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?

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