How to install Facebook comments on your blog

Earlier this week I changed the comments feature on my blog from the default WordPress comments to Facebook comments. There are few reasons for this.

Compared to WordPress comments, Facebook comments require commenters to use their real identities. This would eliminate a large amount of spam that I get and would optimize my time for blog writing as I would not be needing to moderate as much as I do now.

Now when you comment on HowToMakeMyBlog.com, your comment also appears in your Facebook stream with a link back to the post you commented on – this is an extra traffic source for me.

Also when I respond to comments I can choose to respond as my Facebook page – this gives more exposure to my Facebook page and hopefully more “likes” as well.

So all in all:

More real people, less spam
More blog traffic from Facebook
More Facebook page likes
What’s there not to like about it?

This is how I did it

This is a very quick process considering that we are replacing a big part of the default WordPress software:

Install the Facebook Comments plugin.
Create a Facebook app here – a quick and simple process.
In Settings go to “Facebook Comments” and tick “Enable XBML” and “Show Comments Box In Posts”.
In “Facebook Comments” settings also make sure to fill in your app ID and the width of your comments area.
To turn off WordPress comments, go to your Discussion settings. Untick the option saying “Allow people to post comments on new articles”
To get a good overview of the Facebook comments posted on all your blog posts, save the Comment moderation area link.
That’s about it, now you have Facebook comments instead of WordPress comments. To be honest it even looks better! Feel free to comment below and let me know how you find it.