Blog comments do a lot of good things for your blog. They help with SEO, with page ranking, they engage your readers, and help your internet business immensely. Here are some tips on how to get more blog comments.
Blog Style
The blog’s style will help foster comments or it’ll discourage them. By ending your blog with an open-ended question, you give reader’s a cue that you want to discuss the subject at hand. Writing discussion provoking blog posts will naturally encourage readers to answer.
Get More Blog Comments By Answering Questions
Your blog comments are necessary as well. You can’t just say “Discuss amongst yourselves” People will talk to one another, yes, but they want to talk to you. Be sure you answer each commenter, this is a great way to get more blog comments in itself, as your answers may spur on more questions.
Return The Favour
Stop by the commenter’s blog if they have one and comment on their posts. They’ll appreciate the favour. It only takes a moment and could also help you bring new visitor’s to your blog. Link back to your site and to a relevant post directly if possible and you’ll have a good chance of getting your blog comment approved (which is good for your site’s SEO) and you may coerce readers to visit, comment, and maybe even subscribe to your blog.
CommentLuv
CommentLuv is a plugin that lets commenters link to the last post on their own blog. A great incentive for leaving a comment!
Link To Blog Posts
If you link to blog posts in other blogs and have the trackbacks feature turned on in your settings, other posts will link in the comments. This will be the case when other blogs link back as well. People will click through to read those other posts and you’ll be alerted to others’ linking to your useful blog post in the blogosphere. (When they do, be sure to stop by the blog posts and thank them)
Moderate Comments
Pay attention to the posts on the blog. You don’t want male enhancement comments that are disguised as real comments. They’ll discourage other commenters and pull down the rank and rep of your blog. And, you don’t want flame wars going on, either. Don’t be afraid to delete comments. Your blog – your rules.
Question: How do you get more blog comments? (see what I did there!)
Have a most outstanding day.
Sean RasmussenAussie Internet Marketing
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008 - 2010
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the blog’s design and style of leaving comments is HUGE! If people see a bland comment section or something that’s difficult to use, I can see why nobody would want to leave comments and how it can get annoying. But then again, if you’re running a powerful blog nobody can argue with gaining tons of comments
Exactly, you want to make it as easy as possible for readers to leave comments.
Regards – Sean
Tks for some good reminders. I haven’t replied to all the comments on my blogs up to now but I will start doing so.
Regarding “disguised” comments – would you delete them in case you find the link that was put into CommentLuv not appropriate / not something you want to support? Tks for your thoughts on that.
Hi Renee
Answering your blog comments is very important, great to hear you will now be doing so
If you find comments that seem inappropriate/disguised, or look like spam comments…send them to spam and delete them. You will find lots and lots of these, so keep your eye out for them and take appropriate action.
Regards – Sean
I put a little call to action at the end of my posts, and I do have CommentLuv installed (practise what you preach, eh?
)
You’re right though. It’s amazing how many people just don’t bother to comment on other people’s blogs. You need to foster a community if you’re going to get anywhere!
Hi Andrew
A call to action is a fantastic idea, generally, if you don’t ask you don’t receive
Regards – Sean
Great article Sean. Especially the bit about asking and answering comments. Personally I’m new to the Blog area, but I’ll definitely add this in… and then I can come back and tell you.
Thanks.
Hi Paul
Glad you enjoyed it mate. Take action on the advice in the article and I am sure you will see more comments on your posts. Don’t forget to comment on other peoples blogs as well…what goes around comes around!
Regards – Sean
I check my comments on a almost daily basis. It is something that I make a task to do. There is nothing worse than seeing somebody paste a whole lot of links into a comment which are for either self promotion or are plain inappropriate.
I usually take a quick look at the website that the commenter has left just to make sure that I am not promoting a tasteless site or something inappropriate.
I have not yet used the call the action – but definitely will try it.
Good stuff Cemil, great to see you know the importance of blog comments..and the importance of removing the inappropriate ones.
I personally get hundreds of spam comments filled with links each week, I don’t know why they bother, they are all spammed
Regards Sean
Hi Sean
Thanks for the great article and tips.
I try to reply to comments but haven’t as yet used the call to action. Great tip I will now start using
My pleasure Gee, glad you are benefiting from my articles. Calls to action are really important, as you quite often don’t get anything unless you ask
Regards – Sean
Hi Sean
I hadn’t thought of commenting on the blogs of people who comment on mine. That’s a great tip that I will be doing from now on.
Karen
It’s a great way of repaying the favour Karen. Happy commenting
Great post full of useful tips! My site is fairly new and I am also having a hard time getting my readers to leave comments. Analytics shows they are coming to the site but I have a feeling “nobody wants to be first”.
My site with very few post comments is WeirdLawsuits.com
Anybody reading this comment is more than welcomed to leave a comment on WeirdLawsuits.com as well. You can also leave your “first impression” or other opinions on the Feedback page.
Thanks again for this great post!
As your site attracts more readers and gets some age on it’s side, I am sure the comments will start to roll in Steve, especially if you apply some of the tips outlined in this article.
Hey everyone,
I have 2 questions about blog commenting in regards to getting your website ranked. Should I list my blog website in the comment field like so, link deleted or just in the field that says website.
Also, does dropping your website keywords in your comment help?
Sorry if im coming off as self serving and/or desperate but im still kinda new at this internet marketing thing, im starting off with blog commenting, so any comments or advice would be helpful
thanks,
jen
Hi Jen
Just in the field that says website is the way to go, as placing a link within your actual comment can be seen as spam and self-serving as you mentioned (I deleted yours for this reason by the way). Many blog owners will just delete your entire comment if you place a link within the comment. Dropping your keywords within a comment can also be seen as spam unless your keyword has something to do with the post you are commenting on. My advice is to comment on the actual post you have just read as that is what comments are for. Sure, getting a backlink is great, but you won’t get too many if it looks like you are trying to spam for links.
Hi Sean & Jen
Thanks Jen for the question. It has helped me.
Sean, My blog is still not registering in the comment (that I can see) from the website field.
Due to this problem, on a couple of resent occasions I tried to ad my URL into the comment section. I now know why it didn’t work, either.
I wonder why my blog is not registering?
Hi Jill – Do you mean to this blog? There has to be some kind of blog linking feature, like CommentLuv. This blog doesn’t have one.
Hi Sean – You didn’t mention: Start a competition and give away $1,000 and other prizes!!! I thought that would have been a ripper way to get more comments!
Hello Sean,
I never thought to check out the all comments and have a look at their blogs. That makes sense, because then again you are taking time to form a relationship!!
I like how you suggest to answer blog comments, I have started to go back and answer comments
Great tips for getting more Blog Comments, that makes writing a blog worth while.
Cheers
Lisa
Excellent article.
I am fortunate in that on my personal blog I have many comments, all of which I have answered. I don’t know how I did it, but somehow I get an email notification whenever anyone comments on my blog.
Also, for some reason, there seems to be a spam type filter on my blog that allows me to approve or disapprove of having the comments posted. I find this very helpful because the spammers certainly are out there.
I agree totally with what you say. Scratching each other’s backs is certainly the most sensible and easy way to go.
Of course, I don’t expect you to comment on all my comments, but I enjoy commenting
.
Hi Sean,
This is excellent advice. It’s tough when you write a blog post and no-one comments on it. Again, I think it’s about building relationships with other bloggers. We all want the same thing; more comments.
So, I think if we start commenting on other people’s blogs and interacting with the community; maybe people will start to comment on our blogs.
Over the last 6 months I have realized the power of blog comments, at first I thought it was just abit of fun and definitely under estimated the SEO value. I do use CommentLuv which I find works really well, but there a few more great tips in your post Sean I plan to put into action.
Cheers Cade : )
Hi Lina,
Sorry I have taken so long to answer your question. My blog link wasn’t showing. I changed browser and the link worked. This article doesn’t have a CommentLuv like you say, I wished it did.
I’m enjoying reading the articles and hope some of the learning will sink in. Also enjoying the current, Learn and Earn Competition where $20,000 worth of cash and prizes is up for grabs.
Thanks for your help.
Hi Sean
There is a spelling mistake in the last paragraph ‘You don’t want male enhancement comments’ I think ‘male’ needs to be replaced with ‘to make’
Male enhancement comments is correct Elly
. You will notice a lot of comments coming through your blog that promote male enhancement products!
Oh I see, well what can I say? I am just having a laugh at myself here… I am tempted to say more but I think I will zip it!
Hi Sean
This is great information as I have been thinking about how I can get more blog comments on my site.
Answering questions is something I had not thought about and also getting the ‘CommentLuv’ plug in.
Thank you for the tips.