You know I love to leave comments on your blog especially if I read your blog post word-by-word. As they say “people don’t read your blog posts they scan it“. It’s absolutely right as people leave real comments only if they read your blog posts. If they leave a comment without reading the blog post then it probably means that they left the comment for a backlink and backlink only. ;)
I used to comment a lot earlier but recently stopped myself from commenting on other blogs as most of my comments were marked as spam by WordPress plugin Akismet though they were all genuine comments.
It takes some effort to read the post and leave a comment. But it’s annoying to see them automatically marked as spam. So I had to ping the bloggers to un-spam my comments manually and that was not a good option.
Then I came across Akismet’s contact form and noticed that we do have an option to report spam issues to their support team. So I immediately shot an e-mail to their team and I got a response from their team in less than 10 minutes that notified me that the issue is resolved. And yeah, it did work thereafter. Ever since, none of my comments on other blogs were marked as spam by Akismet.
Akismet isn’t perfect, and occasional errors do happen. The un-spam button will teach Akismet not to make the same mistake again.
If your comments are also marked as spam by Akismet then you can also contact Akismet and fill up their form by using the option “I think Akismet is catching my comments by mistake”.
8 Tips To Get Your Blog Comments Approved
1. Don’t use any links within the comment unless you’re referring to some other credible web page that’s related to the blog post.
2. Leave a comment only if you’re read the blog post. And don’t comment just because you’ll get a backlink.
3. Sign up for Gravatar so that your comments are noticed by the blogger for sure.
Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, so why not on any site?
Moderating comments becomes easier if the commentators have a Gravatar image. It tells the blogger that the commentator is genuine (or at least appears as genuine) so that your comment won’t go unread.
4. Avoid spammy comments – great post, excellent article, thanks for sharing, etc. – as bloggers hate those comments. You can appreciate the post like that with some supplemental information or by writing few words very relevant to the blog post.
5. Don’t leave rude comments. If your comments are rude or you’re bullying the blogger then your comment won’t be approved.
6. Connect with the blogger. You can ask him/her questions that requires a reply so that you create some kind of connection with the blogger.
7. Use your real name as “Name” instead of using keywords. It’s embarrassing to see few spammy keywords as the name of the commentator. You can instead use your domain name in your name like “Mahesh Mohan @Minterest.com”. (Thanks Neil!)
8. Use a non-spammy e-mail address (@gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, @outlook.com, etc.) to sign up for Gravatar and always use that address when leaving comments on other blogs.
Image Credit: Free Digital Photos
Great write-up there Mahesh!
I wanted to know that if I don’t get a lot of comments on my blog, does that mean that my blog isn’t doing well in the blogsphere?
Hi Soha,
Just because you’re not getting any feedback by way of comments doesn’t mean that you’re not doing well. Blogs with good loyal readers usually get lots of comments and blogs with say 70% or more organic traffic tends to get less comments as the readers are too busy to leave a comment. ;)
I was unaware of this akismet.com support system. I am going try this out nexy time if i face that issue. Is it possible to use gravatar for all the comments we write? Does it supported by all the platforms?
Yes, your gravatar is linked to your e-mail ID. You can link multiple e-mail accounts to your gravatar account. For example, I can use the e-mail maheshone@gmail.com while commenting to show Gravatar Image A and use maheshone@googlemail.com while commenting to show Gravatar Image B. Login on to gravatar account and add alternate e-mail IDs and complete your profile by verifying your blog and by adding your bio and links.
Hey there, thanks alot for this i’ve been trying to post on blogs for the past week and I couldn’t figure out why none of them were being accepted! All my comments were relevant and in-depth but they still weren’t being moderated! This is the first I’ve heard about gravatar hopefully it works out, I’ve also emailed Akismet which I use on my blog so I’ll let you know what they say! Thanks again!!
Hi,
I’m sure that it will work. When you comment on a blog and your comment is not appearing as pending then it means that it was marked as spam by akismet. If it’s pending then it will surely be approved by the bloggers as long as they are genuine. Most bloggers don’t check the spam folder but you can still ping them manually (via email or twitter) to let them know that your comment was marked as spam.
Thanks!