Turn it off. Please, turn it off. Ok, I totally get why some people enable word verification on their comments. And maybe you don’t know yours is, it’s Blogger’s default setting… BUT, and that’s a huge BUT (yeah, yeah… not that kind of butt…) BUT, it really decreases the number of comments you will receive. I cross my heart, pinky promise on this. It’s just one more step in an already somewhat long process. This is the age of quick and simple.
We are all very busy people and, I personally, don’t have five minutes to spend leaving a comment. When you add that up on say, 10 comments, that’s almost an hour! Sorry, guys but I don’t have that kind of time. Most of my blogging happens during naptime and those two hours are precious! I’m not going to spend them leaving comments, not when I don’t have a post written for tomorrow, I need to get the chicken marinating for dinner, and a handful of projects half-finished. Oh, and we’re going out of town next week and My Mr. Right has an in-the-field Drill this weekend. Go Army, right? What that translates to is I get to do ALL the packing, with a 21 month-old ball of energy fighting for my time. And no time for commenting.
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All of your comment setting can be found and changed in the Settings tab, under the comment option.
If you want to keep an eye on what comments go up on your blog (and I don’t blame you a bit), have them sent to your email. This is super convenient if you get your email on your cell phone. If not, Blogger has a super easy platform where you can view all your comments in one place. If you’re worried about comments going up before you see them, turn on moderation. Nothing will post publicly unless you tell it to.
If you would like to leave your guests a message before they comment… There’s a spot to do that here too. Say whatever you would like. Also, you can set how your comment form shows up. Personally, I like it when the comment form is embedded below the post. That way I don’t have to wait for a separate page to pop up and load. I can just go to town with my commenting.
Ok, the MOST IMPORTANT PART!!! By default, Blogger turns word verification on. Take the time to turn it off, and I guarantee your comments will increase.
A lot of people, myself included, will compose a comment and then see the word verification and close the window… no comment. And if the page reloads and I don’t realize you have word verification… no comment. Your time is valuable, you know this. Make your blog as reader-friendly as possible. Ok, now go do! Let me know… I’ll leave you a comment. =]
Krista
