How to Increase Comments on your Blog
Do you wish more people would comment on your blog? The catch 22 is that comments attract more comments. But you have to get some comments, to get more of them. While good solid content is the most important thing to attracting comments, what do you do while you’re building content? Sometimes you feel like you are blogging out there all alone.
photo credit Frielp
16 Surefire ways to Increase Comments
1) Comment on blogs that are similar to your blog. If you are a writer, comment on other writing blogs. If you are a photography nut, comment on photography blogs. I try and comment only if I have something of value to contribute to the conversation–more than a “nice post” type comment.
2) Comment on new blogs. When blogs first start out it is hard for them to get comments. If you find a new blog with few comments and it interests you, leave a comment.
3) If someone comments on your blog, hop over and check out their blog and leave a comment. The blogging world is a community that thrives on comments.
4) Reply to comments made on your blog. If they ask a question, make sure to answer. This keeps the conversation going in your comments.
5) Set Wordpress to email you comments made to your posts so you don’t miss any of them. Go to the Wordpress Admin page. Options. Discussion. Make sure there is a check mark next to “email me whenever anyone posts a comment.” You should also put a check mark next to “notify me if a comment is held for moderation.” (a comment caught by any spam filters you have set up).
6) Another way to encourage comments is to write a post featuring some of the best comments made on your posts that week (or month).
7) If someone makes a great comment, take that comment and expand it into a full post on your blog. Give credit to the original commenter.
8) Do you use Stumbleupon? Digg? or other social network? If so, why not Stumble or Digg your commenter’s blog if it’s a blog that interests you.
9) Don’t make it difficult for your users to comment. There should be no captcha to fill out, (those twisted letters some sites have that you have to try and figure out and type them in before your comment will be posted). Don’t penalize your real commentors for the spam that spammers send out. Use plugins such as askimet (comes with a standard Wordpress install) to control spam.
10) Don’t require registration on your blog before a reader is allowed to comment. Don’t put up stumbling blocks to comments. Blogs are about conversations. Don’t do anything to hinder how easy it is to comment on your blog.
11) Don’t moderate comments without a good reason. While some blogs choose to moderate first time commenters, we don’t on this blog. The comments instantly appear even for first time commenters. Yes, you’ll get some weird comments sometimes. An occasional spam might get through. (which you can go in and delete) You have to weigh this against how encouraging it is for a first time commenter to see their comment appear right away, especially if you aren’t at your computer a lot to deal with moderation of comments.
12) Offer a contest on your blog where readers enter by leaving a comment.
Wordpress Plugins to Increase Comments
13) Use the Subscribe to Comments Plugin. This allows people to easily follow along with the conversation in the comment section.
14) The recent comment plugin is an easy to use widget you can set up from your Wordpress Admin page. Recent comments will appear in your sidebar.
15) Top Commenters Plugin allows you to list the top commenters in your sidebar with links to their blogs.
16) End your posts with a question or two. Like I’m going to do here. Have you found any ways to increase the comments on your blog? Do you use any of these methods? Which ones seem to work for you?
If you would like to learn more about creating, maintaining, and promoting your author website along with the creative spirit it represents, please subscribe to our
full RSS feed.
Great tips, Kacey. I don’t get many comments on my blog, and less since I’ve stopped blog-hopping. Note to self - blog-hop more.
I use moderation for first-time commenters then they can comment freely after that. That works pretty well for me. I’m on hand most of the time to approve comments quickly.
This is a great list of tips! I use the comment moderation the same way Suzanne does. It works for me because I rarely have anything TO moderate. :)
I used to visit other blogs a lot more than I do now. Must get back to that. :) And I always check out the blogs of people who comment on mine.
Memes like Thursday 13 make a huge difference in the comments I get, not only on the meme itself but in the rest of my blog.
Margery and Vicki, visiting other blogs does help increase traffic to your own blog, doesnt it (my keyboard is not letting me type an apostrophe…)
Alice, yes, the Thursday 13 and memes to increase traffic and comments. I should have included that! Thanks for adding that tip.
I think the hard part is finding time to comment and visit all the blogs. There just aren’t enough hours in the day! :)