The Art Of Commenting - How To Write Better Comments

in #steemit6 years ago (edited)

Commenting on others posts is a good way to Earn on Steemit. But why only few people do so? Since the lack for good commenters allowed the comment sections to be filled with scammers, this post is my take on the topic.

HowTo-spam-WriteBetterComments.jpg

Salam (Peace)

Now that I've became important enough to receive SPAM comments, I thought it's a good topic to cover.

Most of Steemit users use their time to create content, because that's where the most of profit lies... But people who can't create content worth of curation have the other way to Earn which is commenting on popular users. Someone with 1000 SP can give up to $0.20+ per upvote, and if you commented on their post they might use that vote on you.

So you'd think the best way is to comment on as many people as possible... Right?

WRONG!

The quality of the comment is way better than the number of comments.

While it may be alright to give many people generic comments and hope someone upvote you. If it wasn't clear in your comment that you DID read the post then everyone who reads the comment will assume that you're just a spammer who cares only about profit and not the post you commented on.

ImageNeedsEditingComeLater.jpg

Do that enough times and you'll get flagged to zero!


If You Want To Focus on Comments Quality, Read Below:

"Have Nothing To Say" Problem

Most of the bad comments are bad because they have nothing to say about the post. Most of good users won't comment on posts they read, because they have nothing to add. If they commented they will appear like spammers.

But if you really read the post, you most have had some thoughts right?

How did you feel as you read it?
Did it remind you of something you read/heard from the past?
Did you think of something similar?
Did the post made you research the topic more?
Which part of the post you liked the most?

These thoughts are valuable... I don't know about other writers but I definitely love to hear what people thought of as they read my posts. Of course they must write them in a way that makes it clear they read it.


ThinkofAGoodComment

How To Write Better Comments?

The important thing is to write something that gives value and a positive feeling, and that's not hard... You can add value even in 3 words comments.

  • Don't ever think "I have nothing to say."
  • Read the post (or at least parts of it.)
  • Note your thoughts.
  • Make it Different & Personal.
  • Start A Conversation (Maybe by asking questions)
  • Check your replies section often.

Don't Think "I Have Nothing to Say."

  • As I Explained Above: the problem is that it makes you believe you have nothing to say or add. If you read thinking the opposite way... "What can I add to this?" I'm sure you'll have something to say by the time you end reading the post.

  • But You Can Only Say Things In Fields You're Interested In: you won't have something to say if the post's topic is boring to you, so it's better to only comment on tags you find interesting.

Read The Post & Note Your Thoughts

  • Read At Least One Part Of The Post: I know not all people have time to read posts, I am too. But if you're gonna use the commenting method to earn, you must at least read a part and comment only on that part.

  • Note Your Thoughts: As you read think of what you would say if it was your friend who said these things to you? what did the post make you feel? Did you find a mistake in information? Do you agree/disagree with what being said?

  • (Optional) Use Quotes: Reply to some parts of the post by quoting them (here's how to qutoe in markdown), this assures the writer that you read their post AND it helps to start a conversation.

People are more likely to vote you after a conversation, than after one time comment.

Make It Different & Personal

  • Don't Write The Same Comment Twice: It depends but most of time it'll be considered a spam... anyone can check your 'comments' section and see if you copy-past your own comments. Sometimes It's okay but be careful.

  • Don't Write Similar Comments On The Same Day: Again, it depends, but unless you write them in very similar posts, the best thing to do is to try to make each comment of yours unique.

  • Talk About Yourself: Find things you agree with the post or disagree with and write that as your personal opinion. Many writers like to see if people agree with what they say or not. Did you think/do something similar in the past?

  • Be More Specific: Don't use generic things like "Nice" or "Great"... Write about specific details like "I love how you used the word XXX to refer YYY" or "Noticed that there's a sleeping cat in the background of the picture." Details that don't appear to spammers who just comment on any post in less than a half minute.

  • Link To Similar Posts: They might even be your own posts, but you must say in which they are similar in your comment. No one likes to go into a link blind.

Ask Questions & Check Your "replies" Section

  • Start Conversations: Because people are more willing to upvote others who they know, the best thing you can do to someone is to be their first steemit friend. A good way to do that is to talk with them and promote them to talk back to you. You have to make them associate your name with a positive feeling.

  • Questions To Ask: Ask if there will be another post about the same topic... Ask about things that you think they should be in the post but they aren't... Ask the writer's opinion on similar topics... The more positive conversation the question starts the better. SHOW THEM THAT YOU'RE INTERESTED

ThinkofAGoodComment


I wanted to write more but I guess that's enough for today



Other Related Posts

CoverPost
Spam Tutorial Part 5: Be (mis)understood: by @nobyeni. The complete opposite of my post, how to spam and without getting found out. The result is a bit similar.
How to Add Value to Posts with Your Comments: A post I wrote in my early steemit days, contains some of the information here.

First images is my modified ver. of a google search result. All other images are memes.
Sort:  

Nice, I'm glad my spam tutorials inspire people to think about what they are really about... getting people to care about what they write and comment on.

Yup, the sad thing is, this won't probably reach the people who need to read it.

As you said just to ask the question "What can I add to this?" helps a lot, thanks so much! It's been three days since I joined steemit and this is just my fourth comment. I tried to comment on posts just in order to increase the number of my posts and to earn money but I just couldn't do it, I don't know but that didn't seem right to me. I don't understand how these spammers can do that. Anyway, thanks for this topic.

Thanks for taking time to reply to me, spammers usually use bots and don't write everything by themselves.

Steemit isn't get rich quick website so you have to work your way up, but if you stick until the end you'll earn a lot of friends and eventually money. Good Luck!!

Problem with that is that a lot of "trending" or "hot" topics (where it might make a profit) are just damn uninteresting stuff. Either stuff you eat or crypto - if you are interested in that, there are other sides, after all.

And then there are the guys who don't even put a single picture in their generic post and still get 100$+ Like this
I don't WANT to comment there ;)

Yeah, that's the dark side of having a community for everything and a system can be abused the earlier you come to it (I still think it's fair, but I wish we could make it better.)

As for me, I don't check trending page... It's for the posts of the wealthy. Most of the good posts get around $0.00 to $12, if it got more than that it's probably curated by a group.

So what do I do?

  • I choose a specific tag (like #gaming but that's generic, #retrogaming is a good example).
  • Instead of Hot or Trending I check "new". Since the tag is specific, most of the posts in it would be made by people who actually care about the topic.
  • I choose to read only a post I like its title, thumbnail picture OR BOTH.
  • I choose who I follow carefully (mostly) I don't usually follow people who don't put effort in their writing.
  • I check my feed more, because I know people I follow write things I'm interested in.

Not the best things to do, but I currently manage with the system... Steemit is still in Beta and people suggest improvements all the time. I think we would have something like subreddits in the future.

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by ahmadmanga from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

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