Comments Policy on desi Traveler Blog

A Blogger’s Guide to commenting on blogs

Love that you want to share your thoughts with your friendly neighborhood desi Traveler and other readers of this little blog of mine. Comments are the fuel this blog runs on. But excess of anything is bad; as desi Traveler becomes more popular I am finding more and more spam comments that do not add any value to the discussion or to other readers. Many of these comments attempt to just drop links that are totally irrelevant to this blog. (Just as an FYI: I have no interest in buying cheap drugs for any kind of organ enhancement nor am I interested in being the heir to the estate of long dead African dictators.  No Sir, I also do not have any interest in buying custom-made genuine Swiss watches made in China)

Here are some ideas and suggestions for a more fruitful discussion and commenting that will benefit not only you and us but also other visitors to the blog. Though this guide on blog commenting is specific to desi Traveler most of the points are relevant to any blog and if you follow them the blog owner where you plan to comment is likely to like, approve and reply back to your comments.

If you are a blogger you may be already aware of this, though I am sure it will help you in gaining more traction in your comments and avoid them going to spam. If you are a reader who is not well versed with blogging norms this will sure help you in understanding how to leave a meaningful comment on the blog.

Please be precise: While blog posts are long and detailed, comments normally should be short and to the point. Anything more than a reasonable length and we are talking a blog post in itself. No, I don’t have an answer to what is reasonable length of comment, please use your judgment. If you have something really long to say how about you write it on your blog as a response and link back to us. (WE love link backs try it J  )  If you do not have a blog you can easily start one on WordPress or on Blogger. It takes only a few minutes to do so.  Sometimes you may genuinely not have anything to say about the post. But you may still want to show your presence that you visited the blog. In those circumstances rather than leaving a generic “Nice Post” kind of comment you can share that post on social media like Facebook or Twitter. When sharing a post on social media you can add any of those two words – Nice Post, or Must Read, to encourage your network to read the post and we will both be happy 🙂

Be relevant: For all practical purposes desi Traveler is a personal blog and written as a hobby. Most of the content on the blog is travel and photography related, though at times I attempt humor and also peddle unsolicited gyan on Branding and Blogging.  When commenting on a particular blog post please comment on that particular post only.  If you want to comment on some other topic not related to post please go to that post. However nothing kills joy of a blogger than seeing a comment like “Nice Post”.  I am sure as a fellow blogger you can do better than that 🙂

 Comment after reading and researching the post:  If you have landed on the blog after searching for a topic from a search engine, chances are that the answer is in the post. Please check it for the same. Many a times I am asked for contact details of hotels / institutes etc, in majority of the cases it is already given, but many a time people still keep on asking same question.

Read the comments before asking a question: There is a high probability that the question you have asked, especially on an older post the answer may be in the comments. So please read the comments also before asking a question. Here is an example of such a post where same question is asked many a time.-  Eco Volunteer Training Program.

Please be Polite and Friendly:

If you don’t know what this means, please don’t comment.

Comments that violate these guidelines will be deleted without notice. Repeat offenders will be banned.

Be Yourself:  You need to provide your name, email address and website for commenting. Your email address is never published or shown to readers. Also rest assured I will never sell, rent or donate your email to a third pary. So please give your real name and email address. More so if you expect me to reply to a query. As the comments are approved manually email address and names like:  Somebody Somewhere   ABC@XYZ.com is automatically sent to the spam box.

Don’t SPAM and drop unnecessary links:

Spamming other blogs is a sure shot way to kill your blog. There is no CAPTCHA (a acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”) or any other process on desi Traveler to identify you is a human. So you are not asked to identify all pictures with Palm trees, nor we want to test your  proficiency in reading tangled alphabets and numbers showing various Yoga Asanas. I hope I will never have to do it to filter spammers as I feel that unnecessary delays and alienates the commentators. I would rather have a spam comment than lose a genuine commentator. That is how much I love comments on this blog. Having said that nobody likes spam least of all other readers on the blog. All comments on desi Traveler blog are moderated the good old fashion way that is manually.

You are welcome to add a link to the homepage of your blog, website or Facebook, Instagram Twitter ,  Google+  or  WordPress profile in the space where it says –   Website .

The social media links are useful for non blogger readers who sometime wonder what website to add in the place of website in the comments form.

If you are logged into your wordpress dashboard, the system automatically picks up your profile by default. If you want you can change it to your any other profile from the ones mentioned above. Here a small reminder that all link in the comments on desi Traveler and most other WordPress blogs are no follow, so they are of no value from an SEO perspective.

 

 

So Why you should comment on desi Traveler: Though of zero value from an SEO perspective, various links and comments on desi Traveler generate about 100 + outbound clicks on a daily basis. So besides adding to the conversation you are also adding a chance to get some referral traffic when you comment on desi Traveler ( or any blog for that matter ), blogging is all about sharing and caring. I have learned about many a great blogs and forged wonderful friendships with some of other bloggers, starting from a comment I left on their blog or vice versa. A comment led to conversation, followed by bonding on social media and then forging bonds of friendship in real life. And it all started from a comment. Try it, and you may meet a long-lost friend you have never ever met!!!

Comment Moderation Process:

I personally go through each of the comment or if it is a rare guest post then the author of the post responds after reading the comment. Comment that have links to commentator’s site automatically go to spam.  I do not check the spam queue regularly. So if you are a new reader / commentator please do not leave a link in your post comment. It will straight go to spam and will be lost forever. If you think you really have a relevant post that I or readers of desi Traveler would be interested in reading then do leave a link in the comment but please remember I reserve the right to approve or delete that comment.

Reply To the comment:  If you would like to receive a reply to your comment in your email box then check the — “Notify me of new comments via email” box. Any new comments on that post will be automatically delivered to your mail box.

Posts with comments closed: On many of the earlier posts new comments may be disabled. So if you have something really important to tell me about that post please use How to Contact desi Traveler form and hit the send button.  If you have something really pressing and can’t wait the please tag me on Twitter or send a message on desi Traveler Facebook Page.  Allow me 24 hours to respond, though normally I reply within 23. 5 hours.

I hope you are still with me 🙂  I am looking forward to read and reply to your comment and forge a long term friendship.

If you have liked reading the post please feel free to subscribe by email and like it or share it with your friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter and Google+ .

I promise that I will not sell, rent, or donate your email to anybody

🙂 🙂 🙂