HOW TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO LEAVE COMMENTS Why is it some blogs have a ton of
comments while other blogs never
receive any?

In this blog we talk about how
you can convince people to leave
comment replies to your blog posts.

The focus of this blog is something all
bloggers love - comments. Unfortunately most
blogs, especially new blogs, receive very few real
comments from real people (everyone gets spam
comments though).

I hope, with help from the tips in this blog,
your blog will grow a nice community of readers
who interact by leaving you comments.

First though I want to quickly clear something up
and give you a little background info about me -
the guy writing these blogs.

HOW TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO LEAVE COMMENTS

Let me set something straight right now.

If your blog has no traffic you will not receive
any comments.

It makes sense of course, but some people don't
see the connection between these two elements.

If no one is reading your blog then no one will
leave comments either. Simply posting great
articles to your blog is not enough - you have to
*market* your blog to bring people to it.

We will talk A LOT about marketing throughout my
blog, so stay tuned for that.

For now, understand if you don't receive any
comments to your blog it's probably not that your
content is bad or people don't like you, it's
because you simply don't have enough traffic.

If on the other hand you do have some traffic, yet
no one replies to your posts, there are ways to
stimulate comments.

Try these tips to begin with -

- Write articles that reference or focus on other
bloggers. You will get their attention that way
and there's a good chance they will come to your
blog and leave a comment as a result.

- Ask your readers a question at the end of your
article.

- Write about topics that stimulate conversation,
such as current events (think politics, news,
entertainment).

- Be controversial with your writing. Have a
strong opinion and others with strong opinions
will reply to argue or agree with you.

- Be patient. Sometimes you just have to wait
until the first person leaves a comment which
opens the floodgates.

KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING

A while ago I stopped actively responding to
comments on my blog unless I was asked a direct
question. I really had no excuse for not doing it,
I was just lazy and working on other writing
projects. Consequently the average number of
comments on my blog entries dropped A LOT.

I noticed the regular commentators stopped
commenting as frequently and most conversations on
my blog ended very quickly.

This is really tragic for a blog and I'll tell
you why - it reduces your "Social Proof".

Social Proof is when humans take action or make a
decision based on seeing other humans doing it
first. It's sort of like an implied recommendation
- if other people do it, it must be good.

It's like when you see a bunch of people all
looking up at something in the sky at the same
time. You can't help but turn your head skywards
and see what all the fuss is about.

When first time visitors to your blog see other
people making lots of comments they are more
likely to decide there is something valuable at
your blog and bookmark or subscribe to it and may
even make a comment.

This is good for blog traffic. This is social
proof in action.

I was very conscious of always taking part in
comment conversations at my blog and consequently
my readership was growing in leaps and bounds. I
stopped and I noticed I hit a wall and my blog
didn't grow quite as well as it was.

I know a blogger who has a rule - she responds to
every single comment made to her blog.

Consequently she has developed a fantastic
community around her blog and her traffic has
skyrocketed in a short period of time.

Remember, comments on your blog are very
important, take the time to respond to them.  ¶ 4:01 PM