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A Jakob Nielsen study shows that only 10 percent of the blogging community actually leaves comments when they visit a blog. The rest which is 90 percent are mere lurkers. Some of them do leave comments occasionally, whenever they find it necessary to say something. But most of the time, more than half of your traffic does not even contribute to your blog in any other way than visiting. Of course, the number of people who comment on your blog still varies depending on your content and website traffic. Most probably, blogs having high SEO rankings get more comments than those that are unknown to the search engines. In any case, there are ways to encourage contributions and comments on your blog entry depending on how subtle they may seem to fellow bloggers.
One way is outright invitation to comment. This is very effective especially for those lurkers who are actually new to blogging and doesn’t even know that a comment button exists. Most of these people would like to add to what you have written or at least express their appreciation but couldn’t because they don’t know how to. Asking them to comment on the post before ending your blog entry would inform them about it and who knows, they might pay your comment box a regular visit in the coming days.
Inviting readers to express their own opinion on a certain matter by asking questions is a subtle way to promote comments. “How to” titles and descriptions do not only create SEO traffic for your website as they also leave the same question on the readers’ mind and might prod them to answer by commenting. If in some way, the question was not utterly answered in your article, they might consider providing additional information related to your content. This is also to say that it is better not to provide all the information on your blog entry. If you already have all the answers on a specific matter, then what is there to talk about?
Once someone started stating their opinions and suggestions on your comment box, spend time answering them as much as you can to create an interacting conversation not only between you and the person who commented, but also with the other lurkers who might want to join in the discussion. While doing so, you will also generate more traffic and in the long run, there would be no more search engine optimisation expenses needed for your blog.
You still have to set your boundaries though, as discussions like these usually ensue flaming amongst people with contrasting opinions. You still have to moderate the comments. It is your blog and you have the right to delete spams and flaming that greatly ruins the blogging community.
If you have a genuine desire to encourage commenting on your blog not merely because of search engine optimisation, it pays that you stay humble and gracious with your readers. The days of egocentric blogging have long been obliterated in the Web 2.0 community ever since the birth of SEO. Blogs nowadays are created not only for the pleasure of having your own space in the internet as most of them are also used to earn a profit. If this is the type of blogger that you are, then you might want to be a little gentle with your readers. If they somehow find your articles erring, take the time to apologize or try to explain as diplomatic as possible that the contents they are pertaining to is accurate.
People either go to your blog accidentally or with a purpose. The former which is delivered through SEO is good stuff but the latter, as encouraged by your blogging attitude can be a lot more satisfying.
Tags: Blogging, commenting, SEODid you miss any of these?
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I hate lurkers… they should just drop a comment and then they can part with a backlink…
I find that if u comment on someone’s blog, then they will do the same for you – I try to comment on every person’s blog who comments on mine, and respond to the comment they made
Simon from Otooos last blog post..Be A Top Commentator And Win
Commenting on other people’s blog is very effective to get your name out and about.
I agree with the above two, they are both very correct in saying that bloggers often reciprocate comments. Another technique that seems to work is comment competitions.
Danny Coopers last blog post..Technorati – A Good Measure of Link Popularity?
If you want participants you have to be a participant. Always answer your readers questions, comment on other blogs, respond to emails. Many people don’t comment because they are afraid to sound stupid. Make them comfortable by showing them you are open for discussion and you will see an increase in comments.
Adam
So true adam! It’s a recipricol thing.
Tom – StandOutBlogger.coms last blog post..Sunday Question: Comments – Auto Approve or Approve Individually?
Interact with other bloggers = forming a conversation. This is what I am trying to achieve now in my blog.
For me, calls to action have always worked best. Them and contests, content that asks questions and various other things.
I also tried to reply to every single comment starting out – this doubled the comment count on posts, so it looked like the blog was a lot more active (thus inspiring people to click through and comment themselves).
I’ve heard some goody things about this blog. The content has really been useful a great balance of text and pictures.
It’s wonderful that we can make a buck or two with our blogs, with selling links or banners or however we do it–but honestly, I think part of the reason why I blog is because, like many, I would like to be heard.
I would like to be heard and would like to know others out there are listening, agree, or maybe even have something educational to add to the conversation. We have this great tool at our advantage that can be used for anything–why float along on a sea of silence? If something moves us, say so, if something angers, well, try and say so politely, if something’s good–compliment. It’s still pretty much the only way we bloggers know if our efforts are REALLY paying off (unless you don’t care a single bit about comments I guess.
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This is a great post, and I really enjoyed reading it!
Currently blog commenting is my biggest producer of reciprocal comments, traffic, and overall networking
Dennis Edells last blog post..As Promised – More Link Love for Knowledge Link Love #1 Participants
The effects of viewing a blog, and leaving a comment, as opposed to running by a site, and not thinking through what communication with the writer would be like, are quite different. One takes more active participation that makes use of the mind while the other is more comparable to watching of TV.
My strategy: Apart from inviting-to-comment content itself, just post comments on other blogs
and reply (almost) every comments
scratch each other’s back
I post genuine comments on many blogs for quite a long time before I have my own blog
When I decided to create my blog but it’s not ready to open yet, I put the list of possible content on the (ugly underconstuction) intro page.
When I opened my blog, I’m quite surprise that some commentors said that they were looking forward to its opening for quite awhile
I saw a lot of Thai new blogs that closed easily because the bloggers became boring with their blogs I’m rather sure that one of the causes is lacking interaction between blogger and reader, they never comment on other blogs so others won’t know their blog (and comment back). Finally they got bored to “talk to self”
P.S. Awesome writing, but “text desert” again eh? Maybe you can try subheading, bullet list, bold text
For me, I’ve had the same type of success that Dennis has because of commenting on other people’s blogs. What I’ve noticed, though, is that we comment on each other’s blogs, which generates traffic, but we rarely take the time to look at other people’s products, links, Adsense, etc, to see if there’s anything that might interest us. I need to learn how to take a step back and check some of that stuff out also.
Mitchs last blog post..What Will You Do To Get More Traffic?
I agree that commenting on other peoples blogs is a good way of gaining traffic, I have slowly started to comment on peoples blogs if I like them and I should do it more often. I am going to take the advice here and comment more on my favourite blogs out there.
Khalids last blog post..Earn While You Surf ?
Having a top commentator list on your blog and if it’s dofollow will greatly help. It is good to establish a network of friends in the blogging community so that you know you’ll always get comments from your friends as regular visitors.
Peter Lee
Work At Home Blogs last blog post..T3Leads-The Best Pay Per Lead Affiliate Program?
OMG! I I found your site on yahoo. this is really great stuff! I have saved. I will be back!