As you well know, comments are a very important part of any blog.
You could have killer content, but without comments, it can leave a little to be desired.
I guess you could say it’s puts a little OOMPH in your blog.
Adds to credibility, helps build your authority status.
Builds trust.
And frankly, a blog without comments looks like a ghost town.
Tumbleweeds blowing around.
But one thing that’s been banging around in my brain is…
Which comment management system is best?
You too?
Glad I am not the only one.
I thought I’d pick the minds of some professional bloggers and get the low-down.
And here’s what they had to say…
Richard Martin
What WordPress Plugin or Comment Management system do you currently use?
I use 2. I use CommentLuv Premium to set rules on comments (such as setting a minimum word count to get rid of comments that have little value like ‘Great post’).
I also use ‘Comments Not Replied To’ plugin which is a really important plugin for me. It adds an extra link on the top of your comments page which sits alongside ‘Pending’, ‘Approved’, ‘Spam’ etc. It gives the amount of comments that have been left that I haven’t replied to.
As I am a believer in replying to all my comments, this is especially helpful as I click this and a list appears.
Why did you choose it? How Does it Benefit Your Blog/business?
First off, CLP. It gives a huge set of options on the dashboard such as spam filters (which saves time weeding out spam comments) and low word count filters (again saving time deleting the low value comments).
CNRT – this benefits me massively because it ensures I don’t miss any comments and most importantly – I don’t ever miss replying to them. I chose it because I found I was missing comments that had been auto approved – but I hadn’t replied back to.
What do you like about it?
CLP has settings that help save time and reward your commenters. For instance, I can whitelist trusted people or set parameters for those who don’t need to be approved. The commenter gets an email notification when I or others reply to their comment (resulting in a return visitor), and other helpful features like adding their links and Twitter handle to their comment.
CNRT allows me to see exactly how many comments I haven’t replied to in a list.
What don’t you like about it?
CLP can be a little overwhelming at first – lots of options and lots of different settings. But as with everything, the more you use it, the easier it becomes.
There’s nothing I don’t like about CNRT. Simple plugin, which does a simple job.
Have you used other options? If yes, which, and why did you stop using it?
I haven’t used any other options.
Anything else to say about comment management?
I think the biggest thing is that you actually do have something in place to manage comments effectively. Personally, I hate it when I comment on a blog and I receive no reply back from the blogger. In some cases (where there are hundreds of replies) I can understand it, but some blogs I comment on only have a handful of comments and the blogger doesn’t even acknowledge my comment.
It’s not the way to build a relationship in my view.
David Hartshorne
What WordPress Plugin or Comment Management system do you currently use?
I use the Disqus comment management system.
Why did you choose it? How Does it Benefit Your Blog/business?
Before I started my blog I was visiting quite a few other sites and there seemed a few popular ones. Apart from the standard WordPress system the two most popular that I saw were Disqus and CommentLuv. I spent some time weighing up the options and reading what other folks had found to be the good and bad points. Finally I decided to go for Disqus.
I think it has two major benefits for my blog:
1. it is a recognized system and many people have a Disqus account. For those that don’t it is easy to set up.
2. It keeps the spam away. I’ve not had one spam comment/issue to deal with. So it keeps the blog ‘clean’ and helps generate quality comments.
What do you like about it?
I like the two benefits I just listed above.
Also, I like the fact that you can check the profile of your commenter and see their blog if they have one.
You can follow a commenter so that you get a daily digest of the comments you want to track
You have the option to share an individual comment via twitter or a url link if you want to mention a particular comment,
You can upvote (or downvote) comments and even feature a special comment at the top of the list
What don’t you like about it?
I don’t have any dislikes about Disqus.
Have you used other options? If yes, which, and why did you stop using it?
No, I went with Disqus from day 1 and have been happy to stay with it.
Anything else to say about comment management?
I’ve heard bad stories in the past with people getting bombarded with spam, so I’m glad I went with Disqus.
One of the things I don’t like about CommentLuv is that you have to trawl to the bottom of all the other comments before you can reach the box to write your comment in. And then you may wish to reference a line or two from the post and have to scroll all the way back up. So from a reader/commenter I find that a bit of a nuisance.
Just pick a system that is going to help you in terms of productivity and your readers in terms of readership.
Carol Amato
What WordPress Plugin or Comment Management system do you currently use?
Disqus
Why did you choose it? How Does it Benefit Your Blog/business?
I switched to Disqus last year after having used CommentLuv for several years. I was a little skeptical and nervous about switching, but there are MANY more pros than cons for me, and I’m very glad I made the change.
There was concern about my comments decreasing, but I was willing to take that chance.
Why?
Because I only wanted sincere people that truly wanted to engage with me and share their opinion, not folks with a “gimme” mentality, who have a hand out – expecting something back . . .
I usually visit my commenters’ sites (if they have one) whenever possible to comment, so it’s a win-win situation if someone chooses to comment on my blog.
I’m cut from a different cloth and differ from the average blogger…
It’s NOT all about the number of comments for me!
I do not want every visitor to leave a comment on my site.
I want to attract a certain caliber of person to engage with me and my readers in my blogging community.
So filtering who comments at my blog is important to me.
I don’t want just anybody – I want someone that can simply create an account with Disqus and log in ONE time. That’s all that’s needed in order to use if over and over again.
I do not make one dime from my commenting ’system’ (Disqus – free WordPress plugin), and my opinion is not swayed by affiliate dollars lining my pocket.
What do you like about it?
Reasons I switched to Disqus:
– I noticed how easy it was for me to comment on other people’s blogs, and that was convincing.
– Allows you to comment via Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus, or your Disqus account, so you have 4 choices.
– Free WordPress plugin.
– Disqus follows up with emails when someone makes a comment. So Disqus pulls the reader back into the new comments to see what’s happening there. My repeat traffic has increased big time!
– Disqus has a very effective built-in spam filter.
– Related posts at bottom, engages visitors and improves bounce rate because it brings people into the inner pages of your site.
– You can sync comments locally to be rendered in the HTML of the page which gets you all that SEO value. The comments are actually in the code, Google-readable which equals SEO Gold!
– Has an RSS feed for folks who want to follow just the comments on a blog post.
– Users can vote a comment up or down.
– You can have a feature at the top that displays someone’s comment that you feel captures the true essence of your article.
– Rich media is allowed – so you can include images and video.
– Community and central location to keep in tune with all of your comments on all of your sites which is really convenient, and you can get to know other people in the community.
– Can share comments on Facebook, Twitter, G+ with link back to post, powerful traffic strategy, social interaction and social proof.
– Mobile friendly (very important these days).
– Viewed as much more professional in the online business world.
What don’t you like about it?
Since my site was already well established, I lost some comments in the migration process, but was willing to take the risk because I wanted to rise to the ‘high road’.
I have not had any issues since starting to use Disqus – I really enjoy it and benefit greatly with higher quality commenters, more traffic, and a better bounce rate, not to mention SEO benefits.
Have you used other options? If yes, which, and why did you stop using it?
I’ve used the native WordPress comment system and CommentLuv.
CommentLuv will get you a LOT of comments, but just as much spam (back-link seekers who would disappear if you started a no-link policy) in my experience.
Broken links are difficult to deal with and a time suck.
A lot of blog owners who use CommentLuv say that the bulk of their commenters would stay if they took backlinks away.
I challenge them to take away CommentLuv for 60 days and see if there is a change in their comment numbers. 🙂
Anything else to say about comment management?
No matter what comment system you use, commenting can be wonderfully beneficial to all.
Commenting should be easy and fun, and most importantly – all about building relationships with our readers, and other blog owners when we visit other sites.
It’s essential to be considerate of the blog owner/author and add value to the community as a whole whenever leaving a comment.
David LeonHardt
What WordPress Plugin or Comment Management system do you currently use?
I don’t use a third-party system at http://THGMwriters.com/blog/ . I much prefer the native comment system already built into the WordPress CMS, and that is what I use.
Why did you choose it? How Does it Benefit Your Blog/business?
It keeps the comments on my blog under my ownership; no bells and whistles, just conversation.
What do you like about it?
I am in total control. I can have conversations on my blog, and I don’t have to worry about losing them or having someone change the set-up on me if the CMS or plugin creator wants to make a change on his end. I also like simple – blogging can get pretty complicated and the fewer plugins and such I need, the better.
What don’t you like about it?
I am very happy with it. I still have another blog with the old WordPress comment system that does not cascade the comments and I really need to update that, but the modern comment system in WordPress does everything I need it to.
Have you used other options? If yes, which, and why did you stop using it?
Many years ago on one of my blogs I tested using an external comment system (I don’t recall which, but it might have been LiveFyre), but I did not like it. When I removed the system, I was able with difficulty to retrieve the comments, but it illustrated to me the value of keeping ownership of all the content on my site.
Anything else to say about comment management?
The bottom line is that it’s about the comments, not about the bells and whistles, so you don’t need anything fancy. And just as I recommend anybody who is serious about their blog to get it on their own domain (don’t just blog at BlogSpot or Tumblr), I would also recommend making sure that the comments are also on your own domain, not under the control of FaceBook or Google or anybody else.
There you go. I don’t know about you, but I found the answers and opinions to be quite interesting.
Obviously it’s a personal choice. We all have different reasons for using the comment management systems we use.
I hope that, for those who are on the fence as to which system to use, or people like me who are thinking you need to use something different, that this article sheds some light on the subject and gives you the information you need to make an informed decision.
I would like to thank Richard, David, Carol and David for providing great details and most importantly giving their experience and opinions.
I also created a PDF, if you want to download this post for later reading. Link below:
Blog Comment Management Shakedown
What do you think? Do you have anything to add? What comment system or plug in to do you use and why?
Don’t be shy, leave a comment below…
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