You spend loads of time writing your latest blog post. You realize it’s great, one of the best articles you have ever written, people are going to love it! But the next day when you check to see the reaction it has gotten, you see that it hasn’t received a single comment!

Aarrrrgh!!! It is SO frustrating when that happens. But don’t worry, it happens to every blogger at some time or another.

“How do I get more blog comments?” is a question that I regularly get asked, so I thought we could take a look at it in a bit more detail in today’s post.

Don’t Worry

Now, if you write your own blog and are failing to receive many comments then don’t worry! There are a number of things that you can do to encourage more people to comment. But before we get to that, it is important for you to remember that comments aren’t everything. Just because you aren’t getting many comments doesn’t mean there is anything the matter with your blog.

Perhaps your blog is still relatively new, in which case it may just be a matter of growing the number of readers that you get. Some types of blog tend just to naturally attract more blog comments than others. For example, people who tend to comment more frequently are bloggers themselves, so blogs about blogging (like this site) tend to attract people who are more likely to comment.

So as I say, just because you aren’t getting many comments doesn’t mean there is anything the matter with your blog. There could be any number of reasons for it. I know that some of my posts can receive loads of comments, whereas others receive none at all. But are comments actually necessary?

Are Blog Comments Important?

Well no! Comments aren’t particularly that important. They certainly don’t have any specific impact on your SEO or affect the amount of traffic that your site gets. So comments don’t directly affect how well your site performs.

On the other hand, some people view the number of comments that a site receives as a way of measuring how popular a site is. You can understand this because regular visitors have no clue as to how much traffic your site gets, as they have no access to your analytic data. They may be put off by a site with few comments, though I believe that they would judge your content first.

The most important part of getting comments is that it helps give you feedback and offers you a way to communicate and ultimately build a community around your site.

So are blog comments important? Well no, not directly. But you can use them to build a relationship with your readers. So they are useful to get.

So, How Do I Get Blog Comments?

Well there are a number of different ways that you can use to encourage people to leave a comment. Here are some that I use;

Ask Questions In Your Posts

One good way to get comments is to ask questions in your posts. After all, you don’t want to be talking AT your readers, but WITH them. So within your articles, constantly be asking questions, suggest different points of view, ask them whether they agree or disagree with what you think. You could take this one step further and include a question in the post title, such as; ‘Should I Start A Free Hosted Blog Or A Self Hosted Blog?’. This way, when people are reading your work, they feel like they are part of a discussion that they can add to, instead of just being stated what is correct.

Now, of course this isn’t always applicable, a lot depends on what you are writing about. I often find this method hard to incorporate when I am writing a tutorial, but it is still doable. It all depends on your style of writing.

Be Opinionated

Being opinionated on a certain subject can instantly attract comments from people. They may agree with you and want to let you know why they do, or they may totally disagree with what you are saying and want to let you know!

This is a great way to attract comments, however always be careful with this method. Being opinionated to get a few comments is good, but it is only good if you get comments from both sides of the argument. If you just end up with hundreds of negative comments disagreeing with you, then it could damage your reputation. Just make sure you pick your topic carefully. It may be better to give an opinion from both sides of view and see what other people think.

Interact With Your Readers

Now this is an easy way to encourage comments and should definitely be used by new blogs. Just make sure you interact with your readers via the comments section. So, whenever anyone leaves a comment, make sure you reply to it. This way, people that do leave a comment feel like they are being acknowledged and their opinions valued.

If they ask you a question, then try to give them an answer. If they disagree with something, try to understand their point of view. If they want to add something that they think you have missed, thank them.

This all helps to build a loyal readership around your site. People will be more willing to return to your site and leave a comment if they think they will get a helpful reply from you the writer. It will help to build your own reputation as well amongst the blogging community.

Make Things Easy

Make it as easy as possible for people to comment of your blog. You may be missing out on comments because your comment box is right at the bottom of the page, instead of just beneath the end of your article.

Ask For Comments!

Yes, that’s right! Just simply remind people to comment at the end of your posts. This is one of the most affective ways of getting comments from people.

You could take it a step further and ask them a direct question at the end of your post, such as; “Do you agree with me on this subject?” or “What do you think?”

What you are doing is that you are giving them a reason to comment. Many people may not know what to write if you don’t give them some sort of direction, so they just won’t bother. By asking them a question, they may have some ideas of what to write.

Summary

So don’t worry if you are not getting as many comments as you had hoped. There could be many reasons why you are not yet getting any. These are just a few methods that you can use to encourage people to leave comments.

But what do you think? Would you use any of these methods? Do you have some other ways to encourage blog comments? Then please leave your comments below and I’ll get back to you ASAP (see what I’ve done here!).