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How to Attract Comments on Your Blog

How to Attract Comments on Your Blog
Photo by greggoconnell.

My blog is a little over 3 months old and right now I have a total of 107 posts with 1,091 comments. I have tried a lot of things to attract comments on my blog, many which have worked out well and continue to help bring in a lot of comments. Most of these techniques do not require special settings or plugins on your blog, so they will work great for any blogger on any blogging platform.

Comment on blogs similar to mine

Since I am generally interested in webmaster and blogging subjects, commenting on blogs similar to this subject was just very natural and easy for me. I could easily read the articles, actually learn something, and have a useful comment to share. I typically try to only comment if I have something to add to the conversation and this hopefully will show that I am genueaily interested. Bloggers have a very unique radar that can track down people commenting just for commenting sake!

Comment on blogs that started when I started

I don’t know if I did this on purpose, but I defiatnly was very drawn to bloggers who started when I did and who had similar goals to me. Not only was I able to learn a lot by their own trial and errors they were posting about, but I could in exchange share my own knowledge with them. This helped create friendships in the blogsphere and mutual interest in each others new blogs. I still enjoy discovering new blogs and sharing information.

Starting friendships and creating a community

The blogsphere is not like any other community on the Internet. It is very unique in all aspects and you need to be a blogger (past or present) in order to understand what other bloggers are going through. By starting friendships with other bloggers, my blog starting to turn more into a community where other bloggers knew each other and commenting was just like a continued conversation from each others blogs.

Visiting and commenting on my commentors blogs

I enjoy visiting my commentors blogs and leaving comments. I have even subscribe to my commentors RSS feeds, infact 75% of the blogs I’m subscrirbed to happen to be from my commentors. I really do enjoy visiting other blogs where I know the blogger and that the blogger is also interested in what I have to say. I guess in exchange I attract other bloggers who are similar to me in this way. My biggest hurdle now is trying to keep up with visiting my commentors blogs because my comments have kept increasing making this a little more difficult to keep up with.

Answer my own commentors

When I started to get comments on my blog, I was estatic and I started to respond to my commentors on a regular basis. At first it seems a little dopey to say thanks, but once you get into it you will find you have a lot more to say and continue to share more information you may have not included in your post. This also will help continue the conversation and hopefully your commentors will provide their own knowledge too. There is a movement started by Baron Brown, Mark, and Mike called “You Comment, I Reply” which encourages bloggers to talk to their commentors.

List my top commentors on my sidebar

Along with listing my top 10 commentors on my sidebar, I also list the 5 most recent comments on my blog too. Both of these help commentors get a little link love and I often use it to see what conversations are going on in my own blog. A few of my commentors have mentioned getting quite a few visitors from being in the list, so I’m glad it is working out for some of you.

Feature my top commentors

Many of the blogs I visited would feature their top commentors weekly or monthly. I loved this idea because it gave me a chance to give back to my top commentors. I even further decided to start stumbling my top commentors too based off of Pure Blogging’s top commenter post too. This has been well received and my top commentors certainly have been loving my weekly Jar Full of Link posts.

Removing the No-follow tag on my commentors link

Once I discovered that there was a no-follow tag on my commentors link, I quickly removed it with a WordPress plugin. If you comment on my blog, why not get a linkback to your website for search engines too! A lot of people are worried about getting more spam by removing the no-follow tag, but honestly I haven’t had too much of a problem because I approve all first time commentors. Maintenance on my comments has been very minimal.

Comments attract more comments

Once I started to get regular comments on my blog, the comments just kept on coming. I am very appreciative to all my commentors and I thank each of you for taking the time out to comment on my blog. The one downside to attracting more and more comments is that I’m not able to get to know all of my commentors and visitors as well as I used to. But the knowledge that is shared through comments cannot be beat on any other platform!

This post is an entry for The Wrtiers Manifesto’s Tutorial Group Writing Project.

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Comments (224)

  1. Brown Baron on October 17th, 2007 at 10:53 am

    Very nice. Another way is to use Andy Bailey’s CommentLuv plugin that adds the commenter’s latest post at the the end of his/her comment. Thanks for the mention! :)

  2. Madhur Kapoor on October 17th, 2007 at 11:16 am

    basically you need to comment on other blogs and try to strike a conversation with your readers.

  3. Sheila @ GoVIsitHawaii on October 17th, 2007 at 11:24 am

    Sarah - this is a fantastic article. I just stumbled it. :-)

    I agree that bloggers can only understand what a sincere comment means to the blogger. I also agree that we bloggers have a heightened sense of detecting the intent of the comment.

    I’ve been encouraging a blogger friend of mine to consider writing a guest post here at Blue Jar. She’s really good about engaging with the people who comment on her site.

  4. Kyle Eslick on October 17th, 2007 at 12:41 pm

    Wow, great list of tips! I also try to only comment when I have something to add to the conversation. If you are reading other blogs and leaving comments like “I agree!” that won’t really add an value to that post.

    Glad to see you joined the group writing project!

  5. Adam Donkus on October 17th, 2007 at 12:46 pm

    Great post Sarah. You certainly do get a good many comments. Thanks for the tutorial.
    @brownBaron, that sounds like a great plugin, I’ll have to give it a try.

  6. Sarah on October 17th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    That does sound like a cool plugin, will need to first upgrade all my current plugins :c) and than I’ll probably get to adding this one. Thanks for the tip Baron Brown!

    I been meaning to post my entry for a while. Time files!

  7. Rhys on October 17th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

    I noticed the whole “Comment on blogs starting at similar times to you”, can I just say something here.

    As a 5 year blogger, I’ve noticed that blogs kinda start in peaks and troughs. At the moment, I’d say we’re coming down from a peak. In 2006, I’d say I picked up 3-4 regular new commenters, this year probably 10-15. I dunno the purpose of it, but maybe that’s just me.

    I’m growing to hate do-follow, will blog abotu it next week, but my goodness have I had some dodgy comments recently!

  8. Sarah on October 17th, 2007 at 2:28 pm

    I don’t know what you mean by “troughs”? I know that I have gained a lot of great friends even without their blogs who started around when I did. But I’ve also gained a lot of great friends who have been around awhile. Its a combo of both, or just being active in the blogging world in general that will get you more regular commentors.

    As for do-follow, I support this and will continue to. I don’t go out of my way to promote it any way tho. I just simple don’t believe it is my choice to decide whether a link is worthy of link love. I think that the search engines can figure this out without webmasters mucking with syntax. I believe this before I started blogging. So it is just carried on into my blog.

  9. Steven Snell on October 17th, 2007 at 4:34 pm

    Writing about comments is usually a pretty good way to get more.

  10. Megan over at Imaginif on October 17th, 2007 at 4:54 pm

    Hi Sarah
    great article articulating what others probably think but don’t come out and say.
    I LOVE comments on my blog and absolutely adore talking back to my commenters - the conversational relationships formed through blogs never ceases to astound me.
    There are occasions when I am so busy with my work life (child protection) that I cannot comment immediately. That annoys me, so I often visit the commenters site, bookmark and then revisit and leave a comment when time allows. It is my way of spreading blog karma.
    And now….I have to get back to work because I have a client about to arrive. Oh how I long to go pro blogger and talk to other bloggers all day.

  11. Monika @ The Writers Manifesto on October 17th, 2007 at 5:52 pm

    @ Brown Barron: thanks for pointing out that plugin. Sounds like a great idea.

    A Sarah: I’m glad you managed to write your entry. I know you have been flat out and was hoping you made it in time. :-)
    Comments on blogs is what drives me to keep going. I’ve also had some “duds” trying to sneak back a link love, and if I can pick them I delete them. I even had a Chinese one the other day and couldn’t read what the heck their were saying.

    Who knows, they might have proposed to me for all I know. LOL

    Good luck with the entry Sarah
    Monika

  12. menopauseprincess on October 17th, 2007 at 7:01 pm

    This is a great article Sarah. I do answer all of my comments, but how do you know which blogs started when you did?

  13. Sarah on October 17th, 2007 at 7:53 pm

    Glad I could make it in time Monika. It is amazing how much time your children can take when they start school. And my oldest is only 3 1/2 years and only goes twice a week. I am hoping it all balances out soon, otherwise I’d like to find that 36 hour clock.

    The only way I knew when a blog really started was when they released their stats. And I noticed that I just somehow was attracted to blogs that started when I did, maybe because they were posting similar issues/ideas as me? I think after a few months I’m not sure how easy it would be to find other blogs that started around the sametime.

  14. Heather on October 17th, 2007 at 8:53 pm

    Sarah,

    What a great list. Like Monika said, comments are what drive many bloggers to keep going. I just recently started reading your blog, and love the information you’re sharing. :)

    Off to check out some of these other blogs.

    Heather

    P.S. Stumbled :)

  15. Jerad Kaliher on October 17th, 2007 at 10:04 pm

    Commenting on blogs that began at the same time is interesting. I have built a few relationships with a similar tactic but it was because a relationship began with each of us commenting and trying to improve our design/posts.

    I’ve found that I enjoy the idea of a conversation with comments. It seems very hard to start, but once your regular readers become used to it I think it adds a very unique sense of community to the site.

  16. Diana13 on October 17th, 2007 at 11:34 pm

    Great list. I did almost all this things, except “Comment on blogs that started when I started”. Did you look at all blogs stats to see that?
    I stumbled this article, too.

  17. pelf on October 17th, 2007 at 11:49 pm

    I’d like to add that NOT all blogs receive some kind of attention, even if all the “necessary” steps have been taken, e.g. installing the Top Commentators plugin, removing the “nofollow” tag, replying to comments, etc.

    But one thing is for sure: Blogs on blogging receive much more attention compared to personal blogs these days.

  18. Mohsin on October 18th, 2007 at 1:14 am

    @pelf, it’s because the personal blogs usually don’t have a fixed topic of discussion. If one post is about the topic A, the next is about topic Z, which makes it hard for the readers to remain interested in the content of a personal blog.

    While on blogs about blogging, for example, we have a large audience of bloggers who are constantly interested in our topic because it benefits them, so it’s easy for them to stick around and join the discussions.

    I think for personal blogs to make any real progress, it is necessary that they provide value to their readers i.e., provide useful insights, and somehow make their life easier. You see, people value web content based on how it changes their life for the better, and if it’s worth their time or not. Make it worth their time and you’ll slowly build an audience that’ll care about your discussions.

  19. Acopic - Web Designers on October 18th, 2007 at 7:12 am

    Some really good tips there mate. I think you’ve got to put yourself out there in order to be found. It’s amazing how many people actually click links in comments. Also think the ‘Top Commenters’ plugin is a great way of rewarding your commenters. Keep up the good work!

  20. Rhys on October 18th, 2007 at 9:00 am

    Peaks and Troughs - Highs and Lows :)

  21. Keith Dsouza on October 18th, 2007 at 9:06 am

    This is a great way for getting comments and I will defnitely try out those that you have listed out to garner more comments for my blog

  22. Tedel on October 18th, 2007 at 12:33 pm

    I’ve always wondered how important could bloggers be for the marketing of your site. Your post has opened my eyes, so thank you very much and my best wishes with your work.

  23. J.D. on October 18th, 2007 at 2:44 pm

    I’ve recently started to interact more with some of our readers, and have really noticed more in the way of conversations taking place.

    A few days ago, we passed the 1000 comments benchmark, which makes us happy, even if a lot of the comments are from people who wish we would die. In a fire.

  24. Felix Ker on October 18th, 2007 at 5:19 pm

    Sarah, great share. There’s a link error with “Pure Blogging’s”

  25. Jenny on October 19th, 2007 at 12:33 am

    I like the idea of featuring the top commenters. I think I’ll try that out. :)

  26. Carlo on October 19th, 2007 at 1:04 am

    I just recently implemented comments on my blog engine. Not as lucky as you are when it comes to comments.

  27. YC on October 19th, 2007 at 3:45 am

    Great comprehensive post on commenting and how it can contribute to building one’s blog, Sarah! I think this really helped when I started out last month. Unfortunately it is also now my ‘downfall’ as I have not had enough time to visit and comment as much the past few weeks due to some work on other stuff. I hope to resume normal operations soon as I really miss the communication!

  28. [...] How to Attract Comments on Your Blog is written by Sarah over at Bluejar.com and is an excellent turtorial on getting comments. Sarah’s blog is only 3 months old and she has over a 1000 comments on 100 posts. That’s nothing to sneeze at. How is she able to get so many comments? Check out her post, but I think the main reason is that Sarah spends much time commenting herself. Commenting on other blogs is a great way to get new readers to your site, as well as getting them to comment back to you. [...]

  29. This Weak in SEO - 10/19/07 on October 19th, 2007 at 7:50 am

    [...] BlueJar.com tells you some things you can do to get blog commenters to comment on your blog. He’s also got a way cool logo. It gives me the urge to make spaghetti. [...]

  30. Aseem Kishore on October 19th, 2007 at 10:09 am

    Thanks for the post Sarah! I think my first comment on your blog was “How to you get so many comments!?!?” HAHA So now I guess I have my question answered.

    Do you think any blog (whatever topic) can get lots of comments or just some categories like Blogging Tips, SEO, etc??

    Aseem

  31. Blogging and SEO tips by mcrilf on October 19th, 2007 at 10:19 am

    I agree with your points - all of which have worked pretty well for me. I especially like to keep the conversation going with my commentors - people like to be recognised for their efforts of leaving a comment and a simple ‘thanks for commenting’ reward is not much to give.

    Nice blog. I’ll add you to my RSS reader

  32. Terry Didcott on October 19th, 2007 at 11:40 am

    Hi Sarah,

    I’m like you in that I always answer comments if for no other reason than it’s plain good manners! I do-follow too because I believe if people go to the trouble to comment, it’s only fair their link gets recognised by the search engines. I like fair!

    Ok, I get a lot of spam because of it, but the Askimet plugin takes care of most of it and the sneaky ones that get through I can always spot and head straight for the DELETE button!

    This is a great post and I really enjoyed reading it. I look forward to more!

    I stumbled too! :-)

    Terry

  33. Best of Blogosphere Week 42 2007 | Shivaranjan.com on October 19th, 2007 at 11:44 am

    [...] How to Attract Comments on Your Blog by Sarah [...]

  34. david on October 19th, 2007 at 2:23 pm

    That’s a lot of comments and great ways to attract them.

  35. Mid October Top Commentators Post - My Online World on October 19th, 2007 at 7:34 pm

    [...] the GnomeyNewt, has a great post about increasing commenting, which is her entry into TheWritersManifesto Group writing project. She also is looking for people [...]

  36. harleyblues on October 19th, 2007 at 9:47 pm

    hey cool beans I rarely get comments liken your blog ta
    HB~

  37. Andy Bailey on October 20th, 2007 at 6:17 am

    great advice, I have noticed a lot more blogs using this kind of approach successfully, this should be included in the “your first blog” instruction book :-)

    thanks BrownBaron for mentioning the CommentLuv plugin!

    @sarah: contact me any time about the plugin!

  38. Matt Armour on October 21st, 2007 at 2:58 pm

    Great article! I picked up on it with stumble and since I just started my blog I am going to try to put it into practice.

    Thanks for the advice and thumbs up on stumble!

  39. Annie on October 24th, 2007 at 5:10 pm

    A nice post, and you’ve obviously had success getting those comments (38 on this post alone as I write!)! I think this one is big:

    “Comment on blogs that started when I started”

    You’re definitely more likely to get responses from your peers rather than the big name bloggers who get dozens or even hundreds of comments a day not to mention email. Anyway, more people are likely to notice your comment on someone else’s blog (and click through to your site) when there aren’t a zillion other comments on there. So all around it’s a good strategy to establish relationships with other folks who are in the same boat as you are.

  40. Be Beautiful on October 25th, 2007 at 10:36 am

    Thanks for the tips! I like the idea of the top commentators on the sidebar.

  41. Nirmal on October 26th, 2007 at 1:59 am

    First and important thing is to comment on other blogs to tell them your existence. Good article. I have written many on improving comments. :-)

  42. Who can’t use a couple of tutorials? on October 27th, 2007 at 7:33 am

    [...] has gained considerable experience in her stint of 3 months in the Blogosphere, shares her tips on how to attract comments on your blog. The mere fact that this post has attracted over 40 comments as of writing this, is testimony to [...]

  43. anang bakti on October 29th, 2007 at 2:59 am

    I’ve just start my blog and thanks for the tips, now I understand that it’s all about take and give.

  44. dubaiforvisitors.com on October 29th, 2007 at 4:46 am

    i am doing blogging for past 3 months as well but hardly anybody putting any comments on my blogs. i dont know why

  45. [...] Sarah from BlueJar has a interesting post on How to Attract Comments on Your Blog. [...]

  46. Chanya on October 29th, 2007 at 9:32 am

    Great article and I agree with what you’re saying. Actually, although I’m new to blogging I’ve decided to put myself on a blogging schedule in order to keep up with reading feeds, MyBlogLog pages, comments, etc. in the hopes of keeping things on track.

  47. turtie on October 29th, 2007 at 1:51 pm

    nice post. Looking to attract more readers to my blog, and stumbled across this article. Seems like it could be very useful. Will browse the rest of your articles too!

  48. [...] How to Attract Comments on Your Blog - Sarah [...]

  49. Jalaj on November 1st, 2007 at 12:18 am

    While all new bloggers are shouting out the PR they recieved, I see no movement here… Congratulations for the PR4!

  50. Jalaj on November 1st, 2007 at 12:35 am

    And just came to know… Congratulations for winning Group Writing Project at TheWritersManifestoBlogwriters…

  51. japinder on November 1st, 2007 at 6:10 am

    HI Sarah…i read that u were 3 months old in the blogosphere and have already managed 1091 comments, and went back to mine and checked- i m 5 months old here, and still haven’t managed to get many comments beyond my friends’ circle. I so want to get an honest feedback from total strangers about my writings! I hope your tips help. Thanks for sharing!

  52. Michael from Pro Blog Design on November 1st, 2007 at 12:59 pm

    Good ideas there. The biggest one for me has just been engendering conversations. If a person has a good conversation with you once, they’re more likely to come back and comment again the next time.

    It’s also a lot of fun to do. :D

  53. redspace on November 1st, 2007 at 3:01 pm

    sometime it is kind of a big headache to get people comment on your blog with good stuff. but then it is a challenge to all bloggers. that’s what internet all about. the place to show your stuff and be among the best.

  54. College on November 1st, 2007 at 4:55 pm

    Thanks for helping like this. I m really very needy for that. It will be helpful for me.

  55. Sauna on November 1st, 2007 at 11:41 pm

    Your idea is so admirable. I feel as I get something new from your guidelines. Thanks for sharing.

  56. Jason Benway on November 2nd, 2007 at 5:18 pm

    Which top commentors plug-in are you using?
    Does it support WP 2.3?

    Thanks,jb

  57. Utah Search Engine Optimization on November 3rd, 2007 at 12:33 am

    Sure, removing no-follow is great to attract web developers and search engine marketers but what if you’re in a niche where most people don’t know about no-follow? Doesn’t do much good there to remove except to invite spammers. I am pretty neutral to this.

  58. Jack Payne on November 3rd, 2007 at 3:32 pm

    The first 3 months my blog was up, I put out some 15 articles. The comments section had nothing but a long string of zeros. It felt like I was talking to myself.
    Now, even though I do not serve coffee and donuts, a few people are starting to visit. Appreciate your tips.

  59. Ed Kohler on November 5th, 2007 at 12:07 pm

    Great post. I think you could add “write more posts so there are more posts to comment on.” :-)

  60. [...] How to Attract Comments on Your Blog Posted in Uncategorized | [...]

  61. A O Hare on November 8th, 2007 at 5:56 am

    You have discussed very important matters in your article. I need to follow these. Thanks for your recommendation.

  62. Matt on November 10th, 2007 at 5:32 am

    Thanks for this list. It’s useful, since I have always had a bit of a problem getting comments. (I get lots of hits, not many comments.)

    From what I’ve seen on other blogs I think the last point is especially true. That is, there seems to be a critical mass of comments that has to be reached. Once it has, the comments never stop. (It’s kind of like people at a dance — it takes a few brave souls to get up before everybody else does.)

  63. My Online Marketing Experiences on November 15th, 2007 at 6:54 am

    [...] How to Attract Comments on Your Blog - Sarah [...]

  64. Talina on November 16th, 2007 at 10:59 pm

    Seems like all of us bloggers are talking about the importance of commenting lately!! I totally agree with this post and can vouch for it actually working!!

    I actually saw one of your comments on another blog and it brought me her to your blog… You wrote that “guess what I found? One of those blogs that steal ‘feeds’. So basically the headline was cool, but it was actually from another persons blog! I don’t know how many of those are on there but they need to check these blogs and they also need an easy way to report it - Unless they allow that sort of thing?”

    Now I know this is kind of off topic and I hope your are not annoyed but if you find a way to report these blogs that are a full of other people’s “feeds” will you let me know to… This is a huge pet peeve of mine!
    Have a good night!

  65. Bollywood on November 16th, 2007 at 11:33 pm

    nice articles , got new insights of getting users to comment more on the blog
    blog is succesful only if it has gud nd active commentators

  66. [...] How to Attract Comments on Your Blog [...]

  67. SmokestormX on November 23rd, 2007 at 6:37 am

    So if i post a link to my site here.. I’ll get more comments huh ….

    Lol only messing around , this truly is a great article, I found it by seraching google on ways to improve my comments. my blog has over the past year just been a ghostly presence, but now I’ve started to actually make posts on it regularly and given it a redesign things are picking up, conversations are growing, but it’s really still in it’s infancy, so I think the above advice will help me.

    I like the idea of top commenters listed on the side bar, i currently only had recent comments.

  68. North Dallas Condos on November 25th, 2007 at 8:12 pm

    Wow, that great. My blog is about 6 months old and I only have like 5 comments.

  69. Craig on November 27th, 2007 at 2:42 pm

    Interesting post. I agree that interacting with visitors actually activates them. As simple as it can sound, at least you got me to prove the point.

  70. formortv on November 29th, 2007 at 4:53 pm

    Congratulations on such a wonderful blog! We just started our blog formortv at blogspot this week. We have enjoyed networking with like minded individuals. Thanks for the great article. I wish you a ton of success and prosperity.

    Peace Out………..

  71. wkhaiaun on December 2nd, 2007 at 3:54 am

    I find it a very useful information. All the tips sure comes in handy. Most blogger actually do not answer on the blogs comments posted by others. It’s a great way to have a two way communication.

  72. [...] into a way to interact more with other sites, so I came across Pingbacks and Trackbacks. (Also this post on BlueJar.com is very interesting to get more comments on your Blog.)  Pingback is a way of way of [...]

  73. referate on December 5th, 2007 at 11:52 am

    You can attract comments on your blog if you have good article or content. At the same time your blog must be of follow and you should list it in do follow directories or other directories. Giving comments to other blogs will also help.

  74. Wookah on December 14th, 2007 at 8:05 am

    Blog comment needs a specific measurement. It will modify your thoughts.

  75. London dentist on December 14th, 2007 at 8:56 am

    sarah
    this is a wonderful list.you get many comments.I’ll have to give it a try.

  76. Andrew on December 17th, 2007 at 11:34 pm

    I think that removing No Follow option in your blog is the greatest single thing you can do to improve traffic to your site. Admittedly you need to do a lot more comment filtering to remove posts that are “nice post, I like your work” but translate to I want a link to my blog from your blog as you have a PR of 6.

  77. [...] declares innovation dead, Coolio Jones ground some inspiration, BlueJar explained how to attract comments, The Thought Sponge pondered common [...]

  78. Martin Welch on January 2nd, 2008 at 7:03 pm

    Good ideas! Also, to get more comments in your blog try to post an interesting topic. If readers got interested in your topic, more visitors will read to your blog and make more comments and try to visit again and again. Making your post a little bit conversational is great!

  79. jtm on January 6th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

    Me too, I enjoy the idea of a conversation with comments. It is not hard to start and give regular answers. And it would be pity to to miss the communication!

  80. tricksy on January 11th, 2008 at 4:24 am

    depends from topic to topic.. still great article, liked ;)

  81. [...] How to Attract Comments on Your Blog from BlueJar. [...]

  82. Microspect PC on January 12th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

    Thanks for all the advice, the list is very informative and useful. I learned alot and will definetly be using many of those tecniques. I am new to blogs so many of the strategies you have described, I have never used before.

  83. Apex Credit Cards on January 15th, 2008 at 11:17 pm

    You bring up some good points. However, I would assume you’d need some decent traffic to in order to get any comments in the first place. In any case, I will try to implement a few of your suggestions to my blog.

    Thanks!

  84. Bretagne on January 17th, 2008 at 2:52 am

    Reply to comments and remove do-follow seems the best.

  85. MPcomputer on January 22nd, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    thank you . this post is so good for me
    good luck

  86. karsten søgemaskineoptimering on January 29th, 2008 at 12:39 am

    Nice article - the whole way of thinking about community and relations is very good - i will consider to do a little like u on my own blog

  87. Music Site on January 30th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

    Hi,

    I know you did good job in this blog, but the thing that I am wondering is: I know anyone would be happy to get more traffic to his\her site, but what the result? do you make money with this? I really don’t understand it, how can someone makes money by having more traffic to his\her site when it is only a blog site where someone write and others read?

    Anyway, you did a good job,
    Regards.

  88. Chamonix Lad on January 31st, 2008 at 5:05 am

    Interesting article. Not sure if you have it but offering an rss feed of comments for each post is another good way to increase commenting.

  89. Robert on February 4th, 2008 at 10:57 am

    Very good ideas and well written. These are some good ideas for improving comment involvement.

  90. clear braces on February 7th, 2008 at 4:36 am

    Great tips there - certainly allows me to try a few of these ideas to get more comments.

  91. Beautiful minds on February 11th, 2008 at 11:07 pm

    Those tips were helpful.! Many of them are already implemented.. But havent tried anything like commenting on those who started the blog in the same time as mine :)

  92. Sheri on February 14th, 2008 at 9:09 pm

    Hey it worked, you got my comment!

  93. Cheat Coder on February 17th, 2008 at 8:13 am

    You are absolutely correct. Traffic is easy to get, it’s the comments that are hard to come by. You have to nurture them like a garden.

  94. Banan on February 19th, 2008 at 11:19 am

    Thanks the advice. I`ll try it!

  95. Cardboard Robot on February 20th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

    Wow. What an awesome post with exceptional ideas! Thanks for all the advice. I’m rss-ing you!

  96. Kitchen Cabinets Los Angeles on March 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 am

    I like to leave comments, and I like to read comments after reading the blog post.
    after all the whole reason for the internet is to have two way communication and the blogs do even better than that.
    They allow for an exchange of ideas ,(and technologies ) that benefit every one involved.
    I found it hard to comment when I first started to say anything when I first found out about reading blogs. so I just read them.
    But as Knowledge grows so does the ability to say what you want in a relevant manner.
    besides it’s fun when the bloggers comment, or e-mail you back! Tommy

  97. Anton Moses on March 6th, 2008 at 5:19 am

    I found this blog, and I just wanted to comment I’m happy I had the chance to read it. I have a small tip: when I have been in Berlin, I browsed through berlinshotel.com for my hotel bookings.

  98. Microsoft Zune on March 10th, 2008 at 11:56 am

    Great List, will help gain comments on my almost commentless blog.

    Thanks for the good read and advice.

    Will be back soon for new articles.

  99. Richard Ryan on March 17th, 2008 at 9:45 pm

    That’s a great list of tips. I think you’re especially right about the need to create a feel of community. That’s got to be a priority.

  100. new zealand tourism on March 21st, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    Going to dofollow and asking questions of my readers made a huge difference in comments on my blog. This also reflected in subscribers.

  101. Asia'H Epperson on March 24th, 2008 at 6:13 am

    I think commenting with other bloggers builds a great community and can naturally help to build comments on your own blog as well over time. Nice tips!

  102. Nai on March 24th, 2008 at 7:13 am

    Seeing the number of comments that you already got out of this post, I think you very well know what you’re talking about. Been trying hard to attract comments to my blog and these tips are of wonderful help. Thanks!

  103. E.B. Lane on March 27th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    Just getting started with our own blog, your post will be helpful for getting much sought after comments!

  104. Leo F. Swiontek on March 30th, 2008 at 3:34 am

    Seems like all of us bloggers are talking about the importance of commenting lately!! I totally agree with this post and can vouch for it actually working!!

    I actually saw one of your comments on another blog and it brought me her to your blog… You wrote that “guess what I found? One of those blogs that steal ‘feeds’. So basically the headline was cool, but it was actually from another persons blog! I don’t know how many of those are on there but they need to check these blogs and they also need an easy way to report it - Unless they allow that sort of thing?”

    Now I know this is kind of off topic and I hope your are not annoyed but if you find a way to report these blogs that are a full of other people’s “feeds” will you let me know to… This is a huge pet peeve of mine!
    Have a good night!

  105. [...] How to Attract Comments on Your Blog [...]

  106. Roshan Bhattarai on April 2nd, 2008 at 3:44 am

    Thanks a lot for this post….I was a bit slow to answer the comments on my blog and post comments to other blogs. Well, now onwards, I won’t be lazy to reply comments and post comments to other blogs…thanks man for motivating…:-)

  107. blog on April 2nd, 2008 at 7:24 pm

    Thats an useful posts for bloggers like me.
    I am running my blog since year, but only 20 comments in total :(

  108. Chris on April 2nd, 2008 at 10:04 pm

    Great article.

    I know that alot of the feedback that I get from my blog really has to be solicited directly. Not many people ever want to leave the good comments but they will leave the bad comments.

  109. window tinting courses on April 3rd, 2008 at 9:35 am

    Hi.

    Thanks for the tips here - I’m going to put these into action on some of my blogs and see how it goes. At the moment I’m struggling to get many comments.

    You clearly dont have a problem with getting comments on this blog though! Great work

    James

  110. hollywood forum on April 5th, 2008 at 5:49 am

    I think those tips are really working and the best one. thanks for the tip.

  111. Betty on April 8th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

    Nice tips…Controversial posting also attract more comments. So content is also an important factor to sttract comments.

  112. Rasterbator on April 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 pm

    This is one of the greatest summary i was read. I do agree what you are telling and that’s the reason you can getting over 100 comments on this posts.

  113. Pushkar on April 26th, 2008 at 2:39 am

    Nice way of writing about blogging, your content styling is impressive

  114. Beach Guide on April 30th, 2008 at 1:54 pm

    Wow you really sturred it up with this post. Very nice !

  115. John Suzuki on May 2nd, 2008 at 2:48 am

    Thanks for the useful info. I have a blog of my own but I’ve gotten what, like 10 comments in the last 6 months lol. Keep up the good work!

  116. kimt on May 3rd, 2008 at 4:12 am

    I really like leaving comments on blogs and i find it very easy to leave good comments to. When i first started i thought, why am i doing this but it is so obvious to me now. You sure do have some great ideas and TIPS about blogging. Thanks and keep up the good work

  117. Carly on May 3rd, 2008 at 8:32 am

    I have recently joined the do-follow movement, but have already received a few spammish comments, they are relevent but are blatent advertisments for other sites! Oh well, gotta take the bad with the good..!

  118. Techabhi on May 3rd, 2008 at 6:08 pm

    wow…gr8 articles…very nice…i was looking for it in google since a long time…thx a million
    -abhi
    TechFreakiez

  119. WebTasarım on May 4th, 2008 at 8:07 am

    Thats an useful posts for bloggers like me. Thanks… :)

  120. Graduate finance on May 5th, 2008 at 7:13 am

    Great information for bloggers like us. Especially in the finance and student industries.

  121. Eerik on May 8th, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    Great post, answering a comment or two with a post or including them also helps.

  122. Keyboard Tray on May 13th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

    I think since this is such a difficult thing to do it attracted so many comments and users. I believe if you do have a do-follow blog you will get more feedback because people are being rewarded for their input. Continue to write fantastic informative blog posts and people will come back. Nice Post!

  123. Website Design Dave on May 14th, 2008 at 2:02 pm

    really interesting post, lots of useful information and tip for building a successful blog. Keep up the good work,
    Dave

  124. Ankit on May 15th, 2008 at 3:48 am

    Verry much usefull post !! keep the good work up !

  125. Yrityksen Perustaminen on May 17th, 2008 at 8:46 am

    Too bad that you didn’t install dofollow plugin f.ex month ago. Then you could tell how much it did affect amount of comments in your posts.

  126. SEO Web Tips on May 19th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

    I agree with all points you’ve made. Especially commenting on related blogs and trying to build some kind of “related blogs network” is very important and will have long-term positive effects on your own blog/website/brand. Moreover, commenting on related blogs is also crucial from a SEO point of view. It brings quality backlinks and possible boost in a traffic and targeted visitors. However, remember that the comments are permanent - this means that short useless posts written just to get a free backlink are wrong and might have negative effects on your image. Think forward :)

  127. Bollywood Hot Actress on May 20th, 2008 at 7:47 pm

    Wow great post! and you sure got a lot of comments! hehe..
    keep it up…. thanks!

  128. PC Sport Live on June 3rd, 2008 at 9:43 am

    Your post is full of great handy tips. I myself am trying to create a network with fellow sites to see if I can improve my traffic.

  129. Hostmonster Reviews on June 7th, 2008 at 7:28 pm

    Just add a little bit of link love, and the comment should start rolling in

  130. Cheap web hosting - not oversold on June 8th, 2008 at 4:35 am

    Nice post. i have been trying to figure out why i never get any comments for a while now. I will try some of your tips and let you know how it goes :)

    Thanks for a great post.

  131. Raman on June 14th, 2008 at 7:38 am

    wow,you are reall giving back links to those who comment…..nice job.

  132. suzanne on June 16th, 2008 at 9:14 pm

    It surely works for you. Looks like you do attract a lot of comments. My question is, how do you manage to manage all your comments?
    I seriously do not have this problem on my blog yet. It is only 6 weeks old and had a handful of posts only. Managing the comments is the last worry at the moment. In the mornings, I open my Wordpress. Go the the comments and simply delete them all, since they are all from the same spammy poster that tries to sell medicines.
    Easy sorting. But I wonder how you work your way through with a large blog, and many comments to follow up per day. Does it take a lot of time?

  133. Suzanne on June 16th, 2008 at 9:26 pm

    Wow,
    I’m impressed. Not only the number of comments, but the number of posts that you write in a month! Respect!

    What I was going to write: How do you manage to manage your posts? Does it take a lot of time?

    My blog is now only 6 weeks old and has a handful of posts, so I do not have this luxury problem. Every morning I only need to delete the bunch of comments that are all spam. But you really have a full-time job sorting out your posts. How do you do it?

  134. BriskShare Link Directory on June 19th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

    Great guide I subscribed to your rss. I can see that this is working for you by the amount of comments that you are getting

  135. Rinaldo Hasibuan on June 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 am

    blogging is about to socializing, build your own community

  136. Lasik on June 24th, 2008 at 8:18 am

    I guess the nature of the blog post works, look at all the comments. Great Job !

  137. Hostmonster on June 24th, 2008 at 7:23 pm

    The problem with removing the no-follow. Spammers come running from everywhere wanting to spam the crap out of your blog

  138. iwilleatyourbaby on June 25th, 2008 at 10:59 am

    Using the blog medium to get your thoughts and (links) out via other blogs who share simillar content with your own site is a great way to help your site gain popularity.. as long as you provide worthy comments :)

  139. Marketing Man on July 1st, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    Making friends on blogs bring visitors back, its like taking care of customers in business. Supply the right product and give the service.

  140. xbox 360 red ring of death fix on July 3rd, 2008 at 2:00 am

    Commenting has always been the best way to socialize with other members of the online community. I am pretty sure with what you have suggested here, it would definitely help many others expand on their own community around their sites.

    Rick

  141. SEO tips on July 4th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

    Great article!

    Personally, I tend to try comment on other blogs with similar niche as mine and thus building kind of a small “quality blog comments exchange” network (I’ve just made that word up - sorry if it doesn’t make much sense) with them. Sometimes blog owners from websites where I comment from time to time (when I read some interesting post there) come back to me and comment on my website. Other than that, of course making your blog dofollow will help, as well as already having some quality comments so there is a potential for more sophisticated discussion.

    You have covered basically all comment tactics I know plus few others I haven’t thought of :)

    Richard

  142. Kevin on July 6th, 2008 at 6:54 pm

    I think removing the no follow tag is a big one (thanks for that by the way!). It helps build links and PR for the commenter while boosting the popularity of the blog for the blog owner.

  143. Fred on July 10th, 2008 at 4:01 am

    hey, think it works very good….you have my comment and soooooo many others ;-) congrats ;-)

  144. Swopster on July 10th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    Great post Sarah - that reminds me, I really do have to get comments running on my blog.

  145. Nesco Food Dehydrator on July 11th, 2008 at 8:21 pm

    Thank you for the do-follow tag and for following what you preach. I’ve been on other posts where the author talked about how bad no-follow was and why it should be removed and then low and behold their own post had no-follows - just ironic.

  146. Jay on July 18th, 2008 at 8:39 am

    Thank you for this article. I used some tipps from you and since then I got 100 more visitors per day.
    Thats a nice number, because I had only 30 visitors before.

  147. Godaddy Coupons and Promo Codes on July 18th, 2008 at 6:02 pm

    I think dofollow is the biggest factor. Everyone likes a dofollow blog

  148. Welse on July 20th, 2008 at 3:32 am

    My blog is running good.
    But I cannot have enough visitors!
    So thanks for your tipps!

  149. Dome on July 20th, 2008 at 8:48 am

    Thank you for this article.
    The last points are really important for me and I will use them for my blog.

  150. hosting on July 29th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    Informative info. You may want to add more entries to your blog to keep us going.

  151. flower delivery in canada on July 31st, 2008 at 1:44 am

    I believe that until now you’ve managed pretty well to administrate your blog. So, I don’t think that you should worry. Keep up the good work just like you did until now and everything is going to be just fine.

  152. Cancer Symptoms on July 31st, 2008 at 5:49 am

    Looks like it is working the do follow stuff, very glad you run this awesome blog and allow do follow. Many thanks !

  153. Migraine Headaches on July 31st, 2008 at 5:59 am

    I think this is a wonderful idea I need to start featuring top commenters on my blog that is a great tip, thanks a million !

  154. Geoserv on July 31st, 2008 at 9:44 am

    CommentLuv definitely helps to get fellow bloggers to comment.

    I also try to ask a question of my readers at the end of my posts.

  155. cheap logo design on August 6th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

    you too do some contest to attract more comment, maybe giving away some free banner ads for one month for top 3 commentators.

  156. Guide To Niche Marketing on August 9th, 2008 at 10:21 am

    107 posts in 90 days. That’s really impressive. I really would like to emulate your dedication to your blog.
    I am a part time marketer and have a lot of projects running online. But you have inspired me to up my act
    Thank you

  157. Otooo on August 15th, 2008 at 4:55 am

    Nice tips and glad to see that your blog is doing so well
    It is crucial to reply to comments

  158. Googo on August 17th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

    Yeah, and damn it works. I mean 158+ comments on this post only, I gotta say that’s a successful blog.

  159. Peter Morrow on August 17th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    Well, you’ve clearly done something right. Here’s comment 159. :P

  160. Amaterashu on August 18th, 2008 at 6:37 am

    I think you have to start conversation with your readers.. it will make them come back to your blog again and again

  161. Suzanne (not making money online) on August 18th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

    A page worth bookmarking. Just need to start posting first, so there is something to comment on. It is so hard to stay focused.

    I read about the ‘you comment, I reply’ movement and think it is a little sad to attract commentators that way. But than again, I might need to use it, because I will be desperate soon.

    I did join the ‘you comment, I follow’ movement. Results: 1 half-decent comment and over 200 SPAM comments…

  162. Bill on August 19th, 2008 at 6:03 am

    Thanks for advice! I’ll work on getting more comments on my blog.

  163. North Georgia Website Design on August 19th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

    I liked this post a lot because it carefully analyzes what encourages people to post. Every blog will naturally attract other bloggers. Those bloggers have their own blogs that they want to promote. While there will naturally be spam at some point, it shouldn’t be a necessity to remove promotion of other sites as a means to remove spam.

    Aside from approving comments, there should be other tools to limit spam. Most of it is done by bots, so Captchas are a fairly decent solution.

  164. イコールクレジット on August 20th, 2008 at 3:22 am

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  165. Barry Wise SEO on August 21st, 2008 at 6:01 am

    Great advice about removing nofollow tags on comments! I used to agree with a lot of SEOs who think nofollow tags helps channel pagerank into certain links; now I embrace the theory of open dofollow reciprocity for all small blog owners. This helps the entire community of bloggers.

  166. [...] PageRank authority to my blogs self-serving links.  But I recently read a blog post over at Blue Jar, and subsequently found a great Wordpress plugin for Nofollow Reciprocity, which opened my eyes to [...]

  167. Craig on August 21st, 2008 at 10:12 am

    Thanks for the help much appreciated. great post. This is my first time to the site and I will defiantly be back.

  168. iPhone website on August 26th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    nice article.. and yes: it’s true :D

  169. desktop on August 27th, 2008 at 3:55 am

    Getting people to comment on your blog is always tough. But nice tips though. Thanks!

  170. Mikael on August 27th, 2008 at 6:18 am

    I think it is so cool that you have this blog that hasn’t been touched for almost a year but still you’re getting comments and you have more than 190 subscribers to your feed. Now THAT is cool!

  171. Stop Snoring Tips on August 28th, 2008 at 12:42 am

    I do follow on my blogs as well but i find I have to spend a lot of time moderating comments because of spammers

    I however think that allowing useful comments is a great way of increase each posts content
    Also we know that search engine optimization has a bit to do with updated content. Allowing comments helps with this as well

  172. Marketing Man on August 29th, 2008 at 6:26 am

    You should visit other blogs and comment, be a regular at blogs that attract most of your interest. That’s how you’ll build a network

  173. Otooo on September 1st, 2008 at 3:12 am

    I agree with the above poster
    Top commenter and CommentLuv work really well:)

  174. [...] How to Attract Comments on Your Blog [...]

  175. Jack Smith on September 5th, 2008 at 11:05 pm

    I appreciate that your web site creating a higher value in providing updated information through your web site.

  176. Domain Name Blog on September 6th, 2008 at 4:32 am

    I also believe that the more regularly you post, the more comments your blog will attract, as most people won’t take the time and effort to comment on blogs that have dated posts. It also gives your readers more subjects/points of view to comment on.

  177. goblogging on September 6th, 2008 at 11:32 am

    really useful article! :) every bloggers should know about it. Thanks you

  178. web about money on September 7th, 2008 at 10:45 pm

    good Post, Your blog is great!

  179. Google Chrome on September 9th, 2008 at 9:58 pm

    I totally agree that comments attract more comments! I’ve noticed on forums, people don’t want to participate if it looks dead. But they’ll join if it looks like an active community.

  180. DaveB on September 11th, 2008 at 11:43 pm

    These are excellent tips. I’m surprised that you haven’t received spam from not using no-follows. I guess people have given up on blog comment spam. Thanks.

  181. rubber seal on September 12th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

    This post has a lots of comment and attract me to comment too. Top commentator also quite attractive for a new webmaster as their can increase their backlinks. Moderation should be on too for filter spam comment.

  182. Making money online with Anilg on September 12th, 2008 at 11:16 pm

    Great tips useful for all bloggers who are willing to increase comments on their blog posts.