6 simple steps to attract more blog comments

Is your blog… Hot or Not?

One quick peek at the comment section of your WordPress blog, and everyone knows for sure.

If content is king, then comments are queen.

Both are equally important in blogging, and an active blog conversation is a sure sign that both the blogger and reader are connecting with the right message.

Feel like you’re not getting the royal results that your blogging effort deserves?

Try these 6 simple steps, and begin attracting more comments on your blog posts today.

1. Allow comments on your blog

Now this might seem obvious, but in order to get comments, you have to make it easy for readers to leave them on your posts.

• Do not require your audience to log in or create an account to leave a comment.
• Spread the link love by allowing readers to share their name and web address.

To a blog reader, there’s nothing more frustrating than wanting to join the discussion only to discover that comments have been disabled. Allow comments on your blog, if anything to listen to your readers’ feedback.

If you want to even go a step further, allow users to leave comments with their facebook, twitter, or google accounts to make it even easier on them.

A healthy dose of reading others comments regarding your ideas will help you become a better writer.

(You may get some new ideas for more blog posts too.)

2. Ask readers to comment on your posts

Nobody is going to show up for a dinner party at your house… unless you invite them first. On that same note, no one will likely comment on your blog posts until you ask them to. Try ending each article with an interesting question, or invitation to connect.

3. Reply to comments

Good stewardship means taking care of what has been given to you.
Most bloggers put forth a ton of effort into creating good quality content for their site, yet make the mistake of thinking they are through once they press publish.

4. Publishing is just the beginning

Expect to elicit a specific response from your blog’s readership, then respond in kind.

Blogging Tip: always save a smidgen of detail from your recent expose’ to share with the first lucky commenter on your post.

5. Moderate Comments wisely

The truth is, not everyone that leaves a comment on your site will be of similar spirit. Some scoundrels will lie, cheat and steal to promote themselves or their nefarious wares in front of your audience.

Don’t be lax with known comment spam! Losing some of your better comment buddies will be noticed by other readers, and could cause a death spiral in your blog readers attention.

If you have plenty of blog comments and are tired of spammers and trolls being pissy on your posts… Try this WordPress blog moderation plugin to enlist the eyes and ears of fellow readers to alert you of unwanted comments.

6. Leave comments on other blogs

At times the blogosphere can be cruel, yet also kind.

There is a proverbial gold mine of opportunity networking with other bloggers.  One of the best things I ever did to increase the comments on my own blogs, was to read and leave comments on the the blogs of others with similar interest.

Here are two quick tips how-to leave comments on other writer’s content:

• Be careful not to leech a friendly neighbors blog post or stalk their commenting audience, this is called spam.
• Cite a good blog post by a credible author to help build credibility and attention to your own post.

[For a refreshing perspective on the state of open source  developers, you may also be interested in reading:  Let's not kill WordPress with attitude from WPMU contributor TDH.]

And… finally the last, yet most important step on how-to attract more comments on your blog:

This last step may seem trite,  but you have to say something interesting to get reader feedback. Remember if “content is king, then comments are…”

Thanks for reading the entire post. Do YOU have a blog or SEO question you’d like to have answered?

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