Why you would turn off comments

Just over a month ago I wrote a post that questioned why would you turn comments off?

The article was rather short, as I basically posed a question and then asked for responses. To quote me exactly I said

The real juicy content in this article will hopefully be in the comments!

Scroll down ↓

and so we scroll down… 😉

DiNaRa claimed that some bloggers may not no how to turn comments on. Fair point. Although if ever I don’t know how to do something blogging related, my first point of call is blogging forums and search engines, and usually I will have my answer in a matter of hours/days.
I see where you are coming from DiNaRa, but I do not promote lazy bloggers.

Raymund from Canon Toner said how he turns off comments only on pages, like the about page, the contact us page, the ‘advertise’ page, etc. He then went on to say that he would turn off comments on “any page that does not invite discussion” a fair point. We don’t allow comments on any of our pages. Why? Well they are part of the fixed structure of the blog. Got an issue with them? Use our contact form.
Raymund, I agree.


Joshua said how he would never turn of comments. Comments are vital, even if they are (as he puts it) ‘annoying’. He says how its our blog, and you can rule it how you like.
I agree with all that Joshua said, but if bloggers decide to ‘lock down’ comments, then they are unlikely to get many loyal readers.

Jakk from Technology Blogged mentioned how some sites turn of comments as they would rather people would interact via social media, partly as this requires a lot less management. He also said how “If you recieve over 1000 comments a day, and have limited resources, turning them off is the only thing you can do.” I disagree. Using multiple spam filters (like we do here) and having multiple comment moderators can easily solve this problem. Too much traffic? Don’t complain, put ads on your site, and use the revenue to pay for better hosting.
Jakk I see your point, but I disagree – again, I don’t promote lazy blogging.

Barbara used a great analogy: “Turning off comments in a blog is like refusing to speak to your partner in a real relationship. Who would do this?” apart from knowing a few people to whom this might actually apply, I think that it’s a great little quote.
I agree with you too Barbra.

Here are some more great responses:

Chadrack's response to 'Why would you turn off comments?'John's response to 'Why would you turn off comments?'Diana's response to 'Why would you turn off comments?'Thanks also to everyone else who left a comment, but wasn’t mentioned. There were loads of other great responses, so I urge you to go and check them out! Click to view the comments on ‘Why would you turn comments off?’.

So, do you agree with my opinion?

Did you miss the article and want to add your view now?

Comments are open to all, as usual 🙂

How your reputation as a blogger helps lead you to success

This is the first in a series of articles in which I hope to share with you my knowledge of how and why Technology Bloggers has been so successful, so fast. Learn more about this series by reading our Technology Bloggers success article.

When starting a blog, website or forum there are two ways you can do it. In the dark, or with a reputation. 99% of the time, it is better to start a site with a reputation, as I have found that your online history can significantly affect the success of your next blog.

History provides you with many things; especially experience, reputation and knowledge. When I founded Technology Bloggers I had already run a technology blog for almost two years. This had given me a lot of experience in the area, specifically things like where to get ideas from, keywords to use to help my articles get found in the SERP’s, how to write interesting tech posts (I hope!) and many other things.

Christopher Roberts Technology Blog had also given me a reputation. This reputation has been carried with me to Technology Bloggers, so people who liked my writing before are likely to have follow me – give me a shout out if you did 🙂

The reason that I said 99% of the time it’s better to start with a reputation, is because very few people manage to get themselves a bad reputation, sometimes unintentionally.

Tracks in the Snow

We will forever be known by the tracks we leave - our reputation

Apart from blogging, another way to build up a good reputation is as a commenter. I comment on loads of blogs, as I think comments are very important. If you have had me comment on your blog or have seen me comment on a blog, then you will probably know that I have a reputation for challenging the author, and sometimes writing almost article length comments.

Challenging the author gets you to know people better in the blogosphere as those sort of comments jump out at people much more than ones like “Great article, cheers!” do. Don’g get me wrong though, I only disagree if I don’t agree with the author. If I like your content I will congratulate you too!


Commenting also has another element. By placing your link on other peoples blogs you are getting some effectively free publicity. People read you comment, like your style, check out your blog. It’s that simple! Sometimes 😉

If you are new to blogging, don’t worry if you have no reputation, look for blogs that you enjoy reading, and ones which also write in your niche and comment on them, that should, in some way help to build up a good reputation for yourself – providing they are good comments.

I have been into blogging for just over two years now, but I have also built (and currently maintain) many websites; these have further advanced my reputation as a writer. Some people may not know me from my blog, but as the ‘maintenance man’ for the Royal Marines Association, City of Wolverhampton Branch’s website, for example.

My social blog and philosophy blog along with my website have also advanced my ‘audience base’ and they have hopefully also strengthened my reputation as a blogger.

By the time I started Technology Bloggers I had (and still have) a lot of powerful contacts within the tech blog industry. These people can be fantastic resources in times of crisis and trouble, one of the other reasons that I highly recommend interacting with other online.

Basically what I am trying to say is that it is actually years of building and preparation that is part of the reason why Technology Bloggers has been successful. If you are new to blogging you may find that it can be hard to start with, but by guest blogging, commenting and interacting with other bloggers, can get you there!

How is Technology Bloggers so successful?

A few weeks ago I wrote about what we as a community had achieved in the first two weeks of Technology Bloggers life. At the time it was stuff like 4 authors, 85 comments, bla bla bla…


At the bottom of the article I wrote

How on earth have we achieved this?

As a member of the admin team, I have done a few things which I believe have massively increased the traffic, encouraged people to comment, and attracted guest authors.

What are those things? Well, that’s another post! I hope to ‘revile all’ in the very near future, so stay tuned!

So now the time has come for me to reveal all! Well… all that I know 🙂

Technology Bloggers SuccessEvery Monday from now, I hope to start a whole series of articles, explaining in detail what I did and how that helped Technology Bloggers become so popular in such a short space of time.

The articles are going to based around these core points:

  • History and reputation
  • Promotion
  • Benefits – A two way system
  • Competition
  • Subscription options
  • Learn from the best

Interested in what I did to really kick this blog off? Stay tuned faithful readers and all will be made public very shortly!

Hopefully this can be a great way to brighten up your Monday mornings, with some great information which you could use to improve your own blog!

Be sure to tune in on Monday the 13th (two months after we launched) to find out how and why Technology Bloggers has been so successful!