It’s okay to blog with the comments off…no really it is.
Did you know you can blog with the comments off, I know…. controversial!! The blog police won’t issue you with a fine, it’s your blog, you can make these grown up decisions for yourself.
Common questions about blogging
- Shall I let people comment on my blog?
- How do I moderate comments on my blog?
- Can I have a blog without comments?
- Shall I blog at all?
Then you have a conversation with yourself where you say “Do you know what, forget it, I don’t really understand blogging so I think I’ll just skip it, I’m too busy for this”.
Ah yes, I though so. When I meet clients with existing WordPress web sites, either for training or to make some site improvements, 9 times out of 10 their blog page is totally empty or even worse has a half hearted first blog entry that has never been finished.
Why aren’t you blogging?
The most common reasons that I come across are:
1. I don’t really understand how to use my blog
Use your blog any way you want, keep to subjects that fit well within your frame of experience, and keep it casual. Your blog can be a great place for valuable information which would otherwise be clogging up your website’s main pages.
2. I don’t see the point of my blog
Your blog allows you to add fresh content to your site, you can share your blog across social media to increase your business profile, and if you are smart then incorporate your business keywords into your blogging to improve your SEO.
3. I’m worried about paying for images to use on my blog
There are loads of free image resources around the web, with really reasonable quality images, here are a couple I really like
4. I don’t want to allow comments on my blog and I’m not sure how to turn them off
It’s fine to turn comments off on your blog, for whatever reason, its a simple setting. You can either set them globally in the WordPress dashboard, using Settings-Discussion, and uncheck the ‘Allow people to post comments on new articles’ box in the Default article settings.
Or on your post page by unticking the ‘Allow comments’ check box in the Discussion box
Blogging is a massive subject, and it can get complex, but in short you need to blog because…
Blogging is good for your business
So keep it simple and start small, blog once a month and share your blogs across social media, think of it like a networking event, share your blog to let people know about you and your business. Impart useful information on a subject that you have experience in. Don’t use your blog to do the hard sell on your services, put some heart into the subjects you blog about and share, share, share, you’ll be glad you did.