‘If a tree falls in the woods, and no one hears, is there a sound?”
How can I get more comments on my blog?
Wow, what a great question — especially for a couple of million people now writing blog articles!
It’s an even better question for all the bloggers who’ve been writing long enough to publish articles responding to that “challenge” like Charlie Gilkie, who Guest Posted on Problogger.net: “8 Reasons You Might Not Be Getting Blog Comments.”
However, after enjoying reading Charlie’s post, 77 comments, and inserting my own comment [Number 74].
I started to wonder:
What’s the ROI on Blog Comments, Anyway?
Why do we bloggers want comments?
How much do other people’s comments really matter?
Here are my thoughts — as well as some “crowd-sourced” [from asking the question on Twitter and my Facebook page]:
You’ve got to start with your objectives: Why are you writing a blog?
Like any strategy where measurement can be done, you must know what you are measuring.
From Twitter:
@frostoloa “The question is why you want to measure that – what’s the end goal?”
@A_Aviles “It would depend on what you’re measuring, wouldn’t it?”
from Steve Rubel’s FB Fan Page:
“Shari, think it depends on your goals – interaction, quality of content/ideas,
etc.”
So WHEN do comments matter?
When . . .
- you are writing to see how many comments you can get 🙂
- you really want to know what other people have to say — whether you are the blogger or the blog reader
- your comment on someone’s blog leads to a real, mutually beneficial relationship.
When do comments — or number of comments — NOT matter?
When . . .
- your blog is just about you — and putting your views out there
- you understand that many readers don’t have anything of extra value to add
- you have your readers RT your URL and/or send you emails to applaud your efforts
- you are just starting out and haven’t built enough Google Juice and content to draw huge numbers of readers
Here’s Leora’s 2 cents:
How about yours?
Regarding Walter’s Post
I agree! If you don’t speak your mind, you will only know your own opinion, while all other perspectives are left unheard. By communincating with others you will be able to see the “Big picture” thus making better decisions.
Got a great NEW WAY to get comments . . . drumroll, please . . .
Make a mistake.
You can be sure someone will correct it.
🙂
Shari,
It was great meeting you last night. Thanks for posting about this topic. It always brightens my day when I do get a comment. Just the other day I wrote a post about Assemblyman Jared Huffman’s birthday and his mom posted. I also enjoy getting comments from folks who disagree with me, because I really enjoy debate. I need to find ways to encourage people to participate on Marin Maven more.
In my career whether with Voices of Adoption or now Marin Maven, I write to share resources, information, events, thoughts with a heart of an activist with a sense of humor. It has always been important to me to have what I create become a forum of ideas, opinions, and insights.
Any clues?
Denise
Clues to creating a forum with one’s website — What a GREAT title for a future blog post. Let me give that some thought and get it done . . . but in the meantime, if anyone out there has ideas for Denise and me, please post them here.
And Denise, I’ll post this question on Twitter and Facebook, why don’t you do the same?
For me, comment means having someone to share and appreciate your work. Also, I learn a lot from comments. 🙂
Walter, I’m with you 100 percent!!
Thanks for joining the conversation.
When I do read an article with lots of comments, I really get drawn into giving more thought to the topic, and then come up with some observations I may not have thought of without having had all those other opinions to consider.
Hi Shari, My tree has just fallen and it can’t get up. Funny, I never really thought about the importance of comments. Although as I think about now, it does make me smile when someone takes the time to say something back to me. Having said that, I hope my little comment has the same effect on you 🙂
The ROI of Your Comment is HUGE to me.
Thanks . . . oh, and I’m sorry about the tree. Must be the storms on your coast.
🙁
LOL
Perhaps this is why I resist setting up a blog. I don’t care about comments. I’ve seen social networking pages before, where it seemed that there was more interest in how many replies were made, than the actual quality of the initial posting. Shari’s posts are instructive, but most others seem to be “all about me”. If the amount of time that’s spent on self expression, was spent helping others, we’d have a much better place here.
With a bow,
WOW, David . . . what power, if the 200+ million bloggers each could make one difference in someone else’s life each time he/she wrote an article.
From your lips . . .
BTW, thanks for the comment [but who’s counting?]
:-))
Ha, ha, you got my comment in here, complete with the slang “lessee”! 🙂
Some of my posts get lots of comments; others get none. I think when I write less technical topics or in a more “layperson” manner, I get more. But that doesn’t mean the other posts don’t have valuable information. Like other people selling technical services, we have the issue of trying to communicate technical prowess without sounding too scary or too technical.
Your posts, Shari, are often (always?) easy to comment upon because you talk such a human, friendly language.
Thanks for your support here on the blog 🙂
Your participation is what it is all about for me, i.e., building relationships by sharing information — which hopefully helps others come to their own conclusions on what’s happening in this Wild West of a Communication Revolution.
I look at my blog kind of like my yoga classes . . . they are both “practice”
🙂
So, really, what’s the ROI for blog commenting for ME?
Comments certainly let me know that I’m not a tree falling in the woods and wondering whether or not there was a sound.
:-))))
Shari
I was just involved in a twitter chat regarding one of your points. Regarding comments leading to a relationship/friendship.
I questioned this as how are we conversing or building a friendship exclusively on the blog? The communication is reader comments, author comments, reader comments and then it generally ends.
Yes as more comments are made and more frequent the communications are more familiar the reader and the blogger become but it is communication based upon an article. With friends we talk about other things and not just that article. Now I am not saying here that from here a friendship is not built as once it is taken off the blog, many times the real friendship starts.
Is a blog more of an introduction? I am thinking that it is. Your thoughts?
@SuzanneVara
Well, Suzanne, my first response is that I consider you and me friends since commenting on one another’s blogs.
🙂
Your comment seems to raise the question of What Is A Friend?
So when I think of the people I consider my friends, I can see different “levels” of friendships, i.e., some people I talk to about more things than others.
Also, I was just thinking of friendships I’m forming with people on Twitter. Afterall, we are talking SOCIAL media, right?
🙂