What's the best way to get people commenting on your blog posts?

[Craig Dawber]

Hey warriors,

What's the best way to get people commenting on your blog posts?

I have my blog setup and starting to look good now :-)

Let me know your thoughts as well:

http://CraigDawber.com

Thanks

Craig

[bethrobinson]

Check out this post on Copyblogger (no affiliation) and make sure you read all through the comments. Some of the posts that trackback to it also have good ideas. The general concept is along the lines of asking for interaction, but goes into more subtleties as well. You also often need a certain level of traffic because only X% of readers will comment no matter what you do.

One Simple Way to Generate More Comments on Your Blog | Copyblogger

[MisterMunch]

The best way to get comment is to tell them something that they do not agree on. Be controversial.

When someone comment you should always give a reply that answers the question or give the commenter some feedback on what you think. Remember not to put comment spam on your own blog. "Thanx for the comment" is no better than when you spam other blogs with the same type of comments. Participate!

Also ending the post with a question will do good. You need to focus on building a community of commenters. Let your blog turn into a forum, where you decide the subject of the threads with your posts. Google notice comments (SEO). More important, it shows that your blog is active and have a community of interrested readers. Your readers will notice this and jump on the wagon.

[The Expert]

Find a way to get your readers to sign up as subscribers to your AWEBER email list. Offer them a freebie, create a popup...do whatever you have to do in order to get them on that list.

Then, take your RSS Feed and stuff it into Aweber using their Blog-to-Email (or RSS-To-Email...can't remember which) function.

From then on you can set it so that a digest of your blog posts is received either every day, every other day, or instantly as it's published. (there's actually limitless configuration on how often the email goes out)

From then on, your people will get an email notifying them that there is new content and it will give them a teaser of the post plus a link to the blog post. Very nifty.

RSS has not been the "replacement for email" that many technoheads thought it would be. Email is still #1 and now you can use it on autopilot to drive people back to your blog.

Note: you can also do this for free using Feedburner, but you can't customize the template of the email, you can't adjust when the emails go out, and I don't think you can email your list of people when you have a special offer like with Aweber...they only get updates from the RSS feed.

[HCLee]

Do lots of blog commenting but use a good strategy like:

1. look for similar niche blogs
2. look for dofollow blogs with commentluv plugin and top commentator list
3. comment and make yourself a top commentator on a few blogs. Then move on to other new blogs.
4. Daily go to these blogs and continue commenting so that you remain a top commentator.
5. whoever visits your blog or website, visit him or her back and post a comment or two.
6. Put a badge on you blog that says 'U Comment- I Comment Back'
7. Do this for one month.

When bloggers see you as the top commentator they will visit you. No question about it.

[Seattle Mike]

It's kind of like a new forum, nobody wants to go first. They want to see others commenting before they jump in.

1. You can pen name comments on your blog to get things flowing. Some people have trouble talking to themselves I can do that all day. You can actually be your top 5 commenters. Makes the blog look popular. Probably why review blogs have 7 comments on the same day and then they are "turned off because of spam".

2. End your posts with a question to get people involved.
3. controversy works too.

[Rob Canyon]

That's easy...

Comment on theirs...

Follow my either one of the links in my signature and see the 80 or so that have
commented on my blog in just the last 3 weeks.

Cheers,

Rob

P.s. install commentluv and make sure you sign yourself for a gravatar too.

[Barry Walls]

Say something useful, be controversial and always have a lot of traffic

[jbsmith]

1. Be interesting...no seriously, this is the #1 challenge a blogger has in gaining an audience and getting them active

2. Give them a challenge. End your blog postings with challenges, questions, invitations to comment or participate

3. Run a contest where the top commenter gets something each week - a freebie product, service, gift certificate, etc... Run this for a month and you will start to get them into a habit of participating

4. Run a special day each week when you post a lesson or tip and take questions...sort of a "blog-in day" where you will take questions on your topic and answer them via comments. I've done this on Friday's and gotten dozens of questions that I then turn into dozens of responses which then lead to additional questions, etc...

Hope that helps,

Jeff

[Josef_Benjamin]

Two things I've done that worked great when I was running a blog.

I commented on other blogs. Generating traffic and getting the occasional
comment from visitors from the blogs I commented on.

And my little "insider" weapon.

Entrecard.Com

I won't say much more other than, check out the site and get things
going pretty fast. People there make part-time incomes and the blogs,
although you'd be paying for the traffic, makes for faster natural search
rankings on google for your keywords and you can tell people what you
want them to comment on for entrecard points.

It's really easy. Check it out. You'll benefit from it

[Sparklesperson]

I agree - post a rant on something relevant to your topic. Then send your list if you have one, over. People will comment.

[JackPowers]

DoFollow tag?

In my experience people comment on blogs that show personality and share personal stories.

[netkid]

Craig,

I agree with a lot of the most common methods of attracting comments, i.e. commenting on other blogs, article submissions with back links, etc.

However, you need to get the idea out into the blogosphere that you really know your stuff and practice what you preach. I just looked at the video you have and it has the "tease" 10 secrets of pro bloggers." Spill some of the 10 secrets out so present a mystery of what the rest of the "secrets" are.

You should look into your products you are selling and give your OWN personal testimonials of how these products work and then solicit people to react to your methods and results.

Paint stories of your experiences with blogging and where you are going with it. People will eventually comment. Also, more people are "lurkers" than commenters. I don't really judge a great blog solely on comments. I look at the visitor metrics and see from where they come from to get to my blog, the key words and phrases that brings them to my blog. I want visitors more than I want comments.

Hope that helps!

Regards,

Bruce

[love2Code]

Best way to get lots of comments is to write about something very controversial. You will get plenty of comments.

[Paul Ho]

Best way is to have a few posts on controversial topics and perhaps when you end off you could ask direct questions to your readers.