Pondering Many Things....
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This question is from : @BeauBehan :
Answer:
Hi Beau,
This is a great question and I think you are going to love the answer.
The reason why is that the same answer that gets your photo on this site will also get your photo on other WordPress sites that you comment on.
That includes both WordPress.org and WordPress.com sites.
What’s the difference? WordPress.org sites are self hosted through third party hosting solutions like hostgator.
WordPress.com sites are hosted by WordPress themselves. The advantage is that it is free and easy. But there is a lot more to be said for controlling your own site. Such as ‘owning’ the cyber real estate and being able to add advertising to your site. So, I suggest you get your own site instead of using a third party’s free platform.
WordPress.com does not allow advertising on their free sites. And I’m not sure if they allow it on their paid sites but I think they might.
How Do I Add the Picture?
This is a very easy / simple thing to do. Just go over to Gravatar.com and use the email account you will be using to comment on All Things Pondered or any wordpress site (using the native commenting system or comment luv) to register.
It is free!
And then upload a picture to your free account there.
After that, anytime you comment on All Things Pondered, using that email address, your picture will display with your comment.
I am not sure that it works retroactively such as on the comment you left here. But, I think it will. I guess we will find out as soon as you register your Pic.
Better To Use A Picture and Not an Avatar If At All Possible
A lot of site owners are little bit leery of comments in the first place. This is because of the prevalence of spammers who generally leave comments with little to no value. They are only there to get a quick link back to their site.
You want to distinguish yourself from the spammers by showing that you are legit.
A picture is generally going to be viewed more favorably by the majority of site owners than an avatar (graphic of some kind).
Having said that, something, even if it is a graphic and not a picture, is better than nothing at all.
Many of the spammers won’t use a picture or register at Gravatar.com precisely because they don’t want anyone to know who they are or to find them.
What Do You Use Dave?
Good question, here is the picture I use for my Gravatar:
I will be the first to tell you that this is an old picture. It is about 5 years old at the time of this writing. It was taken by my future (at the time) wife. I like it so I continue to use it. The lighting was good – in my opinion.
I use this picture on when I comment on other websites. This tells people it is me. And they will recognize the picture as being me. Hopefully, I am someone they like and trust.
Look Professional
While I acknowledge that many people are into blogging for fun, there are many others who make blogging into a business, including myself at All Things Pondered.
When you go to a site to comment, you want to show that you are a real and interesting person. You also want to leave quality comments. This shows that you are not just there to get a link.
A picture helps to show that you care and you are supportive of other website owners. This can go a long way towards building up relationships.
Those relationships can add up to cool opportunities such as the guest post I was asked to do at Luke Peerfly’s site.
That post, on his high traffic site, is most likely going to bring more traffic to All Things Pondered.
In return, when people see the link above, many will visit his site. That’s team work and a quality relationship at work!
The more, high quality relationships you have, the better.
It is All About Relationships
You see, life is all about your relationships! The quality of your life is directly related to the quality of your relationships. If you think about that for 10 minutes (or less) you will conclude that what I just said is accurate.
Want to be a millionaire? Build quality relationships with millionaires. That is a poor example actually. You should seek to have a higher standard than money for yourself. Many millionaires are not good people.
If you want to know more about how to be a better person, read my favorite book, Zhuan Falun.
I digressed. The point was that by showing yourself to be a quality person, through your gravatar picture and your quality comments, you have a better chance to build those all important online relationships.
It is really no different than the offline relationships that you build. It is all about quality. And you need those relationships to thrive online and offline.
Thanks To Beau
Let us all say thanks to Beau for his question by following him on Twitter and saying ‘Thanks’ : @BeauBehan
Thanks for your question Beau.
Comments, thoughts, etc.? – If you read this post, let us know that you liked it by leaving your thoughts and comments in the comment section below. Also, consider sharing this post on your favorite social media.
I want to share with you a couple of blog comments that should be considered quality. I promise you will see them below. But first, a few quick words about why.
The Reason Why You Want To Make Quality Blog Comments
Blog commenting is about building relationships with other blog owners. You want them to know who you are and trust you enough to feel comfortable recommending your blog or any specific posts that you have written.
With this kind of trust and cooperation it is possible to build up traffic. That is what most (not all) blog owners want.
Why Do You Want Traffic?
Traffic is necessary to monetize your blog real estate. You need that traffic to provide revenue in the form of advertising fees, direct sales or affiliate sales. There may be other ways to monetize as well, such as building your email list. But that still equates to more revenue.
I acknowledge this explanation is very basic, but that is all we need in the way of background for this topic.
What Is a Quality Blog Comment?
I think it is best to jump in with the examples first and then discuss them more fully.
Quality Blog Comment Number One:
This comment was made on this post so that you can see it in it’s ‘natural’ environment.
Why Is This A Quality Comment?
1. Corky Starts from His Own Experience. When you share personal experiences in your blog comment you are truly giving something unique because it is YOUR experience. People tend to appreciate that you have ‘opened up’ a little bit and shared something personal.
But more important than that, is that people, when analyzing information, are very interested in personal experiences. All the theory in the world is not worth much if it does not work in the ‘real’ world.
This is why people love personal stories. Not to mention that story telling is the most powerful way to get a point across that we know of. Just make sure your stories are true. If people figure out that you are lying, then it will seriously discredit you and your comments.
Corky shares the information that was given to him and he passes it on to us. He explains what is end result was. This is what people want. They want to know what you did, what happened and how it ultimately worked for you!
People don’t care about ‘theories’. They want ‘real life’ validation and Corky provides that.
2. Notice the length of the comment. It is 9 Lines of quality. How many comments have you seen that are about 2.5 lines max. You get the feeling that these ‘drive by’ commentors are just there for the link.
Remember that we talked about relationship building a little while ago?
Corky shows that he read the blog post and that he has something intelligent, valuable and useful to add to the discussion.
This is what makes this a high quality comment. If Corky were to approach me about making a guest post on my blog, I would be far more likely to oblige him, because of his quality comments, than someone ‘out of the blue’.
Quality Blog Comment Number 2
This comment was made on a post about outsourcing work to the Philippines, you can see the post here.
Here is the comment:
What makes this a quality comment?
1. Notice the picture. This tells me that this is a real person that is not afraid to show who she is. That instills trust and confidence. Notice that I did not say that there was a link to her ‘website’.
2 There is a link to her blog. I want to know that blog comments are coming from someone who has a blog that receives comments too.
3. Once again Anna speaks from her own experience. She tells us that she is an outsourced worker herself.
4. She gives quality tips about what might be helpful. That is going to resonate with the readers of this blog who will find her comments interesting too.
5. If you go to the post, you will see that Anna replied to my reply. That’s Quality! She didn’t just ‘drive by’ and leave a comment, she signed up to know when someone replied and she came back to continue the discussion.
All of these things, plus what we discussed on Corky’s comment, are indicators of a quality blog comment.
What is a NON-Quality Blog Comment?
While the two examples above define quality blog commenting, I thought I should share an example of what is not quality.
I won’t display a comment here, because I don’t want to embarrass anyone, instead I’ll make a fictional, but typical, poor quality blog comment.
“Hi That was a great post, I really liked it. I learned a lot. I’m going to bookmark this page. I’m going to tell my friends about it. Thanks!”
signed; phdf32X – No picture. Link to a website that does not accept comments.
Tip: Use your real name when commenting. No one wants comments from phdf32X or “golf man” !
Video:
I hope these examples helped to show you the difference between quality and non-quality blog comments.
In case you need more information to point out the differences, I have made a video that goes over the same comments. Perhaps the visual and auditory components will help to clarify further.
Here is the video:
I hope this information and video helped you to understand what a quality blog comment is and what the benefits to you personally are for making quality comments.
Looking forward to hearing your quality blog comments below! If you have some thoughts to add on what makes a quality blog comment, that would be very welcome.
Here are some additional post that you might find interesting
Getting More Traffic Through Disqus Comments
Guidelines for Commenting on this Blog
Pictures of Churches In Kiedrich, Germany
Commenting With Disqus For Traffic
Everyone knows that bloggers love to comment, primarily through the CommentLuv system- which as become quite popular amongst the various blogging communities.
But did you know that you can also use Disqus to comment on high traffic sites, which includes blogs, news, and a number of other types of sites?
Currently, it’s true.
All you need is a free Disqus profile where you can proudly insert a single link and even a description to any site you would like to. As far as I know, they also allow affiliate links! How cool is that?
[Please see the notes below about spamming before proceeding). Do not ruin it for everyone else. Or we will find you and… (LOL. just kidding / joking).]
I have compiled a small list of high traffic sites that use the Disqus commenting system:
A List Of High Traffic Sites Using The Disqus Commenting System
https://www.theepochtimes.com – This one has a good Alexa ranking but they may not always approve a comment. You should make nice, polite posts there if you want them to be approved. It is not a free-for-all commenting site, like some of those in the rest of the list.
https://edition.cnn.com – update – edition.cnn no longer displays your link with your post. Do not waste time commenting on any site that won’t display your link. Always check a site to make sure your link displays.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/
(if you know of others, please add to this list via the comment section below
Do NOT Comment Spam
Before you go off with that list and spew inappropriate comments all over the place, I want you to think long term for a moment. These sites can throw away this great comment system and start using something else tomorrow.
That something else may not be as cool as Disqus – meaning that they let you put a link on their site. If that were to happen and you lost the ability to leave a link it would be a bummer for the entire community.
In addition, you would lose any link value that was residual after the system was removed. I hope that is powerful enough incentive for you to think twice about what you are about to do.
Do not wreck it for everyone else, just because you can’t wait to get some spammy links out there.
Here Are Some Suggested Guidelines To Follow
1. Use a real picture of yourself in your profile. – People will feel more comfortable knowing that you are a real person with a real face and that you are NOT hiding behind the cloak of anonymity.
2. Write long and meaningful comments that are related to the article you are commenting on. – No one likes to see someone blatantly promoting something unrelated to the article. So, don’t do that! Take a few minutes and write a nice comment that will add to the discussion and show that you are a giver and not (just) a taker.
Give to the communities that you are trying to be a part of. If you abuse the system, your comments will probably be removed anyway and that would be a huge waste of your time and effort.
If no one can see your links, they are not worth much, are they?
Another benefit to posting long and meaningful comments is that they will stand out more. If your 10 line comment is situate between a bunch of one or three liners – who’s comment do you think readers’ eyes will be more drawn to you? – And look there! There is a handy link right to your website right by your name and picture!
3. Forget about Key Words – Seriously, keywords do not belong on these high traffic sites. Use your name – or if you are too scared – use a made up name – just make it ‘real’ name.
If you use keywords for your name, you are probably only going to hasten the moment when your comment has been flagged too often and the scrutiny of a moderator is going to come into play. When they see your profile has no picture or something related to your business and not you, plus your spammy comment and link, what do you think they will do?
Bottom Line – Post nice, long, thoughtful comments with your real name and without keywords!
4. Participate in The Conversation – The Disqus system will let you know when someone has replied to your comment. Commenting again in reply, which you can actually do via email without revisiting the site (another cool feature of Disqus), is a snap.
Should I Use Disqus On My Own Site?
That is totally up to you and it is not required that you implement Disqus on your own site in order to comment throughout the Disqus system.
You can sign up for your own free Disqus account here.
I have seen blogs that are using Disqus for their comment system. However, commentluv is a well established system that seems to be favored by most bloggers including some of the most successful ones.
On the other hand, many bloggers, including some very successful ones are now using Disqus.
Whether you use Disqus on your own sites or not is completely optional and one hundred percent your own choice.
Benefits of Exposure With Disqus
You have probably already noticed that Disqus is being used in some very interesting and high traffic places as well as thousands of lower traffic sites.
The fact that CNN is using it (at the time of this writing) shows that it works well and that many people are willing to use the Disqus commenting system.
With many sites and users, the chances of someone finding you and your link are that much higher.
– Your comments are saved and linked to your profile.
Therefore, if people liked a comment they saw and they click on your profile link, (which is often tied to your picture or avatar), they will be able to see other comments you made on other websites.
In addition, your profile itself has your link on the (high traffic) Disqus site itself.
Therefore, there are two ways to find the link to your site.
1. They can find it on your comment itself
2. They can find it on your profile link.
If you do happen to use Disqus on your own site, people will see the comments you have made there too (in reply to other commentors.
All of this simply increases the ability of others to find the link to your site(s)
This could result in greater traffic to your blog.
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