I’m willing to bet that any blogger who’s received comments from someone other than their mom has gotten an empty comment at least once.
“Great Post!”
“Well said.”
“So true!”
Why do you even bother?
Getting empty comments is worse than getting no comments at all. Maybe I’m just a big nerd and the shine hasn’t worn off yet, but I get excited when I see a new comment on my blog waiting for moderation. There’s a small validation in knowing that someone besides you is reading the things you say – especially if they love or hate your words enough to talk about them.
So you click on the “Comments” button to see what words of wisdom your latest visitor left behind, and there it is. “Nice job.” Really?
Leaving empty comments is like stuffing your bra. You think it’s going to be some kind of awesome maneuver that’ll get you lots of attention, but everyone just walks away disappointed. Or so I’ve heard.
I understand the reasoning behind leaving comments. Maybe you can get the attention of a blogger you look up to in some way, or raise your profile a little bit. Bloggers are social creatures, right? If other people within your chosen neighborhood of the blogosphere keep seeing you around, they might become more interested in seeing what you’re all about and go check out your blog. If you’re commenting on a big-deal blog, a well-placed comment can even be a significant traffic stream.
Add to that the popularity of plugins like CommentLuv, where every comment is also a backlink, and comments go through the roof. Even if you don’t have dofollow backlinks enabled on your blog, fellow bloggers will scramble to leave comments for you in hopes of getting some traffic their way. This makes the spammers and empty commenters come out in full force, too.
Some bloggers seem to like getting these sorts of comments. Obviously I can’t see the things that they’re deleting, but quite often I’ll see totally worthless comments like “lol” published on someone’s posts. To each their own I guess, and I understand the social proof behind leaving up lots of comments to encourage more from future readers. But to me, allowing empty comments to slip through says that you don’t give a damn what kind of garbage people put on your website so long as it makes you look popular.
The worst part of this whole equation is that the people leaving empty comments are bloggers too. They know full well that you have the ability to delete their comment, or not approve it in the first place. Either they don’t care, or they think you’re so dumb or vain that you won’t delete their nonsense. Either way, these people aren’t exactly desirable commenters. Why let them take up space under your posts?
Some bloggers favor comments as a success metric, but I’m not one of them. If you leave empty crap on my blog in hopes that I’ll link back to you, you are wasting your time. Come up with something worth posting, or move along. Retweets are a free way to get my attention too, I’m just saying.
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lol nice post.
Just Kidding. I think it is important to add value in comments. It is the least commentators can do. I mean how hard is it to comment genuinely on a post?
I think it makes it a lot easy to comment on a post if the author ask's a question at the end. Commenting on it just seems natural. But even when there is no question asked, there is still room for comments. Just share your knowledge, thoughts etc. But please no 'nice post' lol.
Nabeel
P.S. I did not understand this:
“Retweets are a free way to get my attention too, I’m just saying.”
I don't see those as empty comments. To me, it means “great post.” sometimes that is all the person has to say. A person of few words. If someone wants to tell me I wrote a great post they can. Just like if I see my kids doing something positive, I will sometimes just whisper “thank you” into their ear. No big words necessary, just a few words to let them know that I appreciate what they are doing.
I would rather someone leave me a post telling me “great post” when they enjoyed a post, than have them feel they have to write a whole lot just because I only want to hear from them when they have something that I feel is valuable to say.
And yes, some people will take advantage of that and leave that comment purely for the link. So what? Such is life. You never know what relationship may start from “good job.”
Haha thanks Nabeel!
The retweets thing was about how sometimes commenters just want you to notice them in a good light, in hopes of establishing some sort of relationship in the future. Maybe it makes me a jerk, but I'm a lot more likely to want to get to know someone who emails me or grabs my attention on Twitter than someone who has no more than 2 words to say on a post.
Hi Michele!
First of all, thanks for approaching it from the other side of the coin. There are definitely some people who just don't have anything else to add, and that's fine. But when they come back and leave the exact same comment on 3-4 posts, that starts to get a little stale.
I don't believe that it's possible to never have more than two words to say, if you're honestly reading what you're commenting on. Maybe I'm just a cynic.
“Great post.” Lol, i think the best way to deal with these situations is to write content that readers have to ask questions.
I don't look at this the same as everyone, but I am slowly learning that most commentors are there for their own benefit anyway, so I usually don't approve “great post” comments anymore, unless I know you and you have left quality comments in the past.
Let's face it, the comments ARE social media, and I think they can be used for so much more than “great post” (which usually only means “gimme a backlink”)….
You have to re-tweet it to get that answer ;-o
I believe when someone leaves “Great post” or similar comments it simply means one of two things. It can mean they enjoyed reading the post but don't have anything to add, or it means they want to get their link/name out there.
This is very common, I think, in the MMO niche where the influential bloggers always preach “Comment, Comment Everywhere”. Therefore, bloggers trying to find some reach leave bland comments for the link.
Just my opinion, but you know what they say about opinions.
Great post! Haha! Seriously, I agree with Michele on all the points she raised.
It can feel a little discouraging in promoting comments but I highly recommend you simply delete these kinds of comments. You may get a couple of upset people but you have to think of your readers that are writing great comments, you want to keep a conversation going.
When you approve a “Great Post!”, it derails this conversation.
Jillian, I really enjoyed reading this post, and not just because you raise some really good points about blog commenting and social media in general, but because you provided the funniest analogy for the situation. They say it's called a 'wonderbra' because when she takes it off you 'wonder' where her boobs went, and thanks to this post I will forever refer to spammy comments as 'wonder comments' Nicely phrased (oh that was me !
)
I won't start up on what I think of the power of blog commenting because, well – it is really powerful so I too don't understand the reasoning behind uselss comments. I will approve them if the reader has commented before but usually I look at the name of the commentator. If they are called 'cheaper car insurance quotes' then it's obvious, but if it's John Jones then I might approve, heck if he wants to rank for John Jones, all the power to him I say.
Also good points about Retweets, I make an effort to RT everything that I comment on, both because it helps get me noticed so ican build a relationship but also because commenting is all about sharing content with others so why stop there?
Thanks again for a great post Jillian, checking out your blog now.
I don't care if someone just says 'nice post,' provided they're a real person. That said, I don't recall if I've ever gotten anything quite that short and sweet. In a way, it would be nice because then in response I'd feel like I could just say, 'thanks,' instead of writing a full reply to the comment.
You should read my comment policy, lol. Guaranteed unique in the fact that you can tell I'm both fed-up and teaching beginners.
Most likely the longest, most detailed policy ever.
I've got another post coming up, talking about how those garbage comments are truly disturbing to those that subscribe to comments…something else all bloggers should want their commenters doing.
Jill, You read my post ideas again didn't ya?
I totally feel you here…Take a minute and share your thoughts or an example with me. It will get your comment approved, and it will stay approved. I've been known to delete comments like that, most especially if I didn't like the site linked to. Great post girl.
I am not sure but i will say that some visitors like me are actual read posts but have nothing to write. so they just write something good in one or two lines and if these got deleted by blogger, its little tough to handle that
The thing is, if you don't have anything to say you probably shouldn't comment. That way you don't appear to be commenting just to get a link…
Excellent guest post Jillian, it feels good to let that out sometimes because Empty Comments are annoying, I actually slap them in the same file as spam comments and comments left by keyword usernames instead of people with real names.
When someone says, “Great post” it's as if they are just soothing you.
Whenever I get an “empty comment”, I trash it and never look back. I usually visit every commentators website and leave a comment (at least once), too.
If someone can't take the time to leave a decent comment on my website, I'm not wasting my time on theirs, either. Great post, Jillian.
[...] Fed Up Friday: Empty Comments – I really think Jillian has read my list of blog post ideas! I was so totally going to write a post much like this one. I really agree with her on comments that add no value. I want my comments to be a place for discussion and connection. Others in the comments area raise some good points, especially Michelle near the bottom, so don’t forget to read the comments as well as the post. [...]
Hi there. I'm totally agree with your ideas in the article. It's sad but I hate people leaving comments like “nice post” after the article. Well I pleased to know that someone like my post but in 98% this someone turns to be simple spammer. real visitors will never put such short comments. they will rather not comment the article at all. and this is quite right as it is better to keep silence than speaking silly things.
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