How To Encourage Your Readers To Participate In Your Blog’s Discussions
Inhabitants of blogosphere are comment-hungry these days. Yeah, comments and participation from fellow bloggers has become as vital as oxygen. Everyone wants each and every post by them to have numerous comments.
But what bloggers forget is that just desiring won’t lead you anywhere. You can’t sit back and relax when you need success; what you have to do is get down and work for it. The mantra that I adopt in blogosphere is “you will get only what you deserve”. To deserve success you must definitely work for it.
One of the most important factors that contribute to a blog’s success is its loyal readership and blog comments are a proof to that. How can a blog owner encourage his/her readers to participate in discussions? As you know, many readers are silent and they never attempt to leave a comment.
I will share here some of the techniques I used with my discount coupon site where we managed to get numerous comments and discussions on topics related to auto trader and woot discount coupons (as opposed to some other posts that were not using this technique).
Allow commenting
This one is a no-brainer. Only if you allow people to comment you will have participation; if you remove commenting option then how can you expect your readers to comment in your blog?
Although people think this is obvious step some bloggers keep restriction on commenting. I’ve come across some blogs that ask the readers to leave a comment, but there will be no option to comment.
You should also make it easy for the readers to comment.
If you are manually moderating comments try to moderate comments as soon as possible instead of piling them up. When readers take the time to write a comment and they don’t find it to appear on the blog for a long time, that will be discouraging.
Remove captcha
Not all your commentators are going to be spammers so captcha will irritate the genuine commentators. Additionally, if people start having discussion in comments these captcha’s will surely get on the audiences’ nerves therefore remove captcha option.
If you want to prevent spammers you can use Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin (GASP).
Comment for Comment
If you actively participate in discussions at other blogs, you too will receive lots of comments in your blog. This is simple blogging etiquette. And it worked for me.
Even if the other blogger doesn’t immediately jump in at your blog to comment, it might happen eventually.
Engage users by both content and comments
Although you optimize your writing style for SEO, maintain your content in such a way that it will satisfy your audience. Choose topics that are unique or trendy, etc. Only these types of topics brings more blog participation. Controversial posts encourage large number of comments; but use them sparingly.
Similarly respond to comments in such a way that the users will comment more. You can use a plugin such as Comment Reply Notification that will automatically email the commentators when you make a reply.
How do you interact
For a blogger, attitude is as essential as writing skills. Even if you are arguing do it politely. Always remember that it’s your blog; so treat your commentators as your guest.
Your comments must utilize some tactics that will get responses. For instance after giving explanation or clearing a query you can ask “Am I clear?”, “Is your doubt cleared?” etc. This will lead to a response from them.
Similarly even while saying thank you respond with a question or trivia.
Leave your blog post with an open question
This is the best option and you will get some seriously increasing blog participation if you deploy this method. This method is too easy, all you got to do is finish your blog posts’ last sentence with a question to audience (just as I’ve done in this post).
However don’t ask obvious or absurd questions. Ask questions that will add to the discussion of your post.
What techniques do you use to encourage your readers to comment? Let’s chat about them in comments.
Cheers,
Jane.
A simple 21 year old guy who loves blogging and having infinite passion for technology. Founder of 
I try to follow most of your advice. Comment in site’s show good interaction with other bloggers as well as give boost to other bloggers work
Ahsan recently posted..Add Symbol With Twitter Status
You forget to mention comment luv and do -follow feature of comment. These two are the most loved features by the commentators.
rakesh kumar recently posted..Ways to Prepare in Your Hotel for a Business Meeting in India
Yes, Do-follow and Comment Luv end a blog in comment heaven . I had a great change in blog comments when I installed Comment Luv on My blog.
Karan Lugani recently posted..Bad Comments are Golden (So True..)
removing captcha should be avoided at any cost. i tried it once and got 100+spam comments in an hour.
Himanshu recently posted..Mundu TV: Watch Live TV channels online on iPad, iPhone, PC
Hey Jane,
I loved this gem…
For instance after giving explanation or clearing a query you can ask “Am I clear?”, “Is your doubt cleared?”
Very, very, very good piece of advice.
I’m even gonna start using that in my texts as well as all my other back and forth digital communication.
Lewis, asking questions back work great. I’ve seen a lot of people respond in comments to blog posts with questions like that. Let me know how it works for you.
Jane | Find All Answers recently posted..Blogging Action Plan Is Here
Hey jane,
This is a nice post. I think you’ve covered some of the important aspect of getting your readers engaged on your blog. Thanks for sharing this.
Ayodeji Onibalusi recently posted..Things that will make Your Story Instantly Boring
Thanks nice info.How to increase my comment number.I only have 3 or 4 comments per blog.Is there any tip to get more than 10 comment per day
sibin recently posted..Games on Google plus:Google plus games are Now available
Sibin, in order to first make people recognize you, you should jump out of your blog and comment in other blogs in your niche. The more you do it, the more you get noticed and you will get back. That’s how it started for me!
Jane | Find All Answers recently posted..First Birthday Bash: $50 Facebook Ad Coupon Code Giveaway
Great tips, Jane. The last tip is the one I agree with the most. When you leave an open question, readers are more inclined to answer it.
Some purposely choose to write about controversial or sensitive topics to get readers to comment.
Sure thing. questions initiate conversation. But we should stay away from asking any obvious or trivial questions, just for the sake
Jane | Find All Answers recently posted..Clutter Free Inbox In 4 Simple Steps
Great article Jane, I also use GASP and Akismet to prevent spam commentators. Captcha code irritates the users.
Naser @ Best Tips For Blogging recently posted..How to add an Animated Twitter Bird to WordPress?
Hey Naser, if you’re using GASP you need to delete AKISMET because, akismet will still filter out spam comments. Some genuine comments go that way. Plus you don’t need it if you have GASP.
Jane | Find All Answers recently posted..What Do You Primarily Use Google Plus For?
Yes these tips are nice . I m already following all the tips. thanks for shareing.
atish recently posted..Google’s New Sign-in Page
I am a big fan of the plugin that e-mails a person if someone has directly replied to their comment. This is great because it reminds them of their post, and may either revisit and comment on the replied post, or comment on a different comment.
More activity = good.
Brock Blohm recently posted..How To Spin Articles Like A Pro And Drive Lots Of Traffic To Your Site
Great list of advice, I’ll actively be using these points
Thank you for sharing.
Brian Yang recently posted..I’m Finally Sick of This 9 to 5 Crap
Remove captcha >>> haha I like this
and it;s very important to comment for Comment
thx so much sir
I don’t worry about spam that much. Just have to make sure that comments are properly moderated. I don’t reply to all the comments, I provide a chance that my visitors interact with each other.
Isabelle recently posted..How To Pick Up Girls
Thanks for these things.
azaiop recently posted..โปรออดิชั่น SC~Network Extra Patch
Thanks for providing useful info. i hope it will prove beneficial for me.
Gaurang recently posted..Products that redifines Steve Jobs
Great points. I particularly agree about Captcha. It can be extremely frustrating sometimes for genuine posters. Earlier it was ok but over recent times, the captions are hard to decipher as they often contain unknown fonts and extremely warped text.
Great guest post from Jane! Thanks for the tip!
Cyn P. recently posted..Best Timer for Symbian S60v3 & S60v5
I think I am going to remove even the maths comment spam plugin soon after reading this. Will do it once I get a superb plugin to protect me from spam comments.
This is a very useful one for me. I really don’t like to comment on blogs which has Captcha. Great article.
Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..All in One SEO Pack – WordPress Plugin
All the point are true it`s core, writing controversial blog posts also attracts masses to commment on your blog post.
amit sharma recently posted..Which Android Web Browser You Should Use?
Very informative post!! Comments on our blog posts are really important as feedback from readers is what drives the bloggers. Most of the points are well covered in this post.
It is really important to make commenting easy for the readers. We could do this by giving one word options to the readers like Good Post, Informative, Not Good, etc which the readers could just click, need not type.
We could invite the readers to complete our list posts by adding the last point to the list post.
We could organize for comment contests.
Hope this helps!!
Nice post Jane, though just like the first commenter probably making your blog do follow will draw huge quantity of commenters. But I do suggest that webmaster should regulate that comments as it may also draw spammers.
matt recently posted..HTC Android Phones Mall Price Philippines (updated)
really very nice explanation jane
keep sharing more articles here
sai krishna recently posted..Top 5 Best And Low Cost Android Tablets In India
Intresting Post!
Removing Recaptcha means open your blog for spammers I get lot of spammy comments on blog so I should stick with Recaptcha. Overall points are very usefull.
Thank you.
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