Replying to comments on your blog is another one of those basic, no-brainer things you must be doing. In fact, it is so basic, many of us either overlook or forget to do it. For today’s edition of 28 Days to a Successful Blog, I wanted to spend time talking about this basic activity and what it can do for you and your blog.
Reply to Comments on your blog!
Early in your blog’s growth and existence, you may not get that many comments. And this is a perfect time to get in the great habit of replying to those comments. The key is to not just say thanks for commenting. You want to add something to the conversation you started with your blog post. Your commentators don’t want to see a reply that only says “thanks for commenting” any more than you want to see a comment which says “great post, thanks.”
One of the great benefits of a blog for a business or professional service firm is the opportunity to start and engage in a conversation with your audience. And replying to comments is just one more way to engage in that conversation. With the new 2.7 version of WordPress, replying to comments just got a lot easier.
WordPress 2.7 gives you a built in ability to reply inside the Dashboard. And best of all, comments are now threaded so you can reply to a specific comment. Not only has this made replying easier to do, it gives us one less excuse to not reply to comments. All you have to do is hit reply to a particular comment and you do it right in your Dashboard. Try it, you might like it.
Don’t forget to visit the blogs of those who comment!
If you are using WordPress or any of the other top blogging platforms, your commentators usually have the chance to put in a URL in the fields they fill out to comment. If they do, click on their link in your comments and check out their blogs. Here is what might happen if you do:
- You might find a new blog you may want to subscribe to and read on a regular basis.
- You could find a post on that blog that you could leave a relevant comment on yourself.
- The commentator/blogger you go visit may notice you came on over and come back to your blog to see if you replied to their comment.
- You may actually develop a relationship with this new blogger/commentator
As a side note, you can get plugins which give your commentators the ability to subscribe to comments on your blog. Get it and install it. This is another way you can help keep the conversation going on your own blog.
Your homework for today
The next time you get comments on your blog, take some time to leave a good, relevant reply to some of your comments. And visit the blogs of some of those commentators too.
And leave your comments here to this post too. Lets keep the conversation going!
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