This is a guest post by Rebecca Chelsey, a designer who works for Homeseasons.
If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.
If you are reading this post, chances are you own a blog or are interested in starting one.
It would be a bit disappointing if you have been blogging for a while now, but you only get comments here and there. This is just the same as making a speech in public only to hear crickets chirping in the background.
Many bloggers probably do get a lot of traffic to their site, but a common problem is generating comments from their readers. Somehow they might be too shy to drop a line or voice their opinion on your posts!
If this is the case, it wouldn’t matter if the content of your blog is great; you might need to consider reinventing the way you write your posts or portray yourself with the following strategies to increase dialogue in your blog.
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Interaction
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Self Portrayal
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Topics
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Usability
You finish your post and eagerly wait for comments. A day has gone by and you received no feedback, although you know people were reading your posts.
What have you done wrong?
Read over your posts and see if you have invited your readers to comment on your post. You need to welcome the invisible audience to not be afraid to speak up.
The easiest way to do this is simply lay out your idea in the post and in the end ask them to share their thoughts with you and everyone else. Ask them, “What are your thoughts?” or encourage them to “Tell us what your think!” so your readers know that their ideas are being valued and appreciated and they are allowed to participate in your blog.
After you start generating some dialogue in your blog, remember to interact with your guests after they have left comments. They need to know that you actually acknowledge their appearance and would like to stir up a conversation with them.
This way, they will keep coming back to see what topic you are posting up next in order to comment on your post again.
Do onto others what you want onto you.
This is the simplest way to describe the kind of relationship you would have with your readers and how you should portray yourself to them. Words are really important in the blogging world as that is all they see and know of you.
Show others that you have good values and be humble, gracious, and thankful for their participation on your site.
It is great to talk about yourself at times and give them a little taste of what your life is like, but you don’t have to give them all the details of your life, such as your address or the complete details of your date last night with your new beau.
On the other hand, if you are not talking about yourself, be open-ended about your topics but also take a stand on the idea you laid out.
Make it so that you have personality in your blog, but be sure to leave space for people to think.
Again, after comments start rolling in, you can congratulate and reward your loyal followers by dedicating a post to them, basically thanking them for continually supporting your blog and actively commenting on your posts.
Make note of which topics people don’t seem to care about and which ones people just can’t stop talking about.
Perhaps you can write more posts about the popular topics, but occasionally squeeze in posts you make for your own liking.
You can write about blogging, life, death, fears, inspirations, love, or anything that people can generally relate to.
Blog about something you are passionate about and that is uniquely different from what other bloggers might be talking about. Be inquisitive or surprise your readers with something new – something that you have never posted about.
Your readers can easily tell if you are only trying to squeeze a post in your blog just to write about something.
Instead, write about what inspires you or what you are really fond of at the moment. The key is to make a connection to your readers and reach out to them at times.
Have you taken a step back to look at your layout?
Take a moment to see how easy it is for others to find the comments link.
Do they have to sign in to leave a comment or could they post anonymously?
Make your blog easy to navigate and determine whether you want everyone or only a select few to comment.
Most blogs allowyou to choose whether people can comment freely or be a friend to do so.
Another way to boost your site’s influx of comments is also to market your blog and get your link out there.
Spread your blog link on Facebook or Twitter, and send out emails to your friends inviting them to read your blog.
Use other free social media sites to market your blog.
Add tags to your posts so people could easily search these keywords that will link to your blog.
Lastly, link to other sites as this will eventually bring traffic to you, as well.
Hopefully after you have done the above you will generate traffic, and in turn you will receive valuable comments on your blog posts. Remember to be yourself, and in order to get from your readers you need to give!
Rebecca Chelsey, a designer, has a creative side that she has enjoyed utilizing on both personal and business online projects. Her work as a designer has also taught her a great deal about communicating with people, also useful for website success. Outside her life as mother and wife, she also works for Homeseasons, which has simplified the holidays with 4th of July decorations, Halloween Holiday arrangements and ideas for every holiday in between.
So…what do you think?
How do you get more and more comments posted on your site?
Please share your views in the comments below.
Hi Rebecca
Visitors starting coming to check out my blog and stay to comment when they saw me adding to the conversation on other sites.
I was a complete newbie and the reason I stayed to comment was to show appreciation of the blog owner who had taught me something in the post or to ask questions if I wanted to learn something that was mentioned in the post.
Without realising it, I was getting known and people came to see what I was blogging about and through interaction I now have regular readers, commenters and have made some good friends.
With all the blogs out there; unless we can be ourselves and offer our own unique voice, we will be lost in all the noise that is out there in the blogosphere.
I write my blog in a conversational manner and that seems to work for me. It takes time but for me it has been well worth it.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia
As I have said before…your relationship building technique is great.
In a very short space of time, you have gathered many followers and commenters.
Andrew
Andrew,
Great post. I’ve started leaving open ended questions to encourage more interaction after I listened to an interview with another blogger a few months ago and she suggested doing so, because it really helped her out. It has helped, but I’d still like to get more. Thanks for the new ideas.
Something else that works is to give links to other related posts.
Steve
As per my comment to Corinne above…asking open questions is a great strategy. Well…it works for me.
Andrew
One of the most effective ways I found to build conversation on your blog is to visit blogs of folks whose work you absolutely love and is relevant and similar to your niche and jump in the conversation on their blog.
If you leave thoughtful comments that add value to the conversation and really connect with other bloggers, they’ll visit and support your efforts 😉
The magic of blogging are the relationships that develop as a result of you work.
Thanks for these tips Rebecca and thanks for having a great guest post here Andrew.
Mark
Comments that add to the conversation are the best. Your linked blog post is great – just commented!
Andrew
the number of comments also depends on the blog topic. for example, if your blog is about andoid programming, you probably won’t get that many comments, but if you talk about seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, then there will be enough guys to comment, especially “gurus”, who always have something to say:D
Jake
Andoid programming – what a thought!
I bet there are thousands of people out there who would love to comment on such a topic!
Andrew
Comments being a specialty of mine, i’ll say these are 4 excellent tips.
One that always works for me is, pose the title as a question…right off the bat, readers are thinking of commenting.
Dennis,
That is a great approach. Do your posts with titles get more comments than others?
Andrew
Many times they do, especially when visible on a commenmtluv enabled blog.
I do often find that it’s good to end with a question as to what the reader thinks about the topic. On a list post, you can ask the reader to contribute to the list. Or sometimes even ask for input through putting a poll at the end of your post.
Richard,
Totally agree. Perhaps monthly poll would be a good thing to start!
Andrew
Well, for a new blog I think the best way to start a conversation is to get yourself into a tribe on facebook or create a certain group of newbie bloggers which are in the same niche and comment on each others website in order to get things started.
After, your social accounts should gather more and more friend/followers etc and those might start interact with you if you post some content that they like.
Also, like Patricia, you could start engaging with other bloggers on their own turf (blog) and most of the time they will come and comment back, while others which will read your comment will come visit your blog, and maybe they will leave a comment too.
Having an incentive at the end of every posts is an other way to spur conversations into being.
Alex,
I love your idea to create/join a ‘tribe’. That’s how I started getting more comments and social bookmarking.
Andrew
Hi Andrew and Rebecca. Greast tips for doing a blog. I have had to learn some of this the hard way, but hey I am getting there. At first it was hard for me to ask the questions, but I have learned that if you don’t ask, you won’t recieve.
i do have to admit Andrew has help me with many parts of blogging.
Thank you very much for all the reminders, so I can stay on track.
Debbie
Debbie,
Why was it hard for you to ask the questions?
Andrew
I believe that one of the best ways to create dialogue on your website is to ask an open ended question or sometimes simply stating something which will definitely urge people to comment, like saying something against the norm. The topic as well plays a big role, if you talk about something people do not really understand, forget about commenting, people won’t even bother reading the post- I personally hate blog posts with a lot of technical words.
Pam,
I bet there are thousands of people who love the technical posts. We are all different, arn’t we?
Andrew
Corinne
I’ve been asking questions on my blog posts for several months now and it makes a huge difference.
Andrew
Hello Rebecca,
Some of my posts generate loads of comments. I have noticed that most of my posts don’t get commented on. I’ve given it some thought. I like asking a question for people to answer. But really, I think it’s because my theme puts the comment box on the side. I think people have trouble finding it.
I need a new theme, but I like the way my blog looks. Something to consider for the future. Blog theme shopping is a major task!
Cheryl,
I agree with your thoughts on your theme. Yours is the only one that seems to have the comments on the side. But I do like the overall look.
Andrew
Hi Rebecca,
Great tips! I write a lot about politics and controversial issues. Sometimes the comments can get rather heated, but I try very hard to keep them civil. I don’t allow violent comments at all. I usually as a question, but lately I haven’t been doing that, and the comments are fewer.
I plan to write a post of a lighter tone that asks readers to tell me how they would do the thing I propose I would do in a given situation described in the post. I hope that will stimulate some more reader conversation, then encourage those who stay silent to comment on other posts. I will also start asking a question or inviting comments again at the end of my posts.
Thanks,
Sherri
Sherri,
I can controversial type posts getting some comments albeit sometimes nasty / violet / personal.
I hope some of Rebecca’s ideas do make a difference.
Andrew
All are great tips andrew. Another good way to attract comments is to reward your commentors by integrating commentluv/keywordluv plugin and top commentor plugin in your blog. With the use of these plugins, it helps encourage people to leave a comment.
Aybi
Good points. I do have commentluv/keywordluv plugins installed.
I;ve often thought about installing a top commentor plugin but just never have.
I think I have too many plugins…already!
Andrew
I’m loving #2. It is all about self-portrayal if you’re building up a personal brand of some kind (which I currently am).
The best thing to do if you — just like me — like #2, is to start creating videos. People absolutely love that, especially if you’re funny.
It is all about authenticity, as a wise man once said.
/Nabil, from Sweden.
Nabil,
Humour is hard to get right but it sounds like you have.
What I may think is funny is not what others may think is funny.
Andrew
Rebecca, you have some great points here! I would like to add one more, call to action whenever you publish a blog post. I’ve seen you did it on this guest post, you asked questions in the end of the post, it attracts people to leave a comment to answer your questions.
Anyway, network and relationship with other bloggers is very important, that’s the way toward success.
Great post Rebecca!
Regards,
Lee Ka Hoong
Lee,
And asking for peoples thoughts is easy to do.
I often read posts and there is no question at the end and I think…mmmm what say I comment?
The question tends to make it easier…well for me it does!
Nice to see you hear!
Andrew
It seems like such a simple thing to just ask people to comment. I’ll give this a try and see if people do actally give their comments. I’m sure there are a lot of people that don’t do something unless they are told.
Darren,
Please do try it and let us know how you get on.
Andrew