How to get more comments....

Ok, so it seems in the blog community I've been reading a lot of posts (or even emails/comments of mine) about a need/want for more comments.  I think this topic applies to everyone in the blogosphere, as who doesn't love a comment? 

Anyhow, while I usually always get a comment or two on each post I make, I noticed that I often get the most comments on posts where either:

A) I ask my readers for their opinion   
B) I post with a general question in mind 
C) I bare my soul and talk about what a loser I am feeling like  or
D) I post about something somewhat controversial. 

The posts I get least comments on are posts where I either:

A) Include just a short little ditty, video, picture etc
B) Recap my day/weekend/week
C) Post my "journal" updates... brag posts about Porter and things he does that I want to remember.

I also started to notice that there were many blogs out there that I read, or keep up with, but I don't always comment on.  When I reflected on why I don't comment on these blogs, I found that it is often because these blogs contained posts that didn't have anything that sparked a readers desire to comment.  Most of these blogs were basically used as "journals" to recap the bloggers life... "We did this today" blah blah. There isn't anything stimulating to the reader to get them thinking and pondering ideas, topics etc that they might want to post about. 

I did a little research, and found a few articles about how to blog in a way to get more comments.  Here is the outline.  I encourage you to read the full article here.

10 Ways to Increase Comment Numbers on Your Blog

1. Invite Comments (some people who are unfamiliar with blogging don't realize that you can leave comments)
2. Ask Questions (Post with a specific question/thought in mind... ask your readers THEIR opinion)
3. Be Open Ended (Kind of goes with the above... leave room for your readers to put in their ideas on a topic)
4. Interact with comments left (respond to comments in your own comment section... something I don't do, but maybe will try)
5. Set Boundaries (aka... comment rules)
6. Be humble (show your weaknesses, life isn't always peachy keen and no one wants to read about a sugar coated life.  People are attracted to humility and can relate more to "real life" situations)
7. Be gracious (if a reader calls you out on something, be careful with how you respond.  Suck it up and be gracious)
8. Be controversial (Controversial topics often get readers onto their soapboxes and fired up to chime in.  This can also be bad too... it can often turn off the more "quiet" readers.)
9. ‘Reward’ Comments (AH HA!  I just did this yesterday with Lina!  Who knew!)
10. Make it Easy to Comment (this one is a big irritation to me... I can't stand all the Typepad blogs I read that I have to do that word verification on to leave a comment.  So, if you use Typepad... go check your settings.  Go to >Weblogs >Configure >Feedback and turn OFF the Typekey Authentication)

Also... here are 5 Blog Writing Tips that might be helpful also.

Try it out! See if it works. 

Comments

[Ben Yoskovitz]

Getting comments is always a challenge. Lately I'm dealing with this question: "What do you do when comments start to slow down on your blog?"

Something I hope to tackle soon...

Thank you for linking to my blog writing tips, I appreciate it! Maybe you'll stop by and ... comment? :)

[Kristi Sauer]

Great post, Nic. Blogging is always on my mind too, but I find that if I don't put a brief thought to blog about later on a post-it-note, the thought goes away. Either that or I don't have time to blog about everything that is on my mind. I also don't want to have so many posts that readers feel overwhelmed or that certain posts go unnoticed.
I will try to take your advice to get more comments because I certainly love them too!

[Amy]

Great tips!! I'll have to try that on my Blog instead of pure, for-no-other-reason, venting.

[Kasey]

Great advice Nicole! Thanks!!!! :)

[heather]

I think I'm realizing more and more that I don't tend to comment nearly as much when I use Bloglines instead of actually visiting blogs I like. If I sit down to check bloglines when I only have a couple of minutes, I run through my new feeds, I tend to skim over posts and then tell myself I need to come back and post comments later. Only later never comes because then I forget. I think I need to just blogline the blogs I rarely read; the people I don't really know and where it doesn't reallly matter if I keep up on "real time" with them. Then take the time to actually go by and visit friends'/acquaintances'/people I want to keep up on blogs when I have time to "converse" a little. Maybe that Google Reader will be better for that? I'll have to check it out.

[Michelle Sauer]

Thanks for the advice. I feel like I have no time to be creative or solicit comments :) You on the other hand do a great job with your posts! I always try to comment no matter what, but sometimes I just do a quick read of the blogs and go. I think that's what most people do.

[jenny]

thanks for all the sweet tips! comments are like little gifts! everyone loves to get them!

[Nic]

LeeAnn... (I'm trying this whole "reply to comments in the comment section" thingy ma bobber).

I guess I'd suggest thinking of just the simplest topics to blog about. It doesn't have to be a major life altering event it can be something as simple as discussing thoughts and opinions on things or your feelings about something that other people can relate to.

For example, on our way home from St. Louis, Porter and I were eating in Arby's. He was sitting in the booth like a "big kid" (I wanted him to be able to stretch and move around as we were in the car all day). He kept turning around and flirting with this old couple, to which I kept reminding him to turn around and leave them alone. He also was putting his greasy hands all over the window as he watched the traffic drive by. I had a "blog moment"... I started thinking... 'Hmm... is that acceptable- to let your kid put their greasy hands on the windows?' and I immediately thought of blogging it and asking readers their opinions.

I'm always finding little moments of the day where I think "I should blog that!" Heather and I left the kids with Ryan on Thursdsay and went to the Dollar Store (so I could pick up some cheapo toys to toss back to Porter in the car when he got fussy), and we were joking that we should go into the furniture store to "shop" for bedroom furniture and take a nap on the beds since we were childless and so exhausted from our long stressful day with cranky kids in the hot sun. We both said "That'd be so funny to blog!" Dorks, yes, I know.

Blogging is always on my mind.

[LeeAnn]

I still feel that I don't get many comments is because I don't have good content. I have never been a great writer in school and stil don't know what to write about. I love reading blogs and commenting when I feel I have something to comment on (because I know how good it feels to receive comments), but I can't seem to 'think' of topics to write of. Any insight on that problem??

[Kim]

huh... i did not even realize i had the authentication thing turned on... going to try to turn it off now, thanks! :)