Darren Rowse from problogger.com once quoted that “Only 1 out of every 100 Readers Comment on your Blog” and this appears to be the very fact of blogging. “If Oscar is to acknowledge the work of Film Industry than Comments are the way to acknowledge the work of a blogger” – wow I can write quotes too.
Increase blog comments
Jokes apart, no one is going to comment unless you encourage them to do so, I have listed 30 tips that you may use to get comments on your blog.
1. Tit for Tat: This simple rule works everywhere, and in the blogosphere, it rocks, as most blogger comment-hungry so it is a mutual understanding that if someone has commented on your blog then you should also comment on his blog too.
2. Ask them to leave comment: What I’ve experienced so far is when I ask my readers to leave a comment I get more comments as compared to when I don’t ask them.
3. Write Tutorials: Most of the readers comment when they need your help, writing a tutorial and unique article is the best way to get comments.
4. Ask questions: Always try to ask a question at the end of your blog post like “Do you agree with it?”, “Do you think it should work?”, “What do you think?” etc.
5. Ask for opinion poll: Adding a poll also encourages user to write a comment because most reader tends to tell the author why they have chosen a particular option in the poll. “Everyone like to speak their mind out, all we need to do is to encourage and give space to them”
6. Always reply to comments: Interacting with your commentators is very important, else it feels to them they are replying to a BOT. provide answers and be humble.
7. Reply with a ‘?’ : Once you have replied, ask again “Do they get it?” “Are you satisfied?” etc.. this builds up the interactive commenting.
8. Never delete a nonspam comment.
9. Learn to take in negative comments: Not everyone likes your post, everyone has different tastes, whatever you do, an Apple Mac user will always hate a Microsoft Windows PC, so in that case be resourceful & be positive while replying. But yes, if the language is uncivil, uncouth, or derogatory, you may consider deleting such comments!
10. Never abuse/embarrass/humiliate your visitors: Consider yourself as a Call center worker who can’t even use a harsh tone while talking to their customer no matter what the situation is. But the best way is to pre-judge if you think a comment may harm your reputation or may end up worse than you can break my rule no 8. :D
11. Give reward to your commentators: Everyone likes free goodies, if you are doing good then you can send some reward to your regular commentator as a compliment.
12. Give reward to Top Commentator: Rather than giving rewards just like that announce a competition and give reward to the top commentator, this will encourage your inactive readers to comment too, and your active commentators will buckle up for the competition.
13. Remove Captcha – Make it easy for your reader to comment.
14. Use threaded comments: It has various benefits, first, it gives your discussion a good look simple to understand, second, it sends a notification whenever someone replies to your comment.
15. Display recent comments
16. Highlight Top Commentator: This brings up the feeling of getting the first prize in a class to the commentator use Top Commentator widget in your sidebar.
17. Provide email subscription to blog comments
18. Don’t ask to register to your blog for letting the readers comment on your blog.
19. Use Akismet: You don’t want to have Spam comments in your blog, having spam comments also reduces the commenting, therefore use the Akismet plugin to avoid spam comments.
20. Provide editable comments: Use plugins like Edit comment XT to provide useful functionality to edit their own comments.
21. Provide a Preview Comment plugin to let user preview their comments before posting
22. Display Avatar, people love to see their avatars, faces and logo so provide avatar functionality too
23. Remove no-follow attribute from the comment field, and announce it, too. A Blogger likes to comment on Dofollow blog to earn some backlinks.
24. Use CommentLuv: By enabling CommentLuv you are giving your commentators direct traffic and a backlink that encourages them to comment more. Just try to comment on CommentLuv enabled blog for 2-3 weeks and see the difference.
25. Take initiative: If you are not getting any comment then maybe it’s time that you should take initiative and start commenting on others’ blogs. Comment daily on their blog for a week and you will see the back comments afterward. “Don’t be in a hurry”.
26. Write controversial posts and get loads of comment
27. Send a sweet Thank You to your commentators but not much often just once in 2 months or so.
28. Facebook Connect: Give your readers options to comment on your blog using their Facebook account id.
29: Moderate regularly: Don’t keep your commentator waiting to see his comments live, moderate comment hourly.
… And what can be the 30th tip? What I missed! Leave a comment below and help me reach 30.
That’s an amazing and truly informative post for bloggers. Thanks for sharing such nice tips. :D
Comments are always to get valuable feedback on the posts written by bloggers.Once again emphasized need for comments on blogs and how to increase them.
Thanks for the tips :)
Here are 6 more Evil or Genius ways to get more comments http://www.mushive.com/6-evil-or-genius-ways-to-get-more-comments
Heh heh TWC has a lot to do in this department ;)
Hey your post is informative. Good to see someone share this.
Cheers,
Loga
Another big one is to spell things wrong, or make a grammatical error. You’ll get a lot of comments from those wanting to correct you. Or if you make a small error in your post (misname a link, shortcut or whatever). :) People love to correct other peoples mistakes. :) Good list!
@Dustin – hehe nice one
This information is really good and helpful.Every blogger should know and take care of these points.
By Dustin Harper on June 16th, 2010 at 2:49 AM
Another big one is to spell things wrong, or make a grammatical error. You’ll get a lot of comments from those wanting to correct you. Or if you make a small error in your post (misname a link, shortcut or whatever). :) People love to correct other peoples mistakes. :) Good list!
Thank you for all the tips. As a new blogger just starting to get the comments I appreciate learning from those that have been around here a lot longer than I.
Thanks to your post I have added a few prompts to the end of my post and made it easier for the people to comment and I thanked them for reading. I also installed comment luv.
Thanks, thanks, thanks!
I read recently that removing nofollow on comment links is actually beneficial for blog owners these days because Google now uses the amount of activity your site generates in order to determine where it ranks in the search engines. Seems like removing the nofollow attribute would increase activity and really help blog owners out!
You have stated great point while running/maintaining or commenting on any blog. Thanks for making your blog a great source for beginners.
These 30 ways to increase blog comments are really all have the points. Most of them are easy and proven very effective.