In yesterday’s blogging tip I gave Five Great Reasons You Should Encourage More Comments which tells all about why you want more comments. Today we’ll look at how to do it!
Only a very small percentage of readers ever leave comments – usually the lower end of the 0-5% range. These are simple steps you can take to raise that number and, in concert with increasing overall traffic to your blog, should have a significant effect on the amount of comments you receive.
- Ask for comments. The No. 1 way to get more comments is, surprise, request them! Did you notice me do this in yesterday’s post?
- Make it easy to comment. Very closely following No. 1 is making it easier for people to comment. Remove barriers, take away registration requirements. Make those squiggly letters easier to read, damnit! Making your readers jump through hoops just to post 2 lines of their thoughts is not conducive to building a community of readers around your blog :)
- Respond to comments. Another very important one. If readers see you respond to previous comments they’ll be far more likely to give their opinion.
Bonus tip: Have a comments policy. I find that having a policy in place has helped on this blog because commenters know what to expect.
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent advice.
Another way to get comments is to comment on another blog.
Hey Joseph, I certainly thing you’re right there! lol
For those out of the loop, I had just posted a comment over on the most excellent Sellsius Real Estate Blog :)
Cheers!
I could not agree more. I wrote a similar article back in the summer; my link will take you to it.
Hi there Hugh,
Cheers for that, although your list is bigger than mine :D
I certainly agree with you on the Do Follow. It’s a thing we have going in the Irish webmaster/seo community and seems to be working well for us. For this site I generally just delete the URL if someone uses keywords, or if the website is a really bad neighbourhood to be linking to.
Thanks,
Alastair.
Don’t forget the You Comment, I Reply movement. I always like seeing that blogs I visited and left a comment on stopped by to check out my site.
Those are great tips! These tips have helped me on my other blogs!
Being on some of the dofollow list that are going around is a great way to get commenters, too. ;-)
Its ironic that many bloggers talk about this but then they actually use no follow I have seen many blogs leeching off the dofollow movement claiming to be dofollow sites but actually use nofollow, they are worse than the comment spammers in my eyes.
Hi Alastair,
About your 2nd tip. I’m using a math plugin on my site to prevent comment spam, does it mean that some of my visitors will not comment simply because to do a little math ?
great tips!
thanks
Bape: I’d hazard a guess that those blogs that are on DoFollow lists that are actually nofollowing changed back because of too many spammy comments.
Vera: Using anti-spam plugins is fine so long as they’re not impossible to use. Some of the “type these 5 letters” that are impossible to read are not good.
Thanks rbl!
If I found a blog and I read something that’s interesting, then I definitely leave a comment. Just like yours Alastair… :)
Anyway, I have blogs and the very first thing I do when I’m online is to check if somebody left a comment and I love to read them (not those Spam comments…). It’s cool when readers appreciate your posts.. ^_^
By the way, cool tips!
I have followd all the above tips but still no one is commenting… except some spams….
I agree do follows work really well. as does a top commenter plugin.
Thanks for these tips about comments.
I am a new blogger and I need to start working in getting comments for my “lonely” blog ;)
very informative
Wow, I’m blown away by what you have to say. How often do you update your blog?
you do exactly as you preach. I find it very easy to comment on your post and quite a few of those comments are very helpful to me as a reader. Thanks for making it easy.