Do You Reward Your Blog Commenters

Do You Reward Your Blog Commenters?

Author: Mike Paetzold

Unfortunately WordPress has a default of no follow for comment links. .

I do understand why the set up is that way even though I disagree with it. Spammers and automation software have created an environment where it had to happen. Throw enough sh@@ against the wall by commenting everywhere and you would generate a lot of backlinks for your site.

Changing the default has stopped some of that. After all unless it is a very high traffic blog you are not getting a lot of benefit from it because of the no follow so it has become much less effective. You will only get traffic from those that actually click your link not the serps.

The bad part of this is that it penalizes those that actually contribute to the conversation. After all if you add valuable content to my blog the least I can do is to help you with a do follow link. Fair is fair.

I really do appreciate those that not only read my blog but those that will take the time to add to the conversation. I feel it is important to go out of my way to reward those people.

Now before I go further lets define what it is to “add to the conversation�. It is probably easier to show what is not adding to the conversation and what is.

Here are a few comments I have deleted that may not be spam per se and the spam plugins won’t pick up but were not adding any value to my blog.

Nice work man..keep it up.

Great article.

Thanks for the information

Comments like these don’t deserve any link love from me. Compare that to comments like these on the post yesterday asking how you use twitter and your blog.

I find twhirl to be very effective in staying up with people you want to hear from. I think it is a great tool for just reading nd discovering good tidbits from people. And now with the gurus getting involved you can see what they are doing as well. But there is one thing you forgot to mention, it is very addictive and sometimes you have to pull yourself away from it to get your work done.

Like you, I’m a huge fan of Twitter & think it’s emerging as the #1 way to keep in touch with your tribe or online family…

I use Twirl to keep up with those I follow on Twitter; it sits in the task bar & pops up tweets like incoming e-mail headers - makes it easy to glance over & see who said what without interrupting my workflow.

As to what I look for when deciding whom to follow, I watch for those who seem to be giving out a lot of good information, helpful hints, marketing-related links and retweets of info they want their followers to see.

Looking forward to the comments from others here…

Both of those comments added additional relevant content to the post in question. They deserve something for adding value. Do follow links do that.

Comment luv is another plugin that rewards commenters. It creates a link to their last blog post and pulls the title automatically. When you add your blog as the site when commenting.

If you are using good keyword rich titles it helps your back linking strategy. You get rewarded for adding your content.

Now I think I have made the point of why you should reward your commenters. The question is why do so many not do it?

Now here is where I may upset you just a bit.

I think the number one reason is laziness. Sorry gotta call a spade a spade. Set your blog up with comment luv and do follow and you will get the idiots that will get past your spam filters.

That means you have to moderate the comments all the time just to get rid of those trying to game the system and not contributing. That means work.

Well the real question is aren’t those that add value to your blog worth the effort to allow them rewards for adding value even if it does take a bit more effort on your part? My commenters are what about yours?

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About the Author:

Mike Paetzold is an avid blogger and uses and teaches others to get the most out of their WordPress blogs. You can keep up to date with his latest ramblings at his WordPress Made Easy blog.