6 Ideas For Getting More Comments On Your Blog

Since I started this blog in January 2010, I am delighted at the number of comments that my readers leave….even on posts that  are weeks/months old!

From 2006 till 2010 I was using a Blogger blog to share my Internet marketing tips on, and it was a real struggle to get comments on that blog.

Over those 4 years on blogger, I can count the number of comments I got on my fingers. Seriously!

Was it the change to wordpress that magically brought people flocking to leave their comments?

In a word – YES!

I would have to say that the vast array of readily available WordPress plugins have made it much more inviting and beneficial for readers to leave comments on this blog.

It’s normal to think that readers would leave a comment regardless of whether or not they get a backlink or get their gravatar photo on the page if they enjoy the content. But this, as I experienced with blogger, was not always the case.

It happens sometimes, but if you give your readers some extra incentive to leave a comment, the chances of getting them increase greatly.

For those of you who want the quick version here’s a break down of my little blog comment formula in bullet points…

1. Share good, current, informative content on your blog.
2. Use a Wordress blog. I think people are so used to WP and the commenting procedure, so it’s easy…not to mention all the cool (and mostly free) plugins for WP, some of which I’ll introduce below.
3. Get Gravatars in your comments. Either get a theme with Gravatars built in or get a plugin that puts them in. People love to see a picture of themselves and it makes your blog look more lively.
4. Install Comment Luv or a similar plugin. If you can give readers incentive like a link to their latest post, they’ll want to comment. I have comment luv installed on this blog. Watch this video to see exactly how it works.
5. Allow readers to subscribe to comments. I use a plugin called .. well, “Subscribe to comments”. It helps to keep comment-ers updated on the conversation which can bring them back to your blog.
6. Ask for comments directly. Ask and you shall receive, right? At the end of your post, ask your readers to leave a comment or question they had about the article. Or if you can’t think of a reason, just say something like “Leave a comment to let me know you’re alive!”

There are several other ways to capture comments too, such as running a competition or using a plugin to giveaway a freebie in exchange for a comment so you’re not limited to just the ideas I mentioned above.

If you can think “win-win”, that’s always going to be the best for anything you do with your business – including your blogging.

Thanks for reading and if you liked this post, please leave a comment to let me know that you’re alive! (and you’ll get some comment luv too

To your success,

Stuart Stirling

Thanks for coming back! Please don't forget to leave your comment so you can get a free backlink and let me know you're alive!