Does your blog have enough comments?

One of the ways that makes your blog more appealing to advertisers and paid blog companies is the number of comments that your blog receives. To them it is one way to measure the popularity of your blog. I know of several bloggers that have very popular blogs and yet use that "delete" button relentlessly when they get comments that don't agree with their blog post. While I am fully aware that everyone who runs a blog is entitled to what comments they allow to appear on their blog they tend to shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to making money from their blog.

As most of you know, I am a very vocal blogger. I voice my opinion openly and I do so not only here on my blog but also on message boards, comments on other blogs and even the occasional online newspaper article. I don't go overboard on commenting but if I read something that sparks my interest or stirs up my emotions I will leave a comment. I have left comments about poorly made products, overpriced software (a pet peeve of mine) and bigger issues like the environment.That brings me to comments left on my blogs.

Yes I do allow almost all comments to be published on my blogs. The only exception is when the comment has several links in it and the comment is merely seeking link juice. I do allow comments with links if that link is adding to the conversation. For example, if the blog post was a product review on zamberlan boots and the comment left was a link and a suggestion to a sale on those boots then I would publish it because it would be helpful to my readers. On the other hand if the comment contained an affiliate to a store selling those boots I probably would not publish it as the person was now using the post to line their own pockets with cash from my product review.

Commenting is also a hot button item on several community websites. I have left what I thought was an innocent comment on an article about global warming and the author of the article came unglued on me. She sent me several "rip me to shreds" emails about how dare I leave a comment on her work that disagreed with her. She didn't approve the comment anyway so I didn't see why she had to read me the riot act. I thought that was the end of it until yesterday when she sent me another email about the same thing only the wording was different. This has been going on for a month now and I wish she would let it go. By the way her article was about global warming and Al Gore's version of it, while I pointed out in my comment that global warming is a natural occurrence and that we (the Earth) is still coming out of an Ice Age. I pointed out those facts per Geology 101 from a recent college course I just had.

Leaving comments can be a risky business as you can see, but having them appear on your blog is a valuable step in the right direction to making money with your blog.

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