Get Your Comment Count Jumping
Comments tell you as a writer what topics are important to your readers. Many bloggers use comments to develop new articles and find new niches. Out of all your readers though, only a small portion take the time to share their thoughts and when your starting a site, your reader following is small enough. Here are some tips to get your readers to step up and contribute.
Evoke Emotion
Taking the time to post a comment for the average reader takes a lot. You need to evoke an emotion and a reason for them to comment. If you take a look at a site like Amazon, the product reviews tend to be extremely good or extremly bad because the product evoked an emotion with the buyer. You don’t see many people commenting “The product was alright, it got the job done.”
Comment on non-popular blogs
The big fish bloggers for the most part don’t take the time to reciprocate the guesture, but a less popular blogger who doesn’t get
that many comments will likely take a look at your site and comment on a story or two of yours. This is a good way to find new friends and gain more exposure for your site.
Ask a Question
Most articles are not discussion friendly because the article solves a problems or provides information. They leave no cues to evoke feedback. If your post an article that asks for a reader to contribute to the article, they will likely take the time. Give them
a reason to respond.
Stay on Point
Nothing says off topic like NO COMMENTS. If you are accustom to getting 5 or 10 comments on an article, and you don’t get a response from a certain post, then probably visitors aren’t there for that topic. This is a good indication that you need to stay focused on what your readers want. On the other hand, if you have an article that recieve an abnormal high of comments, you’ve likely struck a cord with your users. Try to reproduce the astonishment response of that article again.
Make Your Own Comments
Nobody likes to be the only one in a classroom raising their hand. Sometimes people resist commenting because no one else has. If you start off with a comment, whether it be new information or a response from a co-writer, people will be more inclined to comment.
Take comment from other places
If you post your article on another site (forums, digg, directories etc.) and get comments there, you can copy the discussion over to your blog. Try to take the comments that add valuable information and perspective to the article.
Remember, people can act like sheep. They tend to follow what others do. If you don’t try to initiate commenting, people will likely stay away.
Ronald Huereca | August 21st, 2007 at 6:55 pm #
You may also be able to get more comments by promoting the existing comments you do get. For example, write a post based on a comment you received, or quote a commenter in a future post.
Wallace | August 22nd, 2007 at 12:38 am #
actually i don’t want to receive more comment,
it is annoying for me as i don’t have time to monitor the comments.
if you want more comments, add a comment counter at you feed! it works.
Simon Ward | August 22nd, 2007 at 3:20 am #
I hadn’t thought about the last point “Take comment from other places”. That’s good advice. Cheers.
Kristina | August 22nd, 2007 at 2:27 pm #
Very interesting post and discussion! I want to bring up coComment.com, a tool that helps people track and share comments and conversations. It also allows you to track someone elses comments, say a blogger that you really like. I’ve been using it and it’s great! Kristina
Matt Arnold | September 3rd, 2007 at 10:47 am #
Hmm, some useful info there. Thanks!!
Great tips to bear in mind with my new blog
I’ve also found that having a “Top Commentors” plugin encourages people to comment
Steven Snell | September 13th, 2007 at 7:45 pm #
Nice article. I especially agree with “stay on point.” I think that is overlooked sometimes when people wonder why comments are low.
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Nice…
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Jenny | October 17th, 2007 at 2:24 pm #
I’ll try to utilize some of these tips. I’d like to get more comments, but nothing seems to work. Maybe if I try these tips I’ll get more.
Silvanos | November 20th, 2007 at 9:53 pm #
Cool!