I took everyone, including myself, by surprise when I became a chatterbox in my mid thirties, right after having my daughter. Since that moment I haven´t stopped talking neither on line nor off so having a comment section here in my blog made sense. That being said, I noticed other blogs had decided to shut their comment section.
For example Copyblogger mentioned several different reasons to do so. Their first point was that the conversations weren´t really taking place in the blog, they were moving to the social platforms which is indeed a good thing for bloggers as a potential wider audience is reached there. Plus the commenters who went to great lengths to answer and contribute would benefit from doing so at their own blogs. And then of course, the biggest problems in comment management: spam.
They are not alone in their decision. Matt Gemmel turned his comments off many years ago on the grounds that the commenters were a tiny minority and therefore the contribution to the blog was minimal and Lisa from elembee was happy after a few months because she felt she had more time now she isn´t checking his comments so often.
When I asked the International Bloggers Association´s blog readers whether they had the comment section on the answers were 100% positive.
About the spam problem Nicole from Blast Off Blogging gave us a good tip:
I do have WordPress set to close the comments section on posts older than 30 days to discourage spammers.
Giada from Crafty Tasty Geeky said she answers the comments she receives immediately, which prompted me to ask her whether that interrupted her daily work flow . It turns out she has a cool system to manage that:
Of course, if I am in the middle of a work meeting or doing something important, I mute my phone and I don’t even look at the notifications. When I’m done, I grab my phone, check every push notification and respond. If a comment needs a broader answer I keep the notification (or mark the email as unread) to remember that I have to answer.
Personally, as I started my new blog I wondered if I should turn my blog comments on or off from the beginning or if there was a “cutting limit” to the amount of comments I should get before turning the comments off. Today I´m still at a point that I can get to answer all the comments and all the answers to the questions I get are later turned into more content to help people out. A win-win situation in my opinion. My readers guide me.
Do you have your blog comments on or off?
Interested in more blogging debates? Read the International Bloggers Association´s blog on Mondays when I post another question for the Conversation of the Week.
60 thoughts on “Should you turn your blog comments on or off?”
Spam can be a bit of a pest but as my comments section requires moderation before publishing I haven’t found it to be too much of a problem.
Toni xx
JoAnna
foreverinparadise.net
Going back to your first point, maybe the next questions should be not only if you have the comments on but if bloggers answer the ones they get!