MBA2267 Why Blog Comments Are Dead + Free Ride Friday - The $100 MBA Show

Summary

The $100 MBA Show
Episode: MBA2267 - Why Blog Comments Are Dead + Free Ride Friday
Host: Omar Zenhom
Release Date: March 17, 2023

Introduction

In episode MBA2267 of The $100 MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom delves into the evolving landscape of blogging, particularly focusing on the decline of blog comments. Alongside actionable business insights drawn from his extensive entrepreneurial experience, Omar also conducts the popular segment, Free Ride Friday, where listeners have a chance to win valuable business resources.

Why Blog Comments Are Dead

The Golden Era of Blog Comments

For over a decade, blog comments served as a cornerstone for online engagement. They allowed readers to interact, share feedback, and engage in meaningful discussions directly beneath blog posts. Omar reflects, “Blog commenting and comments under blog posts were the norm. It was the standard for years and it was for good reason” (04:15).

The Downside: Spam and Security Risks

However, the landscape has shifted dramatically. Omar explains that advanced bots and malicious actors have exploited the comment sections, leading to rampant spam and security threats. “Spam. Bad actors, hackers, spammers... creating sophisticated bots to spam people's websites,” he states (05:00). These automated threats not only clutter comment sections with irrelevant or harmful content but also pose significant security risks, often overwhelming blog owners with the task of constant moderation.

Negative Impact on SEO

Contrary to the earlier belief that comments enhance SEO through keyword-rich interactions, Omar highlights a different reality. “It's hurting your SEO... commenting sections take a while to load, reducing your load speed for your entire page” (05:45). Slow page load times negatively affect search engine rankings, making blog comments a liability rather than an asset.

Resource-Intensive Moderation

Beyond technical issues, managing a comment section demands considerable time and effort. Omar notes, “You still have to moderate these comments and make sure that they are not nasty and that they're on brand with your business” (06:10). For many business owners, the return on investment from maintaining a comment section does not justify the resources expended.

The Rise of Social Media as the New Town Square

As blog comments decline, social media platforms have emerged as the new venues for audience engagement. Omar points out, “Social media has now become basically the town square where people have these conversations they used to have on blogs” (06:45). Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube offer more controlled environments for interaction, with built-in tools to manage and filter out unwanted content effectively.

Shifting Blogging Strategies

Emphasis on Quality Content

With comments out of the equation, bloggers are redirecting their focus toward creating richer, more in-depth content. Omar observes, “The best thing about blogging is the content marketing is getting people to come to your website through a Google search, finding the answers to their questions through your blog posts” (07:30). This shift has led to longer blog posts, often doubling in length from 700 to 1500 words, to provide comprehensive value to readers.

Monetizing Engagement through Private Communities

Innovative businesses are finding ways to maintain engagement without open comment sections by leveraging private communities. Omar explains, “Some are putting a paywall in front of this community... it's like a one-time fee to join the community or a very small monthly fee” (07:50). This approach filters out spammers and attracts serious, high-quality participants. By requiring a minimal financial commitment, businesses ensure that their community members are genuinely interested and willing to contribute meaningfully.

Benefits of Private Communities

Private communities offer several advantages:

Enhanced Engagement: Members are more likely to participate actively and constructively.
Value Exchange: A small fee creates a sense of ownership and commitment among members.
Better Moderation: Controlled environments make it easier to manage and curate discussions.

Omar concludes, “We value what we pay for and I love this idea” (08:20), emphasizing the effectiveness of this model in fostering productive business discussions.

Exceptions: Media and Content-Centric Platforms

While most blogs are moving away from open comments, certain types of content still thrive with active comment sections. Media blogs, such as those focusing on news, sports, politics, or celebrity updates, continue to benefit from reader interactions. Omar notes, “If you're in the media, meaning you're like a news blog... commenting is still alive and well and the trade-offs are worth it” (09:10). Similarly, platforms like YouTube maintain active comment sections as part of their engagement strategy, aligning with the media-centric model.

Free Ride Friday

In the Free Ride Friday segment, Omar celebrates community members by announcing a giveaway. This week, Shamina Taylor wins a lifetime membership to Omar’s Automated Webinar Challenge, a 30-day course designed to help entrepreneurs build automated systems for generating leads and sales. Shamina’s enthusiastic review highlights the podcast’s impact: “Your beliefs around business and success will ultimately determine your outcome... I highly recommend it to anyone” (10:05).

To participate in future giveaways, listeners are encouraged to leave an Apple Podcast rating and review, entering the weekly draw for a chance to win valuable business resources.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Omar wraps up the episode by reiterating the importance of adaptability in business. “Business, especially online business, is constantly evolving... when something's not serving you anymore, there's no reason to continue to do it” (11:20). He urges entrepreneurs to continuously evaluate their strategies, ensuring that their efforts and resources are effectively contributing to business growth. By shedding outdated practices like open blog comments and embracing new engagement methods, businesses can optimize their online presence and foster more meaningful interactions with their audience.

Key Takeaways:

Decline of Blog Comments: Increased spam, negative SEO impact, and resource-intensive moderation have rendered open comment sections less viable for modern blogs.
Shift to Social Media: Social platforms offer better-managed environments for audience engagement, replacing traditional blog comment sections.
Focus on Quality Content: Longer, more in-depth blog posts enhance SEO and provide greater value to readers.
Private Communities: Introducing paywalls for private communities can effectively filter out spammers and foster high-quality interactions.
Adaptability is Crucial: Continuously assess and adapt business strategies to align with evolving digital landscapes.

By addressing these points, Omar Zenhom provides a comprehensive analysis of the changing dynamics in blogging and offers practical solutions for entrepreneurs seeking to optimize their online business strategies.

Transcript

Jim (0:00)

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Sales Team Member (0:20)

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Ramp Representative (0:22)

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Omar Zenhom (0:40)

Hey o welcome to the hundred dollar MVA show business lessons you can count on every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started with my co founder back in 2014 and today is Free Ride Friday where we give away a lifetime membership to one of our programs. And we're giving away our Automated webinar challenge, our 30 day course on how to build your automated system to get leads and sales on autopilot. It retails for $499 over@webinar ninja.com AWC or you can win it for free. Just leave us an Apple Podcast rating and review. Listen in on Friday, just like today, to see if you won. It's that easy. We announced this week's winner a little bit later in the episode. In today's episode, you will learn why Blog Comments are Dead if you run a website with a blog, I'm here to tell you make sure you have no comments under your posts. Blogging is incredibly powerful. It's a great SEO tool. You should have a blog. I know. I've been blogging for over 15 years and have benefited from blogging in so many ways. But up until recently, in the last few years, it was common practice to have comments under your blog to get people to comment on the post, share their feedback, ask questions, to engage. In theory, this sounded amazing and it was amazing for a long period of time. But these days it's bad news. It's a bad idea, and I'll explain why in today's episode. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Blog commenting and comments under blog posts were the norm. It was the standard for years and it was for good reason. It got people engaged. You learned a lot about the people that visited your website through their comments. They would come back to the website, would increase traffic because they wanted to see what people thought about their comments. You had conversations and all was fine in the world. But like many things on the Internet, bad actors come in and ruin things for everybody. And listen. In theory, having a blog, it makes sense to have comments, right? But in recent years. The negatives are outweighing the positives of having comments. And that's why some of the biggest blogs in the world that had hundreds of thousands of comments under their blog posts are killing their comments section in their blogs. In preparation of this episode, I actually visited some of my favorite blogs I've been frequenting for years, my favorite resources online. I looked at the top blogs that I Visit and all 10 of them have removed commenting and let me tell you why. And I've learned this with my own experience with my own blogs, but also speaking to other business owners. Number one, spam. Bad actors, hackers, spammers, whatever you want to call them, have become really sophisticated online these days and are creating sophisticated bots to spam people's websites. How sophisticated? They're going through verifications. These bots are going through Captcha and spamming your blog pages with malicious links, scams, horrible comments. It's just absolutely horrendous. And the vast majority of this is not targeted. It's actually quite weird. But there are people on the Internet that just want to see the world burn and they're going to take down your site with it. Well, at least they'll take down the comments section. This is going to cause you to spend a lot of time in moderation, meaning you're not going to allow posts to get posted without you moderating it. And often you're just trying to fight spammers, hackers, and spending very little time engaging with your audience. Second, SEO. Now, many people thought commenting would help their SEO because keywords would be used by other people. But in fact, it's hurting your SEO. Your Search engine optimization Part of your search engine optimization score or rank has a lot to do with your page speed, how fast your page loads, and when you have comments, that comment section takes a while to load, reducing your load speed for your entire page, therefore affecting your SEO. The best blogs in the world are doing everything they can to speed up their website to make sure that the page speed is top notch. Unfortunately, commenting sections under blog posts really drag things down. Next, even if all the comments on your blog are legit, they're not spam, they're not hackers. You still have to moderate these comments and make sure that they are not nasty and that they're on brand with your business. This could be a lot of work, especially if you get all traffic to your blog and essentially it's an activity that doesn't really generate revenue or help your bottom line. And a lot of people that I spoke to feel like it's just more trouble than it's worth. And it's because what I'm about to talk about, which is this, the evolution of social media. Social media has now become basically the town square where people have these conversations they used to have on blogs. So people have replaced their comment section with follow me on social, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, even YouTube and they allow to have the conversations there. Ask me a question on Twitter, tell me what you think about this post on Facebook, share it and give your two cents. And blog owners are directing traffic to their social pages to have these discussions and conversations with their audience. These tools are a lot easier to manage and to moderate as well as to weed out bad actors and block hackers. Nowadays it's actually quite rare to see people have comments below their blog posts. And it's for good reason. People started to realize over the last few years that blogs and the content it provides is the best part of having a blog, not the actual discussions. The these can be had in private communities, on social media, in Slack channels, things like that that are organized and meant for conversation. The best thing about blogging is the content marketing is getting people to come to your website through a Google search, finding the answers to their questions through your blog posts. So a lot of great blogs have shifted their energies to creating better content, more longer form content and seeing their blog as a source of information, sort of like in depth guides. As little as five years ago, the average blog post was around 700 words. It's now more than doubled at an average of 1500 words. Business owners have realized that we can go really deep in these blog posts and make the reason why they come to the blog for the content and not the conversation. Now what a few very smart businesses have done that I'm actually considering doing at the $100 MBA is monetizing and the engagement. What does this mean? Well, people might have questions at the end of a blog post. They might be like, hey, this is a great blog post. I want to apply the strategies and what you're teaching here to my own business or my own life. But I have a few questions. So on the bottom of the post, a lot of them are saying, hey, if you have questions, why don't you join our community? And this is a private community using a real community software. Whether it's asynchronous like Circle or, or Better Mode or Synchronous like Slack or Discord, they're inviting them to actually go to the community to ask questions freely, not only to you but to everybody in the community. And some are putting a paywall in front of this community and it's not a huge ticket item. It's like a one time fee to join the community or a very small monthly fee, something like $10 a month, $5 a month or a one time fee of $30. Now why do they do this? Well, they want to create some barrier of entry to get serious people in the door. High quality people. If you're a spammer and a hacker, you're not going to pull out your credit card and pay to get inside. This is why they were having a free for all in the comments section before because it was so simple and easy and open to the public. If someone's genuinely interested about getting better and joining a thriving community, $5 a month pretty, pretty cheap and sort of a no brainer. This qualifies them and gets them through the door. This way you do have that engaging conversation with your audience. You do get a chance to learn from your potential customers. They can ask questions, you can give value and they'll actually take it more seriously and be more of a contributor to the community if they're paying. We value what we pay for and I love this idea. Even if there isn't a paywall and they just go through the process of signing up to the community, whether it's a Facebook group or a Slack channel, like I said, still allows you to have some sort of qualification phase where you can ask some questions before you accept them.