Whew! I made it! 6 months of blogging. [I did a post at 3 months.]. So now I'm way past people just visiting my blog, I want them to comment. Don't you just love comments? :)
I did a little research, both online and through some books I found at the library. Here are 13 ways to get more people to comment. These are not exhaustive. Some I've tried, some I haven't.
1. Write short posts. Especially if you want people to read through your entire post.
2. If your topic is really descriptive, add pictures to sustain interest. And keep important points at the beginning of the post.
3. Ask questions. Try to do it subtly in the beginning and at the end. People love to answer questions. Somehow "what do you think?" is a better call to action than "let me know what you think".
4. Respond to your commenters. Reply to their questions. Visit their blogs. Familiarity breeds participation. Whenever I participate in memes, I always visit blogs of people who have left me lovely comments first because I remember them..:).
5. Relevant content. Content can be targeted for a niche group of people or to a wider audience. People like to respond to something they can relate to. Just last month, I blogged about something as mundane as scissors and people commented and answered my questions. I guess it's because everybody has a pair somewhere.
6. As much as you wish to be thorough, leave your post a little open-ended so that readers will comment to point out to you what you missed out.
7. Have a giveaway. Personally, I haven't tried this but by observation, this seems to work. Have you tried it?
8. Ask for help in solving problems...people are generally helpful and sympathetic.
9. Visit blogs and leave meaningful comments. This really really works. I no longer leave meaningless single word comments that add no value because you really get what you give...:)
10. Disable the word verification function. Apparently this is a turn-off for a lot of people. Personally, when I experience difficulty in leaving a comment (because blogger sometimes hangs at this stage), I just don't. I've disabled this function for two weeks now and so far no spam and a few more comments I think....:) Have any of you had problems?
11. Substantiate your posts with relevant links. Check to make sure the links work.
12. Be positive. No one likes to read a whiny post. Vent if you must but stay generally upbeat. I gave up visiting a blog entirely because the writer blamed everyone else for her "miserable life" and the language was totally offensive. Have you had such an experience?
13. Be yourself. You don't have to be an open book but people respond positively to authenticity.
I leave you with this post on how to leave a great comment. There's a hilarious YouTube video in it that you must watch! Oh yeah, before you go, have you left a comment on my post? ;)
Inspired by Thursday 13.
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10 comments:
Great post :) Got me to comment, lol. I do offer giveaways, I love to particiapte in them so it is my way of paying it forward! I too hate the word verification thing! I turned mine off weeks ago!!
great post...I have also observed most of these in the short time that I have been blogging......I love to receive meaningful comments. I do try to take care of most of the points mentioned.....will work on the others too.....
Two other things: autoplay noise of any sort. That's an instant Close the Window for me, with the post unread.
And making sure I don't need to join your group or register or subscribe in order to comment. All big turn-offs.
I like to comment on blogs. It's a great way to build community.
woot woot for 6 months of blogging! This is a great post...btw, I just added you to my google reader :) I'm a blurf-aholic and some days, I admit, I do really short comments and other days they are long. I turned off my word verification last year...personally I don't like them when I have to type them in...it doesn't stop me from leaving a comment but I just don't like them :)
Okay,off to surf and comment on some of your blog posts...have a super day!
Ooh, I'm terrible about venting sometimes, because my blog is my ONLY outlet to do so. I do try to keep the whining to a minimum, though.
I couldn't agree more with the short posts suggestion. My posts can be long sometimes, and that is something else I am working on. But I have one blogger who I only read about once a week, because the blogger updates every single day, and the posts are soooooooooo very long that I can't possibly touch on all the points I'd like to - I've forgotten them by the time I reach the end.
I'd rather do word verification than have to click through a partial feed in my feed reader to finish reading a post, though.
What is your opinion of partial feeds?
I'm just here via TT, and couldn't wait to read your post because I am always trying to engage my readers more, get more readers, and hopefully more comments at some point :) Happy Thursday!
Great tips! I agree with all of these. Some of my good friends I met through blogging - so I love it!
And yes, giveaways sooooo do work! I have one going right now if you wanna check it out, it's a few posts down my page, but you can't miss it - it's the one with over 80 comments (which is way more comments than I usually get - haha).
Excellent tips. I've noticed that my comments have waned a little bit, but I'm hoping to get that back up. From my stats it looks like folks are still visiting, but they're doing a little stalking. LOL... I'm going to try holding another contest soon. The first one didn't go over so well, but I've learned a few things since then. It's nice "meeting" you... I came over from Susan's place.
I tend to get a little long-winded on my posts and have been trying to fix that - I should break up longer posts into multiple ones!
You wrote a post about scissors? Whatever sparked that one???
Thanks for stopping by PopArtDiva™ Retro Boomer Blog this week!
Wonderful suggestions! I'm interested to read your scissor post now :)
Yes, you deserve a comment from me!!! I loved reading this, knew most of it but certainly will try some other things! Thanks for sharing! (btw, congrats on the Scrapping the Music Guest Designer spot! Awesome!)
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Thanks for visiting my blog and taking time to leave a comment. I really appreciate it. Have an awesome day!:)
Cheers, Yvonne.