Comments are a very important aspect of blogging. The ability to contribute to articles allows readers to participate in the topic in question. The number of comments in blog posts is usually a pretty good indication of how popular the blog is.
How to encourage readers to comment?
When your blog is still new you may struggle to get some or even any comments to your posts. If you continue to update your blog with good posts though the comments will come in time however there are a number of methods you can use to encourage comments to your post.
- Avatars – Whether you use Gravatars, MyBlogLog, Bumpzee or your blogs hosted avatar service, a small picture next to a commentators message goes a long way in making your blog more friendly and colourful.
- Present your comments in a good way – The way your comment area is designed can greatly affect how many comments you get. Try and make the letter font large and easy to read. I’ve seen some blogs where ive had to zoom in to see the messages because the font size is way to small.
- Ask your readers questions – I like to pose questions in my posts sometimes to encourage readers to post. You should see an increase in commentating if you start to ‘include’ your readers in your posts rather than just writing your posts like a guide.
- Look after your regular commentators – There are a lot of ways you can and should reward your regular commentators. For example :
- A top commentators list
- Removing the no folllow tag for their blog link
- Linking to their blogs occasionally when referring to something a commentator said on on your blog
- Competitions – Competitions and prizes are a great way to reward those who comment on your site.
