Wikipedia says it, so it must be true: “The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.” They are important, because they can tell you what you should improve, in your writing, your products: they tell you what they want, you might as well give it to them.
Next to that, building a relation is an essential part of getting people to talk about you, and that is the goal isn’t it?
But even when your blog software hands you all your commenting capabilities, there are other things you can and should do to get people to comment. So here it is: the 7 step guide to getting more comments.
1. Ask them to comment
As simple as it might sound, this is often overlooked. You can ask for comments in your writing, but your “comment links” also speak volumes. Does your comment link say “22 comments” or “22 people commented, what’s your opinion?” And if you tested it, which one do you think would attract the most comments?
2. Respond to smart comments
You don’t have to respond to “wow, cool post”, of course, but if someone has a decent remark, it’s only fair to respond to it and see if you can do anything with it. This will encourage other readers to post their comments too.
3. Reward very good comments
If someone has really added value to your post, the best thing you can do is do a small update to your post, and give the commenter kudos for his good remark, or maybe even a link.
4. Keep people involved
Having the possibility for people to subscribe to the comments on your blog is essential if you want people to return to comment again on the same post. For WordPress, you’d use Subscribe to Comments for that.
5. Fight spam, all the time!
If you’re not taking care of the spam on your blog, people won’t feel as though you’re paying attention to the comments. So: fight spam, all day, every day. But keep in mind though:
6. Keep it Stupid Simple (to comment)
While fighting spam is very important, please, please, find another way of doing that than using a captcha or any other prevention that makes it harder to comment. It’s happened to me quite often that I wrote a lengthy comment, and the captcha had timed out, and my comment was lost. Save to say I wouldn’t be trying that again.
7. Measure, repeat and improve
You have to keep track of how you’re doing, on WordPress I’d recommend my own Blog Metrics plugin. It’s based on analytics guru Avinash Kaushik’s 6 recommendations to measure your blogging success.
So, what would you do to get more comments?
About the Author: Joost de Valk is an Internet Strategist at OrangeValley, and the founder of Yoast.com, a resource with loads of WordPress tips, tricks & plugins, where he also runs a weekly WordPress newsletter, which has been dubbed “essential for anyone seriously using WordPress”.
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Guys you have to say if you want success online you have to be more interactive and less selling and every day that passes it seems that internet marketing is changing all the time which causes many people to be left behind and people fail to keep intouch with the new marketing techniques to be successful online but its pretty easy really.
All awesome ideas .. you left out brute force though .. that’s right .. if all else fails simply wait for them to get online then rush in their house with a wiffle ball bat .. you wouldn’t believe how fast they start commenting.
I have got good news for you
Im a gdi 10$ business man are you interested in internet marketing business?
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t… you are right.”
I hope that we’ll have a successful business venture together
http://freedom.ws/cshak25
Great post.. I’m gonna apply it on my blog and get more comments.
Good luck with that! Be sure to measure the results of your efforts!
Double digit comments would be great for me, but then again it has only been a month since I started blogging.
mee to .. @anjay
its fantastic
LOL!!! Wonderful blog to come across as I twitter about
I like the T-Shirt idea (win – win- win wins are the BEST)
Good Logo and easy to remember domain names plastered on FREE shirts
Wow Joost, seems like you have answered almost every commenter.. You really are dedicated to providing excellent customer service, aren’t you
I wish I could generate half as many comments on my blog in a month!
well…great tips shoe…….success for you…..!
do you think people will comment on a new blog or a blog that has no comments? i mean be the very first one?
or should i do some comments myself to get people motivated?
Great tips!
I have one to add…offer an incentive or a contest for the best comment. If you announce this in a forum you are sure to receive a hoard of comments.
Great tips for a new blogger like myself. I believe it’s the first and most important way for conversion. Get more visitors to comment on your blog and interact with them by doing your best to respond to every comment.
I respond to all comments I get but as a beginner, it’s not very many!
Nice bit of advice. Asking for comments certainly seems to increase the number of responses.
Ask for comments. I was averaging one or two comments per post on one of my blogs. So I started asking for feedback. I placed a comtment reminder at the end of each post AND at the beginning. It worked and my comments went to 5-7 and grew from there. Commenters return frequently, mainly to see if you or others commented on their comment!
Great post and some tips I can put to use immediately. Great site and glad to have discovered. As a relatively new pf blogger, there is so much I can learn from you.
Regarding your point #6. Check out Rob Malon’s post on how to prevent spam and making it all appear seamless to your visitor at the same time.
yes sometime….visitor just having little time…so very simple ways to comment very useful for visitor and back again tomorrow
In addition to those helpful tips, I think that placing good comments over others blog that are worthly reading is another tip.
“Save to say I wouldn’t be trying that again.” SAFE to say. right??
Nice list Joost! I especially find asking people to comment pretty worthful.
Thanks alot! really useful tips, espesially for a new blogger like me..
Okay, I’ve tried tip 1 and 2 now, and it worked wonders
I have also written useful comments on other blogs, and it seems to get me a bit more traffic
I think asking for comments is really the key. I know for myself, a little “So, what do you think?” at the end of a blog post makes it way more likely I leave a comment.
yeah that’s true. i agree w/ that>
there are just not enough hours in the day, though! to comment on blogs that i follow (like this one) to reply to comments on my own blog, to write good content and do blogadministration duties….if i didn’t have to work a dayjob, well okay then. but i do. (at least for now; my company is getting into layoff mode and the ax is coming down next month.)
7 Step Guide to Getting More Comments — ShoeMoney
77 Step Guide to Getting More Comments — ShoeMoney
Thanks for the tips.
Gonna try out tip nr. 1:) Never thought of that before.
Great post. Seems based on the number of comments here that this advice is working for you!
One trick I use to get comments on a topic is to make it highly controversial and stick to the unpopular view!
I agree those are the best way to get comments because than everyone will something to talk about
No wonder there is so much people try hard to improve the quality of backlink that comment give….there is comment luv…….askimet etc etc.Good insight of post.
without comments I would never be motivated to write a post
Very nice post, as usual
My new Web site is a Travel Guide about Quebec and readers will be able to comments restautants, hotels etc in the near future, so that particular post is truly useful.
Good post. You would think these things are common knowledge though, but it’s never too late to learn.
Damn, joost almost reposnded to every comment on this article, no wonder he’s number 2 on the top Commentator’s list. Good work though!
Comment for blogger are most likely a ’support’, without comment, most author will not likely to make new post because it just waste their time, so thats why Feedback always welcome but definitely not a Spam!
Cant argue with this at all. People often measure how well they’re doing by the average number of comments on their website.
Comments is a better element to judge the popularity of the site
Indeed, some good tips, I’ve recently killed captcha on my blog to see if there will be more comments coming in.
Unitl now I can only say it’s improving.
I agree, just asking some what they think at the end of a blog post can often times trigger some great comments. Sometimes all you have to do is ask.
I think providing a link as a reward is a good idea. Doesn’t akismet prevent most of the comment spam problems or am i seeing that wrong?
you can set it to allow one , two or more links…I dont think you can have more than 2 links in a comment
I think that to get comments from readers is an easy task. Just write a good article. But the fight against spam is one of the main tasks.
But without marketing you won’t get good visitors
That too, marketing needs to be targeted enough for the type of article!
Very interesting and informative post Shoe! I will check out the site, again Shoe, please use the target=”_blank” for your external links so that they don’t open in the same window as your site when we click on them. Let them open on a new window please
this is a good suggestion, Shoe you must implement this asap for your posts
Some blogs also allow do follow links for comments. Maybe that also attracts more people who wants to build some links.
I think giving some link love is fine, but have found that it attracts more spammers than anything else. If you provide good content, genuine comments will come because you do the things above, not because you help those people rank.
Yes, but mostly spammer will comes on those
highly spammable
I was taking a look at my old blog, bloggin-ads, just a while ago and dang, it has a few spam comments and no one cares to delete it. Such a great new owner.
-Mike
Yeah sucks when that happens, I’ve seen that happen once too, makes it even harder to sell your old blogs… They do become your babies
new bloggers take time to get into the groove
Good post, Joost – I have subscribed to your newsletter for a while. When the blog is about technical or related content, bloggers tend to comment because they are in the mode and understand the system. Having a niche blog, is more difficult. Some people visit the site and don’t understand it to be interactive. Have tried to do much of what you suggest, and will try to do more.
Good stuff! Hope you like the newsletter, and good luck on trying the “more” part.
I like keeping comments simple — except for when they can’t get any simpler.
I love quality followup, too. No followup means no conversation.
And if you’re going to articulate further, I wrote a post about how to be a comment rockstar: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/be-a-comment-rockstar-10-terrific-tips.html
Thx for the link, I’ll have a look!
One thing that I hate is a blog that ask for confirmation of the email, I mean, I need to write the email twice every time I want to comment… I think it is an excessive thing.
Absolutely true, and 100% against the KISS principle I outlined above.
Wow Joost, seems like you have answered almost every commenter.. You really are dedicated to providing excellent customer service, aren’t you
Practicing what you preach is one of the most important things to do on your blog, and on guest posts
Well there’s another idea for a post – are people who have their articles published on other sites spreading themselves too thin when it comes to responding to “customer” inquiries?
You should add, give away free t-shirts.
As said before, freebies aren’t always the best way of motivating genuine comments, but your mileage may vary!
Stupid post, these are all common sense.
Why and hello to you too Lupe, thx for stopping by and taking the time to make that comment
Give away prizes to people who comment.
It wouldn’t be my method, though it does work for Jeremy
I’ve had more success with comments since I installed the DISQUS plugin for Wordpress. It handles all the spam and let’s people comment under a registered account, anonymously, or just with their name. http://www.geeked.info/disqus-comment-system-added/
With the new features in WordPress 2.7, I see no real reason to use disqus, to be honest.
My understanding is that the new comment improvements in Wordpress 2.7 will require modifying themes to support them. Uggh. Another bonus of Disqus is that it promotes a single comment system across multiple sites. I don’t have to login or register multiple times, and all my comments and conversations are stored in one place. (and no, I don’t work for them or get paid to say this. hehe)
It does require theme modifications yes, and they’re not completely trivial, but I think they’re worth it. Don’t want to rely on an external source for something as important as your comments.
I like the post Joost it;s a nice simple 7 step process that every blog owner could understand. But I also like the carrot approach where top comentators are rewarded for providing useful comments.
I do like that too, but I’d rather have a way of giving props to those who really add value instead of just add more comments… Might be a plugin to write at some point
At least it’s some incentive for them to add valuable comments.. I think that as long as you get the commenters started and gain momentum in that area by encouraging frequent commenting. Then after you have built a user base you could screen spammy comments better..
I agree. The promotion of good comments lead to the emergence of new good comments.
Third one is the best i think.
It is very important, but staying involved yourself is too!
I know this sounds kind of like being a “spammer”, but trust me it is not; sometimes it is good to allow commentors to add keywords in their name when commenting, as long as it isn’t like 30 words or something. As long as the commentor adds some type of value to their post, I don’t see the problem. But Dave you do a good job allowing people to do that, and that is why they keep coming back to your blog, because you are not so strict on the commenting part. Plus, commentors add value to a blog and keeps people coming back for more.
Somewhat true, but those links are all nofollow anyway
If there is one GREAT positive thing I will toss at you both (Jeremy and Joost), seeing Joost respond to the comments is TOP SHELF!
I think we can all fall into a habit of letting our commenters carry on their own conversations once the site starts getting busier. I know I have commented on this site hundreds of times, and with Jeremy being as busy as he is, he rarely gets involved in the comment chains.
Note to myself… continue staying involved in my own discussions!
Thanks Joost!
It takes an awful lot of time to do though, so I can imagine Jeremy not having the time to do that all the time, but yes, I value those comments and want to show that!
This is a great post. I never really saw it this way.
Comments add a great power to your website but those spammy comments look ridiculous. As long as it’s a well written post that is more then a sentence long, then it’s all good.
Exactly! That’s why Jeremy and I conceived the minimum comment length plugin.
He forgot one “run contests to get more comments”
Though it works, I think it’s the wrong sort of incentive, to be honest.
I agree with the KISS tip. I’ve seen captcha and other similar ways used on increasing number of blogs recently. It is definitely not the way to go to optimise the number of comments.
Using Akismet, checking “Comment author must have a previously approved comment before a comment appears” option, and a bit of maintenance is the way I do it.
Marko
http://www.howtomakemyblog.com
Absolutely agree.
Funny how many post I see for all areas of blogging and traffic, I don’t see commenting addressed much. Good to see a simple but quality piece like this.
Plus, the comments have of good quality too!
hehe, thx, glad you like it!
Personally, I think fighting spam is one of the most important points, since noone wants to spend time writing something constructive and useful if it’s buried under half a dozen “Nice article” spams…
Indeed, those can be quite annoying. I’ve even written a small plugin, on a suggestion by Shoe, that sets a minimum comment length.
thats cool, from where I can get that plugin?
Fighting spam has been a daunting task..
I’m gonna ask them to comment more.
You go girl
Definitely do, and let us know how it works out for you!
wow! You’re replying to everyone. You rock Joost. I’m gonna subscribe to your rss.
Anyway, I changed the wording on the site to encourage commenting. Let’s see how it goes!
Yeah, I’m curious too now
Thanks for these tips. I am working to need more and more comments for my blog. These tips would surely help.
Good luck with that! Be sure to measure the results of your efforts!
LOL, I wrote a post about Increasing Reader Interaction at my blog..touches base with some of the same points
Cool, any ideas you had that I didn’t share?
Hi Joost!
Nice article! I wrote a similar post on Cats Who Code some time ago:
http://www.catswhocode.com/blog/blogging/tips/10-tips-plugins-to-get-more-comments-on-your-wordpress-blog-470
Ey jbj, good to see you here! (and that’s a nice article!)
Cant argue with these theories at all!! I often measure how well I am doing by the average number of comments on my site.
That is a great measurement, I’ve actually written my own plugin, Blog Metrics, to do that!
As for me, I usually keep track of comments on punch posts not every article, of course you can’t expect every post to be as good!
One thing that works wonders on loyalty of commenters is using their suggestions in their comments for new posts or updates in the original post (attributed to the commenter).
That’s real interactive and also gives them a sense of ownership of the blog.
(Start a post with something like “Based on a comment last week on this post we’ve found out that….. “
Yep, that’s what I meant
This is a great post by Joost. Shoe follows these steps and that’s why we all are posting comments in his blog everyday
Yeah he does, and some other stuff too
I like the site Joost, subscribed
Glad to hear that
Which site?
yoast.com is Joost’s website and it is pretty nice!
It is quite true that the comment text – “whats your word?” pour your shout, leads to a extra comment or 2 than the tradational “1 comments”
Yep sure is
Great post – bottom line is that you have to put in the effort and time.
Thx Kieran, and yes, absolutely true!
So,you are responding to smart comments, following step no. 2
Absolutely, secret rule #8: practice what you preach!
It’s cool how Joost is replying to everyone, makes me feel like I’m not just talking to myself
You aren’t!
True! The effort and time is the basics of success.
I think the MacBook is a pretty good motivation..
Only if he is having huge budget
it got me commenting like everyday!
when is he giving it away? the end of this month?
Giveaways are great, but you can’t always rely on just that.
Great post!
Agreed on that Steven, I’d rather rely on getting people incentivized to comment in another way.
Giveaways are only good motivation until the contest ends. You have to have some sort of continuous motivation. Multiple contests would work, but could end up putting a heavy hit on your wallet if you can’t find smart ways to get prizes.
yes man!
yes….I am the first commenter….great motivation bos…
You can do like shoe do by giving homepage link to top Commentators
Totally agree. Top commentator plugin or whatever you use is great to show some appreciation to your readers/commentators and it act as an incentive to comment. Have it on my blog and it works great!
True, I’ve seen several people with good results doing that! The question is whether those comments are as “genuine” as you want them to be…
From my experience with it it’s not too much of a problem. By building a strong relationship with your readers, the comments aren’t going to be simple “good post” comment. I have to agree though that if you don’t get involved with your readers, the comments are mostly going to be crap comments and your blog will soon look like a spam machine! hehe
I think they post genuine comments otherwise they won’t survive last long
As for spam, no webmaster can hate anything more than that!
that is very common.. infact you should say, you should give out Tshirts like shoe
Well as I said, it’s not my method of choice, but if it works for you, good for you!!
I think Jeremy’s method of giving out t-shirts is the best. Very clever strategy if you ask me.
i agree with you. Jeremy’s method is perfect.
i asked you
homepage Nofollow link to top Commentators
That is a must dude!