How To Effectively Deal With Negative Comments On Your Blog
As bloggers, you and I will always be inclined to deal with negative people online. It might come in the form of comments on your blog, an Email, a post on another blog, or a conversation on instant messenger. Obviously, you could reply with an equally nasty comment, post, Email, or anything else you find suitable. You might decide not to go down to the their level and delete the comment or Email, block them on instant messenger, or just ignore the post. Both of those ways are not the proper way to do it 
To be honest, I enjoy negative comments and feedback, they always tend to put me back on track and teach me great lessons for the future. Everyone makes mistakes, that is why we all need a little negative feedback every now and then to make sure we don’t slack off and are always at the top of our game.
I know it can be hard to accept negative feedback and comments, but trust me, once you learn how to do that, blogging will become much funner! Hopefully these tips on effectively dealing with negative comments on your blog will help you out whenever the time comes.
1. Don’t Delete The Comment
The most obvious way to deal with negative comments is to delete them and forget about them. When you do that, all you are doing is admitting that the commenter was right and you were wrong. What happens if you get more negative comments? Will you just delete them and act as if everything is fine and dandy? Nobody is perfect, and by deleting the negative comments you are trying to act as if you are
2. It’s OK To Be Wrong Every Once In A While
Before getting all fussy and angry at the person who made the comment, make sure it wasn’t your fault all along. Did it ever occur to you that you were the one mistaken and not the commenter? It might have been something you did or said, whatever it is, make sure you are right before doing anything else.
3. Send The Commenter An Email, A Friendly One
Instead of attacking the commenter and making things even worse then the beginning, why not Email him asking if everything is all right and if you did anything to offend him. Make sure you are not appear aggressive in your Email and try your best to explain that whatever you did to offend him was not on purpose.
4. Write A Post Discussing How You Deal With Negative Comments
In some cases, writing a post discussing the methods you use to deal with negative comments on your blog can be really beneficial. It can help by reminding you some of the ways you can use to deal with the situation and help your readers by giving them tips for the future.
5. Write An Apology Post On Your Blog
If you want to make an apology extra special, a dedicated post on your blog apologizing to the commenter can really turn things around. Of course this does depend on the relation of the commenter and the situation, but I believe that an Email is enough in most cases.
6. Understand What The Commenter Is Trying To Say
Just because the comment is negative, that doesn’t mean it’s useless and should be ignored. Read the comment, I mean really read it and understand what the commenter was trying to say. He might have been giving you advice on what not to do, or he might have been disappointed about something you said in one of your articles. In my opinion, one negative comment is more valuable than 10 positive comments combined because it contains some of the best advice you can get. (Unless the comment was made by some sorry loser who has no life, more on that at in point 11.)
7. Don’t Ignore The Advice, Put It Into Action, Immediately
Negative comments hold true advice, things other people wouldn’t generally say so that they are not thought of as impolite. So when you get a negative comment that is actually a good piece advice, be sure to put that advice immediately into action.
8. Take A Break, Go For A Walk
People can’t function correctly when they’re mad, this is a known fact and not my opinion. After reading that negative comment, go outside, take a walk, then come back inside and decide what to do. If you were going to do the first thing that came to your mind before thinking about it, that probably wouldn’t be a very good idea. 
9. Ask Yourself, Did I Deserve It?
The comment you got might have been a result of something you recently did. For example, writing a review about a product for the sole purpose of using your affiliate link or maybe you lied to your readers about something. If you care about your readers returning to your blog, apologize to your them and assure them you won’t do it again
10. Observe The Situation From A Different Point Of View
Looking at the situation from a different point of view can be the most helpful tactic most of the times. Put yourself in the commenters shoes and think of it like this, what could I have possibly done that would make me mad? Even if it is something that wouldn’t have bothered you, to others, it might have been extremely offensive.
11. Find Out More About The Commenter
To be honest, sometimes negative comments are just pure rubbish and nothing else. It just might be some loser who has nothing better to do than comment on blogs better than his. To find out more, you could: a) Google his name, Email, website, or IP address b) see whether or not his comment contains value c) use common sense. In this case, do everything you can to make the person’s life a living hell! 
12. You Will NEVER Impress Everyone Every-Time
Just remember one thing, no matter how long you spend writing your post, you will never be able to impress everyone every-time. Sometimes, people just don’t like something for no reason whatsoever, period. But you could always make a poll asking your readers for their opinion on the article to improve it for next time.
All in all, it just takes a bit of sane thinking and patience to deal with negative comments on your blog. Go on, be negative and make my day! 
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21 Responses to “How To Effectively Deal With Negative Comments On Your Blog”
Sorry, but I gotta say, unless you really, really offend someone, there’s absolutely no reason to write an apology posts. Apology posts take up time when you could be focusing on more effective comment. Try examining the story from another angle, or hold a debate, but don’t apologize for posting. If people don’t like you, they won’t read your blog. ‘Nuff said.
I think, unless this person is tearing you down, then this is wayyy to much effort for ONE negative comment. If it’s a string, then yes, find out more. If it’s one, then just reply to the comment on your blog, explain your side, or allow your community to debate on its own. Apologies and emails…that’s some real dedication, but just unnecessary. If you’ve got maybe 3-5+ then yeah, start thinking about the other side.
@Corey Freeman, well, it really depends on the situation, but like I said in my post, an Email usually does the trick
Well negative comments are really part of a blog… First and foremost a blog is all about opinions and experience so people will likely disagree on some of the post. But it’s normal… And I don’t bother with it much… Hehe, maybe Im not as patient and good as you…
Hi Rajaie,
These are all great points. My first negative comment upset me. I left it up, and ended up learning from it. It’ wasn’t so much what was said, as how the person said it.
Also, negative comments can change the energy of your comment section, so we need to deal with negative comments as quickly as possible, and get the conversation back on track
Hie Rajaie, I wanted to really thank you sooo much for coming over to check out my blog and the “problem” I’m having. From the comments I’m getting, I have been able to get one part fixed it had something to do with Wordpress. One other commenter also gave a great deal of info. from checking even deeper into Google and Atom/feedburner and we deduced that I have more than meets the eye. Well I will get this figured out and thanks for your input…I really appreciated it. JJ This post of yours was really a very engaging one… great comments.
I think you just learn to deal with negativity the more you come across it, and I’ve been on the receiving end of plenty of it in my time developing and supporting systems and sites
Keep an open mind and realise that a lot of negative comments are probably well-founded but maybe worded the wrong way, which can just lead you to instinctively react against it.
Take some time, work out what the person REALLY means, and address it if required. That might mean some dialog with the person making the comment but you’ll often find a better resolution that way. Of course, as mentioned in the comments above, some people are just out to cause trouble/bad blood - so learn to separate the things you should be worried about from the things you should ignore
Nice post on dealing with them…..as bloggers we tend to ignore our negative traits
I must admit that in the past I have deleted some negative comments. But I think you are right in that you should deal with them rather than toss them out.
I do think, however that a lot of negative comments are a person’s way of just getting people to click on their link. And then there are the typical spam comments…you know the ones where they say ‘Well I don’t really agree with that last paragraph but the rest was really good’.
Still doesn’t really matter at the moment as I just totally rehauled my blog - deleted the lot and started from scratch only a few days ago so have zilch comments on there. I have all new strategies now for how I handle my blog so I will add this to my list: #24 Don’t Delete Negative Blog Comments.
Thanks!
Well brought out article.We all need to be prepared for negative comments,for our post,as Blogging is expressing your ideas and sure shot,will differ from person to person.
Good article
Thank You, Rajaie. Your tips are great. You know I’m looking for suggestions to manage the bad comments of my blog. I found it on your blog.
You told me the truth on your tips No.12 >> ‘…You Will NEVER Impress Everyone Every-Time
..’ Yes.it’s the truth. I see.
Hey Rajaie, Nice post, really! I have been on the end of a few bad comments. After doing some investigation I found out that the several comments were really the works of one blogger. I bought my blog awhile back, and this blogger harassed me to no end. He even copied my theme or rather a picture of my whole post and did a post about how he hoped I would fail and that he hoped or knew that I would end up making the blog dry up like a piece of dog “doo”. Nice guy… I only spammed one of his comments and let all the other go through. I will be honest it DID bother me , and it is weird that you would say get up and go outside but that’s exactly what I did after my sister called me and said you better go look at “so and so’s” website you’re on there again!!! It was like don’t you have something better to do, you are spending way to much time thinking about me. I never mentioned him directly, and would you believe that now it seems his blog is going down and he’s blaming it on Google because he took a few weeks off. lol I think it was karma that got to him… by me not giving up on my blog and ignoring him, he is now slowing messing up. I only know about this because my sister will go over to check on him, I will be damned to give him one more visit to his site. lol Thanks Rajaie you really had a great post here, and thanks for letting me get this off my chest. How much do you charge for counselling? Hey if you are a techi with WordPress come over to my blog and read todays post-I’m having trouble with incoming links and RSS. Thanks
I’m curious, why would you apologize in a post? Especially if it’s a negative comment coming from someone else?
And honestly, if the comment is so negative, more than likely they’ll leave a fake e-mail so you can’t send them a friendly e-mail…
But do you get a lot of negative comments?
- AnotherMMOblog
@AnotherMMOblog, just because it’s a negative comment, that doesn’t mean the commenter doesn’t have a point. It might your fault the comment is negative, and no, I don’t get a lot of negative comments, just a few ;P
So far I have been so pleased to receive comments on my posts that I am dancing up and down. I wish I knew if folks read my replies to them. I think feelings are always like fog horns, they are neither good nor negative as to their relative circumstances, but they can teach us a great deal. Trying to clarify a comment in public view helps one become a better writer - communicator and may take the guess work out the intention of a commenter.
Nice post. I definitely agree with some of your points, especially about the fact that one could, in fact, be wrong sometimes! Or that you aren’t going to please everyone all the time.
I had a very similar situation twice this week, and neither were on blogs - one was at a lecture I gave on Finding Bugs in Requirements, and the other was on a forum that I am active in.
Since I’ve been racking my brains for 2 weeks about what to next blog about (yeah, I know … 2 weeks … but most people think I’ve been on vacation!), this post has given me inspiration
Now a days the rate of negative comments is raising.The Akismet stats are increasing rapidly.It is necessary to Deal with them.Great post Rajaie
Negative feedback are like tools of improvement for my blog. If it is a constructive negative comment, I can actually use it to improve my overall online presence. However, some negative comments actually do more harm then good. In this case, I simply ignore the comment or use the good old delete button to send it down to the depths of the unknown
The good resource should be brought in bookmarks
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