Kajabi How To: Add Disqus Comments to Your Blog Posts
Jan 04, 2019
On your Kajabi blog, there are 2 main ways to enable Comments, i.e., to give readers the ability to leave comments on your blog posts: 1. Facebook comments or 2. Disqus comments
One of the most valuable pieces of the course and membership platform Kajabi is its blogging feature. If you want to improve the SEO of your Kajabi site (i.e., get it to rank higher in search engines so customers find you), blogging at least weekly and using your key words is crucial.
Once you get your Kajabi blog set up, adding the ability to leave comments is also important; it increases a sense of community and is a great way to be responsive and interactive with your readers.
On your Kajabi blog, there are 2 main ways to enable Comments, i.e., to give readers the ability to leave comments on your blog posts.
- Facebook comments
- Disqus comments
As you see at the bottom of this post, for my ErikaFriday.com blog, I've chosen to use Facebook comments. In the "tips" at the end of this article, you'll see some of my objections to Disqus and why I don't usually use it. [Update 08-27-20: I'm now giving Disqus comments a try on this site].
However, on another site I just started, I chose to use Disqus comments instead of Facebook Comments this time. You can choose whichever way works best for you and for your audience.
What Do Disqus Comments Look Like on a Kajabi Blog?
If you add Disqus comments to your Kajabi blog posts, they will look similar to this:
One of the "pros" to using Disqus comments on your Kajabi blog is it has those little Twitter and Facebook share buttons. They make it really easy for your readers to share your blog post link on their Twitter or Facebook feed. Noice!
A Note About Kajabi's Help File on Disqus Comments
As of writing this post (Jan. 2019), the help file by Kajabi called "How to Add Disqus Comments to Your Blog Posts" explains a much longer and more complicated process than I do below. Apparently, they greatly simplified the process at some point but haven't updated the help file yet.
I found this out the hard way when I followed those intense instructions involving messing with the code in Templates > blog_post.liquid etc. and it didn't work properly! So I put the code back how it was and played around in Kajabi until I found the easy solution I explain below. I hope you find my instructions before you go through the same hassle I did! And here we go ....
First, Set Up Your Disqus Account
- Go to Disqus.com
- Start a free account
- Go through all your Settings and Profile options to get things set up the way you want
- Make sure to follow my 2 tips at the bottom of this post - important!
- Go to Settings, General, and copy your website shortname
Second, Configure Disqus Comments in Kajabi
- Go to Website, Design, Homepage, Customize
- In the menu on the bottom left, change it to Blog Post
- Click Settings, Disqus Comments
- Paste your website shortname into the Disqus Short Code box and Save
And you're DONE! Now go open or refresh a blog post (click on its heading), scroll down, and you should now have Disqus Comments enabled at the bottom of your post. Yeehaw!
Now your readers can leave comments on your blog posts, share your posts on Facebook and Twitter, and you can build community on your site. If you have your Disqus Settings configured correctly, you'll be notified by email any time someone leaves a comment. This is a good practice so you can stay on top of comments and respond in a timely manner.
Important Tips About Configuring the Settings in Your Disqus Account
Tip #1: Keep your profile activity private
Disqus is used on many blogs and sites all over the world. You probably comment using Disqus and don't even realize it sometimes. All of your Disqus comments are then housed IN Disqus, where random strangers can find your Profile .... and at the click of a button, see EVERY comment you've ever made, all in one place, and can "follow" you, be linked to your website, etc.
If you're fine with that, cool cool cool. But I'd rather not have all my Disqus comments aggregated and have my profile be "follow-able" so I elected to keep my profile activity private.
In Disqus, go to Edit Profile, Privacy, and tick the box. It comes unchecked so you need to check the box, Save, and make sure it stays checked.
Tip #2: Disable auto-affiliate links and cookies (or update your Kajabi site terms)
I would also strongly advise you to disable affiliate linking and anonymous cookie targeting. If you don't disable cookie targeting, you'll need to make sure and include that in the legal terms on your Kajabi site because you're allowing a site other than your own to cookie your site visitors.
If you don't disable affiliate links, Disqus will automatically append THEIR affiliate links to products YOU link to - and not just in Disqus comments but ANYWHERE ON YOUR SITE! Therefore, you'll also need to include an affiliate disclosure on Disqus's behalf anywhere on your site RIGHT BEFORE these product links. If you don't, you could get fined thousands by the FTC for not following affiliate disclosure laws.
To give an example, on another site I have, I link to the Instant Pot on Amazon on my Resources page. (Note that this is on a completely separate page from my blog). Disqus would automatically attach THEIR Amazon affiliate link to MY product link. Then any time a reader clicks on that link to check out the Instant Pot and goes on to purchase one, or anything else on Amazon for the next 30 days, Disqus makes the affiliate money.
I'm an Amazon Affiliate myself and I'd like to get the commission for referring people to buy an Instant Pot, wouldn't you? I also follow the rules and disclose before each and every affiliate link, which Disqus is not doing ... grrr!
It's quite a creepy thing that Disqus does here, in my opinion, especially because you have to opt-out of it and most people don't know about this issue or take the time to do it. Across allll the sites/blogs using Disqus worldwide, imagine the thousands of dollars they're making off their unknowing customers' readers! It's one of the reasons I'm not a huge Disqus fan.
To fix this, in your Disqus account go to Admin, Settings, Advanced. The boxes come automatically pre-checked; you need to UNCHECK them, click Save, and make sure they remain unchecked.
Disqus or Facebook Comments: It's Your Choice
As you can see, it's easy enough to add Disqus Comments to your Kajabi blog! It's essentially: Set up your free Disqus account, copy a URL, and paste it into Kajabi. Just be cautious of the downsides of Disqus and protect yourself and your site from the potentially shady aspects of it.
If you have any trouble or have questions about adding Disqus Comments to your Kajabi blog, don't hesitate to leave me a (ha ha) Facebook Comment below or write to me: [email protected] and I'll answer right away! {Update 08-27-20: I've replaced Facebook comments with Disqus, as you'll see below].
xo,
ETA 02-26-22: UPDATE - Since I posted this in 2019, I've sought out and found 1 and maybe soon 2 other options for having blog comments on our Kajabi blogs!!! I talk about it more in-depth in THIS POST (mainly at the end, if you don't want to read the whole thing).
But the gist of it is that there's currently a third-party solution called POWR.io which has a Comments feature you can embed into Kajabi blog posts YAAAAYYYY!! I'm currently testing it out on another site and, as long as it works well, I'll be kicking Disqus to the curb and adding POWR.io comments here.
The other possible solution is a widget-builder app called Elfsight. They don't have a Comments widget yet but it's in development. I'd prefer to use Elfsight for Comments because I already have an account with them and use them for several other widgets on my site (like social share buttons, cookie disclaimer, scroll to top button, etc.).
So I've submitted a couple of requests to Elfsight that they fast track that baby, lol! If you'd like another better option for Kajabi blog comments than dumb ol' Disqus, please go add a comment on Elfsight HERE? You know how it is: "the squeeky wheel gets the grease" kind of thing. I feel like the more of us who request it, the more likely and quickly it'll happen. /kbai
