We know that comments are the thing that validates a blog’s existence. Comments allows us to see what other people think about our posts, inspires new ideas and, above all, it does not make us feel like an idiot talking to our self. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to build an audience that cares enough to speak up. Is your blog struggling to get responses from readers? Then you may be committing one or more mistakes listed below.
1. You are not responding to comments
You come into the room, make your little speech, and leave the building. No one wants to talk to a wall (except in Facebook). Commentators will expect reply for their comments and if they don’t get that they will not be interested in commenting on your blog. The blog conversations are not meant to be one sided, if we are not willing to use our own comment section why our readers would? Don’t hesitate to interact with your readers. Your blog’s comment section is where the relation between you and your readers begins. Replying to comments may consume some of your time, but it is well worth it.
2. You make it too difficult to comment
Make your comment section an easy place to access and hang out. A combination of Akismet and GASP plugin prevents spam to almost 100% then why we need to add captcha’s and puzzles? We can’t expect readers to stay in our blog solving puzzles whole day, so adding captcha’s will pull back them from commenting. Comment implementations like Disqus and Intense Debate may help you to manage comments efficiently but at the same time it can also set a barrier to comment. Even too many options are confusing and prevent people from commenting. Do you want readers to login to comment on your blog? If you really like the idea of having a login system, host a forum!
3. You don’t network with other bloggers
People who blog themselves will be much more likely to comment than those who don’t. Reach out to other bloggers by commenting on their blog and linking to their posts on your blog. Treat people like you wanted to be treated, so be generous with your own comments on others blogs. When the blog owner sees you contribute a relevant comment, then they’ll be happier to leave you a comment on your blog in return. It’s the concept of “give and take”.
4. You are not rewarding commentators
Let’s accept the fact — many blog commenters are self-serving and looking for links back to their own blog. There is nothing wrong in that because they are spending their valuable time for dropping a comment in our blog. As the blog owner it is our duty to reward them for their time. If you give them what they want, then they’ll be happier to leave a comment. CommentLuv is a fantastic plugin which helps commenters get more out of their commenting experience. It includes the commenters’ last blog post link at the end of their comments, which is an “incentive” that encourages your readers to leave their comments. You have to give special recognition to your top commentators and Top commentators plugin make it easy.
5. Readers do not comment because there is no comments
It isn’t fun to go to a party with no people at it. We feel more comfortable getting to the party after a few people are there. The same is true for your blog also. Our world is populated in such a way that there are more followers than leaders. Most people want to become followers rather than leaders. It’s easier to add a comment when somebody else has been there. The first comment is the hardest one to get, but there is an easy way to get it – simply do it yourself 😉 Get a cute name, gravatar and leave the first comment yourself.
6. You don’t ask for it
If you want readers to speak up, ask them a question or two at the end of your post. If your post is so complete, readers may not know what to say except ‘good job’. So instead of commenting they read and move on. Don’t close a post such that your readers will be in confusion whether you want them to comment. You can ask a simple and related question at the end of the post, and ask your readers to share their thoughts.
As you can see, there are a lot of different reasons that people might not be leaving comments on your blog. Comments play a huge role in the structure of a blog, and if your blog has no discussions going on, you have to realize that something is wrong with your blog. Experiment different things and find out what works best for you.
What techniques do you use to encourage your readers to comment? Let’s chat about them in comments.
This article is written by Rojish Roy. He is a 21 year old blogger who loves to write about blogging tips, affiliate marketing, SEO and his favorite CMS – WordPress.
You made some great points in your post Rojish, and I am going to start putting them into action today. I had already downloaded “GASP” and “Comment Luv” before and will add “Top commentators” plugin via your link in the post.
Thanks for your help.
thanks for your post i was searching similar article. I own a blog but as i am a beginner i don’t get much comments on my blog.
I have a newly published blog, so I know what’s harder than to give birth to a good post – get some comments on it! ;))
Hahaha I definitely knew my reasons – I usually write too complete a post that there is hardly anything left to say more to it, except for
“Woo, insightful job, Sofia” (which i usually get by mail or private Facebook messages from my friends and readers!) 🙂
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Rojish!
I hope now I’ll do better… And I’m off to read other ppl’s blogs!! ;)))
this reason mentioned are so very true one should keep them in mind and do updated to there blog accordingly
Thank you, I have a fashion website and it’s very hard to get some comments. Your article really helped me a lot!
Adding a comment by myself is one thing i have never tried and would never want to as i love to see comments which are genuine and it feels great when a user actually thanks you for the post. I agree with all the other points that you mentioned. I would make it a point to network with other bloggers.
Thanks for sharing your views with HBB readers 🙂
Blog comments show the loyal visitors and real potential of a website. By networking with other bloggers and by commenting on their blog you can increase your comments count
Well it’s nice to see Rojish doing some online activity after a long period of time.
Nice valuable tips, as very few of us take pain to request users to participate in commenting.
i will try to follow your points…….hope that i will get few com mentors on my blog…….nice tips
Hello Rojish,
You have raised valid points here. Many do not comment if they find the content uninteresting and irrelevant. The posts should offer something to the readers. Stick to the theme of your blog. This is the key to winning the hearts of your readers.
Amit shaw you are right. The quality of the post also attracts readers to comment on the post.
Good ideas there. I don’t get many comments on my blog 100Wpthemes.com too. Kind of weird. Maybe I need to relook at my website and see how I can tweak so that comments will come in.
Rojish, any suggestion?
Alicia, I think you can start to gather readers by conducting Giveaways and after that you can these plugin to make them regular. 🙂
http://hellboundbloggers.com/2009/07/09/how-to-help-your-commentators/
so true the 6 pointer are it is rightly said above that if you don’t interact with your fellow bloggers it makes it very difficult for you to keep up your blog and that is not what one wants.
awesome …. i like your work and mostly all six are very important for getting comments on your blog
I think people will automatically comment when we will apply the points mentioned in this post. very nice.
It's so true. I know why I didn't get a single comments in my website now. I also rarely comment in other blog and didn't comment in my blog as well. Thanks for your helpful tips.
Yah… it really awesome tips.. but i am new blogger and what is the best way to get comments..?
Apart from Quality content, you can encourage readers to comment by making your blog dofollow (http://hbb.me/9p) and by installing plugins like CommentLuv and Top Commentators Widget.
ehhehheh well i think its up to the mood of the person who is commenting…. and a bit of blog content
Nice Post… your all 6 points are useful and important….
Wonderful Post…Now a days i am struggling with the same issue with my blog.
I am getting Visitor but not getting comments.
I liked your idea about 'Put some initial comment on post so that people will start commenting on it".
I am hoping that people will start more and more commenting soon.
Thanks once again
Any blogger what's to see some appreciation from his readers.
3 and 6 are the most common mistakes.
I really see some positive buzz on the posts which ends with asking the readers opinion and I feel that it encourages the reader to post some comments..
If Someone post Comment in my blog freegprstricks.com i am getting that mail into spam.
Even if someone send mail through contact form that also goes to Spam.
how to solve this problem?
Its really great place to gather a worthy information on here 🙂 Thank you so much for given up here 🙂
Rojish, This is extension of your blogpost on your site. Congratulation being the guest blogger ion HBB.
You missed out a few vital points:
You're not getting any traffic
You write in poor and / or hard to understand English
This is great article, i was searching something like this for a while because i am not getting too much comments on my blog. Thanks you very much rojish. .
Comments let us know what people are thinking about our blog, therefore we can get suggestions on improving our blog according to people's needs.
Very nice info!!!!
Blog post is not an easy task to do i think any new blogger should prepare himself very well for this. From my point of view these are enough reason for them who haven't find success in blog post. They should follow these easy steps to do and after that they can see result in favor of himself.
Comment is one of the correct directions to interact with all bloggers on here. And, this article will be more helpful to all the bloggers. So, i would like to say thansk for given up great post on here 🙂
this is so true..and nice tips buddy:)
Great tips! I will try them out. Sometimes, I get like one comment or two but I really want to get more. This will help me. Thank you. 🙂
It's only one month I have started my blog and I am hardly getting any comments now.Hope this guidelines might give my blog some comments.
Commenters are usually encouraged if we reward them. Keywordluv and commentluv plugins attract a lot of commenters 🙂
number 3 is the most important,most of the places we will find that the comment is made by other blogger only
1st and the 4th point are very important! 5th point makes me laugh Rojish, what a way you have found 😉
So true. I totally agree with all of the above reasons why no one comments on a blog. When I comment blogs myself, I would look at how many comments and what kind of comments the posts are getting. So when I don't see good comments or even just a single comment, I don't comment at all then. Excellent write up.
That is true John, most people are willing to comment only if there is already some good comments. That is why we should get first few comments for our blog posts. Either we can ask the help of our friends or joining in a commenting tribe will be good.
Thanks for the comment John.
I think I didn't make the above mistakes, but I would certainly welcome more, more and more comments! So folks, why don't you drop by my blog and shoot me some comments? Hehe… of course after you have done that here at HBB. 🙂
Awaiting you at my bloggie. 🙂
Hahaha let us hope HBB readers will flood your blog's comment section Jasmine 😉
Thanks for your comment.
I guess this post says it all. I think I have to review my blog whether how many points actually hit my problems that nobody is commenting on my blog. I guess mainly is because my article does not end like I want some comment.
Thanks for the comment Alan. If you ask your readers you can get more comments. End every blog post by asking a small, relevant question to readers which encourages them to comment. If you use this technique you can find the number of comments grows quickly.
That was the best point in the article – we probably write a story that is too well said and complete, so our readers really feel like there is nothing left to say there :))