Comments serve as the feedback between you and your readers as a blog’s subscriber/traffic count simply represents a further reaction, which doesn’t necessarily relate to the views and types of content presented on a blog.

Conversations and the relationships gradually developed as a blog grows are the most important determination factor in the growth rate of a blog.

When bloggers develop content, it is their time that is being spent developing a thesis on a particular subject.  As soon as readers or subscribers (past visitors) read the subject and travel further down in the content, they either agree, disagree, or form a neutral view of the subject.

Most people don’t think deeply about what effect their comments will leave on the blog author, or the reactions that other devoted readers will take from their negative comments.  For example, if you put a lot of time into reviewing a product or service that you paid for/have used for a long time, and a comment that deters other readers from finding the product as appealing as you might not purchase the product using your recommendation (or affiliate link).

Therefore, when visiting others’ blogs, it is important to keep some very crucial criteria in your mind when thinking about commenting.

1.  “My Post’s Better Than Yours”

Think about leaving a comment before you hit the all-important “Post Comment” button.  The comment shouldn’t reflect how you have a better post on your blog, instead if you need to make the author “jealous” or better yet, ticked off, just suggest that you have similar thoughts and instead of making your author URL to your main blog, make it to the particular place that you wrote the “better” post.  You’ll come off as less self-oriented, and the blog author may actually take the time to read your view of the subject, instead of simply deleting the comment.

2.  “I Created a New Blog - Come check it out - I don’t even care if it’s not related to your blog”

This type of comment indicates that commenter spent very little or no time reading your blog.  They typically will never return again, don’t care a bit about your blog, and will stop blogging within a few days, as they have little knowledge of how to build blogging relationships.  Not only did they show proof that they were not concerned with your thoughts, they can also be considered a spammer.

3.  “OMG!!  I can’t believe I was first!!  Number One!!”

Forums, blogs, chat rooms, etc. all feel the wrath of the five or so people that are subscribed to the feed, constantly checking to see if the person logged on, posted a new topic/post, and then compete to see who is first.  While not so apparent in most blogs due to more frequent comment moderation, it is still often found on more popular blogs.

In my opinion, unless you are comment hungry, delete these comments as soon as you see them, as they are once again showing their disrespect towards the brand that you are trying to create.  By leaving these comments, bloggers should feel as though they have demoralized the writer of the blog.  It can also be costly in terms of bandwidth especially on media-rich sites for people that are constantly refreshing the page.

Your own name will be placed in jeopardy since it only takes one person to spread the word about your obvious intents.  Nobody wins in this situation.

4.  Link.  Link. Link.  “Buy your prescription drugs here”; “Cheap software”; “Lottery Winner”; “Free Porn”

Classified as spam comments, this type of comment will generally be caught by spam, but there are numerous ways of getting around it being marked as spam, such as by jumbling the words together, not using the link tag, or writing out an excerpt that appears as a legitimate comment from a legit. page, only to redirect to a marketplace for Viagra-type drugs.

People with any sort of decency don’t post this type of comment unless they are testing out their spam robot they built.  It costs bloggers thousands of hours of otherwise productive time to moderate this type of comment, and a large percentage somehow always seem to work their way around any spam software.

5.  “I like this post, but don’t have anything constructive to add.”

A majority of comments fit into this category.  It’s another form of spamming and self-promotion.  By leaving thousands of these short, one line comments, they are trying the quickest approach to building potential traffic.  Typically, these comments are in the form of “great post”, “nice blog”, “I’ve bookmarked your blog for later”, “you’re great”, and so on.

At a quick glance, these comments appear to support your work, but then you question the legitimacy of the comments and if they really mean it, or were simply leaving them for the heck of it.

6.  “This is the worst blog ever.  Let me tell the author that.”

This is probably the worst comment that any blogger can receive.  For one, it may offend other readers.  Secondly, it may ruin the passion that the blogger once felt so they quit blogging.  Unless the post is on a far-off topic, it would have been wiser of the commenter to avoid the post, or leave constructive criticism that isn’t completely harsh.

A blog author is more likely to improve their writing if you constructively criticize it instead of putting the whole blog and author down.

7.  “I have something irrelevant to share.”

Leaving you asking your self, “What was that all about?”, this comment is generally about facts, news, or other information that doesn’t improve the blog in any way, shape, or form.  There might not even be a link to the original source of the content.

8.  “u r da bst blggr”

Don’t use abbreviations or other code words in your comments.  This immediately signals that you have little or no English communications skills, are addicted to texting, or have little time to add a complete thought, although not necessarily a well-formed sentence.

If you are a foreigner and just learning English, it is better to let others know that, than having them guessing the thought you are trying to get across.  It is understandable if a few words are out of placed or misspelled, not intentionally.

9.  Five other times when not to post a comment:

• When you aren’t feeling yourself.   Shortly after you suffer a personal loss or are feeling under the weather for any reason, isn’t a good time to comment.  Responses will generally either be more link-intensive, of higher irrelevance, or non-constructive.
• At the wrong time - before you know all the facts about the topic, as the news story is still developing, or simply at the wrong time of the day - if you’re a morning person, and leave comments late at night, you may offer more negative than pleasing views.
• If you have a particular stance on an issue or group of people that could potentially result in disgruntled visitors or further worse, legal action. 
• When you would like your reputation/brand/name ruined to the extent that you need professional help of restoring it.  Don’t leave comments when you know that people have every right to spread your comments.
• Before writing the comment, you have doubts as to whether the comment is beneficial to the community.  Forget about commenting if you develop this thought.

Tiffany Monhollon from Personal PR and Lorelle VanFossen of Lorelle on WordPress expressed their views on this issue titled “How Not to Comment on Comments” and the “Five Comments No Serious Blogger Should Ever Post“.

So, what if everyone left comments whenever they felt like it?  A-list bloggers would immediately lose the professionalism that they once had, blogs would fill up with thousands of spam comments, and those easily enraged would never return to your blog and leave their invaluable thoughts.

There is a time and place to leave certain comments - and that should be well thought out before you must face the consequences.