I know exactly what you are going through. Anyone that is blogging and has been blogging for any length of time understands too. You write what you think is a kiss butt post. You do all the right things. The new post brings in traffic so you have the feeling people are reading the post. But, you received only a few comments if you received any at all.
Don’t dispair and don’t give up. For the most part, you haven’t done anything wrong. After all, you are well ahead of most who are blogging. You are at least posting good stuff. And your problem is not uncommon at all either. I first wrote about this very topic here and here. And yes, I am going to repeat some of what I already wrote before. This is a topic which is brought up daily and I want you to get comments.
How to get comments on your blog post
1. Ask for them
Seriously, this is one way to get comments too many of us forget to use. Not rocket science by any means. But, it is the first step in getting comments. Simply invite your readers to leave comments by just asking.
When I end most of my post, I use some key words I try to live by, “lets keep the conversation going.” This conversation is one of the huge advantages a blog has for both the business owner and your readers. The cornerstone to blogging is the fact it is a web site where you have the ability as a business owner to carry on a conversation with your readers. The conversation you can have provides you an openness and transparency that can create trust and respect with your readers. This is the same trust and respect which we hope will turn those readers into customers.
Want your readers to comment, ask!
2. Ask questions and seek opinions
How many people are going to ignore the opportunity to give their opinion? Very few as we all think ours is the best. In addition, asking questions in a post can be construed as an indication you might need some help. And people just have a natural urge to help by answering questions.
For example, at the end of this post I am going to ask you a question, “how do you get comments on your blog post?” Ask questions, you just might get some answers. And best of all, those answers you are getting can become fodder for future post too.
You can also ask questions in the post title and in sub-headings in the post. The key is to just ask.
3. Comment on the comments you are getting on your blog
In other words, participate in the conversation you started and reply to the comments. Your responsibility as the blogger does not stop when you hit the post/publish button and send your post to your blog. If you expect to get comments, you have to participate in the conversation too. How can you expect your readers to engage in the conversation if you don’t. Yes, you started the conversation with the post. But, don’t let it die there. Engage your audience.
I try to make it a point to respond to as many of the comments we get here on Blog For Profit. If you have taken the time to stop what you are doing to read one of our post and leave a comment, I feel we have an obligation to do the same back. If you are not getting comments, stop and ask yourself if you are responding to the comments you do get. If you are not, then why should your readers leave any in the first place?
4. Allow your readers to subscribe to comments
Giving your readers a way to subscribe to comments gets them involved in the conversation and engaged in it too. Hopefully they will come back and continue to take part in the conversation as others comment on your post.
On this blog, we use the Disqus commenting system and I love it. Disqus gives our readers two ways to subscribe to comments, RSS or email. Another popular tool is Subscribe to Comments which is a WordPress plugin. I know both of these tools work as I subscribe to comments myself to see if anyone might respond to a post I have left a comment on. Remember, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to engage in the conversation.
5. Give your commenters something in return for leaving a comment
Keep in mind, people leave comments on your blog for at least two reasons. One, they want to leave a comment because they do want to get involved in the conversation. Two, they leave comments to get noticed. There are tools you can use which allow you to give both of these commenters something in return for engaging in the conversation.
As I mentioned above, we use the Disqus system. And with Disqus comes a pretty cool widget you can put in your sidebar which gives your commenter some credit with a link to their own site.
I know first hand these type of tools work for your commenters. I personally get traffic from sites who use one which I have commented on. Once you have them setup, it is really a no brainer way of giving credit where credit is due.
6. Don’t require your readers to register to comment
If you want to see me blow a gasket, require me to register to comment. Actually, a better way to show you my dislike for registering to leave a comment is the simple fact, I won’t. And most busy bloggers won’t take the time to register either. All you are doing by requiring commenters to register is driving away comments and killing the conversation before it even gets started.
And don’t use those stupid CAPTCHA spam filters either. For one thing, spammers are finding ways around them. And two, they are a pain in the butt for the commenters too. There have been a number of times I have tried to enter the required letters and it does not work.
If you make it difficult for your readers to comment, they won’t. It is your responsibility as the blogger to moderate your comments anyway. See number 7 coming up.
7. Moderate your comments and take care of spam
Instead of using the two methods we discussed in #6, you should be moderating your comments as they come in. Once again, my favorite comment tool comes into play here. Disqus has a great way to moderate comments. You can even do this using your email. And I can also say that my spam comments have decreased since I started to use Disqus.
Another great tool for spam is Akismet. I also have this activated on this blog. Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You can also moderate those comments it sends to spam or not.
Oh, and moderate your comments. Don’t allow them to publish until you have checked them all to make sure they are proper for your blog. Yes, this is going to take some time and effort on your part.
I and a lot of other bloggers I know moderate our comments. And we do so because we want to protect our readers. We also don’t want some of the crap some put in comments to be on our blogs. Your readers will appreciate the fact you are moderating comments and they will feel you are paying attention too.
8. Stir the pot and be controversial from time to time
Everyone of your readers have a topic they are passionate about. As you do. Don’t be afraid to get the “juices” flowing by bringing up such topics and giving your take on it.
I have found when I do a post that might be a bit controversial or where I am calling someone or something out, I get a lot of comments. Just be careful. While some of your readers may appreciate this. Others may be turned off and not come back.
One such post I did a few weeks ago was called, Don’t be a blogging whore — Stop asking for links! That post generated some great comments and some great conversations on twitter too.
Also, be very very careful talking about politics or religion. Two topics that most likely should not be discussed on a business blog.
9. Don’t give them all the answers in the blog post
Leave it open and don’t say everything that needs to be said on the topic you are writing about. But, don’t be too eager to leave too much out. Your post may not make any sense if you leave too much out. But if you leave room for your readers to add to the conversation, they will do so.
10. Make sure commenting is easy
And just as important, make sure you allow comments. I do moderate comments as we discussed above. I do this to control spam. I never not post a comment just because someone may disagree with me. I don’t post comments that do nothing but flame a commenter or a guest poster. I know it sounds like a no brainer that you have to allow comments to get comments. I added this one as number 10 because there is and will continue to be an ongoing conversation in the blog world about comments being on or off.
Comments are not road kill. And for a business blog, comments are a gold mine of interaction between you and your intended audience. Allow them, moderate them and engage in the conversation they bring to your blog too.
Now it is your turn. How do you get comments on your own post?
What are some of the ways you use to get comments on your blog post? And don’t be shy. Especially if there are ways you have found which are not listed in the list above. Let’s keep the conversation going!
