If you have been blogging for a while, it is inevitable that you will receive at least a few sharply critical comments or even e-mails during your blogging career.
These can often come as a surprise, especially if you did not think that you were blogging about anything particularly controversial.
Learn how to best deal with these types of criticisms gracefully and effectively in order to handle your hate mail and comments like a champ.
1. Relax and do not take further action while you are still emotional about the comment.
While you may initially feel enraged or saddened by the critical comment, try to relax and remember that you cannot please everybody. No matter what you are writing about in your posts, there is bound to be someone who will disagree with you.
Keep in mind that your critic does not know you personally, and that his or her criticism may have simply been born out of ignorance or misinformation. Do not let that criticism get under your skin and ruin your day.
In my personal experience of writing about higher education, I did not think that I would encounter people who would be too critical about my posts.
Yet, to my surprise, I did receive one rather critical comment on one of my posts. After initially feeling angry at the commenter’s attack, I calmed myself down and let the comment go until I had gained enough emotional distance from it to handle the matter respectfully and thoughtfully.
2. Evaluate whether the comment offers anything of value.
Some critical comments can actually work well to stimulate debate and conversation on your blog. If someone’s criticism is essentially just them disagreeing with what you have to say or offering an alternative viewpoint, it can offer valuable insight into the topic you are discussing.
As long as these types of comments are expressed respectfully, consider leaving them posted in your blog so that others may respond to it. Your visitors, and you, may even learn something new from the discussion.
On the other hand, if the comment is offensive or insensitive, remove it immediately from the comments section of your blog. While thoughtful dissent or criticism should be welcomed, offensive remarks should be banished because that type of criticism does little other than ruffle feathers.
3. Leave an appropriate response to the comment or message.
Depending on what type of comment you evaluated the criticism to be, leave an appropriate response. If the criticism is indeed valuable, consider responding with a message that expresses your willingness to listen to and discuss alternate viewpoints.
You can invite your readers to join in the conversation as well. Even those who were initially adamantly against your opinion or blog post can be softened up if you treat them with respect. In return, you should receive respectful and thoughtful comments.
The commenter I dealt with was a bit curt at first, but after we exchanged some e-mails back and forth explaining our individual viewpoints, he became decidedly more open-minded to what I had to say and I to his opinions as well.
However, if you evaluated the comment to be offensive and deleted it, it is important to explain why you did so. Write a follow-up comment to the deleted one explaining that offensive and insensitive remarks will not be tolerated and that if someone wishes to disagree, they will have to do so in a courteous manner.
After all, your blog is your space and just as you would not tolerate a rude person in your home, you should not have to tolerate rude behavior on your blog. This same rule of thumb can be applied to any e-mails you may receive.
Negative comments and e-mails can actually be great learning experiences for both parties involved as long as you and the commenter are willing to behave professionally.
I have found that distancing yourself emotionally from the criticism can help you to act more respectfully, and this in turn can help you to get a great dialogue going.
One of my websites is about how to handle emotions of all kinds, both positive and negative. As soon as you get mad, you’ve already lost, no matter what you say or do, because the other guy’s already accomplished his goal. Now I rarely loose my cool and employ psychological judo and put the ball back on their side of the fence. I actually love my blog comments or forum posts that disagree with me or even get a little heated.
After that I started to just ignore and simply move them to the trash can. Try not to get emotional.
Good advice. Sometimes we come across such situations and we should be able to handle it in an appropriate manner. The critics too has the right to express but they should also get their point across in a respectful manner and if they do not belong to that category I’d rather just distance.
an criticism comment is better than spam comment. If you able to work smart to reply the criticism comment with other vie point and solution then it able to create more visitors come to your site. Blog comment mostly will receive 3 kinds of comment, one is thank for sharing the useful blog, one is criticizer and one will be spam comment. So which on you prefer?
I used to take comments to the heart. But I realized that the culprits reached their goal by me doing that.
After that I started to just ignore and simply move them to the trash can. It wasn’t worth the stress and anger.
Well, as a long-time political and philosophy blogger, I’ve learned how to deal with nasty comments and even death wishes. When I first started blogging I would get all bent out of shape. Now I rarely loose my cool and employ psychological judo and put the ball back on their side of the fence. I don’t loose sleep over hate mail anymore. I haven’t received any nasty comments blogging about marketing, other than the occasional viewer, that for some strange reason, did not get rich quick. “-)
It’s inevitable. Always there will be an Olivia in the comments of all the blogs
Never get emotional, ignore the comments that are idiotic and offer no value and leave a well-thought out reply to those which involve constructive criticism!
I think how you reply to negative comments, really shows your character. If someone remains professional they can often turn a negative into a positive, I really respect that.
Hi Lisa, separating yourself from the emotions of undue criticism is just plain good advice weather it be on your blog or other events that happen in life.
can’t say from experience (knock on wood no hate mail as yet) – however, from observation i have seen that your followership/commenters typically come to the rescue and defend you immediately. they often drive away the problem causers.
hate mails make me more productive and offer to me work more hard and give him the best shot by writing an article on it.
Thank u very much for a great Article…Ya, critical comments are inevitable..every blogger has to deal with these..u perfectly written how to deal with these type of issues..
Thanks! Nice Article with some real nice aspects!
Great post and very useful advice. Thanks
Good post with a different topic I haven’t seen on any other blog!
I think the most critical thing is to calm yourself as to not make a mistake that could hurt you in the long run.
Hi Lisa
Sound advice.
Good thing is that you can usually find a positive even in a negative comment.
Something you can agree with and then thank them for their alternative point of view.
Bloggers are usually pretty restrained and don’t get too personal… thank heavens for that.
Good advice. Especially the part about not responding whileyou are still angry.
You’re right. After all any successfull marketer knows how to handle objections or criticisms. It’s just one of those skills that are needed in the learning process to be successfull. Also important to develop better emotional IQ.
I think the best thing you can do is stay professional in your response and after responding remove it out of your inbox so you don’t have to look at it 😉
Great post.
My dad is a lawyer and one piece of advice he uses regularly in the courtroom, that I also hold with me every day is just don’t let anyone get to you, don’t get mad. As soon as you get mad, you’ve already lost, no matter what you say or do, because the other guy’s already accomplished his goal.
It’s so true, though, because as long as you keep your cool, no comment or email stands a chance against you.
This is wonderful post…thanks for sharing…..The best way to deal with inappropriate comments is to trash it or spam it 🙂
One of my websites is about how to handle emotions of all kinds, both positive and negative. I actually love my blog comments or forum posts that disagree with me or even get a little heated. If they have a good point, I acknowledge it. But if they are just insulting, I don’t delete it. I thank the commentor graciously, and I always finish with, “You’re a great American!” It’s a sort of code for “kiss off.” My regular readers seem to acknowledge the entertainment value.
Try not to get emotional. I know you put a tremendous of time on your blog, but you have to try not to get to emotional over criticism. After all, who is the other person? Why should you let some stranger control your emotions?
Hi Olivia,
This all great advice to follow when dealing with negative comments. I’ve turned a negative comment into a whole entire blog post and invited the commentator to read the post and comment there. He turned out to be a pretty decent guy who did have some valid points to make. I must ad that it wasn’t a hateful comment that contained profanity or anything, but it had a level of rudeness.
On another occasion, someone actually wrote a hateful comment that was littered with profanity. I don’t tolerate that kind of language on my blog, plus, it was a bunch of nonsense – so I deleted it and felt no need to explain, but I can see how that might be a useful practice.
You turned someone’s comment into an entire blog post – talk about being a “Natural Hacker” Kiesha.. :0) – good move.
I agree that we have to choose our battles; some comments are just not worth our time.
Olivia no matter what I just reply in a super manner, because the best attack is no attack at all..
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
This is excellent advice. Thanks!