Comments and Notifications settings

Now that you have subscribers reading your blog, they're likely to make comments on your posts. Unless you want to perch on your blog and watch it round the clock, you'll want to be notified when someone makes a comment.

From Overview, click on Settings, and then Basic. Let's look at your options.

Title is what appears on the top of your page, and Description appears beneath that.
NOTE: If you switch to a custom header, you may want to leave these blank.

If you want others to contribute to your blog, you can add them under Permissions and Add Authors.

Now click Posts and Comments 

If you have questions about these fields, click the blue question mark for a quick help. Here a few things to consider:

POSTS

Show at most: This is a personal preferences. How many posts/days do you want to show on the main (home) page? If this is a big number, it'll take a long time for the page to load. My personal preference is 7-10 posts. Not too many, not too few. You don't want your reader to sit and wait for your page to load.

I realize I show 30 posts, and it's because I use "jump breaks." Here's more info on Jump Breaks.

Post Template: this is where you can add a personal signature. Here's my tutorial on Signatures.

COMMENTS

Most of these are personal preference, and may be dictated by the nature of your blog. A couple of suggestions:

Comment Location: I like my comment box embedded at the end of the post. Click the box to see the other options. (Another personal preference item)


Comment Moderation: Your preference. Spammers usually post on older posts so you can select the "Older than XX days" If you want to approve every comment, click Always, but be vigilant. I set mine to Never and delete anything inappropriate (which is rare).



Show word verification:
YES - will make your readers type in garbled text before their comment appears.
NO - will automagically post their comment.
**I was a long-time advocate of requiring word verification but recently changed it to NO. I haven't had any issues, and it's easier for my friends who are visually impaired.


Note on Comment Moderation & Word Verification: 
Please choose one or the other, but not both! It's bad blog manners to put your commenter through the trouble of deciphering that crazy word verification and then moderate the comment.

My personal preferences --
Comments: Show - you want people to interact!
Who can comment? Anyone
Comment Form Placement? Embedded below post (I don't like pop-up windows)

MOBILE & EMAIL

This is becoming increasingly important as we rely more on our mobile devices. More to come on this subject.

It's a good idea to be notified when someone comments, so enter the email address you use most often. It's also considered gracious to respond to comments, so get in the habit of answering your guests!


Congratulations - you've just updated some important settings!