Having commenting on your blog is a great way to stimulate a discussion with your website visitors, hear what they have to say and create a wider audience for your website content by encouraging sharing.
Rather than re-inventing the wheel and building our own commenting tools we have seamlessly integrated the Disqus commenting system into the Rocketspark blog and your website dashboard.
Disqus is a well-respected system that is easy to use and we've made it super simple to integrate Disqus into your Rocketspark website. The basic Disqus solution, suitable for most websites, is free.
To enable comments on your blog, you need to create a Disqus account, and then hook in your Disqus account with your website.
Here are the set-up steps:
- In your Rocketspark Dashboard, Blog, in your menu.
- Your blog must be enabled. If you have not yet set up your blog you can read our blog set-up guide and set up your blog before continuing.
- Click on Create Disqus Account button as this will take you to www.disqus.com to set up your new account (if you don't already have an account). Please note that this is a third-party integration so there may be costs associated with using their product. Please read the rest of these instructions before you do, so if there's a little trip up in the Disqus setup journey, this can help you avoid it.
- Once you have an account created, you will be taken back to the Disqus homepage. Click on the settings cog in the top right-hand corner, then click Add Disqus to site.
- Fill in your Site Profile. Your Site Name will be the website URL of where your blog is located.
- Click Finish registration.
Please note: If you are on a Rocketspark trial, your URL will be different to your domain name.
Example: mywebsite.rocketspark.com is what you'll see when in trial mode. When you've upgraded your account your URL will change to whatever domain you have chosen, like mywebsite.com - Make a note now of your Disqus Site Shortname as you will need it later.
- Click on the Universal Code Button but ignore all of the scary-looking code details. Your Disqus account is now set up.
- Pop back into your Rocketspark Dashboard > Blog and under Optional blog features, you'll see the following. Click on Turn on comments.
- Enter your Disqus site short name (the one you made earlier) and click Turn on comments. Be sure not to accidentally enter your Disqus username as it won't work.
- That's it, you're done! Go to an individual blog post to check that the commenting features are now visible. We recommend that you check out the Disqus user guide on moderating your blog. There are settings to control whether comments need to be approved by you or not. You can also blacklist certain words and delete bad posts. There is a link in your blog dashboard page that takes you to your Disqus login page.
Please note:
If you get a Disqus error in your blog post like the image below that says "We were unable to load Disqus. If you are a moderator please see our troubleshooting guide", we recommend that you double-check that you have used your Disqus Site Shortname and not your Disqus Username. It's an easy mix up to make but it is important to use the Site Shortname.
It is easy to double-check your Disqus Site Shortname.
- Log into Discus at www.disqus.com.
- Click on the profile picture up at the top right and select Admin.
- Then click Settings on the main navigation menu on the Admin page.
- Click on your website URL that's for your Rocketspark dashboard, underneath the Give your site an organization name.
- You'll see your Shortname under the heading Shortname.
- Hop back into your website dashboard (you'll need to be logged in), and go to Blog > Optional Features > Edit.
- Update your Shortname by clicking on the Edit link and clicking Turn on Comments.
If you ever need to change to a different Disqus account in future you can return to the Blog menu in your dashboard and edit your new Disqus Site Shortname.