blog traffic/comments question

[MommyHawk]

How on Earth do you get people to leave a comment?!?!?!?

I have tons of visitors per month but no one, barely, ever leaves a comment. And, IMO, when I see a blog that doesn't have comments it seems to me that no one is reading it. It's not a high traffic blog. Maybe that's just me.

Are comments just a thing of the past already? So many people can just subscribe and read your blog's post via their reader and never come back to your blog. How do you get readers to actually come TO your blog? And comment?

[Code Name Mama]

I'd love to know the answer to this. I've been reading and commenting on blogs just to try to form a community, but nobody ever comments back - so I can't get a "dialogue" going with anyone.

I have read, though, that comments are not necessarily an indicator of whether a blog is highly read.

[MommyHawk]

right. my blogs are highly read, but barely to no comments...maybe it doesn't really matter? i don't know... I just feel like there's more of a 'dialogue' like you said if people regularly comment

[allgirls]

I don't get many comments but I don't expect to on my type of blog....and I have a lot of traffic..hundreds of subscribers to email...which is why I don't get comments.

There are ways to encourage it but I think many people just read. I'm not a big comment maker either so that's likely why. I read your blog regularly though I don't always comment.

[milosmomma]

I'm running into the same thing. My blog is still very new, but I've recently had a bit of a bump in readership. Still, barely any comments. It's nice to see the number of views....but I guess I just crave the actually feedback.

However, like allgirls, I don't really comment on blogs much myself, so I suppose I can't complain too much....

[momof3boys3702]

comments don't tell your stats. If you are wanting to work with PR companies, etc they do not look at your comments AT ALL, they want your stats... page views, followers, ALEXA rating, etc

I get some comments, but the bulk of my comments are on my giveaways

[lorrielink]

It totally depends on what kind of community on your blog you want. There are blogs that only have 2,000 subs and get an average of 80 comments per post and there are huge blogs that have over 40,000 subs but only get about 25 comments each post. I completely depends on what kind of blog your running and what your posts are like, if they seem to invite involvement or feedback or anything like that.
It can be tough in the beginning to encourage people to comment more but there are ways to communicate that that is what you want. Im sure I have some great posts bookmarked that gives advise on this, I can look them up and post them if you like. but basically you can either be really helpful and informative about things people appriciate you sharing or you can be really involved in the blogaspeare and develop relationships with others, for that you do need to be reading other peoples blogs and commenting as well as emailing them for that to happen.

[allgirls]

Originally Posted by momof3boys3702

comments don't tell your stats. If you are wanting to work with PR companies, etc they do not look at your comments AT ALL, they want your stats... page views, followers, ALEXA rating, etc

I get some comments, but the bulk of my comments are on my giveaways

That is very true...I know bloggers who turned off comments because to them it was irrelevant...if someone wanted to say something they had to send an email..they had thousands of hits daily though..it's about traffic.

[snowbunny]

It takes a lot of traffic to generate comments. That, and a lot of community building. Moreover, your content also influences whether or not people comment. For instance, it wasn't until I reached about 10-15K pageviews a month that I started generating comments reliably and now that I'm at 50 - 60K pageviews a month (which is still not a heck of a lot!), many of my posts never get above 4-5 comments. I don't know what your traffic looks like, but you might be expecting too much of it.

Also, if your site is too personal they won't comment reliably. If it's not personal enough they won't comment reliably. If its too authoritative they don't comment either.

You really need to spend time on similar blogs in your niche and respond to comments fairly quickly in order to encourage more comments at your site.

Commenting is not the end-all, be-all of blogging. It's an aspect. Building subscribers, pageviews and visitors is important too.

[snowbunny]

I also want to add that often being on the cutting edge is what gets you comments. If three other bloggers in your niche just discussed the same topic - why would your reader (who is likely their reader as well) comment again on the same subject on your site? KWIM? That holds true for most topics except, in my opinion, calls to action regarding injustice in which passionate people are apt to comment on every blog that touches the issue.

[snowbunny]

Okay now I'm serial posting, but I just noticed on your site that you don't allow anonymous or name/url comments. That, right there, is one of your biggest problems. You need to make commenting as easy as possible by removing as many hindrances as you can. I almost never comment through my google account on someone's blog (since I'm not on blogger). If I see they don't do name/url comments, I don't comment at all and I don't think I'm alone in that practice.

[allgirls]

Originally Posted by snowbunny

Okay now I'm serial posting, but I just noticed on your site that you don't allow anonymous or name/url comments. That, right there, is one of your biggest problems. You need to make commenting as easy as possible by removing as many hindrances as you can. I almost never comment through my google account on someone's blog (since I'm not on blogger). If I see they don't do name/url comments, I don't comment at all and I don't think I'm alone in that practice.

yes, this is true. and unless you get hundreds and can't keep up..turn off the word verification although I don't find moderation makes a difference to me much

[kimiij]

Here are a few suggestions:

1) Have questions at the end of posts. Questions invite readers to comment. Ask your readers whether or not they've experienced something similar. Or ask them if they have any advice for YOU and whatever you have written about. Or ask them for their opinion about whatever issue you wrote about.

2) I subscribe to blogs via email all the time (I don't use readers). Some email subscriptions only include a preview (roughly a paragraph long) of the entire post. They then have a link that says "Read More" that you have to click on in order to go to the site and read the rest of the article.

3) Keep posting comments on other bloggers' websites! Also, make sure that you are posting insightful comments, not just one word comments.

I don't have a ton of comments coming to my blog but the above are suggestions I've heard of before.

[kimiij]

Originally Posted by snowbunny

Okay now I'm serial posting, but I just noticed on your site that you don't allow anonymous or name/url comments. That, right there, is one of your biggest problems. You need to make commenting as easy as possible by removing as many hindrances as you can. I almost never comment through my google account on someone's blog (since I'm not on blogger). If I see they don't do name/url comments, I don't comment at all and I don't think I'm alone in that practice.

Yup! Although I keep my word verification on to keep the bots away.

[HipGal]

I agree with the idea of asking a question at the end of the post. I see a lot of bloggers do this now. I think it is especially motivating if you ask for advice - it makes people want to help (like this very post! We are motivated to reply to possibly help or share our experience).

You could also do a giveaway where you choose a commenter just to get people out of the woodwork.