Internet Culture from London… and beyond
Negative comments are good for your blog
I am yet to meet a blogger who doesn’t like receiving comments and feedback on their articles… But occasionally, the feedback you receive is not what you had in mind.
As your blog grows, it becomes more exposed to negative comments…. But these comments are in fact good for your blog.
You can be wrong
Yes, really. Everyone can be wrong, even so called Social Media Gurus / Experts / Strategists.
Negative comments are just a way of adding value to your article and taking the conversation to a new level…
When I wrote the PR agencies buying bloggers article, dozens of blog posts were published on the topic within hours… Some bloggers agreed with me, others didn’t. These posts challenged my own thinking… which is a very good thing!
Negative comments can stimulate debates
Challenging someone’s blog post is fine… as long as you provide them with constructive criticism.
If someone leaves a negative comment on your post, another reader might respond, and a new debate will start… which is good for your blog.
Debates are good thing; they encourage RSS subscriptions, comments and sometimes backlinks.
Negative comments on your blog shows that you respect your readers and their thoughts
Some bloggers delete negative comments… and they should be ashamed of themselves! Sure, negative comments aren’t always nice, but not censoring them shows that you respect your readers’ point of view.
If you are going to leave a negative comment on someone’s blog, you should be transparent and let the blogger know who you are.
An anonymous commenter left an aggressive comment on a friend’s blog a little while back. My blogging pal decided to publish the comment unedited, and even responded to the anonymous commenter.
I believe my friend handled the situation adequately… and the anonymous commenter never came back!
Negative comments are… content!
And content is SEO! SEO can generate traffic to your blog.
So don’t be offended by negative comments… make the most of them!
| Print article | This entry was posted by Lolly on 05/03/2010 at 12:11 pm, and is filed under Blogging. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |




about 4 months ago
The great thing about getting negative comments is that, as you say, it challenges you to think differently. If you’ve got a point of view and you’re encouraged to consider a different point if view then it seems to me that it will either make you think about how to make your argument stronger, or indeed even change your mind altogether.
The whole point of comments, to me anyway, is to encouarage transparency,discussion and debate amongst your community, no matter how large or small it is.
When Engadget shut down their comments a whiole back i was surprised as they were one of the pioneers who left their comments largely unmoderated.
The community will always police itself and they’ll respect you as a blogger if you let them do so!