In a guest post on the Louis Gray blog, Rob Diana of Regular Geek (Twitter / FriendFeed) asked Are We Missing Something by Reading an RSS Feed and then answered his own question:

By missing the comments, we are missing part of the conversation. It is a large part of the conversation because it is the one part of the blog post where readers can interact. Are we shortchanging ourselves by not reading the post on the blog along with the comments?

Louis Gray (Twitter / FriendFeed) posted The Trouble with RSS: I’m Not Involved and shared this:

Instead of adding to the conversation myself, I’m hitting “Add to Shared Items” for my link blog and moving on, not commenting and not alerting site owners and content generators that I’d been by. To those site owners who generate the RSS feeds themselves, I’m a mere number in their Feedburner statistics. I don’t show up in their page views, my name doesn’t show up in the comments, and I may as well be invisible.

Both of these bloggers realize that there are some serious drawbacks to not clicking through to individual blogs.  Rob suggested one solution:

How much more intersting would your RSS reader become if it included the comments in the feed? Can somebody work on that?

Until that happens here is another solution: leave your RSS reader and visit blogs whenever a particularly interesting post comes in view. Don’t let RSS Readers Kill Your Involvement because, as Tony says,

…a blog is only as good as the amount of perspectives it provides.

Click through and you’ll quickly see which blogs and types of posts generate lively conversations. Even if you don’t have time to visit and comment in EVERY blog, making the time to become visible in at least some blogs brings great benefits.

I spend almost all day almost every day online. The blogs I feature here and share at cliKball, Twitter and FriendFeed are those I actually read. By commenting here you not only remind me who you are – CommentLuv also lets me know when you’ve added new content and I instantly know whether my readers would be interested. I also make a point of sharing quality posts in blogs outside my niche.

I invite you to start your new visiting here because between my commentators and my answers there is almost always more content in the comments than I shared in the original posts.

Every blogger has to deal with the issue of SPAMMY comments – and the spammers are getting more and more creative in what they leave. The challenge, though, is knowing when someone is just not very experienced at leaving real comments and when they’re only after some link love. While I do try to err in favor of those who just aren’t very good at commenting, we are deleting more and more borderline comments.

Are YOUR comments SPAMMY? Do they contribute to the discussion or are they only intended to provide a backlink?

Here are some very recent examples to help you understand when comments are NOT valuable and are VERY LIKELY to be deleted: 

1. Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking you feeds also, Thanks.
2. amazing stuff thanx
3. Interesting article, i have bookmarked your blog for future referrence [sic]
4. I’ve been having a problem with this for a while now. I just can’t seem to figure it out
5. Interessante Informationen

While every blogger might appreciate sincere compliments, the above are simply too vague and too generic to be of any value. If your comments are sincere I would love to keep them – but really now – how am I to know when they’re as vague as these?

Over time there have been batches of “I can’t figure out how to subscribe to your feed” and “I’ve bookmarked you” which are obviously SPAM. The way we know this is that they’ve already been reported by other bloggers or the same SPAMMY comment appears more than once in a single blog on multiple posts.

Sometimes the SPAM is very well written:

Hey all, sorry if this is in the wrong place. First time poster, long-time lurker. I’m a big fan of this community and found something I wanted to share. I’m really into vintage guitars, I have a small collection of my own, and this site has been a really cool resource for me.

It is a collection of a bunch of really good deals on some really sweet Vintage Guitars.  It updates pretty much daily with a new list of good deals and things that look interesting. Check it out, let me know what you think. RockinMusicDeals.com

The above comment would be better in a blog about music or guitars, but it would STILL be a commercial and likely to be deleted. It starts out with a probable lie and has nothing to do with the post where it was left. Want more proof that it is SPAM? Search on the last line and today those two exact sentences are listed in Google 104 times.

There is nothing wrong with making a comment ABOUT A BLOG POST HERE that LINKS to the Vintage Guitars – or any other site.  Those types of comments are welcome. We’re even using KeywordLuv so you can add your own anchor text.  You won’t see the comment above HERE because we deleted it.

Here is another:

Hello there… I’ve been hanging out in these forums for a while as a guest and finally got around to registering. Thumbs up to whoever runs this place. Seriously, I love the contribution of this community. I thought I’d do some contributing of my own and pimp a ringtone and free SMS site that my friend just sent me.

The last month I’ve been using TheCellFreak.com. This site allows me to send totally free sms worldwide, which is cool because I like finding these free gifts over the web. Plus I can have free ringtones and graphics via SMS to any cellphone worldwide – for free. No hidden costs, popups or nags.

Hope to contribute more useful links like this one. Cheers, and btw: some of the posts here are really funny: lol!

This one is obviously SPAM for many reasons. That this site is not a forum ad we don’t require registration make it obvious this is not a real comment. The extra link within the text is another. This SPAMMER wasn’t nearly as successful as the first. There are only three listings in Google so far when I searched on “pimp a ringtone and free SMS”.

[TIP: Select the most distinctive phrase to get the most accurate results when searching for SPAM comments.]

Here is a much tougher one. The text is still too generic and the commentator left an extra link. They also submitted this comment twice. There are no listings in Google for this comment so far though. What do you think? Real or SPAM?

I really liked your blog! You have some great content. Check out my blog, I just added my new post about Using Plr articles for fresh content. Let me know what you think

http://blogging-to-make-money.com/private-label-rights-products-how-to-use-plr-products-to-boost-your-profits/

The blogger leaving this last comment has a blog that is related to our content. It would be a good idea for them to take the time to write better comments here and use that link as the URL of the comment instead of including it in the text.

Would you approve this last comment, mark it as SPAM, or simply delete it?

[NOTE: Akismet flags comments that include extra links and many people find links - especially really long links - SPAMMY.]

Here are some tips for quality comments that are far more likely to be approved and lead new readers to your blog:

1. Akismet traps short comments so make your comments at least a couple of sentences long.
2. Say something specific about the post that you’re leaving the comment in so the person reviewing it knows without a doubt that it is a REAL comment. Comments should NOT be advertisements or only to invite readers to visit you. FIRST they should be comments; THEN you can add a SHORT blurb mentioning your own site.
3. In blogs that use KeywordLuv use that feature to create anchor text.
4. Consider joining CommentLuv so you can select the most relevant of your last ten posts to link to your comment.
5. Whether you have CommentLuv or not, you CAN link to a specific post instead of your home page if you wish by using that link in your comment.
6. Those using CommentLuv can leave TWO links by first entering their main page and then changing it AFTER they select their post using CommentLuv.
7. If you leave any additional links in the body of your comment it is almost sure to be moderated so do NOT leave your standard links in the text. Only leave links in the body of your comment if you feel an additional link is relevant and will be approved. You might consider leaving one comment that mentions another link and then adding the link in a second comment. That way your first comment will go live and the blog has the option to approve the second link – or not – and you will still have a quality comment there.

Be sure to check comment policies BEFORE you leave comments. There are blogs I avoid commenting in because their policies are overly restrictive. Some don’t provide any links at all. One forbids linking to specific posts and others insist on “real” names (as though they could verify them anyway).  Since we all have limited time why not focus our efforts in blogs that appreciate our participation?

And when we do, don’t make the poor blogger think long and hard trying to figure out whether our comments is sincere and real.  Even if weak or spammy comments are approved, they affect your reputation so only leave quality comments.

Comments are NOT just links back to your site. They are indicators of the quality of your writing. The better your comments the more likely readers are to visit you!

Trade-Show-Guru has an entertaining comment policy worth reading. Even though officially he requires “real names” I’m hoping he’ll grant me a Friends of the Guru exception and let me call myself Internet Strategist as I do everywhere I travel online – or at least GrowMap which I use in blogs where they consider Internet Strategist too much like a keyword phrase.

Most Bloggers Love Comments But Not THOSE Comments is another humorous comment policy page worth reading. It gives some great ideas on what makes a good comment while being funny too.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

ANCHOR TEXT:

• Anchor Text Explained

USING KEYWORDLUV:

• How Does KeywordLuv Work?
• How WordPress Plugin KeywordLuv Rewards Your Commentators
• Target Your Keywords in Backlinks from KeyWordLuv Using DoFollow Blogs

ATTRACTING QUALITY COMMENTS:

• Like Bees to Honey: Attracting Quality Comments to Your Blog
• Do DoFollow Blogs Need a Stricter Comment Policy?

COMMENTING DON’TS:

• Ten Ways to Hurt Your Brand When Commenting on Other Blogs