Bad Blog Design - Not adding a comment link at the bottom of each post
One of most common bad design flaws i see in blogs every day is the lack of a comment link at the bottom of a post in the home page or in the archives. There are a lot of blogs who are not getting as many comments as they should because of this.
My suggestion to all bloggers is to add a comment link at the very top of the post near the title and also at the bottom of the post excerpt which is where you find the social bookmark links and the ‘continue reading’ link.
Why is this Bad Blog Design?
This is applicable to all bloggers but i believe it affects bloggers who don’t split their posts up even more ie. the reader might have to read several paragraphs before coming to the end of the post. When they get down to the bottom of the post you should have a comment link so that the reader doesn’t have to scroll all the way back up to the top of the post to go to the full page of the post with the comments on it.
Most blog designs do have a link to the full article or to the comments section at the bottom of the post but i’ve read a lot that don’t and it must surely be reducing the number of commentators on the blog.
If there are any bloggers out there who dont have a link to the comments on their blog, i would strongly suggest modifying your index and archive page templates to do just that.
Good luck,
Kevin
Community Building Blog | June 1st, 2007 at 11:44 am #
Thank goodness someone else is publicising this! It absolutely drives me crazy when there is no link to the comment form at the end of an article.
Why would I want to scroll to the top of an article to write a comment? I am hardly going to comment on an article before I have read it, so why is it at the top?!
Where will I be when I have finished reading an article? That’s right - at the end! So place a link there!
Wow, I went off on a little rant there - but this really does bug me. It is such a simple change to make, yet even amongst bloggers I have raised this with, few seem interested in making the change.
Interestingly, it is often the bloggers that are complaining about a low number of comments that don’t have the comment link at the end of an article too!
- Martin Reed
GoddessCarlie | June 1st, 2007 at 6:27 pm #
I agree, I hate it when there is no link to comments at the end of the article. I mean, why would I comment on something when I haven’t read it yet?
It annoys me so much! One of my favourite blogs just changed the layout and now the comments are up the top. I finish reading this awesome post and want to comment… and the link is all the way back up there! (and I do admit, I often don’t bother).
That site also has only a excerpt in it’s feed which annoys me too. Lucky it’s a good site to read. If it was only average, I don’t think I would visit it any more. (which, shows I guess that content is king
)
Rafael Schouery | June 2nd, 2007 at 12:56 pm #
Nice tip, I’m going to chance my blog.
It’s incredible how some things simple can make difference and we didn’t even notice it.
Thanks!
Kumiko | June 3rd, 2007 at 7:40 am #
I’ve actually been tempted to remove comments from my site sometimes but after this post, I think I’ll keep them on!
Kumiko
CashQuests
AdesBlog.com | June 3rd, 2007 at 5:11 pm #
I have talked about this issue on my blog too.
shypys | June 6th, 2007 at 3:59 pm #
I agree with Martin. Why would one want to have a link for the comments at the beginning of the post?
Infected By Bugs | February 4th, 2008 at 9:59 am #
Yeah, it’d be silly… cause then no one would read the actual blog.
adapter | June 1st, 2008 at 10:27 pm #
There are actually a few different ones out there. I have been giving this software a go and see how it pans out.
You have a great site and i return to it ever now and then as i find the time.