Blog Commenting
Last Monday marked the day I got my 1,000 comment. I know this is nothing compared to Extreme John’s 10k comments achievement last month but I am still glad I got my 1k comments after 3.5 months of blogging….nonetheless.
Like EJ, a good chunk of it was my own comments. I reply most of the time to other people comments. Still 1k seems a good number whatever which way you look at it.
So you may ask, so what good does comments bring to my blog?
Very good question. Comments are the life blood of blogs. If your article is the heart, then comment is the blood pumping around your blog. Comments make the blog alive and interesting. Can you imagine Problogger and Shoemoney blogs without comments? Neither do I. So even if we can write world class articles and perfect content, without comments it would be boring. It would look like just any article you find in an online newspaper. No interaction means boring. Boring means less regular visitors which translates to less traffic too.
If Content is King then Comments are your prince and princess. They make your whole blog lively and fun. I see excellent write ups and articles all the time but with very few or no comments at all. Do you think it encourages me to leave my own comment? Well to tell you the truth, more than half the time I just leave and go to another blog. This is why it is important to interact with your visitors too.
So how do I attract more comments to my blog?
Another excellent question. Let me tell you what 7 things I’ve learned for the past 3 months of blogging to attract comments.
1. Ask questions. Post an interesting article and ask questions in the beginning and at the and of the article. This way you are encouraging your readers to have their say and express their thoughts about your article.
2. Make it easy for your readers to leave a comment. This is very elementary. If you want your readers to leave their comments then please don’t make it double hard for them by putting captchas or making them logged in first to something before they can leave their comments. 95 percent of the time I just leave instead of leaving a comment and I guess most people gets annoyed too on those situations.
3. Don’t over moderate. You know how most bloggers moderate comments before getting it published? Usually the industry standard is after you approve a comment from a particular person, succeeding comments gets approved automatically. Some set their auto approval after 3 approved comments and its still tolerable. But I see some blogs always moderate all comments even if you’ve been commenting on his/her blog for many months or left dozens of comments already.
4. Interact and Reply. This is very important as you are letting know your visitors that you welcome their comments and you actually read their comments. This will create some connection between you and your visitors and some of those visitors will become regular readers of your blog.
5. Add comment plug-ins. CommentLuv and KeywordLuv are two plug-ins that will help encourage comments. CommentLuv shows the commenters article link at the bottom of his comment while KeywordLuv can help in associating the commenters blog to a set of keywords he/she choose. It like a small prize for taking their time to leave a comment in your blog.
6. Do not spam. Do not spam. I have to say that twice so it will sink in. Leave a useful comment and you will get it back. If you are putting a link back to your blog, make sure its relevant to the topic on hand otherwise don’t do it.
7. Make your blog a DoFollow blog. If you are using a wordpress platform, just install the Do Follow plug-in to remove the NoFollow attributes automatically. I know some of well known and most popular blogs are NoFollow blogs. And I hate it. But I think they have their own reasons. If your blog attracts 10k visits each day then I guess you are better off not reading this article. Also if your blog attracts that many visitors, you might find it hard to moderate clever spammers. Nonetheless my blog will be always a DoFollow blog.
These tips are proven in my blog and it attracts comments to my blog one way or the other. Another example is a friend of mine who is blogging for almost a year, asked me a couple of months ago how I was able to get people to comment on my blog. I told him some of these tips and sure enough his blog slowly but surely attracted comments day after day. His traffic improves too as an added bonus.
So what tips do you follow? Do you have anything to add to get more comments to our blog?
Please share your thoughts below.
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I follow all of these points and they certainly work, I’m nearly at the 3,000 comments mark, so I’ll have to have a big day when that happens
Karen @ Blazing Minds´s last blog ..Latest Blogger Interview with Ariette aka Arie Rich from KMP blog
Wow 3k comments…maybe you’ll get it before the years end. Congrats Karen.
ZXT´s last blog ..What’s Hot on Youtube!
Great list. I follow all of these rules as well. I haven’t much in comments, then again my site is new and doesn’t get much traffic. With my current blog project, I am trying to follow a more strict way of getting new readers and it is following these rules.
element321´s last blog ..Daily Delicious Posts Dec 17th 2009
Your blog is nice. Getting more people to comments will also help your blog to get more traffic. You can start by leaving your comments to other people’s blog and sooner or later you will get your traffic.
ZXT´s last blog ..6 basic rules in blogging
One of the surefire ways I’ve found of getting people to comment on your blog is to do what all of us are doing right now – commenting on other people’s blogs!
As an example, I found this blog as a result of http://kikolani.com/ leaving a comment on my blog. So, if that’s not an example of commentluv I don’t know what is – hahah!
@donpower
By the way, I just lost my comment when I clicked in the keywordluv link below. I had to retyoe it from memory – hahaha! You might consider adding the tag TARGET=’_blank’ for some of your links so that people don’t lose what they type in a comment field.
Cheers!
@donpower
Thank you for leaving your comment donpower. I will check on your suggestion.
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
These are all very true! Especially the fact of making your blog a DoFollow blog, there’s no reason not to share some link love with others.
Blogger Den´s last blog ..How to Improve your Alexa Ranking
I agree. Blogging is about connecting with fellow bloggers and sharing link juice too.
ZXT´s last blog ..6 basic rules in blogging
We used to moderate all of our blog comments but now have it set so that if a user has left a couple of approved comments before, their new comments gets auto-approved; it’s been working really well for us.
You’ve raised some great examples for encouraging more reader participation and feedback.
Regards,
Karl
Karl Foxley@Derby SEO Company´s last blog ..When ‘Thank You’ Just Isn’t Enough!
That’s pne of my pet peeves in leaving a comment to another blog. Thanks for agreeing with my tips Karl.
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
Hem… i may install keyword love as Christmas give for my readers and commentators. I do not have it yet.
Dana @ Online Knowledge´s last blog ..Create Blog Lab by use Sub-Domain Facility
Merry Xmas to you Dana.
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
Hello
These are really very good 7 ways to attract comments.According to me most important way is to make a blog do follow blog and interact with visitors.From this you can get more comments in your blog..Thank you very much for such useful post.You have done a good job.
Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate it.
ZXT´s last blog ..6 basic rules in blogging
Another one I installed recently is Top Commenter plugin which give a do-follow link in the sidebar. I noticed this on several blogs I started following lately and I found myself not wanting to miss one article and try to comment on them all (not spammy but quality comments).
I haven’t added keyword luv yet, but may do that this week.
Keith@SuperiorFenceProducts´s last blog ..New Fence Products
I will also put top commentator on my side bar. Maybe by next week. Thank you for your comment Keith.
ZXT´s last blog ..6 basic rules in blogging
I have a post coming out about #7 on your list, look for it this week
Thank you as always for the mention bro.
Extreme John´s last blog ..Weekly Link Dump #3
Don’t mention it John.
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
Thanks for the great post and congrats on 1k comments. I think this is very impressive. All points you make are valid. In my opinion, especially the points about spamming and do-follow are very important. I get a lot of spam on my blog since I made it do-follow and stopped pre-moderating. Many comments are just “hi, great post, thanks for info”. I always try to contribute something useful to blogs I comment on, sometimes I am maybe too critical.
The last article on my blog was also about commenting, but giving statistical data why comments are important. Some studies actually showed that comments are very important to relationship building and therefore to increase linking, improve SEO, and get more traffic.
Benjamin´s last blog ..The Importance of Comments for a Blog
Thank you for leaving useful comments here Ben.
I agree, blog commenting really helps in SEO and of course it brings traffic too.
ZXT´s last blog ..Brittany Murphy Dead at 32
I just added DoFollow PlugIn to my site. Couldn’t find any config settings. So I guess its setup. Anyways thanks for the great tips.
element321´s last blog ..Daily Delicious Posts Dec 18th 2009
Yes no configuration to set. What is does is, it removes the NoFollow attributes automatically created by WordPress.
ZXT´s last blog ..Brittany Murphy Dead at 32
This is a great post. I’ve used top commentators on my blogs and found that it REALLY helps encourage people to leave a comment.
Just by using a Do Follow blog you will increase comments. Just like element321 I also just used a plugin to make mine do follow. I just dont agree with no follow in some aspects. Merry christmas!
Curtis N´s last blog ..How To Pick A Good Domain Name | The Best Place That Offers Domain Registration
Today I am reading lots of article on blog commenting. I have read one article on famous blogger on “Leave earning from our comment”, where he have mentioned that people should not earning by putting contextual link on our comment.
Here I want to say about spammer. They are polluting our comment section. They just copy content from other and paste on blog comment form. I think comment spam is one easy way for getting google slap.
chandan´s last blog ..Sponsored tweets- great work at home opportunity
I have the DoFollow plug-in installed on my blog, but found there is a box that needs to be checked [or unchecked?] in CommentLuv so they are also DoFollow. I think all is working on my blog now. I also try to visit everyone who comments, and plan to work on a better method so I don’t miss so much greatness out there! Thanks for the tips and suggestions, too.
Anne´s last blog ..2010 Wish List ~ Non-Resolution Style
This is the best way for increase traffic & make your blog more famous. Normally the visitors come for read something new, for finding some new ideas-knowledge or some are come for back-link.
Thanks for sharing your ideas with us.
One unrecognized way is to be yourself. Flowers attracts bees and sugar attracts flies. Just be yourself and your following and comments will grow
ppo´s last blog ..PPO Insurance and Plans and deductibles
I guess its working. I am getting comments from you guys
ZXT´s last blog ..Why a Good Web Host is Important
nice tips, I’ll be starting a new blog from next week will follow the great tips you have mentioned in this post. Keep blogging
Good luck on your blog John.
nice tips, which blogging platform you would suggest for start a new blog? Blogger or WordPress? or a new blog on own hosting? please reply