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”.
July 18, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I like the facebook connect and top commentors features as well. They seem to encourage more action.
April 16, 2009 at 3:00 pm
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.
December 18, 2008 at 10:16 pm
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.
December 2, 2008 at 9:13 pm
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
December 2, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Great post.. I’m gonna apply it on my blog and get more comments.
December 2, 2008 at 8:37 am
Good luck with that! Be sure to measure the results of your efforts!
December 1, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Double digit comments would be great for me, but then again it has only been a month since I started blogging.
December 4, 2008 at 6:20 pm
mee to .. @anjay
its fantastic
December 1, 2008 at 1:05 pm
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
November 29, 2008 at 5:02 am
Wow Joost, seems like you have answered almost every commenter.. You really are dedicated to providing excellent customer service, aren’t you
November 27, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I wish I could generate half as many comments on my blog in a month!
November 26, 2008 at 12:57 am
well…great tips shoe…….success for you…..!
November 25, 2008 at 1:00 am
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?
November 20, 2008 at 10:37 pm
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.
November 19, 2008 at 9:41 am
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.
November 18, 2008 at 6:47 am
I respond to all comments I get but as a beginner, it’s not very many!
November 17, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Nice bit of advice. Asking for comments certainly seems to increase the number of responses.
November 17, 2008 at 12:08 pm
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!
November 14, 2008 at 10:08 pm
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.
November 14, 2008 at 3:39 pm
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.
November 13, 2008 at 3:13 am
yes sometime….visitor just having little time…so very simple ways to comment very useful for visitor and back again tomorrow
November 13, 2008 at 12:52 am
In addition to those helpful tips, I think that placing good comments over others blog that are worthly reading is another tip.
November 12, 2008 at 10:29 am
“Save to say I wouldn’t be trying that again.” SAFE to say. right??
November 11, 2008 at 7:25 am
Nice list Joost! I especially find asking people to comment pretty worthful.
November 10, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Thanks alot! really useful tips, espesially for a new blogger like me..
November 10, 2008 at 12:08 pm
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
November 10, 2008 at 11:05 am
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.
November 10, 2008 at 6:42 am
yeah that’s true. i agree w/ that>
November 10, 2008 at 6:40 am
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.)
November 10, 2008 at 12:29 am
7 Step Guide to Getting More Comments — ShoeMoney
November 10, 2008 at 12:28 am
77 Step Guide to Getting More Comments — ShoeMoney
November 9, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Thanks for the tips.
Gonna try out tip nr. 1:) Never thought of that before.
November 9, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Great post. Seems based on the number of comments here that this advice is working for you!
November 9, 2008 at 1:04 pm
One trick I use to get comments on a topic is to make it highly controversial and stick to the unpopular view!
November 9, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I agree those are the best way to get comments because than everyone will something to talk about
November 9, 2008 at 11:12 am
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.
November 8, 2008 at 10:29 pm
without comments I would never be motivated to write a post
November 8, 2008 at 4:12 pm
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.
November 8, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Good post. You would think these things are common knowledge though, but it’s never too late to learn.
November 8, 2008 at 12:55 pm
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!
November 8, 2008 at 11:25 am
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!
November 7, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Cant argue with this at all. People often measure how well they’re doing by the average number of comments on their website.
November 8, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Comments is a better element to judge the popularity of the site
November 7, 2008 at 8:42 am
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.
November 7, 2008 at 8:33 am
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.
November 7, 2008 at 7:23 am
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?
November 8, 2008 at 10:31 pm
you can set it to allow one , two or more links…I dont think you can have more than 2 links in a comment
November 7, 2008 at 5:56 am
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.
November 7, 2008 at 7:48 am
But without marketing you won’t get good visitors
November 8, 2008 at 12:55 pm
That too, marketing needs to be targeted enough for the type of article!
November 7, 2008 at 4:33 am
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
November 8, 2008 at 10:39 pm
this is a good suggestion, Shoe you must implement this asap for your posts
November 6, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Some blogs also allow do follow links for comments. Maybe that also attracts more people who wants to build some links.
November 7, 2008 at 12:54 am
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.
November 7, 2008 at 7:47 am
Yes, but mostly spammer will comes on those
November 8, 2008 at 10:38 pm
highly spammable
November 6, 2008 at 9:37 pm
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
November 7, 2008 at 12:53 am
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
November 8, 2008 at 10:40 pm
new bloggers take time to get into the groove
November 6, 2008 at 9:02 pm
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.
November 7, 2008 at 12:52 am
Good stuff! Hope you like the newsletter, and good luck on trying the “more” part.
November 6, 2008 at 8:39 pm
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
November 7, 2008 at 12:53 am
Thx for the link, I’ll have a look!
November 6, 2008 at 4:18 pm
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.
November 7, 2008 at 12:52 am
Absolutely true, and 100% against the KISS principle I outlined above.
November 6, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Wow Joost, seems like you have answered almost every commenter.. You really are dedicated to providing excellent customer service, aren’t you
November 7, 2008 at 12:51 am
Practicing what you preach is one of the most important things to do on your blog, and on guest posts
November 7, 2008 at 10:02 am
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?
November 6, 2008 at 3:33 pm
You should add, give away free t-shirts.
November 7, 2008 at 12:51 am
As said before, freebies aren’t always the best way of motivating genuine comments, but your mileage may vary!
November 6, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Stupid post, these are all common sense.
November 6, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Why and hello to you too Lupe, thx for stopping by and taking the time to make that comment
November 6, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Give away prizes to people who comment.
November 6, 2008 at 1:21 pm
It wouldn’t be my method, though it does work for Jeremy
November 6, 2008 at 12:56 pm
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/
November 6, 2008 at 1:20 pm
With the new features in WordPress 2.7, I see no real reason to use disqus, to be honest.
November 6, 2008 at 1:36 pm
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)
November 6, 2008 at 2:10 pm
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.
November 6, 2008 at 12:52 pm
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.
November 6, 2008 at 1:15 pm
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
November 6, 2008 at 4:08 pm
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..
November 7, 2008 at 5:58 am
I agree. The promotion of good comments lead to the emergence of new good comments.
November 6, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Third one is the best i think.
November 6, 2008 at 1:16 pm
It is very important, but staying involved yourself is too!
November 6, 2008 at 12:20 pm
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.
November 6, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Somewhat true, but those links are all nofollow anyway
November 6, 2008 at 12:12 pm
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!
November 6, 2008 at 1:14 pm
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!
November 6, 2008 at 12:11 pm
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.
November 6, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Exactly! That’s why Jeremy and I conceived the minimum comment length plugin.
November 6, 2008 at 12:05 pm
He forgot one “run contests to get more comments”
November 6, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Though it works, I think it’s the wrong sort of incentive, to be honest.
November 6, 2008 at 11:38 am
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
November 6, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Absolutely agree.
November 6, 2008 at 11:16 am
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!
November 6, 2008 at 11:18 am
hehe, thx, glad you like it!
November 6, 2008 at 11:09 am
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…
November 6, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Indeed, those can be quite annoying. I’ve even written a small plugin, on a suggestion by Shoe, that sets a minimum comment length.
November 7, 2008 at 7:46 am
thats cool, from where I can get that plugin?
November 8, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Fighting spam has been a daunting task..
November 6, 2008 at 11:04 am
I’m gonna ask them to comment more.
November 6, 2008 at 1:19 pm
You go girl
Definitely do, and let us know how it works out for you!
November 6, 2008 at 1:29 pm
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!
November 6, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Yeah, I’m curious too now
November 6, 2008 at 11:00 am
Thanks for these tips. I am working to need more and more comments for my blog. These tips would surely help.
November 6, 2008 at 11:17 am
Good luck with that! Be sure to measure the results of your efforts!
November 6, 2008 at 10:58 am
LOL, I wrote a post about Increasing Reader Interaction at my blog..touches base with some of the same points
November 6, 2008 at 11:17 am
Cool, any ideas you had that I didn’t share?
November 6, 2008 at 10:37 am
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
November 6, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Ey jbj, good to see you here! (and that’s a nice article!)
November 6, 2008 at 10:26 am
Cant argue with these theories at all!! I often measure how well I am doing by the average number of comments on my site.
November 6, 2008 at 11:16 am
That is a great measurement, I’ve actually written my own plugin, Blog Metrics, to do that!
November 8, 2008 at 12:53 pm
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!
November 6, 2008 at 10:26 am
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….. “
November 6, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Yep, that’s what I meant
November 6, 2008 at 10:00 am
This is a great post by Joost. Shoe follows these steps and that’s why we all are posting comments in his blog everyday
November 6, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Yeah he does, and some other stuff too
November 6, 2008 at 9:51 am
I like the site Joost, subscribed
November 6, 2008 at 10:21 am
Glad to hear that
November 7, 2008 at 7:44 am
Which site?
November 8, 2008 at 12:52 pm
yoast.com is Joost’s website and it is pretty nice!
November 6, 2008 at 9:33 am
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”
November 6, 2008 at 10:21 am
Yep sure is
November 6, 2008 at 9:14 am
Great post – bottom line is that you have to put in the effort and time.
November 6, 2008 at 10:20 am
Thx Kieran, and yes, absolutely true!
November 6, 2008 at 11:17 am
So,you are responding to smart comments, following step no. 2
November 6, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Absolutely, secret rule #8: practice what you preach!
November 6, 2008 at 11:46 am
It’s cool how Joost is replying to everyone, makes me feel like I’m not just talking to myself
November 6, 2008 at 1:11 pm
You aren’t!
November 7, 2008 at 5:43 am
True! The effort and time is the basics of success.
November 6, 2008 at 9:06 am
I think the MacBook is a pretty good motivation..
November 6, 2008 at 9:09 am
Only if he is having huge budget
November 6, 2008 at 9:10 am
it got me commenting like everyday!
when is he giving it away? the end of this month?
November 6, 2008 at 9:48 am
Giveaways are great, but you can’t always rely on just that.
Great post!
November 6, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Agreed on that Steven, I’d rather rely on getting people incentivized to comment in another way.
November 6, 2008 at 1:38 pm
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.
November 8, 2008 at 3:54 pm
yes man!
November 19, 2008 at 6:59 am
yes….I am the first commenter….great motivation bos…
November 6, 2008 at 9:01 am
You can do like shoe do by giving homepage link to top Commentators
November 6, 2008 at 9:14 am
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!
November 6, 2008 at 10:20 am
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…
November 6, 2008 at 10:43 am
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
November 6, 2008 at 10:51 am
I think they post genuine comments otherwise they won’t survive last long
November 8, 2008 at 12:51 pm
As for spam, no webmaster can hate anything more than that!
November 6, 2008 at 10:16 pm
that is very common.. infact you should say, you should give out Tshirts like shoe
November 7, 2008 at 12:55 am
Well as I said, it’s not my method of choice, but if it works for you, good for you!!
November 8, 2008 at 8:10 am
I think Jeremy’s method of giving out t-shirts is the best. Very clever strategy if you ask me.
December 4, 2008 at 6:21 pm
i agree with you. Jeremy’s method is perfect.
i asked you
November 7, 2008 at 6:45 am
homepage Nofollow link to top Commentators
November 8, 2008 at 9:23 pm
That is a must dude!