10 Minute Blog Tips: Get More Comments
May 18, 2007 | By Chris Garrett | Filed Under Features, Guides and Tutorials
It’s reasonably well known that I am a fan of commenting on others blogs. Commenting gets you noticed. Makes connections. Most people though want to know how to get more comments on their own blogs.
Here is todays tip: How to get more comments in 10 Minutes
- Plugins - Install a “subscribe to comments” plugin, such as this one for Wordpress. The notifies commenters that a reply has been posted and allows them to continue the discussion.
- Hang back - Don’t put everything possible into your post. Make it great but leave some room for others to pick up the conversation.
- Topic - See what subjects or discussions have worked in the past, get to know what your visitors like to talk about
- Welcome - Be friendly and approachable. Make it known that comments are welcome. Change your template from the default “no comments” to something more inviting.
- Invite - Most important; ask! Sometimes people wait for permission, you don’t get if you don’t ask.
Once you start the ball rolling it gets easier, people remember your blog as a place to hang out and comments beget comments.
Those are my tips, how do you get more comments on your blog? Let me know in the comments :)
Chris Garrett loves to get comments at his blog. Subscribe to get more blogging, copywriting and marketing tips, plus a free ebook on creating flagship content
About the author: Chris is a professional blogger and internet marketing consultant. As well as Chris' blog tips at The Blog Herald you can read more of his blogging tips, internet marketing advice and copywriting articles over at chrisg.com and make sure you sign up for the Authority Blogger newsletter.
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Other good plugins to consider: Top Commentators, Do-Follow.
Topics: Controversial topics can attract lotsa comments but you may get all stressed out from the flamers and arguing.
Welcoming environment: answering comments work too, people like it when you respond to them.
Good points mooiness, top comments though needs to be handled carefully in case it turns into a quantity competition :)
Yeah - for a good look at how those plugins have influenced the comments on a blog, just look at JohnChow.com. Redundant comments, using not nicknames but specific keywords in the author URLs etc.
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[…] post is about getting more comments, let me know what you think … Bookmark!: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where […]
I liked you comment marketing approach.
Here are few more tips to get comments:
1. Invite Comments, may be you want to specify in which area you are seeking comments at?
2. Posts with questions, not only statements
Rajesh Shakya
Chris,
Nice to see you on the Herald. The group of writers here is getting quite impressive.
I agree that the manner in which you present or write can invite or discourage comment. The topic should be in keeping with your theme. Outrageous topics for the sake of notoriety will not attract long term visitors.
The best way is to write something of value and leave it off with an open ended question. A blog can be an open view of your daily thoughts or a conversation with the world. How you form your content indicates which style you have chosen.
Yeah definitely whatever you do reflects on your blog, it comes down to what “brand” you want to reflect. I tend to stay away from contraversial topics but others have made a good career out of it :)
I’ve been trying to gear my blog posts to encourage comments but haven’t really seen much of an increase yet…
Another thing that seems to help is to post responses to commenters so they know that their input is noticed. It can be frustrating to add a comment to an entry and then go back days later and there’s no indication that the comment was read even by the original author.
The Top Commentators and DoFollow plugins definitely made a BIG difference in the number of comments. Since I never used the Subscribe to Comments feature on others’ sites, I didn’t think it would be used a lot on my site.
I got a couple of requests for it, so I installed it - WOW. BIG impact.
Good lesson learned to remember that just because I don’t like or use something, doesn’t mean it can’t/won’t be very useful to others! Now I’m wondering where else I’ve made that ASSumption! ;)
I too have found that a few plugins helped tremendously with the volume of comments on my sites.
Along with the plugins already mentioned by others, I found the Threaded Comments to help as well since that allows for more of a dialog to take place between people.
I always try to respond to each comment on my site and if the comment doesn’t really warrant a response, I try to send an email thanking the person for their comment.
Also, I try to end each post with a question or reason for people to add their feedback. But it’s funny to look back at posts I thought would generate a bunch of comments don’t and vice versa.
@Rob - I do try to respond to comments, the thinner we spread ourselves though the more of a challenge it becomes :)
@Wendy - Oh yeah, that was why I delayed removing the What Would Seth Godin plugin for a while. In the end I just found it so annoying I just had to remove it no matter what others thought :)
@Derek - threaded comments are cool providing your template copes with them well
If you want comments do not be afraid to court some controversial opinion if you strongly belief in that opinion. Its your opinion so if its stated properly you are not really right or wrong. Everyone is allowed to have an opinion. Don’t get me started on the cost of Adobe Creative Suites (one good example). Have to ever seen how many comments appear over on some large political blogs?
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Good suggestions. The suggestion to “hold back” to allow for comments (and to have something to add later) is very helpful. I also think that posting an ocassional “keeper” is important–something with enough thoughtful substance to cause folks to want to return.
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