After 5 Years I'm Finally Turning On Website Comments.. But Why Now?

I have been against opening up comments on my websites ever since I started making blogs over 15 years ago. It was the fastest way to make your website look like a spam site, it required an unbelievable amount of moderation and none of plugins or pieces of software ever managed to make the account creation process fluid enough to make it easy for our community.

There's also a chance that bad comments slipped through our filters, or naughty links/images which could then get your website flagged, or even a place for bullying/trolling to happen. There was (and still is) a lot of risk having a comments section.

But, after 5 years I think the time is right for me to finally integrate a comments section into our posts on Retro Dodo, even if it does require some minor moderation. What has swayed me to install this, and why now?

Community First

I want Retro Dodo to become a place that our community feels comfortable expressing their opinions, and comfortable enough to celebrate this awesome industry with those with similar interests. I'll admit, our website has been a one-sided street.

The content is there to consume, and then the user leaves. Perhaps they'll share their opinions on our social channels, or via email but that never happened on our website, it was a simple consumption piece that was consumed and then left.

I want the new comments section to entice a user to express their opinions, connect with the piece of comment and find other readers with opinions that they may or may not agree with. I want to give my posts life.

It's that extra bit of connection that keeps the reader entertained for a minute or so, looking at what others are saying, replying with their thoughts and most importantly, making them feel a part of the brand.

To me, that's very important and is a small part of what will make great websites stand out. Anyone can make a piece of content, but it takes community and a trusted brand to get users to comment and be a part of that piece of content.

Another great community driven aspect is that our readers get to talk directly with out writers. They can ask questions, and our writers (and myself) will reply with our admin accounts, making our community feel heard. It also gives them a reason to come back, to interact and carry on with the conversation.

Reader Analysis

There's a business benefit to adding comments to your posts too. It allows you to understand your community in a way that statistics do not. It shows you their personality, their interests, their opinions, their voice, and their predictions for the industry, all which can be used to my advantage to create better content that fits this communities interest.

For example, perhaps a lot of readers are commenting asking our opinions on a specific product that we have yet to review, it would be in my communities interest to review that product, something I only discovered through the comments section.

Even better, perhaps me or one of my writers got a piece of information incorrect, or a name, ingredient, specification slightly wrong. It's likely the comments will mention this, thus I can edit the piece of content and make it "better".

Finally A Good Comments Plugin

I like millions of content site owners use Wordpress... I know probably not a good time seeing as Wordpress are under fire, but it is in my opinion the best.

Wordpress's normal comments system is a shambles and easy to take advantage of, and for years I couldn't find a decent service or plugin that looked great, had a fluid setup for our readers and a strict moderation process.

Until I discovered Disqus.

Disqus is used by hundreds of thousands of website owners, it uses a silky smooth comments section that helps the reader setup an account by using their social channels. It even gives you the opportunity to add a "emoticon" section that lets your readers submit their feelings about the piece of content.

It also has a great admin portal that lets you moderate comments and edit the community functions, making it easy for your audience to use.

But... it's not cheap. It's one of the most expensive pieces of software i use, coming in at over $100 for a website that does up to 1,000,000 page views a month. There are cheaper options if you allow them to place ads in your comments box, but to me, that would just annoying my community so I've gone paid.

It's a small price to pay to make your community feel heard.

Upgrading Commenters To Paid Members

If you have read this website, or have followed me on X for some time, you know I am bullish on building our media brands into a business with many paid members. It's one of the hardest things to do, it's new in the online media world and it requires a heck of a lot of work.

I'm even trying to do it on here. Click that subscribe button on your screen now and you'll see there is a memberships section with a bunch of goodies. This is what I am doing on Retro Dodo, and will absolutely do on my next content brand (subscribe to our newsletter to be one of the first to find out my next brand... which isn't in the gaming industry, thank f**k).

When your readers are making comments on a regular basis it's likely they feel more attached to your brand, they've put their own time into your product and if you ever want to make them a paid member it's likely going to be easier to do so.

In the Disqus analytics you can see your most active commenters, you can reward them, contact them directly, say hello and it gives you an opporunity to ask if they'd like to become a member.

So, the time is now right. I now have a proper comments section on Retro Dodo, and I believe it will do great for us as a community driven website. In a years time i'll write a follow up post, showcasing the successes and struggles of opening up the comments section.

In the mean time, I think you should do the same if you don't have comments on yet.