A Collection Of Reasons Why You May Not Be Getting Comments

A Collection Of Reasons Why You May Not Be Getting Comments

So first lets look in to one of the most obvious things that can stop you getting comments, this may sound stupid mentioning this, but those new to blogging may have not realised it at all.

Is your blog commenting option to receive comments on!

Yes, it has to be one of the most obvious things, but some bloggers have their options to receive comments turned off, not just for posts older than a set number of days, but every single post, so this is the first thing you should check in your blogs settings.

Are you making your readers sign up before they can comment!

This is another issue that can really annoy the heck out of someone reading your latest blog masterpiece, they get to the end of your blog post and are confronted with “You must sign in to comment”. I’ve been to a few blogs like that and I’ve never visited them again after. Unless it’s a blog I’ve read for sometime and they are trying a new comment system, such as Disqus or similar, but to do it with a standard commenting system on Wordpress etc is just silly, grab yourself an anti-spam plugin or use the superb CommentLuv.

Using Blogger from Google and not setting it up correctly for comments!

Now this can fall in to the same section above about turning on your comments, but with blogger based blogs, it’s an annoying option since only those with a blogger account can leave a comment, seriously, you are losing out on comments by having this “default” option turned on, not every one has a blogger account and they usually don’t want one when they already have a blog on their own domain.

Making your reader jump through a mass of hoops just to comment

We’ve all seen them the CAPTCHA, in its many forms can be a wonderful spam deterrent, but it can also be a problem to a commentator. I’ve talked to many bloggers in the past and the most have said that the CAPTCHA can sometimes be so hard to read that you end up attempting read several of them just to post a comment.

But it doesn’t stop there, I’ve visited blogs that have a CAPTCHA, which is hard to read, then only to be confronted with a mathematical question to answer, followed by something else. Damn it all I want to do is leave a comment!

Never replying to comments on earlier posts!

Now this one is just complete bad manors, it’s only a simple thing to do, if someone leaves a comment, reply to them, don’t get me wrong you don’t have to reply to everyone. But if there is a question in the comments about your blog post, try to answer it. If a comment is interesting to you, reply to it, it’s not rocket science.

Showing that you are willing to reply to comments on your posts, shows that you’re not only someone who can write interesting articles, but, you are also willing to take the time to show that you are human and not some automated blog posting bot!

You’re not promoting your blog to the world!

Do you honestly think that all you have to do is start a blog and write posts to get comments, oh dear, you are surely mistaken. Blogging is a lot of work, from day one of your blogging you have to promote your blog as if it’s a business. Tell your friends about it, add links to it in your emails, tweet your posts, post to Facebook and add your blog posts to social networks.

All this has to be done in order for you blog to get discovered, if no one knows about it then no one will find it, it doesn’t stop there, you will have to do this throughout the life of your blog so that it’s popularity grows.

Join blogging communities such as Blog Engage, get to know other bloggers, ask them for advice, comment on their blogs and become friends with them, in turn they will help you when you need help and they will also ask you for help as well, which all builds a wonderful releationship for not only you, but for your blog as well.

Show appreciation to your commentators

If you’re one of the many blogging using WordPress, then this is a complete no-brainer, grab yourself a copy of CommentLuv, install it on your WordPress blog and take in the benefits of improving your comment system with benefits for those that comment.

Giving your commentators the ability to add their Twitter, give them DoFollow links, adding their last blog post in their comment, this all helps to bring in some extra comments, not only that, by using CommentLuv you will have a brilliant way of discovering new bloggers and their posts right from your Admin panel

Run a contest on your blog

Simple and effective, get some sponsors to offer some prizes, or some of your own, then start a contest, you can do this in many ways such as simply asking your readers to leave a comment on a post, then you can randomly pick a winner from all those comments received.

This not only improves the amount of comments you get, but in turn, it shows the blogosphere that your blog is open for business and comments

Well written or controversial blog posts

It’s no good asking people to comment something that really doesn’t grab their attention and there are several ways of doing this, first, hone your blogging skills, improve the way you blog and write, see how the “big bloggers” do it and take note from them or grab yourself some reading material such as Blogging: The Essential Guide.

By improving the way you write your blog will also show your readers how you have advanced since those early days of just posting up Youtube videos and pictures with hardly or no text to go with them.

Be controversial, but not shocking! If you think that something needs to be said and you feel passionate enough about it, then use your blog to get your opinion across, yes you may get those inevitable nasty comments, but you’ll also get some well constructive ones, at the end of the day, they’re comments and it’s those that you want.

Don’t be controversial all the time though, as this will certainly wear off for your readers after a while and they’ll just think that you’re someone who does nothing but rant every day of the week.

Learn how to grasp content from the strangest of places

Inspiration can be a funny old thing, there you are sitting in a cafe, drinking your cappuccino, when out of the blue an idea for a blog post comes and hist you in the face like a wet Kipper!

So what do you do, try to remember it! NO! make notes, find a napkin and jot things down, most phones these days have a notepad option of some sort on them so use that, but don’t let that future blog post pass you by, it could be the one that has your commentators going wild with excitement, it could even be that post that makes you a Famous Blogger

So There You Have It

These are just some of the things that I’ve learned from my blogging over the years, there are more ways of getting comments, but I’m not going to do all the work for you guys, so why don’t you drop a comment and let me know your thoughts

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