Why should you never comment on Blogs. Ever.

This guest post is by David Hartstein of JG Visual.

I'm sure you've heard good thoughtful, logical arguments for why you should be commenting on blogs:

"You can be a part of the conversation happening out there." "You can build your own authority." "You can drive traffic to your blog. "

But, although there is a burnt, unpopped kernel of truth in these statements may, none of them take into account the many reasons why you should never comment on a blog.

Well here are some of the reasons for your cooperation.

First and foremost, you should not even begin to think about the comment unless you have something really profound to say.  If you simply agreed, it's probably judgment will rain down on you.  If, to be honest, it should.  There is no room for only opinions in the comment section of a blog.  It is after all a blog.  No feelings, just facts.

Plus there is a good chance that you don't have permission to comment on a post.  I mean, if someone is writing a post, they are certainly held in high esteem by all of the peers in their field.  The Internet don't let just anyone publish.  And if you're not an expert, you probably have a lot to offer.  Sure, maybe you have some ideas, but they are the kind that are best kept to yourself?  Unless you have a graduate degree in the subject at hand, they should probably be stowed in your journal.

Moreover, if no one else has responded yet, you are essentially your head on the chopping block.  You could write one, but doing so opens you up to the minority position.  It is quite possible that just after you have finished singing the praises of a certain function, a set of users will go on an angry tirade ripping apart of the author.  You would look really stupid.  Who cares what you thought?  Which other commenters probably know more than you anyway.

Also, remember that browser spell check leave something to be desired.  Certainly, it will be a word that you have slaughtered, but what about something more minute catch?  And any form of oversee your grammar forgotten.  Plus, there is a very good chance that a misspelled word will leave what you must say incomprehensible, leading to angry comments about the spam you leave behind.

Once you've waded through the murky waters of actually composing your comment, you're still faced with giving away your personal information.  If you're anything like the average web user, you probably still not given out a lot of personal info online before, maybe with the exception of some obscure social networking site.

If you feel the need to comment, you have the required authority to do that, and other people have already responded, consider the following action:

Design the comment in a word processor.Check the comment for misspellings and grammatical errors, both with the built-in tools and manually.Re-check. Send a family member or a friend for their thoughts (choose someone smart).Print out, sleep on it and it again at breakfast the next day.If you still feel the urge, you go ahead and publish it.Dealing with the resulting consequences.

If after reading this, you still are just to publish a comment from time to time, go ahead.  But consider yourself warned.  It is a dangerous game.

And, whatever you do, don't you dare write a comment on this post!

David Hartstein is a partner at JG Visual, an internet strategy company that works with organizations to develop and implement their online presence.  You can connect with David at the JG Visual Facebook page.

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