How to Improve Commenting in Blogger

One of Google's many online properties is Blogger.

Despite your best efforts, you may still find yourself struggling to get comments on your blog posts. You may have an incredibly well-crafted blog with insightful writing, but if the commenting system is too difficult or cumbersome, many people will not comment rather than wade through the process. Since spam comments are a problem on blogs, Blogger has instituted, by default, a word verification system that requires a login as well as typing the letters shown in an image -- known a captcha. By using comment moderation and spam reporting instead of captcha, you can reduce the work your readers have to do to comment on your blog and improve the comments all around.

Instructions

1. Browse to Blogger.com and log in to your account. You will then be at your Dashboard where all your blogs are listed. Click the "Settings" link next to the blog you want to work on.

2. Click the "Comments" link at the top of the page under the row of tabs. Select an option in the "Who Can Comment?" section. To receive the most comments, set this to "Anyone."

3. Scroll down until you see "Comment Moderation." Set this to "Always." Enter an email address at which you wish to receive the comment notices. Set "Show Word Verification for Comments" to "No."

4. Click "Save Settings" at the bottom of the page. Now comments on your blog will be emailed to you, and you can choose to publish them -- or not -- before they go live on your blog. If you receive spam comments, you can also report them as spam and Google will begin to weed them out before they are even delivered to your inbox.

5. Select the "Comments" tab at the top of the screen. Here, you can see which comments have been published, which are awaiting moderation and which are marked as spam. Check the spam link every week or so to make sure that Google isn't blocking legitimate comments.

Tips & Warnings

• You can encourage comments by asking questions in your blog posts, commenting on other blogs with useful or insightful thoughts and hosting contests that reward comments.

References

• Google Support: How Do I Moderate Comments on My Blog?
• The Thrifty Wife: Blogger Blogs -- Increase Your Comments; Ashley; April 18, 2011