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By: Garin Kilpatrick
Comments are what set blogs apart from old school static websites.
Comments give your blog fresh content, and Google loves fresh content. Getting more comments means getting more free traffic from Google.
The best part about comments is that they build a community around your blog.
But the majority of visitors to your blog will never comment. Only about 10% of visitors ever engage on any blog, and about 1% account for the majority of the conversation.
My strategy is to show appreciation to the visitors who comment on my blogs by rewarding them for their contributions. Everyone who comments on this post will recieve a FREE eBook automatically, a few minutes after their comment is posted.
Here are my twenty top tips that help my blogs get new comments every single day.
1. Install the Top Commentator Plugin
The Top Commentator Plugin for WordPress is a great way to get people competing for the top commentator spot on your blog.
With this plugin the five to ten top people who make the most comments on your blog will be displayed for all to see.
The name of the person commenting will include a link to their website.
This will get people who have websites they want to promote competing with each other so that they can have a free high-visibility link back to their website.
The odds are that the people who are competing for these spots have a blog of their own that they are trying to promote.
2. Get More Traffic to Your Post
The more people there are that read your blog post, the more chances you have to get comments.
Make sure your blog has social sharing plugins installed. The more times your content is shares the more people will see your post, and the more comments you will get.
If you have a self-hosted wordpress blog the plugins Sexy Bookmarks and Digg Digg are good choices (It’s what I use on this blog).
If your site is something other than WordPress you can use install Tweet buttons, Linkedin share buttons, and Facebook like buttons manually.
Check out these posts for tips about how to get your content shared more on social media, and get more traffic to your site.
3. Reward People who Comment
You can get more people commenting on your blog if you hive them a gift for commenting.
Using the plugin thank me later you can deliver an email automatically to every new commentor with a link to any kind of digital gift you like.
A .PDF is a cool gift to give. If you comment on this post I will give you a free .PDF called 100 Tips for Getting More Traffic and Subscribers to your Website.
If you have a WordPress blog you could create a password protected page with cool content on it, and then use thank me later to email your readers the password to this page with exclusive content.
4. Install The CommentLuv Plugin
I love the CommentLuv plugin. My only complaint is that it does not work with some commenting plugins.
CommentLuv gives your readers the option to include a link to their latest blog post with their comment.
If you sign up for a CommentLuv account you can choose which one of your last five posts you want to share.
If you have IntenseDebate then you can install the CommentLuv plugin within the plugins section of Intense Debate. If you use standard WordPress plugins then you can search for the commentluv plugin within the “Add Plugin” section of the Dashboard.
5. Run a Comment Contest
By offering a prize for the best comment you will not only get a bunch of comment you will also get high quality comments.
The better the prize you offer the more comments you will get, of course.
You don’t need an iPad for this technique. You can also have a contest where you give a prize to the first people who comment.
It does not take very much time to create a .PDF featuring your best blog posts, and this makes a cool prize that you could give to the first people who comment on one of your posts.
Giving away a product you have created gives people even more of an incentive to comment.
In addition to the free .PDF gift that everyone gets the first time they comment on this blog the first 5 people who comment on this blog post will get my latest product, StumbleUpon Traffic Swarm.
I have not even launched StumbleUpon Traffic Swarm yet, so these advance copies are very exclusive.
StumbleUpon Traffic Swarm is an eBook that explains the secrets I have used to get over 100,000 visitors to my website from StumbleUpon.
6. Respond to Comments
If you respond to comments it will show that you actually care about what your visitors are saying.
This is a great way to amp up your comment count. By simply responding to every comment you can double the amount of comments you get on your blog.
7. Say Thanks
Say thank you to the people who comment on your blog.
Simply saying “thanks for the comment” is one way to do this.
If you want to go above and beyond you can say “thanks” by returning the favor and commenting on their blog as well.
8. Ask Questions
I always end my blog posts by asking my readers a few questions.
What do you think of the post? What are some ways that you use to get more comments?
If you ask questions there is a good chance that they will be answered.
9. Simplify Commenting
By installing a commenting plugin with several login options you make it very easy for people who visit your blog to login and comment.
Facebook has over 600 million users at this point so having a Facebook login is a must.
Both Intense Debate and Disqus commenting systems support Facebook login for comments, and whichever commenting system you go with I suggest you enable Facebook commenting.
10. Use Guest Bloggers
If you have a guest blogger write an article for your blog the odds are that they will be sharing their article with their network. The best way for this to succeed is to get a guest blogger with a sizeable audience to write for you.
Even if your guest blogger does not have much of an audience they can still stir things up by adding a new voice to the blog.
A place I use to find guest bloggers is My Blog Guest, and I have used this tool before with some success.
11. Buy Comments
This is certainly not my #1 tip, but it still works. If you are paying for comments you can pretty much guarantee that you are going to get them.
I have seen people willing to write 20 thoughtful comments for $5 on fiverr.
Amazon also offers a cost effective outsourcing solution called mechanical turk that I have heard of people using for comments before.
12. Be a More Active Commentor
Often I will comment on the blogs of the people who comment on my blog.
Whenever I do so I try to add an interesting or useful point in my comment, so that it is appreciated by the author.
Insightful comments draw traffic to my blog, and also increase that chance that the person whose blog I commented on will comment on my blog too.
13. Delete Spammy Comments
If you leave spammy comments up on your blog it shows people that you really don’t care if they comment.
The spammier your comments are the less comments you will get moving forward.
14. Spark Some Controversy
If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything. Take a stand and don’t be afraid to spark some controversey because not only will it get people talking in your comments, it will also get people sharing your content on social media.
15. Recent Comments Widget
The Recent Comments widget is a simple WordPress plugin that allows you to display recent comments in the sidebar of your WordPress blog.
16. Appeal to Ego
People love to talk about themselves. Work with this fact and ask people about themselves and how their experiences relate to the topic of your blog post.
17. Dofollow
This trick will get you a ton of comments, but many of them will be low quality, so you will need to moderate your comments actively.
By making your comments dofollow any links that people include will be indexed by Google and will count towards their rankings in the search engine.
To make your blog dofollow you can use the dofollow plugin for WordPress.
If you do decide to go dofollow makesure you add your blog to this dofollow blog directory.
18. Build your Audience
A bigger audience means more comments. Period.
I recommend capturing email addresses with an email marketing solution like Aweber. With a users email address you can let your readers know about cool relevant posts that you have published on other blogs, and you can cusomize the email you send them. With RSS you do not have this freedom.
19. Show Social Media Reactions
A nice feature of Disqus is how it imports social media reactions from Twitter automatically.
You might have four people retweet you on Twitter before you get any comments.
Showing tweets about your blog post will show that there is already buzz and give some social proof that will help spur comments.
20. Ask for Comments
Ask and you shall receive. I like to include a question and a call to action at the end of of every blog post, and I noticed that this strategy helped me get more comments when I first started using it.
Feedback
What do you think is a good tip for getting more people to comment on your blog?
Let us know in the comments below!
Very helpful! Thanks a lot 🙂
I like 3,5,7,20…with 20, i'd like to add… a question at the beginning and then repeated at the end is an attention getter… Also, my own feeling is if the blog is too long or too complicated… you're going to lose my attention, i don't have a lot of time… i want the condensed version – i think there might be a lot of people out there like me (just trying to be helpful)… i do like your blogs though.
Thanks for the comment Angela. You make a good point about mentioning a question at the beginning, and then again at the end, I am going to try that out in future posts for sure.
Glad you like my blogs!
Cheers,
Garin
Great post Garin. I’m in the process of researching ( and eventually testing ) this very topic and how it can be used for list building as well. Thanks very much for sharing your expertise.
Thanks Gary,
I appreciate you taking the time to put some thought into your comment. I'm interested in list building also, and have a post coming up in the future about that topic. I am interested in hearing any cool information you might learn.
Best of luck,
Garin
Awesome info – thanks a miilion !!!
Appreciate it !
Grflooring
Thanks Darren,
Have a good one!
Great blog, with useful tips. Thanks
Deborah
Thanks Deborah!
Great post with loads of really useful information and tips, thanks for this one.
Andrew
Thanks for stopping by the blog Andrew!
as usual – great content and useful tips and ideas
Thanks, have a good one!
My recent post 6 Weapons of Online Influence
Always love reading your stuff. Another incredibly helpful article! Thanks!
You're welcome Michael.
Take care!
My recent post 6 Weapons of Online Influence
Thanks for pointing out the Thank you plugin. I'm often impressed when I receive one of these in my inbox and I agree it's a great way to get my attention and offer something up too and stay connected. I really enjoy using LiveFyre as my commenting system as it incorporates the conversation on your blog and takes it to Twitter and FB too which means you can get more people involved.
Cool, thanks for the tip!
Cheers
My recent post 6 Weapons of Online Influence
Great info thanks so much can not wait to start using what I learned.
Good luck!
My recent post 6 Weapons of Online Influence
This is awesome and very useful information! Thanks for always sharing you ideas they are greatly appreciated!
Awesome, and thanks I appreciate your comment!
My recent post 6 Weapons of Online Influence
Have always follow your blogs, and always impressed by your posts! Thanks!
Cheers.
Cheers.
Some really great ideas here. It never occurred to me that I needed a Facebook log in. I'll be implementing that this week. Thanks again, Garin!
My recent post Linguine with Green Beans and Goat Cheese Sauce
You’re welcome Christine!
Hi Garin,
Thanks heaps for the great tips, and this excellent post. I am enjoying your emails, and getting a lot of value from them.
I am still a newbie, but finding my way slowly, thanks in part to your advice.
As for which tip I think is best.. I think guest blogging on someone else’s high traffic site is a great way to get more traffic, and comments on your own blog.
Anyway, thanks again!
Guest blogging is a great way to get exposure, and high quality backlinks. Great tip!
I plan to do more guest posting on very high profile blogs (I have Mashable and Copyblogger in mind) in the near future!
My recent post 6 Weapons of Online Influence
Garin I appreciate your thoughtful, useful Blog posts and even more I appreciate yoru generous spirit. Lots of bloggers would be condensing a lot of this into a pdf or ebook and selling it. I am not sayi8ng you should not do that, it is nice to get a lot of condensed information, but it also nice to get quality free information.
I also notice that there is a real change in blogging. Quality information is now the rule and not the exception.
Keep up the good work.
My recent post Is Now a Good Time To Invest in Gold
Thanks Mary, take care.
Great work Garin. I enjoy following your work. Keep it coming!
Wow Garin, lots of helpful hints as always. I especially like points 1 and 10. Easy ways to get extra traffic!
Thanks for the comment Holly. You rock! 🙂
My recent post 6 Weapons of Online Influence
Thanks for this really excellent post on how to get more comments. I'm still a learner with all this stuff so I'm really appreciative of your helpful info. I'm going to try it out on my blogs! 🙂
Good luck Christine!
My recent post 6 Weapons of Online Influence
Thank you so much! I just added all the plugins to my blog. I cannot wait to try this out.
Cheers
Cheers
It was nice to have a bit of a reminder of what is good to do after many years of blogging!
My recent post An Email Funny Worth Sharing…
Glad you liked the post.
Hi Garin, I remember reading somewhere that if your blog gets lots of comments, Google likes it better? Is this true?
Yes it is, comments are a factor in Google’s algorithm that influence the PageRank a page has. More comments is better.
Hey Garin, thanks a lot for the ideas! good advice!
You’re welcome!
Good Day Garin!
Thank you very much for the great info. Hearing your voice for the first time allowed me to feel the measure of you. It created more of an authentic connection than text. Well presented.
Be Well
Conleth
Cheers Conleth, have a good one!
Garin,
Thank you for taking the time to construct a post of such pertinent and lasting value!
I, for one, am a big proponent of organic relationship building strategies, such as commenting on other blogs (with Gravatar and back link to my blog), re-tweeting, "liking", and link sharing, engaging with DMs on Twitter, focused e-mails, even the occasional telephone call!
I also like to include back links for others' sites from my own blog in order to encourage community even more.
Thanks again!
Peter
Peter, thank you much for the comment! Cheers.
Hey Garin
Thanks for this very useful blog post. It certainly opens up a few ideas on my head right now!
Cheers,
Lester
My recent post My First Product To Be Launched in the Warrior Forum
You’re welcome. Cheers Lester!
I really appreciate your post and you explain each and every point very well.Thanks for sharing this information.And I’ll love to read your next post too.
Regards:
Stock Market
It is very helpful. Thanks a lot for posting such informative article. I hope every one attached with web development and blogs would like it. 🙂
Thanks, Garin. I used to blog and have decided to get back "in the game". Your tips are very helpful, not to mention, timely!
Cheers Susan, glad you liked the tips!
All great tips, thank you (I'll adopt some;)
I'd like to add another (obvious?) one: "Provide good content" . With good, compelling, perhaps controversial well reasoned, etc. content, you surely stimulate (juicy) comments.
All the best,
Conxa
@innova2
My recent post On the teacher training course at the Museu Picasso, the Education Department and the teachers learn together
About to try and add some of these plugins to my blog. Thanks, Great information!
My Mom taught me to write real thank-you notes so thanking someone is a natural for me. It's all about engagement and thinking of the person who comments. Thanks for sharing these great strategies. @OrlandoKen
@orlandoken Thanks Ken, glad you enjoyed the strategies! Writing personal and real thank you letters will always mean more than a canned automatic thank you notification. I make sure that I reach out to every person who buys a product from me and let them know that I will help them out. Today is thanksgiving in the US and I hope it brings into focus the importance of gratitude.
Thanks Garin.
Love your blog, always something interesting to read and share.
Thanks!
Tine
Cheers Tine! 🙂
Cheers Tine! 🙂
I I have come to look forward to your notifications, Garin. They are very diverse and always show a depth of understanding of the subject at hand. Thank you,
You’re welcome, glad you like the content! Cheers.
You’re welcome, glad you like the content! Cheers.
Hey, Garin, these are many of the things I am doing, but haven’t installed the Top Commenter plugin. I feel bad when I delete spammy comments; so good to see it in this light. Yes! I appreciate my real commenters. You made me realize that I am putting their thoughtful input side-by-side with spammers if I don’t cull out the others. Don’t see myself buying comments, unless I pay them to respond, too!
Garin, I love your blogs and I will be sharing this information in my workshop tonight! I write a blog celebrating people in the arts.
Check out my blog at http://www.RichardSkipper.blogspot.com and comment on your favorite blog of the week. The 25th person to comment today is getting a very special gift! (I’ve taken a page from your book!)
Also, IF you’re on Facebook, LIKE my Richard Skipper Celebrates page to get blog updates.
Thanks for all you do. I appreciate it!
Richard Skipper
@Richard Skipper You’re welcome Richard. Hope your workshop went well, and best of luck with your blog!
@Garin Thank you but the workshop is tonight. Did you see the blog yet?
@Richard Skipper I just looked at your blog. Not sure where you got that site stat from. And the Disney music certainly will cause people to leave. But you actually have a blog which is more than most people can say so kudos to you!
@Garin Garin, what site stat? And what Disney music? There IS NO DISNEY music on my site. Can you please send me the link to the blog that you are referring to and be specific about the site stat.
Thanks, Richard
@Richard Skipper I thought it sounded like Disney, maybe it’s music from something else but I didn’t listen for very long. I went to the link you sent http://www.RichardSkipper.blogspot.com there is a stat counting page views in the top right corner, although it does not seem to change when I refresh the page.
@Garin Thanks! I don’t have ANY music on my site and/or blog so that’s odd. I’ll see what the status of the stat counter is. Richard
@Garin I followed up. The counter is working. I guess it was just a glitch on your end.
Nice love this post. re-tweeted you and I added the Top Comment plug in- thanks for the advice- will check back as well.
Take Care Sandy
Sandy Metcalf
Attraction Marketing Consultant
sandymetcalf.com
Very helpful, as that’s just what I’m looking for now. Thanks again Garin
Read a lot of blogs specially interesting ones like your blog, Good post! I accidentally found your site on the internet, I am going to be coming back here yet again.Love Information Is Beautiful. Keep posting
Tip to encourage blog comments by @Garin “Reward the people who comment”, and I am looking forward to reading your upcoming e-book, StumbleUpon Traffic Storm.
I subscribed to your email updates. Your tips are very helpful to someone like me who’s just starting out. Would you have any particular advice to those who use free blog platforms like wordpress.com, blogger.com, etc.? Thanks.
Garin, you are awesome. I have benefited a lot from your coaching which include Facebook techniques, twitter strategies, YOUTUBE even Google plus and other Traffic generation techniques
A Big Kudos to you!!!!!!
Lots of great ideas! Thanks, Garin!
Connie
http://www.hamptonexecutivesearch.com
As you noted, only a small percentage of people comment on blogs. I haven’t started my blog yet (it’s on my list of New Year’s resolutions!) , but I filed away this list for future reference. It’s definitely one of the most helpful I have read on this topic!
There are 5 most important plugins that you need to install(one of them) if you have to encourage commenting on your blog and bring more visitors to your blog, they are
Discus
IntenseDebate
Livefyre
CommentLuv
KeywordLuv
all these plugins help to generate more visitors to the blog for commenting, write some meaningful and killing content on your blog and install one of these plugin and let users come and comment on the blog hear them and try to answer their queries and give feedback for their comment as it will help you to make them stick to your blog.Thanks for the post.
There are 5 most important plugins that you need to install(one of them) if you have to encourage commenting on your blog and bring more visitors to your blog, they are
Discus
IntenseDebate
Livefyre
CommentLuv
KeywordLuv
all these plugins help to generate more visitors to the blog for commenting, write some meaningful and killing content on your blog and install one of these plugin and let users come and comment on the blog hear them and try to answer their queries and give feedback for their comment as it will help you to make them stick to your blog.Thanks for the post.
It is important to install any one of the top 5 commenting systems to make your blog popular and encourage commenting on your blog they are
Livefyre, IntenseDebate, Discus, CommentLuv/KeywordLuv, Facebook cooments etc
This plugins help to encourage commenting on your blog and you can find the topics to blog for next time as your users will put the query and you will get a topic to answer those query, also give proper feedback to the visitors so that they won’t leave your blog.
Thanks.
I’m not sure the place you’re getting your info, but great topic.
I needs to spend some time studying much more or figuring out more.
Thanks for fantastic info I was looking for this info for my mission..
Thanks alot…
I’m not sure the place you’re getting your info, but great topic.
I needs to spend some time studying much more or figuring out more.
Thanks for fantastic info I was looking for this info for my mission.
Thanks alot..
Great information Garin as always. I am in the process of setting up a blog and was wondering how to get people to comment on my posts. This tips will be a great start! Thanks
Great information Garin as always. I am in the process of setting up a
blog and was wondering how to get people to comment on my posts. This tips will be a great start! Thanks
Excellent, Garin! I especially appreciate the Reward for comments. Now to figure out what that should be!
Thanks Garin. Plenty of good ideas in that list.
Great tips. I'll try and put some of these into action. Thanks Garin! =]
This was very informative thank you! great tips
I just like the valuable information you supply to your articles.
I’ll bookmark your weblog and test again here regularly. I’m quite sure I’ll learn plenty of new stuff proper right here! Best of luck for the next!
Hey there! Someone in my Facebook group shared this website with us so
I came to check it out. I’m definitely loving the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers!
Outstanding blog and superb design.
great work, i think this post reminds me of what i saw on http://www.edirectsms.com
Garin, how in the hell do you find the time to write all these killer posts?
Great post, Ive been struggling with comments on my own blog. The majority is spam sometimes I do get legitimate comments.
Your list of ways to generating more comments is excellent. I’ll start using them asap.
I am new to understanding just how powerful social media and bogging can be. I really appreciate your insights!!
Hi Garin,
This is a fantastic post, quite educative. Most amateur bloggers would hardly think about these important strategies.
However, l do not believe that one should pay for comments (item 11). This, however is my personal opinion.
Regards
thanks for the input, a lot of things that I never think about it turns out the effect is remarkable when we do, for example to thank those who have commented on our blog. I hope for your success can also follow your success
Garin, you are always on top of things. Thanks for always sharing such great advice.
one more tips that I have found here, and this is great, because I had already tried it on one of the tips above, thank you
This explanation is complete and very focused on blog comment, i like it!
thank alot for tour input brother. i like yout blog
good post
this is amazing
wow.. this is awesome thanks for sharing bro
This is very helpful thanks
Thanks for this very useful blog post. It certainly opens up a few ideas on my head right now! Lanjut Terus
thanks for sharing and information, I love it
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I agree your all point to get more comments on blog post. Even i get more comment my previous blog website.
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