Comments on: How to get more blog comments and discussion

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:58:00 +0000

Дискуссии не нужно создавать.

By: An introduction to Disqus blog commenting system

An introduction to Disqus blog commenting system — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:50:12 +0000

[...] As said, for free blogging platforms, like Tumblr and Blogger, it's a no-brainer – Disqus will make those blogs and commenting system better (and good blog commenting systems is the first step to get more blog comments). [...]

By: Fazreen

Fazreen — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:22:28 +0000

it's all about building a community. without community or strong relationship, how hard he try, he still can't get many comments

By: Fazreen

Fazreen — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:22:28 +0000

it's all about building a community. without community or strong relationship, how hard he try, he still can't get many comments

By: How to show number of comments in WordPress

How to show number of comments in WordPress — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:59:05 +0000

[...] you’re looking to get more blog comments, you should display the number of comments in your blog to act as a social proof. You should also [...]

By: Antti Kokkonen

Antti Kokkonen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:39:40 +0000

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).

By: The Niche Think Tank

The Niche Think Tank — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:36:32 +0000

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.

By: jeffkay

jeffkay — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:40:00 +0000

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!

By: Antti Kokkonen

Antti Kokkonen — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:30:35 +0000

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.

By: Teagan

Teagan — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:45:17 +0000

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.

By: Amy LeForge

Amy LeForge — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:18:42 +0000

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!

By: Blog Comment Tools | Blog Tech Guy

Blog Comment Tools | Blog Tech Guy — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:35:25 +0000

[...] people’s blogs, see what they do and see if you like it. Read Antti’s great post on how to get more blog comments and discussion, and then decide if you need to do something that makes it better and easier for you and your [...]

By: Will

Will — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:16:00 +0000

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

By: Andrew Rondeau

Andrew Rondeau — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:06:57 +0000

Antti,

Thanks for listening – I really appreciate that.

Andrew

By: Andrew Rondeau

Andrew Rondeau — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:06:19 +0000

Perhaps we should have a voting competition! We vote for the article we like best.

Antti vs. Joel

Andrew

By: Andrew Rondeau

Andrew Rondeau — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:05:30 +0000

Thanks, Antti. I would like to know more about Disqus and how best to use it.

Andrew

By: bigjobsboard

bigjobsboard — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:37:50 +0000

Thanks for the tips! I'm on my way on updating my blog's comment settings!

By: Antti Kokkonen

Antti Kokkonen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:34:38 +0000

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 :)

By: Joel Williams

Joel Williams — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:40:51 +0000

Lucky me! Thanks for letting me know though.

By: Antti Kokkonen

Antti Kokkonen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:58:51 +0000

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* :)

By: Antti Kokkonen

Antti Kokkonen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:55:07 +0000

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.

By: Antti Kokkonen

Antti Kokkonen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:52:25 +0000

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.

By: Antti Kokkonen

Antti Kokkonen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:44:39 +0000

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.

By: Antti Kokkonen

Antti Kokkonen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:43:15 +0000

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 :)

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:40:30 +0000

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