I am thrilled every time there’s a new comment on one of my blog posts. I’m ecstatic when someone likes my stuff on Facebook. I wish more people would do it.
P.T. Barnum said “Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd”. Derek Halpern at DIY Themes puts it in context: “Today, we call this social proof or social validation.” But he goes on to say, “Nothing disbands a crowd like the lack of a crowd. So if your site looks dead (no comments, tweets, or subscribers), breathe life into it.”
I’m not so popular that I can take reader interactions for granted. So I took a little time to research and write out my thoughts and ideas here. Maybe your blog needs some help, too. Read on to see what I found out.
Why you’re not getting blog comments now
- Low traffic numbers
If you just don’t have much traffic to your blog, you’re probably not going to get comments. It’s a bit of a numbers game. Depending on your audience, you can likely expect about 1% of readers to actually leave a comment. And not all your visitors even stick around to read.
If that’s you, look at a few ways to get more traffic flowing to your blog—and make sure your content is worthy of a read first and foremost.
- Lack of originality or personality
You don’t have to be a professional writer to blog. (In fact, it might be better if you’re not.) To get people commenting on your blog, you’d do well to show your personality. For example, be sure to add your own thoughts and experiences when you’re rehashing a popular topic.
Read the popular bloggers in your industry and see how they do it. Read and learn from them, but above all, be you. Your uniqueness is your greatest asset.
- Writing on and on
Popular blogger Chris Brogan recommends being brief. But rather than focusing on length, I’d say to make sure you’re eliminating unnecessary words and commentary. It’s going to tire your readers. Get to the point quickly.
- Take a look at your headlines
If people aren’t commenting because they’re not reading your posts, it could be that your headlines don’t bring them in. Your headline needs to communicate clearly what the reader can expect to get out of your post.
I’m going back to change a headline for a post I wrote last week on here. I don’t think I really said it right with “Promotion ideas for business service companies”. Perhaps something like “Designing an effective promotion—what business service companies need to know” is more appropriate. It sounds better, and it more accurately describes what I talk about in the post. (But is it too long? Anyone have thoughts on headline length here?)
- A cumbersome comment process
Do you require people to log in? Can they find how to comment easily? Are you weeding out spam and almost-spam, to keep quality commenters in good company? Make your comment section an easy place to access and hang out.
Other things you can do to get more blog comments
It seems the more comments you get, the more you will continue to get. But if you’re not getting any now, you’ve got to start somewhere.
- Give to get
People who blog themselves will be much more likely to comment, I’d say, than those who don’t. They understand the networking mentality. They also know how good it feels to be on the receiving end of comments—and how lousy it feels when a post you’ve slaved over doesn’t get any action.
So, give to get. Be generous with your own comments on others’ blogs. Link your name back to your own blog when you comment. Make sure your comments offer real value, which will also encourage others to visit your blog and comment. Learn how to do this from Reid Peterson of Growth in Harmony. His comments on this blog have drawn me to his blog several times, and in this recent post he’s shared how he approaches blog comments for links. (Looks like it worked!)
Some of your readers are going to be competitors or other like-minded people. But I say why not comment generously on their blogs, too? After all, if you’re in the same industry, you’re talking about the same things to the same people. Their readers can also find out about you that way.
- Make your content more available
You can’t count on people typing in your URL every week just to see what’s new. Make it easy for them to follow you by letting them subscribe in the manner they prefer. You’ve probably already got RSS displaying prominently—make sure you add the option to subscribe by email. Make use of Twitter and Facebook and any other social platforms where you’re active.
- Take some risks with the topics you’ve chosen to write about within your niche
To be sure you’re writing about things your targeted readers care about, take some risks. You may find a great new way to connect with readers. Perhaps you could write more about trending news. Try creating controversy by posting the other side of an issue—the non-popular opinion, and so on.
I took a risk with an article a while back about punctuation. As a writer, I care about that topic, but I wasn’t sure others in the Internet marketing community would, too. Surprisingly, it was well received, and readers added several comments that increased its value. I’ll add a new post in that same spirit down the road again now that I know our readers are interested.
- Ask a comment-provoking question
I usually tack a question onto the end of each blog post. However, I don’t think this has been particularly effective in stimulating comments, since people who comment rarely answer my question. They’re usually picking up on some aspect of the story, thanking me, or asking a question themselves.
Perhaps the value in my ending with a question is that it lets the reader know I want to hear what they have to say. And perhaps a better way to go about asking a question is to make the entire post point toward a question. Hmmm, a little for me to think about here.
- Respond to comments
Thank those who took the time to offer a thoughtful comment and answer any questions that have been posted. This shows on-the-fence commenters that you’re actively engaged. In addition, the person who commented will certainly appreciate your attention. Even better if you take the time to visit their blog and leave a comment, too!
- Include striking, relevant images
I’ve seen bloggers who receive comments on the images they source from Flikr as part of a post. (This I’ve yet to do well. Often the image I select looks great at that time, only to feel too random later.) But probably the important point here is that your post appear aesthetically pleasing and easy to read, and hopefully the image will help urge visitors to become readers.
- Be humble and gracious
In an old post, ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse recommends being humble and gracious. This applies as much as ever. No one is infallible, and people seem to prefer to read and respond to another human being who they can identify with, not someone who assigns themselves expert status and shoots down any negative comments. Deal with naysayers graciously.
Comments aren’t the only measure of value for your blog
Regardless of how many comments you’re generating, it will be useful to take into account all the action your blog is stimulating. Here are some metrics that together can give a pretty good picture of how your blog is doing overall.
- Traffic (numbers and sources)
- Comments
- Bookmarks
- Likes, Tweets, emails and other social pass-alongs
- Time spent on your blog
- Number of returning visitors
- Subscribers
- Downloads (for ebooks or other files you offer)
- Link juice and traffic sent to your other web properties
- Revenue
Still, comments just feel good, and it seems to me you should see comments grow naturally along with the other measures.
If you’ve ever left a comment on a post I’ve written here, it means a lot to me. But it looks like I’ve got a bit of work to do. How about you?
(Make sure you read DIYThemes.com’s Nonverbal Website Intelligence report for some more specific ideas like when you should hide your RSS and comment counters.)
Image credit: seier+seier
41 Comments on "Why your blog isn’t getting any comments—and how to fix it"
Hey…great post. Liked it.
Your piece brought to my attention the fact that I have not been responding to comments. I will return to each of my two active blogs to do that now. And your tip about asking provocative questions sounds like a good one, as well. Thanks!
Great thoughts indeed. Merry Christmas
These are great tips to improve the comments on our blog. We concentrate on many other sources like social media and viral marketing, but we ignore to leave comments on interesting blog post. This is one area where I’m lagging.
Nice articles。
You are right, the headline of your article drew me in to see where am I going wrong in drawing the audience on my blogs. Your pointers to increase traffic, subscribers and many other suggestions I found very valuable. Thanks for the inputs on how to draw visitors to your blog. I have certainly added to my knowledge as a writer, author and publisher of blogs. I believe you need to be always a student to learn the tricks of the trade.
Some of my articles are long, but they need to be to be complete. Maybe I could break them up and try creating a series or use the long ones for newsletters. I have commentLuv activated to help intice people to comment then they get a link in return. Thanks for the tips in your article. Have a Happy New Year!
Nicely done. thank you. Good examples that demonstrated the points. I’ll certainly be using these tips to increase comments on my blog. You’re right. They do feel good!
Hi,
Thank you for your very informative article. I’m trying to build traffic to my alternative medicine blog and what you wrote will be very helpful to me.
Thanks again!
Dee
i strongly agree to few of your points.. especially the importance of headlines
What a brilliant article, thank you ever so much for posting this. For people such as myself who are only just getting their first few comments, this advise is extremely valuable!
Kind regards and a happy new year, Charlie
Well thought out article, Lisa, much of what you say is very accurate! The best cure for not much traffic is to create more content / posts. More content = more opportunities for more traffic.
You asked about headline length in your article, “But is it too long? Anyone have thoughts on headline length here?”
The answer to that is the headline breath test.
Try reading your headline out loud. Do you run out of breath? And even if you didn’t quite run out of breath, did you trip over the word sequence?
If your headline failed the breath test, chances are your visitors won’t stick around to read the rest of your content, and they will not remember what your headline says.
Your headline is what will convince your reader whether the information that follows is worth investing their time. It’s main purpose is to draw the reader into the following paragraph of information. A weak headline will send them quickly to the “back button”.
Cheers,
Betty Z
Very nice tips. That’s the one thing I’m lacking is comments on my site. Thank you for these. I didn’t even think of some of these.
Lisa, Isn’t this the eternal struggle for all bloggers, even the successful ones. What to say or do that attracts visitors?…I think though that it helps to develop a personal style and be consistent, as you begin to build a following they know what to expect and build a solid relationship of trust as a result.
Thanks for the great tips, hardest part of starting your own blog is getting it where viewers can see it. Do you recommend PRweb and other sources like Activerain etc..?
Thanks for your article Lisa — very interesting.
Whilst it’s not huge, we regularly get 300+ hits on our blog entries and we know they’re all people who are interested in our niche (wine). The main problem for us is that we have to validate everyone who wants to comment (to make sure we don’t get masses of spam and “placement” ads) and that means everyone who wants to leave a comment has to sign in first. For existing members it’s only a small step, but for first-time visitors it’s definitely a put-off, so we need to look at our signup procedure or our comment vetting procedure if we’re going to combat the problem.
And headlines — just like in newspapers and magazines, a good headline often makes the difference between someone reading your piece or ignoring it.
Happy New Year!
Matt
Good post. What do you think about the WordPress plugin that gives gifts for multiple comments?
Well, yours hasn’t got any comments yet! Ah, just saying.
I really enjoyed reading your article here. I’ve wondered if my commenting process is too cumbersome. Moreover, in general, there seems little incentive for people to leave comments when you’re providing free information: if you’ve done a good job disseminating information, the less they have to say. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but that’s the way it seems.
Hi Lisa
thanks for the tips and links to other related articles, especially appreciate your feedback on various issues/tasks you have put into place and how they may have helped you or not.
great help as only started blogging recently on our new site
kind regards Elizabeth C
p.s. you might like to let your programmers know there seems to be a minor glitch where you ask for the website URL in the post comment, it kept coming back saying there was an error, (not sure why) however definitely exists … http://www.downloads2u.net
this is fantastic article, the part that I like most is making it easier for your readers to comment, I think I have that issue in my blog and I am going to fix it, what you think of adding a news stand in my home page linked to my blog ?
Thanks, this post is really valuable and awake me…
Very nice and useful article!
ya this information can increasing my traffic and also getting more core comments in my blogs.
the article above are awesome thanks for acknowledgment information.
I just started a blog about a subject I’m passionate about and that I hope will one day generate some side income. For now, I’m just taking the time to really zero in on my niche and make my blog a place people want to come to.
I think I’ve had a whopping two comments so far, but they’ve both made me more excited than any other stat I’ve looked at. It’s nice to see that you got a certain number of visitors, but it’s so special when one of those people actually takes the time to say hello. It makes you feel like you did something right and it motivates you to keep going.
So I’m going to take your advice and do what I can to make my blog an even more welcoming place for visitors to comment. Thank you!
Lisa, this is like the blogging ten commandments. Great post! Very helpful. And for the question about blog headlines- 60-72 text characters are maximum amount for SEO. In search results it helps to have full descriptions. With a headline of ~ 60 characters, the searcher can get a full description of what the post is about.
I like the idea of ending a post with a question, some times when I’ve read other post, I just don’t know were to start with a comment that will add something to it so give and and walk away, a question invites discussion. Thanks
Lisa, thanks for this well thought out and well-punctuated article! As reid said above, 60 characters will ensure that your entire headline will appear in the search results description. I’ve also seen bloggers actually solicit comments by lamenting the lack thereof……sort of begging for a pat on the back! We all could use the (hopefully positive) feedback. Thanks for your insight.
Lisa,
Thanks for this post, I got some good tips about things I don’t do often enough.
My problem is not that I don’t get comments, but that the comments themselves do not add anything to the conversation. I have had 1,700 comments on 49 posts, but most are of the “Nice post…I like your blog… I like the way you write…thanks for writing this…what WordPress theme are you using…”.etc etc. Many of those that I get I have seen repeated word for word on other blogs. I have published about 170 of them, mostly because I feel that I need some comments. I respond to those that ask questions, or who make some comment that indicate they have actually read the post, and I have a comments policy that asks people to be specific.
The other problem is that many people leave me bogus e-mail addresses, so if I want to reply privately to someone who asks for some help, I cannot do so. My comments policy addresses this as well.
Have you any ideas of how I can get commenters to add to the conversation.
Thanks.
Betty and Reid, thanks for the mini course on blog headline length. I figure my revised headline above is actually too long and cumbersome looking back… but then there’s also a time to stop polishing the cannonballs. Good stuff to think about!
Reid, I’m also going to add in above the link to your recent blog post about how to comment on blogs, as it obviously works (it has gotten me to your site on more than one occasion!)
You know, I just checked backed to see if my previous comment was approved, and it wasn’t. I am surprised since you started off the article by stating that you’re a humble guy and so on and so forth.
Just thought I’d point that out. Don’t bother approving it. Good luck!
Great post Lisa!!
And will come in very helpful too with trying to spur more blog comments and conversations.
I second Betty’s comments. In fact, there’s no arbitrary length for a headline according to Copyblogger. What it needs to do is succinctly communicate what the post is about easily in one breath. If it can’t try using a comma or hash-tag like you did to separate the thoughts. If readers can read it and process it easily, they’re not likely going to read the rest of what you’ve got.
One more thing you said in here that I think is important and that’s personality. It’s quite possible that someone who’s not a professional writer would be better at creating that personality if they’re very knowledgeable about the topic. It may take a pro some time to orient themselves with the subject matter and develop a personality.
Certainly have got lots of work to do to spur more comments.
Thanks!
Nathan
Hi
Please see my blog and tell me the honest answer where I am lacking because I don’t get visitors. There might be other reasons but I really care about the suggestions given by intellectual people engaged in the improvement of performance of a site or a blog.
Waiting for your reply
Sushil
I enjoyed reading this. I often wonder how to get more comments, or if people are enjoying what I am writing about. Thank you.
Hey Nathan, thanks for dropping by. I must visit your blog again soon (and leave a comment, of course!) I love how you’re transforming seo-e.com into a real information-rich resource.
great article thanks for the ideas
David
Hi Paul, I’ve heard Active Rain is a great blogging tool for those in real estate. PR Web is good for press releases, but I’m not so sure that’s a great way to continually get more traffic to your blog (perhaps to announce it’s launch?)
Richard, I’m not sure what you mean by a newsstand, though if that’s feed of your blog posts, it sounds like a good idea to me.
Jennifer, as you can see, we have a few strange comments here, too : )
Jan, the plugin for giving gifts might be useful if you have a community that will respond to that. Does it feel like a concept that fits with your business? If your gut says yes, why not give it a try. Let us know how it goes!
Thank you very much for your post, the idea about images and making connections with other bloggers didn’t come to me until you mentioned it. Good job!
Thanks for the information. I’m actually going to be focusing a lot more on my blog in the future, and I always try to read up on this information. No matter how many times or different ways I read it, it’s always helpful. ^_^
I’ve tried all of your advice, but still nobody give comments to my posts. how poor I am……I need more help. thanks
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