Should You Allow Comments on Your Blog? The Pros and Cons of Blog Comments

Your blog is your baby. You’ve spent all this time tending to it, making sure it’s taken care of so it can thrive.

With more than 164 million blogs in the digital world, you need to stand out. You know good and well that you can’t become another statistic of yet another blogger that failed.

You’ve taken into consideration every detail that goes into it, except for one. The tough debate of whether or not to allow comments.

Will allowing them take too much of your time away? But if you don’t allow them, will that deter readers from visiting frequently?

To settle your mind so you can make a decision, we’ll go over the pros and cons of blog comments. Ready to find out what they are?

Let’s get into it!

Pros

Let’s get to the good stuff first, shall we? Take a look at why you should allow comments.

Opens the Lines of Communication

With a blog post, you’re sharing your own opinions. So, why can’t readers do the same?

Opening the lines of communication with comments is so the reader can share their opinions as well. You’ll be able to see which people agree with you and start a conversation from there.

Build Loyalty

When you receive comments, be sure to respond. No one wants to feel ignored or like you’re too good to reply back.

Replying is the key to build loyalty with readers. They’ll feel heard and once they realize you respond, they’ll be wanting to leave more comments!

Receive Feedback

A blog is often a one-man- or one-woman-show. You’re the only one operating it and sometimes, you doubt your decisions.

Let reader leave comments so you can receive feedback and constructive criticism. They’ll let you know if something’s not working or what you can do to improve your blog.

Gain Inspiration

Sometimes, your readers will give you ideas of what to blog about next. They might express a problem they’re having or leave suggestions as to what they’d like to read next. Or, they’ll have a suggestion for a type of product you can develop.

Chances for Opportunity

You never know who’ll leave a comment. It could be an ordinary reader who likes your opinions or it could be someone wanting to collaborate with you.

Business opportunities sometimes take place in the comments section. This could be the owner of an established blog wanting to hire you to write for them.

A Place for Networking

Blogs are often the foundation for online communities. It’s especially true for those who specialize in a narrow niche.

Connecting with likeminded people is a great way to network and build relationships. You can’t do that if you disable comments.

Cons

Now that you’ve got the gist of the positive benefits, let’s get into the other half of this debate: the cons. Here’s why disabling comments might be right for you.

Allows Negative Comments

Not everyone on the Internet is nice. That’s especially so if readers can leave their thoughts behind an anonymous façade.

You’ll get that one commenter who nitpicks everything you do and say. And you’ll get ones who are just looking for a fight. If you have thin skin, disabling comments is the right choice.

Responding Takes Too Much Time

Replying to every comment left is rather time-consuming. If you don’t want to dedicate a few hours or a full day to respond to comments, it’s best to get rid of them all together.

Requires Moderation

If you don’t want spam to fill your comments section then you’ll need to moderate each and every one that comes your way. You can limit it with the help of plugins or other software but some are bound to slip through the cracks.

That said, you’ll need to be on top of it to ensure spam doesn’t happen. That’s more time taken away from blogging.

People Only Comment to Benefit Themselves

Other bloggers starting out may come to your blog to purposefully leave a link to their site. This, in turn, doesn’t generate thoughtful comments, only ones that’ll benefit the commenter.

You can’t create a relationship with readers who don’t read your content.

Not to mention that when they leave their link, it could reflect poorly on your site. It could lead to a spam site or if theirs was penalized by Google at one point or another, it falls back on you for allowing their comment with their link attached.

So, Should You Allow Blog Comments?

The decision is really up to you. Think about what’ll be best for you and your blog.

If you think they’re going to take away too much of your time then don’t allow them. If you love to interact with other like-minded people (and don’t mind a few spam comments here and there) then, by all means, go for it.

Don’t think you have to allow comments on every post. For ones that people may deem controversial, you can disable comments. That way, you get the best of both worlds.

Make Your Choice

We know how hard this decision is. But it’s best to know right away what you want to do.

Readers won’t be happy if you’ve been allowing blog comments for a while only to disable them moving forward. Disabling them right off the bat then to reinstate them later may not encourage anyone to comment-in fear you’ll turn them back off.

To put it simply: make your choice ASAP.

Want to know a choice that’s not so hard to make? Reading about why hosting speed matters! Check it out today.