How to get more comments in your blog?

How to get more comments in your blog or website?

1. Make it easy to comment.

* Show the comment box in the same page below the article.
* Allow anonymous commenting.
* Allow commenting without registering, signing in.
* Allow Open ID access.
* Have bigger comment boxes.
* Don’t pop up comment boxes.
* Don’t ask them to fill many details.
* Don’t have CAPTCHA.
* If you want to control spam, use anti spam plugin like Akismet.

2. No Moderation.

No one feels good to be moderated. Without moderation, even in your absence other people can carry forward a conversation in your blog without waiting for your approval. People like to see their comments at once.

If you are afraid of nasty comments, please remember that if people want to bad mouth they can do it in any place and you have no control over that at all.

3. Respond to comments

People feel more motivated to comment further, if you respond to their comments. Even if you are very busy, try to respond to few select meaningful comments at least. Else, people might think “What’s the point in commenting if he is not gonna respond anyway?”

4. Provide Comments tracking

People like to track comments in active discussions so they can take part later. Provide them with tools to track comments activity.

* Display recent comments in your blog sidebar.
* Install plugins like Subscribe to comments so people can track replies to their comments and come back to respond.
* Enable and highlight your comments RSS feed and encourage people to subscribe to it.
* Publish your feeds with comments.

5. Comment in other’s blogs

If you don’t visit anyone’s home you can be sure that no one visits you too. Unless you are a big shot.

Comment in other’s blogs. This is one fool-proof method to get comments in your blog 🙂 But don’t over do it and try to leave meaningful, useful comments in blogs of your niche. Never spam. Never beg to visit your site.

6. Be friendly

Yes. Be friendly. Your attitude matters a lot. If you write controversial topics and keep barking at people with second opinion, no one is going to comment.

7. Blogging is not giving a Sermon

Blogging is not like giving a Sermon. Even if you have lot to say, leave some. People can pick on these and will start a discussion. You can join with them later in the comments. New age blogging is all about having a conversation. Guess why Twitter rocks !