Not every blog needs a conversation, so if yours is not conducive to chats, don’t bother. If it isn’t, and you want it that way, then you have to find a way to open the conversation – no differently then you would at a party or social gathering. For your site, you’ll have to experiment to find out what gets your readers talking. It may take a few months, but give it a try. Since they aren’t used to jumping in, you’ll have to work hard to help them break the ice.

“What do you think” isn’t the way to go. Instead of getting them to contribute with Q&A which not go more viral and ask them to create a video, podcast, or help support the group in some fashion that involves participation. Have a contest. There are a lot of ways to break the ice on your blog if it has been frozen from the conversation. You know your readers best. Decide which will work best for them.

Excellent post! I always find it weird to be posting a comment about an article whose issue is comments. My blog/site (Uses WordPress, but is not really a “blog”) does not have much traffic yet and even less comments. Wit the kind of material I am posting it is hard to invite the readers to comment.

Most of my posts are band profiles and I want the comments to be about the band itself. Anyone have any ideas as to how I could implement an invitation to the reader to comment without being to intrusive into the band’s profile?

- Jack Rugile