Comments on other people’s blogs are just as important as your own blog posts. These help you connect to other people and let people know that you are reading what they are writing. Commenting on blogs tells the writer of the blog that you are interested in what they have to say. Writing quality comments is a way to get to know people better and build your PLN.

Writing Good Comments

As a general rule, a comment should be 1-3 paragraphs in length. If the comment is getting much longer, then you should consider writing a blog post in response rather than writing a comment to respond. When writing comments, try to add something meaningful to the conversation. You are encouraged to add your personal perspective. 

When you leave a comment on another WordPress blog, it will link back to your blog. This is one way to improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), as it causes other websites to have links to your website. 

I have one blog post on my professional blog that received several comments - most from people I don't know. What I want you to observe here is the comments they left and my responses to them. How do you describe something you chose not to finish?

For the technical side of commenting see Managing Comments.

Responding to comments

It is a good practice to reply to comments. This helps to encourage people to comment on future posts. It is a way to tell the commenter that you have read what they are contributing to the conversation. If the person commenting provides criticism of your post, you will want to make sure you are replying factually and without emotion. If you feel emotional about the comment, you may wish to step away from it for a while before addressing it. Since this is your website and your blog, you get to control which comments appear and which are deleted. However, it is poor practice to delete posts just because they disagree with you - rather, if the commenter is interested in true dialogue, it can be a learning experience for both of you. 

There are times when you should not reply to a comment. If the comment has profanity or inappropriate language, the comment should be deleted. If it appears that the comment is intended to make you mad and doesn't add to the conversation, then it is appropriate to ignore the comment (publish it but don't repond to it) or delete it.

Further reading

Agrawal, H. (2018, July 25). How to comment on other blogs and become a better blogger. https://www.shoutmeloud.com/how-you-should-comment-on-other-blogs.html

Collier, M. (2017, May 1). How to write great blog comments. http://mackcollier.com/how-to-write-great-blog-comments/

Jayawardhana, N. (2020, September 10). How to handle negative comments to your blog. Woblogger. https://www.woblogger.com/how-to-handle-negative-comments-to-your-blog/