small niche and only a few people interested in the content at any time. That doesn’t mean the blog is irrelevant, poorly put together, or with content that is lacking. It simply means it’s a small business with a small pool of people to draw from. And when people do read, most don’t have a reason to leave a comment – they simply want to read and get on with their day.
2. Comments are one-way conversations
Most business blogs don’t let comments go live without moderation. Which means the business decides what gets published, how they answer, and what information is seen. There is also a time factor involved, where a blogger can take hours, days, even weeks to allow a comment to go live, which means relevancy is eliminated.
3. Spam
If you have a blog and monitor comments, you know only a few percent of the comments that come through are quality comments you would be willing to post live on your site. The great majority is spam; robots sending out automated posts trying to penetrate your comments to provide links back into their own sites. Blogs have all kinds of spam filters you can put into place – like Akismet, one of the biggest. On this site alone, Akismet has stopped over 37,000 spam comments from coming through. But that won’t stop a lot of it from coming through. And you are the one that has to moderate it all.
4. Social sites
When you find things you like and want to share, you want to do so with your friends. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites are where you can make a statement, and showcase things you like, resources you use, and content you find useful. Its also easier to copy/paste and share in a place that will start even more conversations, rather than on a small website where there isn’t a lot of action. Facebook has plugins that allow you to add comment features into your blog or landing pages that give the added boost of being able to comment and share in a more effective way. Which makes it a more effective strategy all the way around.
Should you be using comments? Ultimately the choice is up to you. But if you’ve been thinking about turning them off altogether and finding relevancy in some other way, you’re not alone. Comments may be a dying bread, but one thing is for certain: there will always be other ways to gain attention down the road.