UPDATE: I am super lame. I forgot to mention that this post is provided by the most awesome Jen from Jen Ryland/YA Romantics .. Sorry about that! I knew there was something missing there...
Blog comments -- everyone wants them. But how do you get more of them?
Blog comments -- everyone wants them. But how do you get more of them?
Full disclosure -- I'm hardly the Queen of Comments. But here's how I was able to get more of them on my blog:
1. Make it easy for people to comment on your blog.
That seems obvious, right? Well, I'm constantly surprised by the fact that people make me jump through endless hoops just to leave a comment.
Has this happened to you? You read a blog post and want to leave a comment. You carefully type up your heartfelt thoughts. Your comment is witty and intelligent. You hit "submit" and you get this:
Or maybe you get this:
I bet that at least half of people who are faced with the above just give up.
If you'd like more comments, my first suggestion would be to turn off word verification -- also known as "captcha."
You can do this in Blogger by going to settings, then comments, then scrolling down to word verification and turning it off.
In Blogger, having word verification on is the default. I found this out the hard way!
If you use Wordpress, go to Settings, then Discussion.
My second suggestion would be to allow anonymous comments. That sounds scary, but all it means is that you aren't forcing commenters to register with Blogger or Wordpress or enter their name and email just to leave a comment. Most people will give their name or nickname, they just don't want another internet account.
If you're worried about anonymous hate mail, I wouldn't be -- unless you have a lot of enemies. Or your reviews are REALLY snarky. As the blog administrator, you can always delete comments and/or change your settings back if a problem develops. I've only had a few anonymous comments, and none of them were mean.
My third suggestion? Make your comment box easy to find. Again, that seems incredibly obvious. It belongs at the bottom of the post. It should be large. (Arianne's Note: I totally agree! Have it EMBEDDED! I don't like comments that go to a new page or pop-up.)
2. Ask a question at the end of your post.
Picture this. You read a blog post, like a review. You get to the end. You consider leaving a comment, but can't really think of much to say except "Great review" or "Thanks for the review."
Make your question interesting, even provocative. It doesn't always work, but it can't hurt.
3. Participate in memes.
If you don't know what a meme is, it's stuff like "Waiting on Wednesday" and "Feature and Follow Friday." I think memes can be overdone. But they are also a great way to draw new people to your blog -- people who want comments and are willing to comment on your blog in return.
4. Ask for comments
In Blogger, there's a box where you can customize a message asking people to leave you comments . Go to Settings, then Comments, then Comment Form Message. Type your message in the box and hit save.
4. Respond to comments.
You can't respond to every comment. But in my opinion, if you never respond to comments, you're sending the message that
a) you don't care about comments;
b) you don't read them; and
c) you're too busy/important to deal with them.
Some bloggers say that responding to comments on their own blog is a waste of time, because most commenters don't check back to see if you responded and don't subscribe to comments . True. However....
When I get to the bottom of a post and see that a blogger has responded to comments, I am more likely to leave one. Why? Because subconsciously, I think that this blogger is going to read and respond to mine too -- that my comment matters to them.
If a person leaves a particularly interesting comment, I'll sometimes tweet them. Or write a response on their blog. I don't always have time to do this, but I try.
So, now I'll follow my own advice.
Leave a comment and tell me... do you comment on other people's blogs? Why or why not? If you're a blogger, how do you respond to comments that people leave on your blog? What's worse, captcha or spam messages?
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