On this post I will show 15 tips you can use to encourage discussion on your blog. The first step is to setup your blog in a way that it encourages the right kind of comments and when the platform is in order, it is building a discussion culture to your blog and start building a community.
If you are looking to encourage interaction between the readers, a bit like in forums, you need to encourage comments and replies as well. The number of comments in itself doesn't do anything. The purpose of this post is not only to get more blog comments, but to get the right kind of blog comments.
Introduction
This article was born when Cheryl (from That Girl is Funny) approached me to write a guest post for the BlogCatalog community blog. I wrote a post there called “how to turn blog comments into discussion”. The post answered the question Cheryl had in mind: How do some bloggers manage to get a conversation going with comments - almost like it's a forum? I have trouble enough getting people to leave comments. Is there something magical to do to get people talking to each other instead of at me?
In that article I listed three things that blog needs to encourage discussion in the blog comments:
- Blog (comment) setup that supports effective discussion
- Blog posts that ask for reader input
- Community that encourages discussion and sharing opinions
If the blog setup is not in order, getting blog comments is a lot harder. Ironically, the BlogCatalog Community blog’s commenting system wasn’t exactly “discussion friendly”. I only realized this after the post was published. Their blog commenting system has two major obstacles for good discussion:
- Blog commenting requires a login
- They don’t have threaded comments.
Most blogs have open comments and don’t require login, but not too many blogs have threaded comments enabled, so it’s a common “problem”. I’ve been running Disqus comments in this blog for a while now, and even that Disqus has its own flaws, it’s a great system to support discussion (which its name cleverly states).
But anyway, I feel that much was left unsaid on the guest post and I got some additional ideas from the blog comments that were left on the post despite the forced login, so I wanted to make even better post about the same subject.
I took the three things I listed on the guest post (blog setup, asking for comments and building a community) and expanded it into more detail, ending up with 15 tips on how to get more blog comments and how to turn blog comments into discussion.
Turning blog comments into discussion
Getting more blog comments and turning comments into discussion is more likely to happen with couple of key settings in the blogging platform in place, and more importantly by leading by example, replying to comments, and use couple of "techniques" on your blog posts and comments to increase the chances of others leaving comments.
Getting more comments to your blog and driving the discussion is somewhat tied to the blog platform you run on. Some blogging platforms support key settings by default, some require addons or plugins.
If you are using blogging platforms, where you can't do much in this regard, check if external blog commenting systems like Disqus or IntenseDebate for example could help. If not, concentrate on the posts and comments themselves.
So first, we'll take a look at the 3 important settings you need to check and enable if needed. And then we move on to blog comment strategies and the best practices you can use on individual blog posts and comments.
1. Enable threaded comments
Using threaded comments means that it is possible to REPLY directly to another comment and see if a comment is a reply to a previous comment. Without threaded comments, you can never have true discussion on the blog comments, or at least it will be enormously more difficult. Without threaded comments, the only way to reply to someone is to leave a comment and start it with @name or something.
The possibility to reply directly to other comments, and not just add your reply to the end of the other comments is the most important setting to drive discussion. Without this, even starting a discussion is hard, let alone to keep it going.
In WordPress, you can turn the threaded comments on by going to the Settings >> Discussion and enable the option under “Other comment settings”.
The theme you are using must support threads, but as the feature has been available for years, all new and up-to-date themes should have the support built-in. Turning on the threaded comments does not “convert” the old comments to threads, since the reply-option is only available when it’s on.
Enable threaded (nested) comments X levels deep, where the X means how deep the threads go, a bit like you would make a list with several sub lists. Because of this, it is immediately visible which comment the other comment is a reply to, or is it a new comment.
- First level
- Second level
- Third level
- Fourth level
- Fifth level
- Another comment on fourth level
- Fourth level
- Third level
- Another comment on second level
- 3rd level
- Still 3rd level
- Second level
- Back in the first
- Etc.
If your blogging platform does not support threaded comments directly (many don't), you can look into external blog commenting system, like Disqus or IntenseDebate. Disqus, which I use, supports all major blogging platforms like Blogger, Drupal, Tumblr and (self-hosted) WordPress.
2. Show the number of comments
Make sure the number of comments is clearly visible. The large number acts as social proof. Showing the number of comments is something your theme or template has to do.
In many blogging platforms it is a default, but in case your blog theme does not show the number of comments or you think it should show them more clearly, consider getting a new theme or tweaking your existing one. (update: to customize WP theme yourself, check the intructions on how to show number of comments on WordPress.)
Also, when there are no comments, instead of "0 comments", blogging template or theme should display call to action, like
- "Start the discussion!" or
- "Be the first to comment!"
As mentioned in the beginning, I think the number of comments is not as important as the quality of the comments, but seeing that others have left comments as well is one of the best ways to encourage comments and thus, discussion.
3. Offer a way to subscribe to comments
To keep the discussion going you need to offer a way for people to subscribe to comments. This means giving the commenter an opportunity to get notified about new comments left on the post she commented on, the direct replies to her comment(s) or both.
This email notification will make people return to your blog, read the new comments and possibly leave additional comments themselves. Threaded comments, combined with the possibility to subscribe to comments not only increase the number of blog comments, but also increase blog traffic.
4. Have a clear comment policy
To keep the discussion going and moderate the blog comments, you need to have a blog comment policy. On this policy you can state the rules and tell that those who don't follow the rules will get their blog comments deleted and marked as spam.
Your comment policy should state at least if it is OK to
- use keywords on the "name" (e.g. do you allow "keywords", "websitename", "name@website", "name@keywords" or just "name" or something in between)
- add links on the comment text (e.g. OK when the link is useful)
- be rude and/or spam (e.g. don't be rude and do not spam)
As an example, let me share you how I created my comment policy and why it is like it is...
My comment policy
Blog comment policy doesn't have to be complicated. As an example, I have two comment rules here on my blog:
- Be excellent to each other
- Use your real name
I general, I don’t like link dropping, where people insert their own URL to the blog comments, so that’s included in there as well, but that’s about it. I like to see commenters to use a real name and I've been very strict about it (unless someone connects with Twitter, as many have some kind of nicknames as usernames there).
(update / clarification after discussion about my comment policy: using "name@website" is fine, I just like to see the name there, and if you want to add your website, that's cool)
In general, I like to see less anonymity and more transparency and honesty online, or like I said on Twitter the other day: “If you do not want / "can't" use your real name when you do something online, why you do it at all?”
For me, it is all about genuine discussions and real people. I much prefer talking to Bob, Mary and Jane than to "insert your ad-filled niche blog name here" saying "nice post!" - I prefer answering the questions from people who actually read my blog post and seeing what they have to say.
Your blog comment policy might be something totally different from mine, and that is OK, it's your blog after all. I just wanted to share my views; how I formed my comment policy, based on what kind of blog comments I like to see and what kind of "web behaviour" I want to encourage.
5. Fight the spam
If your blog comments are filled with spam, the real comments and discussion will disappear into the mass, that is, if someone even wants to leave a blog comment in the first place with all the spam around.
Whatever blogging platform you use, enable anti-spam features, addons and plugins. For WordPress, Akismet is must and WP-SpamFree Anti-Spam is great addition. It doesn’t matter what system you use, but do use the means you got.
Even with the best anti-spam systems, some blog comments will always get through that are spam. And then you have to moderate. You must check all the comments, delete and mark as spam the ones that are against your blog comment policy and move on.
This is the reason why you need to have a clear comment policy, so you can delete blog comments without too much thinking. For example, if you say “use your real name” and someone doesn’t, you can remove the comment.
One additional way to moderate blog comments is to approve first time comments manually.
This means that when someone leaves their first comment, you must approve it before it appears. When the same person leaves a second comment, it appears automatically. In WordPress, you can find the option in the Settings >> Discussions (the same place where you can enable threaded comments).
6. Tell your readers how to comment
For most bloggers, blog commenting is like second nature. But for many blog readers, it’s not. Not everyone knows how to leave blog comments; some don’t even know what blog comments are and why you are asking for them.
Do one of these on your blog if you think your readers might need instructions on how to comment:
- Write a post about how to comment on your blog (and link to it when needed)
- Add simple instructions to the posts you want comments in
- Link to another blog with good instructions on how to leave blog comments
7. Add call to action at the bottom of each of your posts
The single best way to get more meaningful blog comments is to ask for comments. If you end your blog post with a question or ask for your readers’ opinion, they are much more likely to leave a blog comment. Thus, keep your posts open ended and ask questions.
At the end of your blog posts, always encourage comments, or even ask a question. Like these that Darren Rowse presented on Problogger.net post, 7 Questions to Ask on Your Blog to Get More Reader Engagement:
- What do you think?
- How do you feel?
- What will you do?
- What is your opinion?
- What is your story?
- What is your experience or example?
- What have you been working on?
8. Reply to as many comments as you can
Make people feel it's worth their time to comment. Reply to comments people leave on your blog, especially if you spot that someone left their first comment on the blog.
People like that attention, and since they have already taken the time to comment already shows that they are somewhat interested in what you say, replying to their comment increases the chances of making them a regular reader (and commenter!).
Others reading your blog and the comments see that you are replying to comments as well. Replying to comments is the key to discussion and you have to lead by example and reply to the comments to encourage others to reply as well.
As an additional bonus, most blog platforms and themes count your own comments to the total number and since you show the number of comments (as of tip#2); your own comments will increase the number.
Like with blog commenting in general, replying to comments works better if you add something to the discussions and not just thank for the comment. If nothing else, ask a question from the commenter, which leads us to the next tip...
9. Ask questions in your comment replies
When you have threaded comments enabled and you can reply directly to a comment, and that person gets notification for that reply, she is very likely to read that reply (because it is in her inbox). With that reply, you show personal attention to her, which in itself is great...
But what if your reply has a question for the commenter? You show interest to her ideas, and it's next to impossible for her not to respond (taken that she opted-in to the notification). Thus, similarly to adding questions and calls to action to the end of the blog posts, you can ask questions in your replies as well.
Don't force a question in every reply, but when you genuinely have a question in mind for the commenter, put it in your comment (for example, if you are not sure what the commenter meant, tell what you think and ask "did I understand you correctly?".
10. Have a discussion day on your blog
Write posts that specifically call for discussion. Start having a regular discussion day on your blog, e.g. Friday rant, Saturday discussion or similar. On these days, you would post a blog post with only short introduction from you to be the topic of the discussion, with specific questions and call to action to start the discussion.
- Since the post is specifically asking for comments, and does only that, people are more likely to comment.
- Add to the discussion by replying to people's comments with additional questions and ideas.
- Keeping the discussion going and making it a regular event on the blog is a great way to begin building a community around your blog.
11. Use surveys and polls to drive the discussion
As Rich Hill pointed out in his comment on the BlogCatalog post, using a poll seems to inspire many additional comments. People tend to click on a poll more easily than leave a comment, and when they do, seeing the results might encourage them to say something in the comments as well.
You can use this tip together with the discussion day, adding a poll about the topic of the day, or taking the previous days poll as the topic of today. If the poll system you use allows customization, you could even test adding a question like “do you have a comment about the results?” when the guest sees the poll results.
12. Write posts that are controversial
This works on your normal blog posts and the discussion days. Write about something that divides people, and possibly have strong opinion on. The key in this is your opinion and then asking for your readers’ opinions.
For example, you can introduce two alternatives and tell what you think of them (or even leave your own opinion out of it). Then just ask what your readers think, or which of the two alternatives they prefer.
Each niche has something like this. "PC vs. Mac", "Cat persons vs. Dog persons", “DoFollow vs. nofollow” (for example, check the discussion here, when HotBlogTips removed DoFollow from their site) and similar "duels" where people are often passionately on one side. However, don't let this kind of discussion to fall into trash talk and bashing.
One way of controversy is being completely honest, speak your mind and show who you are - your guests want to know who you are, no matter what you think. Give them what they want. Or write an angry blog post or rant if you feel like it, don’t be scared.
13. Form a group of blogging buddies and comment on each other’s blogs
If you don't have much blog traffic yet or the people who are reading your blog are not commenting much, find fellow bloggers in the same situation and become discussion starters on each other’s blogs.
You can start this yourself by becoming a regular commenter on the blogs you read and connecting with fellow bloggers through forums and Twitter for example.
When you find a group of like-minded bloggers
- start leaving blog comments on each other’s blogs,
- reply to each other’s comments, and
- reply to comments left by the readers (who are not in your "group").
You don't have to do this for every post, but it works particularly well for the discussion days. Add questions to those replies to carry the discussion on. When others see the discussion, with replies to comments, they are more likely to join. If you have just 2-3 other bloggers adding to the discussion, your other readers see that and it might encourage them to add to the discussion.
14. Break news
This is not for all bloggers, but if you end up writing a news-breaking blog post about a big event in your niche, you are very likely to have active discussion on that post.
Of course you need to have some traffic already and your post needs to get attention, but if that is in order, make sure it’s easy for the people to comment on that post and share their views.
You can utilize the tips above to make the most out of an event, and include polls and ask questions about what people think, etc.
15. Pay attention to what works and do more of that
This last tip works for various things and turning blog comments into discussions is no different. What works on my blog might not work on your blog. Perhaps your guests love polls and debate, but you don’t get many comments on the discussion days. So drop discussion days, and add more polls.
Just like analyzing and tracking your blog traffic, you can learn a lot by looking at what happens in your blog. If you are adding questions to your posts, what questions seem to get the most answers? Was there something special about the post? Do you receive more comments on the short posts or the long ones?
Further reading
In case you are interested in reading even more on the subject, you might want to look into these great posts:
- Smart Passive Income: Tricks to Get More Comments On Your Blog by Pat Flynn
- Problogger.net: 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog by Darren Rowse
- Copyblogger: Confessions of a Comment Addict by Johnny B. Truant
- Performancing: 10 Tips for Attracting More Comments by Chris Garrett
Discussion
Getting discussion going on your blog is not easy, and it requires other people. But these tips will encourage blog comments and help you to start building the discussion culture on your blog.
But now I’d to hear about your thoughts on blog commenting and how you get discussions going on your blog? Do you use any tips I listed here, or do you have some other tactics others could try too?
On a post like this it goes without saying, but I say it anyway: comments are more than welcome and encouraged, so tell me what do you think?
p.s. If you have any questions you would like to get answered, contact me and ask anything. I will answer your questions via email and write a post like this sharing the tips with others as well (if that is OK with you). Or you can ask me to answer your question(s) as a guest post, like Cheryl did.
3 links to this post.
62 comments.
Thanks for the great post Antti! I just updated the comment settings on my blog. - Shannon O | Confessions of a Loving Wife
I am about to install DISQUS on a client's blog… she hired me and another girl to get her site up and running, and to help her start creating a community. I visited a post and noticed a reader would have to sign up/login to comment and immediately suggested we change that. Nothing deters comments like having to go through several steps before being able to say what's on your mind!
In some of our blog posts, we do end with questions for the readers. I think this is one tip we should do more often. I also think that lengthy registrations and CAPTCHA prevent people from wanting to comment on your posts, so as much as possible, you should avoid having these things.
I like this Antti, some very good point. For me I need to work on putting up a clear comment policy.
I also like the Idea of forming a group of friends and commenting on each others comments. Twitter12 did that for me. It's a pitty it never took of for others.
A good clear call to action is important. I have found that when a post does not lend itself to comments, IE an informative post, then a call to actually comment is crucial.
Answering as many comments as possible is a biggie for me.
I don't mind having posts cleared by an admin person but one aspect I loathe is this Captcha stuff where you have to read some near gobbledegook and type that in to post the comment. It is especially aggravating if you get the damn words wrong and have to type them in until you find one you can read and finally get the comment posted.
Very good point with the CAPTCHA. Blog commenting must be as easy as possible, especially on blogs with non-technical readers – Fighting spam comments is one thing, but people don't realize that not all people know what CAPTCHA is or how to fill it.
Yeah, as I just replied for Julius there, CAPTCHA is not the right way to fight spam – For people who don't use web that much, it's next to impossible to know what to do. And when one understands what needs to be done, there's the challenge to read the damn thing. I'm betting spam bots read CAPTCHA's better than humans :)
Well thought out and very thorough.
A lot of people ignore #3, which is why I love Disqus so much.
Hi Antti,
One technique that I usually use is ending the blog post with a question and letting them share their own stories related to what I have posted but most of the times, I should just leave my post as it is and will just see if this gets to be popular or not.
I believe in the power of persuasion that blog commenting implies although I may not be patient enough to reply to each and everyone's post as regularly as possible and thus, will suddenly cut the discussion for a while. I'll be more glad if there are still comments coming even to my previous posts and if there's none, it's all right as well and what matters to me is I write because I love to and that I'd like to share valuable posts to them even though they'll not show their concerns in return. :)
Thanks a lot for the points! Don't worry I'll look forward to trying more soon.
Hi Antti,
I agree with everything you say here. I have already made some adjustments to my comment system (enable threads, make rules visible).
Thanks you for sharing your tips on this topic (and others I have been follwoing) — really appreciated
I really don't know why so many people like Disqus – so perhaps a blog post on that subject would be good, Antti.
One you have to login before you can add a comment – why? I know I did here but what is the point – I don’t get it plus many times I submit a comment via Disqus and it just gets lost and never appears.
I have changed my name to meet you comment policy – again not too sure why you don’t like 'Andrew@xxx'.
Andrew
P.S. Excellent post btw, – can't argue with that!
Hi Andrew. A post about Disqus is definitely in place… In short, there are things I like about and things that I don't like – so far the benefits, like excellent email notification system, has outweighted the downsides (like incompatibility with other WP plugins and not following W3C standards).
…but you said Disqus requires login? As far as I know, Disqus does not require login. Just enter your name, email (and URL) as usual (= comment “as a guest”)… It might be that this is in the Disqus settings and it is possible for the blogger not to allow “guest” commenting.
So the Disqus registering and login is optional. However, if you choose to register and login to Disqus, you can comment on all blogs using Disqus without entering any info (unless specifically logout from Disqus) and just comment away.
Plus you can add social media profiles to Disqus, autoposting comments to Twitter and Facebook. Plus you can see and moderate all your own comments through Disqus profile. And the comment profile can be shared with others, like any other social media profile.
As for name@website instead of real name – I can live with that, and might even update my comment policy at some point…
And actually I might even update my comment policy to say that I *prefer* real name, since there are soooo many who just don't get it that I'm tired of fighting against it.
Definitely a post that gets people fired up to comment, got to love that :) Solid advice as commenting and comment numbers have replaced the “counter” of the 90's
Antti,
This plus your guest post and these great references were like a course in getting blog comments. I took several suggestions and now have threads enabled on my blog. I wanted to do disqus, but was afraid to lose all my comments because I had to import them so discarded that idea. Appreciate your clear, logical explanations.
I find the betting thing is asking and making it easy. There are a lot of people that complain about not getting enough conversation on their blogs…but they are not asking the right questions.
There are also some groups/niches that are more accustomed to commenting on blogs than others. In one of my niches, I actually had to start a forum to get them talking because that is the norm around that subject matter.
Dear Antti -
As usual, you add real value to your readers.
This part of the post was a “AHA” moment for me.
“But what if your reply has a question for the commenter? You show interest to her ideas, and it’s next to impossible for her not to respond (taken that she opted-in to the notification). Thus, similarly to adding questions and calls to action to the end of the blog posts, you can ask questions in your replies as well.”
I do use the reply feature but it never occurred to me to ask a question of the commentator. That really encourages communication.
The other point you made which I do sometimes – but will do more often now is to engage with commentators on other blogs. Thanks for the reminder.
I would ask you a question – but you have covered it all here.
Except – how did you get so smart?
I've been working on comments and building comments on my blogs – but I must say on a couple of them I encourage anonymous comments – or to use a fake name – whatever- I have a lot of people leave very personal comments on one of my blogs that has to do with coaching, and my demographic is often people who don't even know I have a 'blog' – they just see a website where commenting is allowed – but they don't know that THEY could comment . Everything I do is to encourage my audience – but I know that most of them won't ever comment anyway.
I am amazed that the people I interview don't always subscribe to comments on their own interview. Wish they would..
Thanks for giving me a few more things to think about though!
I updated my comment policy. I realized I was breaking my own Nr.1 rule (be excellent to each other). I realize it is not cool for me to forbid people from adding their website to their name (e.g. name@website), since it's common practice in other blogs…
So I still like to see the names of the people who leave comments, but I now “officially” allow adding website and/or keywords to the name, e.g. “name@example(.com)” or even “name@keywords”. As long as the “name” is there, it's cool.
Thanks Andrew for giving me the boost to clear my thoughts on this and push to update my comment policy. I think it's much better now.
Hi Antti, thanks for this in-depth post on blog comments. For one thing, it made me instantly review the discussion settings! Looking around blogs with consistently huge amounts of comments, I have so far seen little consistency across the board. For my own blogs, I think the reason for low comments is due to faulty market and keyword research. Re Comment Policy: I see the need and usefulness of rules, yet having the rules book thrown at me as a first step in a process is a cold shower rather than a hot bath. As you can see, I commented anyway :-)
Beat
Thanks for the comment Beat… Your commenter name almost has your name in it, so I just gotta let it pass, lol :)
Comment policy is important, because it gives you the right to delete spam. In theory, without comment policy people can spam all they want, and there is nothing you can do about it.
By simply stating “don't spam”, you grant yourself the right to delete comments that are not suitable for your blog. That's all.
I don't know about smart, but I do learn fast and work hard :) I didn't exactly invent this stuff, I just took some time, looked at what others have covered before about this topic, checked some blogs with plenty of discussion and studied what they've done.
Very true, some topics are not very blog comment friendly – If people are not used to discuss on blog comments (in some niches most aren't), it's next to impossible to get a discussion going. With forums, even people who haven't used forums before quickly learn that it is a place to discuss things as others lead the way.
And as for asking questions, getting blog comments is not that different from making sales. At some point you have to ask for the money :)
Hi Antti,
I just keep learning new things all the time. Lot of good information here. i'm not sure whether I need to use it all, since I'm really not on the technical side of things.
I do know that when i go to leave a comment on someones blog post if I have to log in I don't leave a comment, because I have enough passwords to remember. So I don't leave a comment. I feel they just want information on me and don't really care what I have to say.
Debbie
I use akismet to fight spam comments and it has helped me to arrest tens of thousands of spam comments. Great recommendation.
Antti,
This post is exactly what everyone should read in order to learn how to encourage more comments. Not sure if Google pays attention to the number of comments, but am told that this is one of the factors in the Alexa ranking. don't know how anyone would know for sure but it makes sense. Regardless, more comments are better and that is why it is a good thing to answer each comment individually instead of 3 or 4 in a group. That way the count is higher and you have a better connection to the commentator.
Threaded comments is really a great idea also.
Antti
This is welcome advice, I have never been that good at nurturing commenter's, I'm making a big effort to respond to everyone. But I will take heed of your advice to generate more comments. Thanks again for a great post.
David
Well, I hope you let me post even though I have my blog title included with my name. Perhaps since I'm on disqus, I'll be grandfathered in. I don't have disqus on my blog. Even with the disruptions in service that I've heard others complain about, it still might work for me. My theme has my comments on the side and they take up a great deal of space. I prefer the look of comments underneath the posts and at a reasonable size.
This post really has me thinking about what I can do to encourage more discussion. Thank you again for guest posting on blogcatalog.com Your post is high on the most popular list.
I've had really good luck with #13 – form a blogging group. Since forming a group with 30 other bloggers, my comments have grown beautifully. Plus, the quality is fantastic too.
I'm going to start adding in polls and surveys to see what the impact is as my next step.
Antti, you did a really good job of answering my question. Thanks again!
Just noticed where I could change my name to keep myself out of hot water :D
It's so important to ask for what you want – and to be specific about it – so people can comply.
You can enable anonymous comments on Disqus if you like Erica, it's just one of the settings.
Wonderful piece Antti. #10 can be a problem for new bloggers, and #9 too as what if no-one responds? It can be disheartening when no-one replies to a question you pose, but when it works it's great.
I too have Disqus installed but have you noticed an increase in spam getting through?
I too am writing a post about Disqus and other systems so I'll be interested to see what we both like/dislike.
Yes, often people think Disqus doesn't allow posting without a login, but this is only if the user has set it up that way, the same as you can do in WordPress on it's own.
Antti,
I do a lot of the tips you recommend, but I still find it to be quite the challenge to get any kind of comments on the site on a regular base. I'll get the odd comment here and there and always answer, but is not daily.
Also, I do ask people to leave comments and send out as a blast pertinent/controversial posts.
I will go over your tips again and see how I can improve.
Krizia
I really don't know why so many people like Disqus – so perhaps a blog post on that subject would be good — Andrew I was wondering the same thing.
I don't have it on my site and I don't have the captcha feature either.
It's unclear to me why so many blogs are using Disqus. Understanding the benefits would be good.
Krizia
Wow – definitely a thorough post Antti! I picked up a few tips I hadn't considered like creating a comment policy and telling my readers how to comment. Looks like I made the classic website owner mistake in assuming my visitors all know how to do this :). I really should know better!
I would add two more tips:
- write QUALITY content. If your content is bad, the likelihood that people will leave comments is not great.
- write RELEVANT content. If your content doesn't apply to or interest anyone, who's going to discuss it?
Excellent post. Isn't it the content that's most important though as that fuels the discussion? If a post is not interesting, or poorly written, it's unlikely that people will want to comment. I believe a connection with the original post is what makes most people comment, and then once you start getting the comments, you can improve the entire comment and discussion process with the great tips you have provided.
Hi Antti, I really liked your idea of having a discussion topic and using a poll with it as well. I think it would be worth a try and could be a lot of fun.
I must say that on the other hand I cringe at the thought of doing them and getting no discussion and what that looks like to new readers.
A similar idea is having an 'ask' post for reader questions – it looks pretty lonely when there are none!
Maybe a post about the tipping point for comments would be interesting – what else can contribute – traffic? having a few regular commentors to break the ice? at what point should you expect comments if ever when readers are not responding and what to do? why do people comment? etc :0)
I second this… the blogging group is a brilliant idea (nice going, Cheryl!)
I'm curious about disqus myself. I hadn't heard of it til recently, and it seems most people love it or hate it.
I find myself ignorant yet again… :-)
Good content… as Yaro puts it… “The Holy Grail of internet marketing wisdom”
This is the truth. In this entirely too technical, over-paranoid day and age… another password is definitely the wrong answer.
Thanks, Antti…
This is a post full of powerful blog wisdom that I follow…. well… occasionally.
I do work to get more discussion going on the blog, but it does seem like a struggle at times.
I've heard several people recommend the “start the discussion” idea as opposed to “0 comments” (which does look a little sad)… but I haven't found an explanation of how to do this.
Do you have any ideas about the 'how to'… or can you point me in the right direction?
keep smiling,
Ben
True, having a discussion day and not seeing any comments can be very disencouraging. Thinking about it, discussion day is not necessary the best way to get the first comments from people.
Discussion day works better when you have at least couple regular readers who like to comment. But on the other hand, asking couple of friends to give a hand and give it a boost.
p.s. No, I can't say I have seen more spam through Disqus than usual, I do have the Akismet added to the settings and it seems to pick most. Maybe it's just that some new spam bots have found your blog and like what they see :)
Thanks for the feedback Krizia. I'll be writing a post about Disqus for sure. It's been on my mind and now that many have asked for it already, it's time to do it.
Comment policy is good for setting the ground rules and it's a way to keep yourself the permission to delete spam (probably not likely, but someone *could* come after your if you delete their comment.).
And great additions too Keller. Good content is the foundation.
Aye, looks like Keller and you think alike, as she said the same thing above. I should've mentioned that the content is the foundation. New blogger shouldn't even worry too much about comments at the beginning, but concentrate on greating great content.
Good suggestions there since not all these tips help a brand new blogger. On average only 1% of blog readers comment, you need some traffic to get the comments going – and even then it's not easy. Getting started is the hard part, and getting the *first* comment is the hardest, then one can concentrate on the *more* :)
Lucky me! Thanks for letting me know though.
Ben, you're not the only one who has asked how not to display “0 comments”, so I'll be writing a post on the subject.
The “problem” with that is that it's relatively technical and not all people are comfortable going and edit the code of their theme.
In short it means finding the code in the theme-files where it displays “0 comments”, “1 comment” and “n comments” and edit those as wanted.
For those using Disqus, it can be done from the Disqus settings… since many have asked about Disqus as well, I have couple of posts in the over for that as well :)
Thanks for the tips! I'm on my way on updating my blog's comment settings!
Thanks, Antti. I would like to know more about Disqus and how best to use it.
Andrew
Perhaps we should have a voting competition! We vote for the article we like best.
Antti vs. Joel
Andrew
Antti,
Thanks for listening – I really appreciate that.
Andrew
Great tips Antti – as usual.
I've finally found some free time to work more on my website project again -
and this post will definitely help me to improve my comments section.
Cheers
Will
Thanks for the suggestions, Anti. Community is one thing I’d like to foster over at my site. I’ll implement some of these soon!
I couldn't believe how easy it was to do the nested comments thing. It was kind of like, 'Duh! Why didn't I notice that!???” Making sure the setting is on for numbering the comments is a great idea also. Lots of good ideas here. The one about having a discussion day is pretty cool. You've obviously given this subject a lot of thought. Thanks for sharing.
Teagan, thanks for the comment and I'm happy you found this useful! I do quite a bit of blog commenting myself, so over time I've noticed what things make me more likely to leave comments
The threaded comments on WP is very easy to turn on if the theme already supports them – Some themes with long history don't necessary have the indentation and reply button in place.
I use a lot of these techniques, too. I usually end each of my updates with a Question of the Day, and the readers take it from there. When the questions strikes a chord, more than a hundred comments can pile up. Since I started the Question of the Day, the number of comments have probably quadrupled.
I might have to try threaded comments, thought. I haven't tested that, and it seems like a good idea.
Thanks for the great article!
Good post but I have found when too many rules are in place sometimes it deters people from posting. Each person is there own self and they have their own personality so they may post a comment the way they want. Disqus is lame.
Well, I like to have rules because I don't like spammers and other losers invading my blog, and rules give me the right to drive them away. Personality is nice, and asking for people to keep it cool and use their name keeps the biggest morons away (or at least I can delete the comments in split second and there's nothing they can say about it).
it's all about building a community. without community or strong relationship, how hard he try, he still can't get many comments
it's all about building a community. without community or strong relationship, how hard he try, he still can't get many comments
Дискуссии не нужно создавать.