Most Effective Ways to Induce Comments When Blogging

You write an article, wait for your readers to read it and eventually hope for some feedback on the same in the form of a comment. But not every reader leaves a comment on your post! Many visit your blog to get the information about the article but don’t tend to let you know their presence by leaving behind a comment. Getting people to comment on a blog isn’t as easy as it sounds. Although you may comment on other blogs and may know many blogs out there that have hundreds of comments coming in for every post that they publish – actually inducing that on your own blog is an entirely different matter.

The Big Question: “Why Do People Comment?”

One fact that every blogger should keep in mind is that people are only going to comment if they have a reason to. So the question is: What sort of reason?

More often than not, people comment when they want to make a point (to the writer or to other commenters). For that to happen, there are three main criteria that absolutely must be fulfilled:

• The blog post must be about a topic that the reader would regard as interesting
• There must be a clear stand on the subject matter which will mean that readers will either agree or disagree and feel enticed to declare their own position as well.
• Commenting must be convenient so that casual commenters don’t have to jump through too many hoops to get their views aired.

Of course even then there is no guarantee that people will leave comments as there are countless other factors at play such as the reputation of the blog and the blogger, as well as the number of other comments.

STRATEGIES THAT ENCOURAGES COMMENTS ON BLOGS

Although there are many different approaches employed by bloggers in order to improve their chances of garnering comments, some are more effective than others, such as:

- Roping in your friends

Because your friends already know you it is likely that they’ll have something to say about your blog posts, particularly if you’re expressing an opinion about something they’re interested in. The reason this will encourage further comments however is because it will ‘get the ball rolling’ so to speak and could start a conversation that causes other readers to chime in as well.

- Replying to comments

Granted you may not be able to reply to every single comment, but bloggers who take the time to read what their audience is saying and reply them when possible end up getting a lot more comments. Establishing this sort of two-way communication is a key part of every blogger’s reputation. Or else, your readers will generate this kind off thought, that “The author doesn’t engage himself in interacting with his readers by replying to their valuable comments so why would we comment and get no response?“

So take out some couple of moment and utilize it in replying to the comments made by your readers. It develops a healthy environment of conversation and encourages other people to comment on the post.

- Quoting readers’ comments in follow-up posts

Assuming you get a comment that is interesting enough and merits revisiting a topic you blogged about, why not structure a follow-up post and quote them. If it is a lengthy comment that is honestly well-written, you could even publish it as a standalone post. By highlighting your readers’ comments and giving them prominence, other readers may feel that it is worthwhile for them to chip in and add their own two cents worth too.

Make Your Readers, Your Commentators

Make no mistake, there are other strategies out there such as contests and lucky draws for commenters but these tend to only work on a ‘one-off’ basis.

To truly effective induce comments when blogging takes time and effort – but the rewards of doing so certainly make it worthwhile. Before you know it, you could have nurtured a community of regular readers and built a strong relationship with them.

Akshay Jain from GetPRed.com, also represents IT services management, which helps in making business processes simple and affordable.