‘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?