Home Blogging Tips 5 Ways To Attract More Comments On Your Blog

5 Ways To Attract More Comments On Your Blog

February 10, 2012 By Filed Under: Blogging Tips 33 Comments

Attracting More Comments to Your BlogGetting more comments on your blog has many benefits to you and your readership.

Before we take a look at ways to attract more comments, let’s take a look at those benefits.

Benefits of having more commenters on our blogs:

Benefits to you the blog owner:

  • Provides an indication of the engagement of your readers.
  • Builds community to increase your readership.
  • Provides a measurement for your SEO and promotion activities.

Benefits to your readers:

  • They get a feel for your engagement with them.
  • They get access to varied views on a given topic.
  • Community, community, community, everyone wants some.

These are some of the benefits of having more commenters. Good benefits all around. Benefits that provide growth for both sides of the blogging equation – the blogger and the reader.

Now let’s take a look at ways we can attract more commenters to our blogs:

1. Good quality content.

This is not a trick or technique – it is a principle upon which your blog must be built. The first and foremost way to attract more commenters to your blog is by providing readers with quality content.

Readers come to you because they like what you write and the way you write it. They want content that is  both informative and resourceful. They want to be able to take something away from your posts.

Without consistent, quality content you have no attraction magnet to draw anyone to your blog.

2. Use CommentLuv plugin.

CommentLuv is an awesome plugin which allows your commentators to leave a comment and a link back to their last blog post; while encouraging them to engage more on your blog. They also benefit from the additional exposure to their own blog.

We use this plugin here at For Bloggers By Bloggers.

3. Ask your readers questions.

The goal here is increased comments through engagement. You can ask your readers questions in the body of your post.

You can ask the questions at the end of your post as a “Your Turn” option.

You can ask questions through your replying to comments.

Ask questions and get more comments.

4. Use Top Commentator plugin.

Everyone loves to be tops in something including being the Top Commentator on your blog!

Top Commentator Widget is another great plugin worth installing in your blog. Reward your top blog commentators with a backlink on the homepage of your blog.

You might even consider providing a prize for the Top Commentator of the Month. Have fun with it!

5. Make sure you are engaged in the conversation.

The is nothing worse in my eyes than a blog with no author engagement in the comments.

Simply put, you cannot expect to attract more comments to your blog if you are not willing to participate in the comments. Reply to your readers. Engage them in a further conversation related to your post.

Please, make the effort – you will be glad you did.

Now you have 5 ways to attract more comments on your blog.

Your Turn:

How do you encourage more comments? What other ways can you add to the list? What works for you?

Let’s chat in the comments!

image: torley

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About Frank Dickinson

Frank Dickinson wants to be intimately involved in creating conversations about the subjects that interest him the most; Internet and Affiliate Marketing, Social Media and Personal Development. On his blog, "creating conversations in a world of chatter", you will find tutorials, screencasts, reviews, blog posts, videos and whatever else he can get his hands on to teach, enlighten and inspire.

  • http://marketsecrets.biz Caleb

    Sometimes it is the simplest of posts that generate the most comments and as long as it’s written with some degree of passion then ppl will comment because they will be able to feel it…it’s like an empathy thing ;)

    • http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson

      You are so right Caleb – the passion in our writing is felt by our readers – thus leading to comments!

  • http://www.wmwebdesign.co.uk/ Keith Davis

    Hi Frank
    5 good tips.

    May I add:

    Use the subscribe to comments plugin to get the conversation going and…

    You’ve already mentioned asking a question at the end of the post, but you can also add a question when you reply to comments.
    Doing that encourages commenters to reply.

    Good idea, don’t you think?

    • http://www.saraharrow.co.uk Sarah Arrow

      “You’ve already mentioned asking a question at the end of the post, but you can also add a question when you reply to comments.
      Doing that encourages commenters to reply.

      Good idea, don’t you think?”

      it’ll never catch on Keith ;)

      • http://www.wmwebdesign.co.uk/ Keith Davis

        Yes… you’re right Sarah.
        I’ll knock it on the head.

        Good to hear from you Sarah.

    • http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson

      Love the Subscribe to comments plugin Keith – and YES – asking questions in comments is a good strategy to encourage further conversation.

      What type of questions do you find yourself asking?

      • http://www.wmwebdesign.co.uk/ Keith Davis

        Stop it Frank – made me smile though. LOL

    • http://ariherzog.com/ Ari Herzog

      Keith, do you really care to read every comment after yours? Or, do you only care about people replying to you?

  • http://kensviews.com Ken Jacobs

    Helpful post, Frank. I always do #s3 and 5. Hope I consistently do #1. Will explore #s2 and 4. Thanks!

    • http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson

      My pleasure Ken – keep um rocking!

  • http://www.saraharrow.co.uk Sarah Arrow

    I think engagement / comments is relative to the goals of the blog. My biggest earning blog has almost zero engagement. I wouldn’t want to do anything that stopped it financially doing what it does best.

    I love Comment Luv :)

    • http://www.wmwebdesign.co.uk/ Keith Davis

      Agree Sarah
      My easypublicspeaking blog earns zero, but has hundreds of comments.

      My wmwebdesign blog only has a few comments, but it’s starting to make money.

      As you say “…relative to the goals of the blog.”

  • http://www.ryanhanley.com Ryan Hanley

    Do you guys use the standard CommentLuv or CommentLuv Premium? I see a lot of people advertising CommentLuv Premium

    Thanks!

    Ryan H.

    • http://ariherzog.com Ari Herzog

      Considering CLP includes CL and several other plugins in one, it’s well worth the investment. Check out my own thoughts on it below…

    • http://dannybrown.me Danny Brown

      Hi Ryan,

      We use the Premium version here. I like how it brings CommentLuv, GASP anti-spam, Twitterlink and KeywordLuv under one roof. Also, the ability to offer commenters extra links to choose from in exchange for a social share is pretty cool too. :)

  • http://www.ipnostudio.com Andrea Hypno

    Hi Frank, I’m using Livefyre on my blog and it works pretty well but surely CommentLuv is great too; I’ve had to decide between the two and went for Livefyre but in the case I change my mind CommentLuv is ready to go. I had very positive results even if i’m not sure how much is due to Livefyre and its seo friendliness or to commenting on other blogs and following the advices of FBBB. I did all three more or less at the same time. Whatever the reason my traffic jumped up. :)

    But I agree with Keith and Sarah that it’s also relative to the blog. The same is also true for traffic, it doesn’t happen so rarely that I make more money with less traffic and some cents the day traffic is very high, especially using things like Adsense. Well, this can also be due to the fact that some days ads are relevant to the articles and most of the days they are not.

    While I find sometimes difficult to follow comments on other blogs after having left mine I always reply to comments on my blog, it’s also a matter of respect as I do what I like to be done to me.

    Have a great Sunday!

  • http://www.ipnostudio.com Andrea Hypno

    About Adsense: six clicks and less than 1 euro total. I should definitely find another way to monetize my website. Or find out higher paying keywords. Because with this ratio I have to have 60 clicks for less than ten euros. And that’s pretty hard to get. Oh well. :)

    • http://profitduck.com Simon Duck

      Hi,

      My Adsense on one website, which gets all my clicks, pays terribly, didn’t research keywords enough obviously! And then my blog which gets about £1 per click never gets any clicks. The way of life aye ha!

      Need to remember to install the top comments plugin! The thing I have been meaning to do for ages.

      Regards,
      Simon Duck

      • http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson

        Simon – that Top Commenters plugin has been greatly used by a lot of bloggers. I think it is one that can be beneficial to any blog of any niche. Thanks for stopping by!

    • http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson

      Smart stuff here Andrea!

  • http://www.roshsillars.com Rosh Sillars

    Thanks for the plugin suggestions.

    I think keeping it social by thanking and communicating back to people who comment on your blog always encourages them to return.

    Rosh

  • http://www.seattleweddingofficiants.com Elaine

    I always finish my posts with a “call to action” such as, what was your favorite toast at your wedding, or what kind of cake did you have at your wedding. My biggest problem is that I am not a very good writer. I’m much better at seeing things in my head and executing them right away than writing about them. Any suggestions? I currently have a weekly post going called Customs, Traditions and Rituals which focuses on the history of some traditions and how they have evolved in the 21st century. Still, I think it’s all been done. I just wish I could write better.

    • http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson

      Elaine – just a thought – if people are reading what you write – you are a better writer than you think.

  • http://bloglady.net/ L.J.

    CommentLuv is a great way to encourage participation among your readers. But often these are from other bloggers and Internet marketers looking to get backlinks by way of commenting. Not that that’s a bad thing. It just might not be suitable for all niches. I use CommentLuv myself.

    By the way, CommentLuv is showing a parsing error here. :)

    • http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson

      You have to take the good and the good sometimes eh? Spot on in your assessment LJ.

  • http://www.logallot.com Sonia

    These were great tips and I love CommentLuv Premium myself. I found that my readers love the opportunity to share their latest posts and I get new content to read. It’s a win-win for us both. Something else to factor in is responding to all comments. Readers just want to be acknowledged and having the blog author engage with their audience is golden.

    Danny does this well on his blog and when I started out blogging, that is where I learned that from. No matter how busy you are, the more time you can give your readers, the more time they will give you. You might not be able to respond to the masses, but it makes a huge difference in the long run. Great post Frank!

    • http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson

      Thanks Sonia! Looks like we both have learned the art of commenting from Mr. Brown – it’s an ongoing thing with me!

  • http://ineeddiscipline.com Dean Saliba

    I saw a big increase when I turned my blog into a dofollow one. I know this will attract a lot of spam comments but it has also brought in a lot of decent comments that I might now have received otherwise.

    • http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson

      My blog is a dofollow blog as well Dean – with a good spam filter you can keep out the bad and bring in the good!

  • http://www.seattleweddingofficiants.com Elaine

    Ok, well I’ll keep slogging along then…:)

  • ThunderShelley

    I’m new to blogging and trying to figure everything out. Great advice! Thank you!

  • http://www.sillymummy.com/ sillymummy

    It’s useful to get to know a bit about the person commenting before I reply to their comment. I visit their blogs so I can mention things from their blogs, such as their kids or their hobbies.

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