No matter what topic people blog on, they have all gnashed their teeth over blog comments at one time or another. In some cases, it is too many comments. Most of the time, however, it is not enough comments. I know I was embarrassed when I ran a contest and got a grand total of five comments. One of those was my answer to a question and one of those was the guest poster’s reply to a question. Absolutely mortifying.
I did what research nerds do and started researching the problem. Advice varied on how to elicit more comments. Post controversial topics was a common suggestions. I write on gardening and intersperse product and book reviews with my garden posts. Not exactly controversial topics here. On to another technique. Ask questions that readers can comment on. A good idea, except that I am trying to educate readers on best practices or tell them my experience with a product or book. While good quality comments are welcome, wing nuts telling how great uncle Bob used some creosote to kill crawdads (and polluted the water for miles around) are not exactly welcome.
Comment on other people’s blogs
One technique was to comment on other people’s blogs in the hope that they would reciprocate. That one made sense to me, so off I go to comment on some blogs I read. In doing so, I found a little box called “ComLuv” on some blogs. This box used my website information to post my last blog post beside my comment. I thought that was cool. Then I got a gravatar, which used my email to post my picture beside my comments. Finally, I followed the “ComLuv” directions to register my site and can now choose between the last ten posts I have made when making a comment. If the last post was not particularly germane, I pick one that was.
How to obtain comments
On the same webpage, ComLuv mentioned a contest. In conjunction with FamousBloggers, they are running a blogging contest about how to obtain comments. Points are awarded for originality, number of comments, number of retweets, and just cause. The observant among you will notice I do not have ComLuv on my blog. That is because currently ComLuv only works on WordPress and Blogger, not GoDaddy. I have asked about getting it for GoDaddy and hope that it will become available. Perhaps entering this contest will remind the programmers of that request and get them to expand the types of blog platforms that ComLuv will work on. WordPress and Blogger are the 800 pound gorillas of the blogging platforms, but there are lots of other platforms that people use, and GoDaddy is a significant one. I want my readers to be able to link to their posts as a way of encouraging comments. That also provides me with a linkback, something the ranking systems like. And, of course, I would not turn down any money this contest offered me as a prize for my post, either.
What is your ways to obtain encouraging comments on your blog?
This post is part of our amazing Blogging Contest, plz add a comment and tweet it to support the author.
Article by Stephanie Smith
Ever been pooped on by a rattlesnake? I have. I use experiences such as that and the solid research skills I gained getting my Ph.D. in clinical psychology to turn out informative, helpful nonfiction articles on such diverse topics as dogs, gardening, woodworking, and bugs. That way you can stay at a safe distance from the snakes in life and avoid all the other pitfalls there, too. What article may I write for you?
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Stephanie,
What a great post. I have been trying to figure out how to get more comments on my websites. I just recently signed up with CommentLuv and started using this great plugin.
My main website has to do with golf and although I do get a few comments from time to time, the volume is nothing to write home about.
I would have to say that my lack of time and interaction with other blogs probably has a lot to do with it.
I found your site because of the Andy Bailey and his book “a Grands worth of grand articles”.
I will be back to read more.
Thanks so much!
David
David Wakeman recently posted..5 Ways to Boost Your Traffic and Profits
Hi Stephanie,
Its superb.
I still really new to the blogging world. There are still lot of thing I need to learn. Today I read several great posts from you regarding social implications, blog comment, building our blog community, including this great post for ComLuv. I am now join the ComLuv community, read more blog post and try to add useful, nice and polite comment. Hopefully I can encourage someone to comment on my blog.
wow thanks for the tips and tricks. i am sure that this tips and tricks will really help for us to increase a lot of comments{excluding spam
} in our blog.
Sudeep Acharya recently posted..You can’t Change facebook Page name after 100 user like it
Obtaining comment arises from the quality content of a blog, post, forums and article. It substantially will have positive and great comments specially when it’s educative. Hope to see a lot of post that will help me do best on SEO marketing.
I will have to agree with you, Stephanie, the CommentLuv plugin is an absolutely great way to get fellow bloggers interested in you content to comment on you blog.
For me, it makes the difference between hanging around or not.
I have enabled both CommentLuv and KeywordLuv on my blog and have definitely seen an increase of activity simply because of the keywords associated with finding these plugins.
I hope GoDaddy lets you eventually add it to your blog.
Mark
Mark recently posted..Off Page SEO – 12 Techniques To Build Backlinks To Your Website
Seems like it’s prett obvious that ComLuv gets alot of comments, what’s nice is that they are usually pretty good quality. Seems to me that people take their time more to make a reasoned response. How in the world the spam gets sorted out, I know not!Can Akismet and CommentLuv co-exist? I don’t know.
Regarding “Comment on other people’s blogs”: I have found that only a tiny percentage of bloggers practice reciprocity in commenting. Of course, when a blogger is getting dozens and dozens (or hundreds and hundreds) of comments, it is impossible for him/her to do so. But I’ve commented on blogs that are getting just a handful, or even NO, comments; and the blogger neither responds to the comment nor reciprocates. AND some of those are people who have announced in one way or another that they will! I don’t get it.
I’ve followed a similar practice, and in my case, it happens that when I comment on other blogs I like, sometimes the author jumps on my blog and starts commenting, which I like it.
I also direct people whom I’ve previously talked with (by email) to check out my post or jump on Skype and share some links of interest to my connections. I also like to encourage comments straight up at the bottom of most of the posts I write.
P.S. Some bloggers turn off comments option when they reach 50, 100 or whatever specific number, and mention that, in order to encourage comments I guess.
*** What do you think about this practice: good, bad, smart?
Codrut recently posted..13 of the Best Squeeze Page Examples on the Internet
Hi Stephanie,
I still really new to the blogging world. There are still lot of thing I need to learn. Today I read several great posts from you regarding social implications, blog comment, building our blog community, including this great post for ComLuv. I am now join the ComLuv community, read more blog post and try to add useful, nice and polite comment. Hopefully I can encourage someone to comment on my blog.
Rose recently posted..Art Paintings vs Art of Living
I agree with Darlene. Sometimes I’ve absorbed so much about so many things, I feel like my head is going to spin off! LOL
Kristie Sloan recently posted..Service or Greed?
Yes, sometimes it is hard to know where to focus your efforts. This at least helps you be more effective. You can get to know other blogs in your area and get known at the same time.
Stephanie Suesan Smith recently posted..Need Comments and Retweets To Win Contest
Yes, we call that spam. Thanks for checking my post out Darlene, nice to see you. I get a lot of that where people include a link for something that is unrelated to the post. Like you, I delete them.
Stephanie Suesan Smith recently posted..Understanding the USDA Plant Zone Map
This is partially a new world for me. I had never heard of CommentLuv until you wrote about it here. There are so many aspects to social networking. It’s important but just about impossible to keep up with all of it! I find that one of my blog occasionally gets ads for other bloggers. In other words, they use my blog to post something entirely unrelated. I go in and delete those.
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