This weekend I didn't take my own advice and I've been doing damage control ever since. I'm not going to go into all the details, but suffice it to say, it doesn't pay to respond to negative feedback or feed the trolls.

Let me explain.

Not everyone is going to like what you write. The majority of them will tastefully rebut and you can carry on an intelligent discussion among the members of your community. If you go ahead and respond to the people who are looking for a fight, it will only hurt your reputation and spill over into your community. Don't do it.

Here's how to handle the trolls:

1. Ignore them – Let them say what they want and then ignore them. Do not respond, no matter how many times they insult you. You can't reason with them.
2. Delete their comments – When it comes to comments you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. If you let nasty comments stand, it makes your community uncomfortable. If you delete them you're accused of stifling free speech. The bottom line: It's your blog and your community, cater to them, not the trolls.
3. Moderate comments – If the trolls are bringing friends and they're piling it on, moderate your comments. This doesn't have to go on forever, just until the furor dies down.

Must.Not.Engage

Here's the thing. The people who are really negative are doing so for a reason. They're trying to provoke a response. The more you give into it, the more you respond, the more it will continue. No matter how much it kills you not to set matters straight, don't give in. Even if you're right, don't give in.

Your community comes first

When your blog becomes a battle zone your regulars will leave for neutral territory. They're not visiting your blog for the drama, (well, most of them aren't). They're visiting for the advice and the atmosphere. Do the right thing and think of them first.

I was halfway through part two in my series about monetizing blogs when I became sidetracked with a forum conversation. Without bringing in a lot of unnecessary details, I was visiting my favorite forum for work at home moms yesterday when I came across a thread from a blogger who was rather upset when a commenter disagreed with her. He wasn't being disrespectful, though she felt he was, and she closed comments for that post because she didn't want a debate.

I read all the posts with interest. I was very disappointed to learn many of my fellow WAHMs were trashing the person who disagreed and even going to his blog and leaving heated comments. After reading the entire thread I posted about how blogging is about building a community. About how discussions are supposed to happen and people should be allowed, no, encouraged to disagree. Debates do happen and as long as people act civilized, there's no reason to close comments.

What I found most interesting was that a couple of people didn't exactly agree with me. Neither of them realized blogging was about community. They felt is was more a marketing tool and comments weren't really necessary. This goes against everything I believed blogging to be. Am I wrong?

So let me put it to you, Performancing community. Since the majority of you are bloggers, probloggers or wannabe bloggers, what is a blog to you? What is the purpose your blog? Why do you do it and how important is community?

Thanks for indulging me.

On one of my WordPress-powered blogs I use first-time comment moderation (if you're a first-time commenter your comment goes in moderation - if you've been there before it lets you post your comments directly). It's a convenient way of weeding out spam as well as keeping out anything that violates the site's comments policy (which mainly asks abusive commenters to think twice before posting).

There's a downside to this, however - the delay in moderating comments means that new readers coming in don't see the comments that are stuck in moderation and therefore there is less of a chance for a genuine conversation to develop in the comments section of the blog. I think moderation could account of losing around half of the comments an article would normally get, even if you take out the negative comments.

I've turned off comment moderation this morning as an experiment for this weekend - and I'll report back in this thread on whether comments actually increase as a result.

What about you? Do you moderate your comments? Why (or why not)?

I toiuched on this briefly at About Weblogs the other day, but thought I'd expand a bit here since beginning bloggers are always looking for ideas.

Don't neglect the comments

I think many newbies tend to neglect comments. They write articles rather than disucssion-stimulating and engaging blog posts. That isn't to say you should be upset if you don't have any comments at first, but you should write with the intention of stimulating discussion among the members of your community. This will serve several purposes:

1. It will keep them coming back for more – I have a very active community at Freelance Writing Jobs. Each post provokes some interesting discussions. Some of these posts are weeks old. Many of my readers subscribe to the comments, while others check back often to see if new comments have been posted.

2. It will give you new material – I get about 75% of my blog ideas from the comments. Commenters like to go off on tangents or ask questions. A post with over 50 comments can spawn about 10 great ideas for future posts. Thanks to my commenters, I never run out of things to talk about.

3. It makes your blog look more attractive to others – Say you're invited to two different parties. At the first one, no on shows up. The second one is absolutely rocking. Which one would you rather visit? That's the way it is with blogs. Though readers are encouraged to visit as many blogs as they want, the truth is they don't have that kind of time. Most will choose the one with a lively discussing ensuing over a blog with no comments at all.

Getting your readers to comment

So how do you get your readers to comment? Here are a few things that worked for me:

Ask a question in your title - Ask a question and someone is sure to answer.

Discuss a controversial topic - Controversy always provokes a response, though you should be prepared for some rude or insulting comments too.

Just ask - Ask for comments. Tell your readers you value their opinions and are interested in their thoughts.

Create a list post List posts are great comment-getters! Lots of people will respond to tell you how much they appreciate your list, and also add items they feel you left off.

Have a contest – Right now, on FWJ, I'm giving away a $50 gift certificate to my top commenter at the end of October. There are a few competitive commenters for sure, but even the people who don't stand a chance are chiming in.

After revamping FWJ, I made community my top priority and nowhere is this more apparent than in the comments. In fact, I have many new readers as a result of those comments! All of the activity spawned a wonderful chain of events, I have new material, lots of blogs are linking to me and my traffic is souring. Don't neglect your comments, you may be pleasantly surprised at what happens next.

A while back I wrote an article called 5 Surefire Steps To Increase Readership 300% (or more) and I remember being personally challenged by the article.

The fact is that some of those steps don't come naturally to a lot of bloggers, including me.

Since writing that blog entry, let's count how many of the "suggestions" I actually followed:

1. Interview Other Bloggers

Well, I haven't really done a single interview in the 2 months since writing that article. I am in the process of changing this by interviewing David Krug about his new approach to online business. Keep an eye out for the interview over at businesspundit.com

2. Offer To Guest Blog

Nope. Nada. Haven't done it. Guess I was waiting for an invitation.

3. Run A Carnival:

Nope. Not me. But Raj has started the Carnival of Internet Pros which I've thoroughly enjoyed. Let's hope we can keep that up.

4. Encourage Reader Participation

Hmmmm. I guess I've done an alright job with this at Performancing by asking the community some questions.

5. Become a Listener

Terrible. Terrible. Embarrassed. What else can I say. Well, that's the point of this post:

Listen and Participate

Today I asked an SEO friend, Dee Barizo, how he'd recommend launching 8 new websites that I've just started. His response? Submit to social media sites? Nope. At least not as the main strategy. Old fashioned linkbuilding? Nope, not exactly. Here's what he said:

I would have bloggers spend a lot of time commenting on other related blogs even if their content production drops. The web is becoming more social and getting those blogger contacts is gonna be more and more important, since they can give powerful contextual links (the best kind of links, by far)

Got that? Even if content production drops. Keep paying them. But redirect them to focus on building social nets that will lead to readers and niche-relevant links.

And now to satisfy the title of this post....

Three Things Bloggers Should NOT Neglect

1. Participating, daily and over long periods, in the comment sections of the popular blogs in your niche.

2. Linking *in every article* to at least two other relevant articles on related niche blogs.

3. Developing conversations with readers and other bloggers by asking questions, participating in debates, stirring up controversy, or whatever it takes.

And stop the damn monologue already;-) kk?

There are many ways to problogging gold and glory, such as writing great content that keeps people coming back for more, being patient with SEO, getting the ad placements right, and so on. I’ll remind you of another one: your willingness to interact with your readers -- fans and detractors alike.

Let me explain.

Before I was a blogger, I was a creative writer first. For the early part of my writing days, I kept all my works to myself and a handful of friends. As with all people who mature oh-so-slowly over time, I realized something: to take writing to another level, a writer should be ready to receive both solicited and unsolicited advice, to bravely participate in literary workshops (where one’s art might get criticized and manhandled), to readily admit his mistakes while reminding himself not to repeat them. Basically, to interact with fellow writers and a wider reach of readers. Depending on the writer’s persona, all of these things might be big steps out of the writer’s “shell”...but he needs to take them, nonetheless.

In my opinion, the same principle applies to blogging. To take your blogging a step further -- professional blogging -- you'll need to:

1. Open your blog to reader interaction,
2. Engage the reader when he does interact, and
3. Be sure of yourself when you engage the reader.

Item number one is easy to check off -- open your blog posts for comments. If you can’t for one reason or another, leave a contact form or your email address. Yet, I’ve seen bloggers who are ‘experts’ of this-and-that industry (as claimed by their header or sidebar text) whose blogs don’t have any of the above-mentioned.

I’m not saying the lack of reader interaction undermines a blogger’s credibility; rather, it would be better if the readers’ reactions and thoughts could give the blogger much-needed feedback if he 1) is doing a fine job sharing his expertise and helping others a great deal, thus affirming his being an expert, or 2) needs improvement, which might be an understatement or not.

Item two -- here's where the going gets tough for some. I’ve dropped by some blogs with commenting on, all right, but where the blogger is absolutely picky as when to reply, or never replies at all.

It’s possible that the blogger replies to each comment by email instead; still, the other visitors would like to see the discussions between the blogger and the past commenters. (You can email and place the reply on the blog, too, though that will eat more of your time.) During a seminar’s Q&A section, whom do you prefer, the speaker who answers questions via the microphone for all the audience to hear, or the speaker who writes down his answers on pieces of paper to be handed discreetly to the inquirer?

Finally, item three. Every blog post of yours is a product of your pen (or your keyboard). It is yours*, and you better show that you care for it. If someone likes it or finds it helpful, express gratitude. If someone ridicules it, take a stance and whip up a response worthy of true statesmen (a witty retort might also do!). If someone points out a mistake, give the reader the benefit of the doubt, analyze his points, and admit the error if indeed it is. If someone seeks advice, be as helpful as you can be. Don’t discriminate among real-life friends, long-time blog-mates, or new visitors. Engage everyone with the same enthusiasm.

*On a side note, if a monetized blog’s thousand or so entries are all merely public domain articles or echoes of news feeds/other blog posts, then I believe that the blog owner practically doesn’t own his posts. He has no business as a ‘professional blogger’. Rather, he is a professional waster of bandwidth and server space.