Part-Time Blogger’s 5 Time-Saving Tips for Effective Comments

70 Comments / Blogging Tutorials, Guest Posts / By /

One of the fun parts in blogging is receiving comments to your posts. It’s nice to get feedback on what you have written about.

Unfortunately, sometimes managing the comments can be very time-consuming. Especially if you are blogging while having a day job, you may not have that many moments to deal with comments.Effective Comments for Part Time Bloggers

Here I present five ways to deal with comments. The main point is to make this process more effective – by getting rid of all the extra work that is otherwise involved. That way you have more time to do something more important in your blogging.

1. Create a policy

One way to handle comments is to create a commenting policy on your blog and make it available for everyone to see. What this means is that you define rules on how you handle comments on your blog.

These rules could define the situations when a comment is not accepted. In other words, certain conditions have to be met before a comment goes live.

For instance, you could require that all your commenters should have a Gravatar picture (instead of that default grey and white icon) or that short comments like “Hey, that’s a nice post” will immediately be deleted.

It is of course up to you to decide how detailed the policy will eventually be. However, once you start implementing your policy, only then will you realize how well it works and if any parts of it need to be modified or not.

2. Get rid of trackback spam

One time-consuming part regarding comments is handling trackback spam:

Basically, a trackback is generated when you write a post and then link to another blogger’s post. The blogger then gets notified about this and he/she can either accept or reject this notification (aka a trackback).

If the trackback is accepted, you get a link pointing back to your blog post from that other blog. This in turn gives yet another backlink and it can potentially improve your search engine rankings, thus giving you more visits as well.

In order to stop spammers taking advantage of your blog’s popularity, you can tackle this issue in couple of ways.

First, disable the trackbacks entirely. In fact, I just recently did this myself, as I don’t really see any value in trackbacks. In my experience, the majority of them are just spam anyway and I have better things to do than just going through and checking them every day.

In order to disable trackbacks, just go to your WordPress admin panel, choose Discussion on the left hand panel and uncheck the box, “Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks)”:

This way the trackback spam issue is at least partially solved and you shouldn’t get any trackbacks to your future blog posts. However, if you want to get rid of trackbacks to your existing posts as well, check out this article for more information.

After turning off the trackbacks, I’m aware that I’m not going to receive those valid notifications anymore. You could also mention this in your commenting policy too: You are not allowing any trackbacks at all.

3. Hire a virtual assistant

If you have money to spend, you can hire a virtual assistant (VA), who can then take care of the comments you get on your blog.

If you have created a commenting policy, you can then let your VA monitor your incoming comments based on the rules you have set.

You can create a special checklist based on the policy, which is easier for your assistant to follow (rather than the policy post on your blog). Based on the points on the list, he/she can then decide if the comment can be replied to or if it’s going to be deleted.

For instance, this checklist could be simple like this:

  • Does the comment contain at least X amount of words?
  • Does the commenter have a valid Gravatar picture?
  • Is the language something other than English?
  • [YOUR POINT HERE]

If even one of the questions is answered “no”, you can instruct your VA to delete the comment immediately. Otherwise, you can handle it later.

4. Check your comments at scheduled times

OK, so you’ve got comments waiting to be replied to. The next question is, when do you handle them?

My advice is the same as with e-mail: Don’t spend your whole day moderating comments. Rather, batch process them at certain times. This way you can handle more comments faster, thus saving you time.

I use this very technique myself and I check my comments twice per day: In the morning and in the evening.

5. Automatically closing the comment section

There is still yet another way to deal with comments so that they won’t eat up all of your time.

In this case I’m referring to Kristi Hines of Kikolani and she basically lets everyone know what happens to comments after the 60 day period:

What this does is prevents people from commenting on the posts after a certain time. This in turn reduces the amount of work you have to do with comments.

Once this information is publicly announced, it sets the right kinds of expectations towards your readers (in other words, after the time is passed, you can interact with them in some other way).

You can easily configure the amount of time that WordPress keeps the comments open, by going to Settings > Discussion:

Conclusion

With these five ways you can make your comment processing more effective in your own blog.

Please make sure to list your own tips to the comments area!

70 thoughts on “Part-Time Blogger’s 5 Time-Saving Tips for Effective Comments”

  1. Lisa

    Hi Timo, I try to reply to comments only 1-2x daily. Once in the early morning and sometimes in the evening – I don’t sweat it out at lunch anymore like I used to. I like the idea of closing comments after 6 months, prevents spammers too I would think – since many spammers try to comment on old posts.
    And then direct them to your Facebook page, great idea, thanks for sharing that tip via Kristi.

  2. Richard

    I’ve got a newish blog that’s starting to gain some traction and have been meaning to try out the WordPress iPhone app to moderate comments on the go – has anyone else here tried it? Any feedback?

  3. Timo Kiander

    Hi Lisa!

    Checking the comments on pre-defined times definitely makes managing them easier. I try to go through them once a day.

    Cheers,
    Timo

  4. Samuel

    Timo,

    Comments can become a hassle to manage and I’m sure many webmasters are struggling to keep up.

    No worries, all they have to do is read your article full of helpful suggestions. 🙂

    I am debating whether to close my comment section over a certain time period for my articles on Internet Dreams.

    What I do with my comments is I still use Akismet (believe it or not) but I keep up with the deletion process by deleting the spam comments everyday.

    An assistant would be very helpful and an assistant for many other aspects of an online business!

    Thank for writing!

    – Sam

    1. Timo Kiander

      Hi Samuel!

      I think that there are both pros and cons when it comes to closing down your commenting section. I’m still keeping mine open, but if things start to consume too much of my time, I’ll decide otherwise.

      Cheers,
      Timo

  5. metz

    “Get rid of trackback spam”

    Now I know that this one isn’t good. Better make a move and erase. While “Hire a virtual assistant” is quite costly since you need to spend money to pay your VA. But that is helpful for you. Less job for you.

    1. Timo Kiander

      Hi Metz!

      I think that disabling the trackbacks entirely helps to deal with this situation.

      Also, I wouldn’t hire a VA just for dealing with comments. Rather, it’s one of the tasks that he/she would take care of on a daily basis.

      Cheers,
      Timo

  6. Gaurav H

    commenting policy is very important if you’re allowing comments in your website. it’s really help us to avoid unwanted and spam comments.

    nice post and thanks for sharing….

  7. Corina Ramos

    Hello Timo,

    Thanks for sharing these tips. I used to stress over replying to my comments as soon as I could but now I make time to check them in the morning and in the evening.

    Thanks for telling us about the plugin, I hadn’t heard of it until today.

    I also have a VA helping me an hour a day. At first I didn’t think an hour of help would do me any good but it really does take a lot off of my work day.

    I like the idea of closing comments after a certain period. That would decrease a lot of those spammy comments.

    Great tips Timo. Thank you for sharing them. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

  8. Nitin

    Really the truth about Comments. As everyone wants backlinks for their sites to have high rank. But in such case many of them forget about what they are commenting. Many comments are spams and thus we have to protect our site from them. I really appreciate your knowledge about the topic. Actually the 5 ways you discussed here are tremendous.
    As a blogger i also need to apply these 5 tips fro my site to avoid spammy comments.
    Thanks for sharing such a great information. Much beneficial especially for me.
    -Nitin

      1. Nitin

        ofcourse, and not only for me infact these are valuable for everyone.
        You are doing great job, hope that you’ll continue it further.
        By the way everything in the post is just necessary to note down for bright future in blogging.
        -Nitin

  9. kapil

    I have never paid any attention to the trackbacks given back to other blogs, I think I might have to follow the tips mentioned ASAP.

    Thanks for the post.

  10. Matthew

    Hi Timo, thanks for the useful tips! #4 really hit home with me as I have a terrible habit of checking my website dashboard every hour or so and I find myself reading/moderating comments all throughout the day. My new goal is to treat comments like emails and tend to them all together once a day 🙂

  12. Robert Singh

    Wonderful post, Scheduling time for replying to comments or commenting on other blogs will surely help us to do effective comments.

    Have a great day

    Thanks

  13. Adrienne

    Hi Timo,

    I’ve got a commenting rules policy but most people ignore it. The reason I put it in place though is when I don’t approve a comment and people email me asking me why I just point them to my rules page. It’s all plainly spelled out there but with the addition to the anti backlink plugin with CommentLuv Premium, I can do that right from the comments themselves now. I just send them a nice email letting them know that their comment wasn’t approved and directs them to my page that will explain why.

    Now I’m a full-time online business owner so I know that what I do is a lot different then most. I love comments myself and if they’re legitimate I welcome them all. Even my older posts but the only thing about that though is that a lot of my older information is outdated now. Not all of it but a lot. I’ve thought about shutting off comments after a certain period but I still have some very popular posts from a few years ago that get comments today and I know they’re helping others so I don’t see myself doing that on my blog. Luckily though, I don’t get a lot of spam.

    Thanks for sharing this and I know for the part timers this is really helpful.

    ~Adrienne

  14. Timo Kiander

    Hi Adrienne!

    Getting rid of spam comments can be sure very time consuming.

    I have also noticed the same with guest posting – people tend to ignore the guidelines and for now, I have stopped accepting guest posts.

    A policy is a great start and can sets the expectations rights for one’s readers.

    Cheers,
    Timo

  15. Anchit Shethia

    I din’t understand why you pointed the people who link back to you by giving you track back as “spammers”. First of all they are kind enough to link back to your blog and helping you with link juice, and calling them spammers is something objectionable.
    Apart from that, making a perfect schedule and working accordingly is great rather then spending money on VA 🙂

    1. Timo Kiander

      Hi Anchit!

      Actually, I’m not calling the good guys as spammers and I appreciate if anyone is willing to link to me. However, I have found that majority of trackbacks I have to deal with are spam and they take my time to go through.

      Cheers,
      Timo

  16. Susan Cooper

    These are great tips. I have just stared employing many of your suggestions and it really helps. I love the idea of develop and displaying commenting rules. That could really put the kibosh on the “nice post” type of comment from with a default avatar. 🙂 Do you have a template to help get started? Also, what are your thoughts on handling commenting on other blogs you follow? I thought I’d ask. 🙂

    1. Rebecca Norton

      I’m new to blogging and I’m still searching until now for great tips I can use (probably, there’ll be lots of potential tips I might use), but I’m glad I found your page Timo. I like the idea of #5, since it will bring visitors to your Facebook page too and get rid of spam in commenting. Sometimes, “some” people just tend to comment anything they want sometimes not related to the post but as for me, I’d be happy to discuss other tips which you might consider giving me when it comes to blogging? 🙂

      Cheers!

      1. Timo Kiander

        Hi Rebecca!

        Yeah, unfortunately that’s the case too often.

        If you want more blogging tips, please visit my blog or we can even set up a Skype call if you want.

        Cheers,
        Timo

  18. Alexandra Nicola (

    They are actually really great tips. The problem is on the plugin or widget you use as well. I mean I had a problem for a while that some comments didn’t get approved and replied because the plugin did not show them in my dashboard even if I had comments. I had to enter each article at a time and check.

    The best tip with handling all comments at once is a great idea not just like cause of emails. You have one article and you answer to all it’s questions then you go to the next. You don’t jump around all they from one article to another rereading and trying to remember what are they referring exactly.

    1. Timo Kiander

      Hi Alexandra!

      Yes, this is the way I handle all my comments – whether they are on my blog or when I’m replying to comments on the guest posts I have written.

      Cheers,
      Timo

  19. Shafee

    Thanks for such an amazing post on blog comments. I think it’s one of the disgusting things for bloggers. They need to filter away the spams mainly from comments. A popular blog could get thousand of comments one day but I can guaranty that about 50% or higher will be spam. Or those people will have intention to comment only for backlink and traffic. So, these necessary steps should be taken by all as you explained so clearly. So, thank you very much.

  20. Kumar

    Ya but I think that there are both pros and
    cons when it comes to closing down
    your commenting section. I’m still
    keeping mine open, but if things start to
    consume too much of my time, I’ll
    decide otherwise… Thanks for share

  22. hamza

    Handling comments can be a headache,specially when you allow dofollow links in comments.
    Recently i started a new and installed comluv plugin with do-follow comments.after a few days i started receiving a lot of spam comments.It is very difficult to read each and every comment and delete it.
    These points are really help in dealing with comments.I think your point no 4 is the best option because every one can not afford to hire someone for comments and closing the comments after some days is also not a good way to get rid of comments.

    1. Timo Kiander

      Hi Hamza!

      Great to hear that these tips were valuable!

      I should have mentioned that comment moderation should be just one of the things your VA can do for you. I wouldn’t hire a VA for that task only.

      Cheers,
      Timo

  23. Rafaqat

    Your tips are really time savings,two things that i must appreciate is the use of comment Policy and second one is the use of Plugin like Akismet.

  24. Tayyab Nasir

    Automatic closing is the best option but from couple of weeks I was receiving lot’s of spam comments then I enabled comment moderation. Now I am felling calm 🙂

  26. Devinder Maheshwari

    Hi,

    Nice tips. Time is the most valuable resource we have got and using it wisely would be the best decision. Your post reflects some really good point to save time and be more productive. I am thinking of hiring a virtual assistant now. Let’s see how it goes.

    Thanks for the post.

  28. Chinta

    1 spending a lot of time to check all comments on my site and the worst is..most of it are just spammed comments and out 1 of 100 comments include website URL…well i agreed with you. virtual assistant is one way to help us clear our mind..

    cheers,

    1. Timo Kiander

      Hi Chinta!

      Yeah … that’s one option for sure. Just make sure that you also have plenty of other work for that person too if you decide to hire one.

      Cheers,
      Timo

  29. Diane Radulesco

    Hi,

    Interesting idea to close the comment section after 60 days. I had problems in the past with tons of comments, many of them made by spammers. I was in charge with comments moderation and it took me hours to analyze each comment. Thank you for the tip.

  30. James

    Extremely helpful advice! I have literally just gone to my blog and ticked the “close comments after 60 days” box after reading your post. The ratio of comments to spam has always been in the wrong balance on my blog – hopefully this will clean things up.
    Many thanks!
    James

  31. Maria

    I am going to launch my designing relevant blog and i will treat it as part time job. In this scenario your shared information is very important for me to be successful in blogging field. It is very effective way to earn money online and if you allow guest posting on it definitely you can get more hits, views and traffic. I hope these shared tips will help me to make my blog famous in online market.

    1. Timo Kiander

      Hi Maria!

      You are welcome – glad to hear you liked the article!

      Every minute counts – especially if you are building your business part-time. Be sure to visit my blog for more tips related to online business (and how to build it part time).

      Cheers,
      Timo

      1. Maria

        I want to target a particular country’s market, my question is that “should i buy domain from that country? and if i host it on that particular country’s hosting service, it will help my blog to get good traffic from that country?”

        1. Timo Kiander

          Hi Maria!

          I prefer registering a country-specific domain name if possible. I would also assume that that those pages hosted on the country-specific host would serve pages faster to that country’s users, thus making the user experience better.

          But wheter that increases traffic in general, that’s something I can’t answer directly. I’m guessing the same rules apply: Do some basic SEO on your pages, do guest posting on the blogs that are related to your blog within that country.

          Cheers,
          Timo

  32. Santel

    Great tips!

    I currently receive a lot spam comments on my blog. I don’t auto approve the comments but it is a time consuming to manual approve all the comments. Sometime it is hard to decide if it’s a spam or not. We need to click back and check the link.

    I think I will close comment for the posts after 60 days. It would help to reduce the spam. Thanks!

  33. KISHOR

    Checking the comments on pre-defined times definitely makes managing them easier. I try to go through them once a day.

  34. Lola

    I like the policy strategy. However, I think a short straight to the point visible policy will work better, and users may be directed to a more detailed policy which I would prefer to be part of the main website policy, great ideas here.

  36. Satish Kumar Ithamsetty

    Timo Kiander discussed good points discussed here. i have used Trackback option in my one of the blog. But it is not successful in my blog. mainly this is theme issue. but here i learned few new points. Thank you for this solution

  37. Muneeb ur Rehman

    These are really useable tips for the newbiews because when you blog going for success the spammer post spam every where. These are really helpful for me thanks mate !! Happy blogging.

  38. Debarpan

    Commenting is no doubt a great useful way to interact with your blog reader but sometimes spam comments and useless comments are really annoying.As everyone can’t afford to hire a virtual assistant that’s why it becomes so hard for them manage time to filter this spam comments.But still I believe effective commenting is great way for both blog owners and their readers too.
    Thank you providing such a well explained post for us.

    1. Timo Kiander

      Hi Debarpan!

      Thanks for your comments.

      With a little planning everyone can make their commenting more effective, thus saving ones time.

      Cheers,
      Timo

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