5 reasons you should switch to Disqus.

i've made a lot of changes to my blog over the past year, but one of the best changes i have made has been installing disqus. i love it so much that i wanted to share about it with you!  i've got five reasons  why you should switch over to disqus:

1. it is free.
you can install and use disqus at absolutely no charge!

2. no more spam.
before switching to disqus, i would get TONS of anonymous spammy comments. blogger was okay about catching them and putting them in my spam folder...only a few slipped through and actually made it onto my blog. still, it was obnoxious. disqus uses its own anti-spam software to fight comment spam. if a spammy comment slips through, disqus makes it incredibly easy to report. however, since installing disqus, i haven't had even one spammy comment. it's been so nice not to have to worry about it!

3. say goodbye to "no-reply" bloggers.
you will never have to worry about "no-reply" bloggers ever again. before switching over to disqus, i would get really sad when i got a comment from someone but could not email/comment back because they were "no-reply". the worst part is that most bloggers don't know that they are "no-reply" unless someone tells them! i would stalk people's blog's for their contact email and send my reply to them that way. plus, i'd nicely let them know about their current situation. ;) all of that to say,  i hated missing out on connecting with my readers via comments and knew i needed to find a way around that obstacle.

4. free advertising & paid promotions.
disqus will promote old posts of yours underneath the comments section in each post. there is no need to add additional widgets like linkwithin, etc. they also have a feature called "promoted discovery" which allows you to make money through content recommendations. simply put, you have the opportunity to be paid when readers click on content from other advertisers.

5. it's easy to use.
first of all, it is incredibly simple to install. it's available for blogger, wordpress, tumblr, squarespace, typepad, and other platforms. disqus makes commenting a complete breeze. you can sign in to comment via disqus, facebook, twitter, or google. there are no requirements for verification codes like on other comment platforms, which is great because i personally find those incredibly annoying and unnecessary. of course, you do have the option to verify and moderate comments with disqus but it's not a necessity. i have never found a reason to use that feature.

you may be wondering, "will i lose comments made on previous posts?" the people at disqus do a pretty great job of loading your previous comments back in once disqus is installed. i will tell you that i did lose some of my old comments, but it was on older posts that probably no one goes back to read these days anyway. :) the number of comments i lost was incredibly small. i wouldn't even be able to tell you exactly which ones or from which posts. all of that to say IF you lose a handful of comments, i doubt you will notice, and in the long run, i believe it is worth it.

if you ask me, those are some pretty good reasons to make the switch. i'm obviously a huge fan of disqus and a little biased, but if you decide to make the switch, i really don't think you'll regret it!

|| this post is in no way sponsored by disqus. i simply like their product a whole lot! ||

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