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Incentives for user comments?

by jeffreydale
10 replies
What kind of (free) incentives could I give for people posting comments? One of the things I feel my site extremely lacks is comments. I have over 500+ articles, and maybe like 8 legitimate comments. It just feels DEAD and I hate that vibe. I want to make my website seem more lively.

I read an article about how the creators of reddit created fake profiles and pretty much posted comments as other people to make their website seem active. Essentially "faking it until they made it..", but is this a professional approach? Reddit is one of the biggest websites around right now, and it gained popularity quickly. I have no morals against it, I just feel it's a bit time consuming, and if I could get REAL comments than that would be better.

Any ideas warriors?

Thanks!
#comments #incentives #user
  • Profile picture of the author dklab756
    I think the best incentive for visitor who created comments is your interaction with-in that comment. (That sounds like chiken and egg problem ;-) Legit comment will either try to show grattitude or interact with you about the topic. If you reply to it it will help associate you as a real person with an article and will recepricate / incentivize visitors with "value" of commenting on your blog.

    At the end the best way to develop readership is to work with existing readers and convert them into regular visitors. They will "fill" you blog with interaction and help other visitors to engage.

    I found that the way to get more comments and interraction is to create engaging post which polarise the crowd. Chris Munch has awsome wso on this topic.

    The other option integrate your commenting with facebook. As visitors will comment on your post with facebook it will automaticly post in on their wall and will bring additional viral traffic from their friends creating "snowball" effect on comments and reading... but obviously post has to be worthy of spreading/sharing.

    My two cents
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  • Profile picture of the author jeffreydale
    Thanks.

    Also another thing is I have added a captcha plugin that people enter in before they can comment (I was being over loaded with spam every single day), and I think it's detouring people from commenting as well. I've seen sites that require captcha, nor an admin approval, yet they have virtually NO spam. Is their a plugin I am missing out on or what? I don't get it.. I just got tired of the spam, but I don't want to scare away my readers from commenting either..
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    • Profile picture of the author giuseph90
      Well if you're thinking of installing security measures on your blog just make sure and regularly test it if you'll be able to post a comment as a visitor because in some cases these security measures (for some reasons, may be because of spam) don't show the comments of visitors and the like. As for your blog looking like a dead blog. You can simply hire other people to make it look like active and you shouldn't worry if it isn't genuine at all.

      I've done numerous forum posting services on different clients for the same purpose and that is to make the forum look active. It made the forums and blogs to get high PR because of it's activity and the keywords that I've place among them.
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  • Profile picture of the author CEOArob
    Just make sure that you put a call to action at the end of your posts so that your readers are being led to contribute and start conversations with you.

    That should boost activity in the future.
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  • Profile picture of the author FrankMiller
    I agree with a call to action telling users to comment below and weigh in right at the end of the article.
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  • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
    I always ask them what they think about the idea/concept presented in the article. I only have two sites that are open to commenting, and they are top-ten list style sites. So I always have some crazy fanboy/fangirl pissed off that I didn't include something on the list.

    -BP
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    You're going to fail. If you're afraid of failure then you do not belong in the Internet Marketing Business. Period.
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    • Profile picture of the author jeffreydale
      Originally Posted by BloggingPro View Post

      I always ask them what they think about the idea/concept presented in the article. I only have two sites that are open to commenting, and they are top-ten list style sites. So I always have some crazy fanboy/fangirl pissed off that I didn't include something on the list.

      -BP
      It's funny you should mention that. The majority of my comments have been negative. Not really dissing me, my article, or my site, but like you said, someone pointing out how I forgot something, didn't mention this or that, or someone trying to be an elitist and correct me. Lol.
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      Full-time entrepreneur | YouTuber | Ecom Coach | Social Media Expert
      https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn6...is36wfg/videos

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      • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
        Originally Posted by jeffreydale View Post

        It's funny you should mention that. The majority of my comments have been negative. Not really dissing me, my article, or my site, but like you said, someone pointing out how I forgot something, didn't mention this or that, or someone trying to be an elitist and correct me. Lol.
        Controversy creates cash. It's kind of funny really, especially the ones that seem to get really, really irate in their posts--like I ruined their whole day. Sometimes I will intentionally throw a pipe bomb in to generate some reaction, other times I genuinely feel that the top ten list, really is the top ten of whatever in that topic.

        Regardless. If people are talking and visiting your site, I guess you can't be too picky! lol.

        -BP
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        You're going to fail. If you're afraid of failure then you do not belong in the Internet Marketing Business. Period.
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  • Profile picture of the author infinityplr
    Try making a contest. And give away a freebies for prices. Like the 500th commenter will win a the coolest t-shirt with your logo on it or your site's name.

    This trick have been used by many of my friends. They gained a lot of traffics too. It was just for fun. A friend of mine gave away a MAC lipstick for her 265th commenter and now they are shopping partners already. Cool right?
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  • Profile picture of the author Miguelito203
    Originally Posted by jeffreydale View Post

    What kind of (free) incentives could I give for people posting comments? One of the things I feel my site extremely lacks is comments. I have over 500+ articles, and maybe like 8 legitimate comments. It just feels DEAD and I hate that vibe. I want to make my website seem more lively.

    I read an article about how the creators of reddit created fake profiles and pretty much posted comments as other people to make their website seem active. Essentially "faking it until they made it..", but is this a professional approach? Reddit is one of the biggest websites around right now, and it gained popularity quickly. I have no morals against it, I just feel it's a bit time consuming, and if I could get REAL comments than that would be better.

    Any ideas warriors?

    Thanks!
    When I first started my blog, it was all spam, but over time, I just started getting legitimate comments. The number of legit comments went up with my traffic. When it comes to my product reviews, I think it depends on the popularity of product. Some of my reviews get lots of comments while others don't get any -- even if I make sales from particular pages. I get fewer comments to my articles but still get some every now and again. It seems random.

    Joey
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    Learn How to Snipe in 2015 and Generate $750+ per Month in Record Time (Product Launches) - Great For Back-to-School, Fall & Holiday Seasons!
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