Comments are essential to a blog. It can be used to determine a blog’s quality. Without comments, there won’t be any discussion going on on your blog. However, a study shows that most of the blog visitors don’t comment.
And so, here are 11 tips on how to get more comments on your blog.
1. Comment on other people’s blogs
Especially small blogs. Most bloggers visit their commentators’ websites, so if you comment a lot, the bloggers might return the favor and comment on your blog too.
But remember to leave quality comments too! Click here for more tips on commenting on other blogs.
2. Recommend people in your blog posts
I’ve seen many blog posts like “10 Influential Bloggers of 2010” and most of the people, who know that they are recommended, thanked the author of the post for putting them on the list.
So, the bigger the list, the more comments you get! 😉 But don’t forget to tell them that they are on the list, though.
3. Write question blog posts
Question blog posts, like this one, which is recently published on Problogger, tend to generate tons of quality replies. It is because the reader probably knows the answer and wants to contribute.
4. Post less frequently
If you post less frequently, the latest blog post stays on top of the blog for some time, which makes time for more commentators to comment.
But if you post too frequently, the post will be pushed down and it won’t have much exposure. It also gives your readers information overload.
5. Network with more bloggers
Bloggers visit their friends’ blogs quite often and sometimes they comment, so if you make lots of blogger friends, more people might comment on your blog.
6. Reward your commentators
If you reward your commentators, they might comment again on your blog because they like your present.
One way to reward your commentators is to install the “Top Commentators Plugin” to show off your most frequent commentators and give them a dofollow link.
Another way is to post their comments on your posts if they are good.
7. I comment for you, you comment for me
i.e. Trade comments
Ask your friends to trade comments, which simply means commentating on each others’ blogs.
8. Reply to your commentators
If you reply to your commentators, they will feel noticed and might reply and comment again.
But if you don’t, they might feel neglected.
In other words, do your best to reply to every comment on your blog!
9. Write quality posts
If you write quality posts, it will bring in more traffic. And more traffic means more people will comment. But be sure to also promote your quality posts too!
10. Ask them to!
If all else fails, simply follow the old saying, ask and you shall receive. So, ask your friends to comment (by instant messaging them, DMing them on twitter, or sending a ‘please comment’ update on facebook), and they most probably will.
11. Ask your readers to add more to the post
This is somewhat similar to the point above. Ask your readers to add another point to your post, and if the answers are good, add them to the post!
So, uhh, do you know of another way to get more comments on your blog? If so, please comment and I add your answer here if I like it 😉 .
More great tips from commentators below
Good points! I like no.7 “I comment for you, you comment for me” . I would like to add another point, “Never ever doing SPAM on your friend’s Blog”. I’d come across and felt frustrated with less visitor, more visitor means getting chances of comments will increase.
Also using a plugin like Comment Luv May encourage readers to comment because they will get a anchor text rich link back to their blog from one of their recent posts. This will not only encourage then to comment but also to comment more often or on future posts.
One more… if your blog is “do follow” state that it is do follow on your blog. To many bloggers this is an additional benefit since their link will get credit or “link juice” when the search engines follow the link.
Nice ones but I do not totally agree with you on this point “Post less frequently”. Yes, it will keep the latest post at the top of the blog and commentators have more time to comment but you will loose comments from other returning readers. So, post more frequently at reasonable level is better
Good suggestions from you and other commentators. Instead of “post less often”, why not include a mention & link to one of your related, earlier posts to get more readers/comments? Something I’ve just started doing that seems to be working. (But did I do it in my latest post? No! LOL)
And yes! Be generous in supporting others. Good karma.
This is a pretty good post. ‘post less often’ is a good point, which I know and hear from other people to be effective, especially when it’s a paid post and the blogger wants more exposure.
I’m gona share a personal experience on a blog that I read. Apparently she has hundreds and nearing thousands of readers, daily. But you’ll see that she gets close to zero comments. Surprising? Not really, cause she repeats the same topic over and over again..so people actually visit her blog for the wrong reasons. She probably will be getting hate mail soon enough lol.
Gloson,
As usual all good tips of course. I was just talking to a friend about the amazing power of commenting on blogs. Commenting is one of the best way I know of to bring a blog to life.:-)
Yeah, I agree. Comments are really important. Sometimes I even subscribe to a blog because of the number of comments.
Good points! I like no.7 “I comment for you, you comment for me” :-). I would like to add another point, “Never ever doing SPAM on your friend’s Blog”. I’d come across and felt frustrated with less visitor, more visitor means getting chances of comments will increase.
.-= Simon Liew´s last blog ..Google Translate =-.
Yeah, I agree too. Don’t ever, ever spam on your friends’ blog.
You will not be able to comment on my blog, it’s french :p
But, i like your tips, and i will not forget some ! Think you have write the whole…
Haha… Thank you very much! By the way, I think you should add a translate button to your website so people who don’t know French can get tips from your blog .
Nice tips, short and sweet. Thx
You’ve covered some great points Gloson!
commenting on smaller blogs is a great way to get comments back on your blog.
Makes sense: if I talk to you, you’ll talk to me.
Haha! Exactly. LOL.
Good post. Very appreciated!
.-= Whitney Trujillo´s last blog ..Blizzard days: a unique activity . . . =-.
PS: Also using a plugin like Comment Luv May encourage readers to comment because they will get a anchor text rich link back to their blog from one of their recent posts. This will not only encourage then to comment but also to comment more often or on future posts.
One more… if your blog is “do follow” state that it is do follow on your blog. To many bloggers this is an additional benefit since their link will get credit or “link juice” when the search engines follow the link.
Ohhh! :O Comment Luv! I forgot to put that in. But thank you so much for reminding me.
By the way, thanks for the tip that we should tell people that we “dofollow”, if we do. It will probably encourage more comments.
I used to have the Top Commentators plug-in before but too much spam comments coming in 🙁 It was good to get people to comment
.-= Michael Aulia´s last blog ..Beware of a Facebook update email scam! =-.
.-= Michael Aulia´s last blog ..Backing up with HP Simple Save =-.
I agree that one of the consequences of getting lots of comments is that some of them are spam.
So… if you think the Top Commentators plugin is causing the spam, there is a feature in that plugin that lets you exclude certain users by name. So exclude the users that you think are causing you spam.
Gloson, I can see a book of these tips coming out one day ! 🙂
Keep up the good work !
you do your parents and family proud ! 🙂
Thank you Carl, once again, for your encouraging words! 🙂
Nice ones but I do not totally agree with you on this point “Post less frequently”. Yes, it will keep the latest post at the top of the blog and commentators have more time to comment but you will loose comments from other returning readers. So, post more frequently at reasonable level is better 🙂
I think you should get one prize from me. It is a Google Wave invite if you have not got any. Let me know guy as I have only 3 left now
.-= Tinh´s last blog ..Halloween Caption Contest: Your Referral and You Both Win! =-.
Yes please. I’m interested with Google Wave.
.-= Simon Liew´s last blog ..Google Translate =-.
Pls go to my blog and leave a comment with email as it is required criteria for everyone.
.-= Tinh´s last blog ..Halloween Caption Contest: Your Referral and You Both Win! =-.
Thank you very much Tinh, for your informative comment. I totally agree with you that we must keep a consistent posting rhythm.
I have to confess though, that I sometimes fail, partly because I have blogger’s block (and now, I have a new way to eliminate it) and partly because I many many projects to work on. This week is my examination week!
Thank you very much for offering me a Google Wave invite. I would love to join Wave and have been waiting for an invite!
You can contact me at gloson123[at]gmail[dot]com or by the contact form. Thanks!
As you are a good boy and I really appreciate your work and blogging, then I decided to offer you 1 invite. Just send to your email and pls wait for 2-3 days as Google needs sometimes to verify your email to avoid lick.
If possible, as always, pls drop by that post: http://en.blogviet.info/general/20-free-google-wave-invites-for-you.html and leave a comment. You understand what I mean here, not a visit solely but criteria 🙂
Best, Tinh
.-= Tinh´s last blog ..Halloween Caption Contest: Your Referral and You Both Win! =-.
I commented on your post. And thank you very much for your invite once again! I’ve always wanted to try out google wave!
P.S. I have subscribed to your blog as it contains really good tips!
But it’s okay to spam on strangers’ blogs?? 🙂 Just kidding, Gloson. Another good article, as always.
How are the book sales going? I have a new one coming out in the next month or two. I do hope you’ll drop by and visit (hint, hint) – seriously, you know you’re welcome any time. Please give my regards to your family.
.-= Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..$1,500 Thanksgiving Giveaway @ JaypeeOnline =-.
Hi! Sorry for the very late reply. I have been restoring my blog because my old hosting ‘accidentally’ deleted my blog.
Well, the good news is about 1000 copies the book is going into the National Libraries of Malaysia.
I am also coming out with a new book in which the poems will be sung to the tune of ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’!
Best Regards,
Gloson.
Wow! That is huge quantities 🙂 I believed they will distribute to National Library in whole Malaysia. Anyway, Congratulation!
.-= Simon Liew´s last blog ..The Google Story =-.
Thank you very much, Simon! 🙂
I just changed my domain and drop by to let you know.
.-= Tinh´s last blog ..Christmas Contest: 5 One Theme V2.0 Giveaways with License for Life =-.
Good suggestions from you and other commentators. Instead of “post less often”, why not include a mention & link to one of your related, earlier posts to get more readers/comments? Something I’ve just started doing that seems to be working. (But did I do it in my latest post? No! LOL)
And yes! Be generous in supporting others. Good karma.
.-= @Katjaib´s last blog ..Hey. Are you listening? =-.
Thanks for the suggestion, Kat! This would probably improve the bounce rate of your blog too!
Cool! This is my first time at your blog…. are you really only 11? WOW! That’s totally awesome! Anywayz, great post. I’m going to need to try and create a list of top bloggers and Twitters now.
Hi Vince. Thank you very much! I appreciate it! 🙂
This is a pretty good post. ‘post less often’ is a good point, which I know and hear from other people to be effective, especially when it’s a paid post and the blogger wants more exposure.
I’m gona share a personal experience on a blog that I read. Apparently she has hundreds and nearing thousands of readers, daily. But you’ll see that she gets close to zero comments. Surprising? Not really, cause she repeats the same topic over and over again..so people actually visit her blog for the wrong reasons. She probably will be getting hate mail soon enough lol.
.-= EVo´s last blog ..Japan : Day #2 – Friday the 13th almost FRIED me =-.
LOL. You’ve made a really great point there. As a blogger, we MUST create content, not copy, steal, or repeat it.
great tips gloson. i have to agree with you , comments will give blog a breath to life…
Thank you. I agree with you too. 🙂
All very good ideas here that if followed I’m sure would improve traffic and comments and such. It doesn’t hurt to do just a little bit of everything too! Learn every day and do every day. 🙂
Yeah it takes time but the best way for this to work is to actually properly network with other bloggers and spnd time on their blogs rather than just spraying comments all over the place after reading a couple of lines. Getting comments is a lot of hard work and all about forming good relationships with other bloggers
Yup, I agree with you. That is why making quality comments on other blogs is very important, like what you did here 😉 .
Yes, great tips to get comment to my blog. Thank you for sharing
You’re most welcome, Jawahar! It’s my pleasure 🙂
Great tips Gloson. I would like add some more:
– Switching to dofollow
– Commentluv integration
– Better and easy access to comment box
– Mentioning about comments in posts.
I have used these strategies in my other blog and got benefited. Just my two cents.
Hi Rajesh,
Thanks for the additional tips! I really agree with you. Dofollowing, commentluv, usability, and mentions do attract more comments! =)
Cheers!
Gloson