If your blog and the blog posts on it are attracting a lot of comments, then you must be doing a whole lot of things right. All bloggers worth their salt know that increasing comments on their blog is difficult and if they are able to accomplish this feat, they have got a very successful blog on their hands.
Have you read the first part?
In the first part, I took you through 8 ways, methods or strategies, call them what you will, all geared to increase the comments on a blog.
Now, without wasting any further time, let me take you through 6 more.
Quoting a Well Known Authority and Letting them Know through Twitter
Say you are writing something about blogging and you know of a reputed authority in this particular domain (like Neil Patel of QuickSprout) who has quoted something useful and more importantly something that is very relevant to your topic. Quote this authority, but that’s not enough; in order to leverage the maximum potential of the authority’s quote, you need to contact this person on Twitter to inform him/her of the fact that you have used his/her quote. With your tweet, make sure that you provide a link to your post.
Why Twitter?
Well, it offers you a two fold benefit. Firstly, it allows you to contact the concerned person to let him/her know that you have used his/her quote. This improves your credibility. Also, the fact that you have tweeted the link to your post means the follower of his/her twitter account will be tempted to go through your post. This can improve the readership of your blog post, and if these are interested readers who feel strongly about the topic that you have written on, they will post comments.
Share your Post with a Blogger Friend
The first thing that you must do, when you start blogging is look for blogger friends. These are friends who have their own blogs. You need to make it habit to strike up a conversation with them on social media and also through your comments on their blog posts. This will lead to a process of reciprocation, wherein these bloggers would comment on your blog post.
One of the better ways of ensuring a comment from your blogger friends and their readers’ is you sharing the link to your new blog post through twitter or even a Facebook posting. Remember, what you are trying to do is to get as many readers to your blog as possible, and if this can be done by way of attracting the readership of your blogger friends, there is no harm in it, is there? After all, you can only improve your chances of getting comments on your blog, if you can attract as many readers to your blogs as possible.
The 3 Question Approach
This is like a three card trick, and can give you great returns if you get it right. The way it works is like this. When you have a topic in mind, and are creating a structure for the content, you need to integrate three questions in your content.
The difficulty level of these questions should vary and my advice would be to put the simple one first, the medium one somewhere in the middle and the difficult one, right at the end of your blog post. What should the question be about? Well that’s the difficult part. Try to understand the psyche of the reader while they are going through your post. Try to get into the mind of your prospective readers and think about all that they might be thinking about, at that particular time. Ask questions relevant to the content and about the reader’s own experiences.
Taking the example of this blog post, my first pointer is about quoting a well known authority, so if I was to add some question, it would be along the lines of, “Which well known blogging authority do you follow?”; the question is simple to answer, relevant to the topic, and serious readers will be tempted to give their answer.
This approach also has behavioral roots and psychological overtones. It’s pretty simple really, if there is a question, readers will be tempted to answer it. This is common human behavior. So, make use of it.
The Niche Based Approach
I know all of you are going, “But of course I will cater to my niche, that’s obvious”, but wait… this approach is not about catering to your target niche, but more about writing about a niche that your target readers are going to like reading about.
You can begin by identifying all those niches that your target users can like. Once you shortlist these niches, identify those niches that you are comfortable with, from the knowledge and writing perspective. The idea is to write about what the readers like and not about what you want to write about. This will help you attract better readership and consequently more comments.
Remember, a blog is all about its readers. Writing about a particular topic that your readers are interested in reading about is one of the best ways of increasing reader connect with your blog.
Write Content in Series/Parts
If you are reading a story, don’t you want to know how it ends? Or, if you are reading about a particular subject that is divided into different parts, for easy dissemination and also assimilation, don’t you want to go through the second part, if the first part has proven to be useful?
Well, use the same brand of thinking for the content on your blog. By dividing your content into series or parts, you ensure that your readers will keep coming back to your blog. Quite obviously there are a few riders that you need to keep in mind. The first is the fact that your content should be worthwhile. The second is that it should be comprehensive. The third is that it should be a problem solver and address a certain need of your readers. It is only if your content meets these parameters that it should be divided into a series.
Otherwise, your content will just come across something that has been forcefully converted into a series of posts, in spite of their being no earthly justification to do so.
Share your Post in a relevant Blog Community
You might be surprised to know that there are plenty of people out there looking for the more information on the particular topic/subject that you have written about. But, the only thing is that you need to find these people. These people need to come across the link to your blog post.
This is not as difficult as it seems to be. Your potential readership is frequently visiting various blogging communities to search for links to the kind of posts they like. So, become a part of the relevant blogging community like “BlogEngage” (relevant to your specific niche) and share the link to your post. It is a simple as that. Once you get the readers in, the comments will follow.
So here they are…. A few more ways of improving the comments count on your blog post. Your focus should be on improving the readership of your blog and the comments will follow.
I will end this post with a suggestion – keep exploring ways of increasing the readership to your blog and don’t take your readers for a ride… If you have promised them something, you need to deliver that ‘something’ to them.
What other points will you add to this list of ideas?
Let me know if you know any other unique ways of increasing comments on a blog and I might be able to leverage them with some different thoughts.
Image © bloomua – Fotolia.com
Lee March 17, 2013 at 11:15 am
Hi
Being contributive back to people who comment to make them feel part of your blog is such a big part of any blogs success.
Great stuff lee
bert October 25, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Your post seems to inspire other Famous blogger writers (or just a big coincidence). I’m really not certain if a lot of comments is always a good thing. Any ideas on that?
David Bone June 21, 2012 at 5:44 am
Wonderful tips.. i like the part where you say about blogging about a famous personality and letting him know through twitter.That is just like stealing apart of his popularity. superb.
Pete Goumas May 11, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Hi Pratik,
Thankyou so much for sharing your tips to increase comments in a blogpost. I really liked your blog series/parts idea and it definitely bring back your readers to know what comes next.
Pete Goumas recently posted..What Is Mythology
Jim Antoine from php programmer May 3, 2012 at 2:27 am
I always pursue ways to keep my readers, commenting. I believe that comments are the proof that your article has made people think. That it is not an article somebody reads and then forgets about. When a conversation has started in the comments section, many of the commenters will come back and continue to do so. Some of them will then click on another article you have written and then comment in that article and all over again.
Comments make the blog go round…
Nice tips!
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Rashmi Sinha May 1, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Thank you for sharing with us all these tips. Increasing comments in your blog results in more people reading them and comments can trigger great conversations. Waiting for part 3!
Rashmi Sinha recently posted..Google PR – very fast for Your Blog
Bishwajeet April 19, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Notifying someone on Twitter is a brand new idea and will also help in retweets,we will certainly try to this in near future.
Bishwajeet recently posted..Top 10 Weirdest and Most Controversial Arcade Games
Terry April 19, 2012 at 4:53 am
I think the content has to be interesting and unique to make the readers to read so obviously it has to be interesting, placing content into proper parts is great, this technique of asking questions is sure shot to get the comments. I will implement your strategies in the future to get better results, thanks for sharing.
Elena_Anne April 16, 2012 at 9:28 pm
The most important thing is always to have good, interesting stuff to read. But I like these suggestions because they often lead to increased comments. I have noticed that putting content into parts really is a great approach in the same way that film sequels usually make more money than the predecessors.
That said, comments aren’t a huge deal. As long as you’re getting a lot of people to read your stuff and keep coming back, having a huge amount of comments is secondary.
Marnie Byod April 16, 2012 at 8:43 pm
That sounds interesting, asking more questions to your readers is really important to make readers stay in tuned to your blog and leave more comments. By the way, thanks a lot for sharing this information and I really need it.
Jack Sander April 16, 2012 at 1:14 pm
If I want to increase the number of comments, I write posts about interesting topics. In addition, at the end of the article I ask the readers to give their feedback on the topic. Most of the times it works, but I will implement your strategies in the future to get better results. Thank you for the great tips.
JamesW April 16, 2012 at 10:08 am
Sharing post in relevant blog community can be hard since they are mostly competitors, but still great post and thanks for sharing.
JamesW recently posted..How to Make Money Online Now – Not Tomorrow,Not in a Month!
Jacko April 16, 2012 at 8:54 am
That’s what I’m talking about. I love the recommendation to use series, in a series post. Hilarious. Great job.
Do you think comments are more important than back-links?
Jacko recently posted..Video – Could Zimmerman be sent to #StopKony?
Steven Papas April 15, 2012 at 11:29 pm
Man I missed out on part one and I thought I could make my way through part two without it. I got some good gems but I missed out on a bit so I will be heading over to part one. I’ll be back!
Steven Papas recently posted..Webhosting Plans
Michelle Bailey April 15, 2012 at 9:19 pm
I think bloggers don’t need to focus on gaining comments. They have to focus on the contents of to have a good and interesting post. Nevertheless, thanks for these tips!
Stephen Summner April 15, 2012 at 11:12 am
To see a spike in comments, you need to make the posts more interactive. Rather than making long and boring articles, you should do your best to increase visitors interactive by letting them disagree with you or by courting controversy.
Dave Lucas April 15, 2012 at 6:37 am
HeLLo!
Bloggers need not get all hot and bothered about comments! (I can see them all now, reading this then trying to quote a “well known authority” and let them know through twitter. It’s more SHEEPLE madness!)
The bottom line: if your post is interesting and engaging, readers will comment. You can have uploaded the greatest article ever written, but if the search engines don’t index it, no one will comment. Besides, blogging should not be about how many comments one gets. An A-List blogger friend of mine kept her comments turned-off for more than 2 years after someone threatened her family. By the end of that two years, her blog became more popular than ever and she branched out, thanks to her blog, and began to make radio and eventually TV appearances.
Blog On and PROSPER!
Aditya Sam April 15, 2012 at 2:54 am
Hi Prateek,
Just to liven up this conversation, I have a point to make; Though your tips are good and some of them are not easy to follow, I did not understand where to start. I mean, is writing great content and doing these enough? Certainly no! Readers rely heavily on the website’s reach and its popularity. Lets take my example here, My website, backed by strongly positive reviews has great content, Nice! But do I get comments, even after following some of these tips, No! For readers to believe that they are reading quality content, for most readers at least, they have to be referred from a trusted source or a reliable source maybe. For that, you have to start guest blogging, at some point or the other and that is what you too have done
That’s a tip in itself! There is one more thing left, Several bloggers, particularly in India are part-timers, including me. So, will they be able to find time to follow all of them to their maximum potential. Ugh, I don’t think so! I really like your tips, they can deliver, sure but part-timers will not be able to implement these to the best extent and their passion for blogging starts dwindling. So, I personally think they should start spreading their reach first and then follow your tips. Really appreciate it for sharing it with us. Thanks again 
Aditya Sam recently posted..How To React To a Negative Person to Maintain Your Positivity
Suresh Khanal April 15, 2012 at 1:45 am
Nice post Prateek and they are effective too! The first and the last points results quicker. When you get somebody more influential to tweet about your post, there are more chances that you’ll get more visitors and hopefully they leave a comment. BlogEngage is my favorite network. Apart from it Blokube, BlogInteract and Bloggers.com are also useful.
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Ryan Biddulph April 15, 2012 at 1:38 am
Hi Pratik,
Penning value-packed, helpful comments is a quick way to get comments.
What you want, give away. Want comments? Leave comments. Add value to a post with your insight and become super valuable in the eyes of other bloggers. Some of these bloggers are happy to return the kind, value-adding act, and you receive more comments.
Thanks for sharing!
Ryan Biddulph
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