Will you comment on this?
So I received my first question in the “Ask Margie” section of this site – from my oft-mentioned friend Ms. Susan Fox, aka @Gagasgarden. Susan asked about how to get lurking types to comment on blog posts.
The question takes me back to one of the first Blogchat chats I ever attended. People were talking about how to get more comments in general. I was getting to know some people, so I was talking about methodologies that I had heard other people mention. “Oh, I am only getting about 17 comments per post,” one person said. “Yeah, it took me a whole month to start getting a steady stream of comments.”
I had been blogging for about 2 months and still wasn’t getting any comments. I was feeling a little confused.
Flash forward, well, a whole year now, I guess. Several months later. I usually get at least one comment on my blog posts, and things have been going pretty well here. You all have been offering some really interesting insights that make this place more a meeting place than a Margie babbling place, which is good. There’s just one small itsy bitsy thing I’d like to confess to you.
I still have no idea what posts are going to generate conversation and which ones aren’t.
You call this an answer?
I know. This is not the type of answer you’re used to seeing, probably. A lot of people offer a lot of advice when it comes to blog comments. I’m certainly not saying that I know more than experts like Brian Clark and Denise Wakeman. I’m just saying that I think that getting people to comment on your blog posts is more art than science.
In fact, I have something I need to confess to you.
Some of my most popular posts have been posts that I threw together. I may or may not have taken the time to put a cherry on top. I was happy enough with them to publish them, but I didn’t think they would really garner a huge response. Wrong.
Okay, one more confession. There have been a LOT of posts that I was sure would catch fire. I literally waited with baited breath. Those tended to get no comments at all.
A few things to think about
I have some ideas that I’ve been kind of thinking about and working with, so perhaps these will help you too.
• Some people just don’t comment. I have done primary research on this (that is to say I’ve talked to people on Twitter about it). The sheer volume of blog posts that people read restricts their ability to comment. There’s not much you can do about that.
• Shorter posts seem to do better more often than not. This kind of makes sense. Again the time thing. If a person has half an hour to do blog type things, they could either spend that whole time reading 1 blog post or they could take five minutes to read your post and five minutes to comment. What are you hoping for?
• People need guidance. Personally, I prefer comments over retweets just because I like the conversation that can develop in a comments section – it seems harder to do that on Twitter. So I have started to gently nudge people towards commenting. If you want people to comment, let them know (it’s that whole expectation thing again).
• Are you talking at people or with people? When I first started blogging, I thought the key was to sound very … smart. Now, I’m not saying that you want to dumb down your content, but people tend not to respond, in blogs or in real life, if you are yelling and spitting at them. If you are conversing, people are more likely to um, to converse. So, even if you know a ton about something, rely on your readers to build out the content. Don’t tell the whole story yourself. Be willing to share.
The ever-moving target
There’s one more thing I would toss out in reference to Susan’s question. That is that just like on Twitter or on Facebook, your audience is constantly shifting. You have your subscribers, but then you have people who could be finding your site from all sorts of different sources. It’s really hard to tell if they are reading, why they chose to read, how much they’re reading, and all of the other details a blogger loves to hear about. Even subscribers may not read every post. With all of the talk about how full peoples’ RSS feeds are, a subscription is not a promise that every post of yours will be read. So, I have a key audience in mind with each of my posts, and I talk to that audience, to you. If you don’t catch this post, that’s alright. I’ll catch ya later. If someone new comes here and they dig my vibe, then that’s great! As the blogger, you set the mood in your blog house. As people come and go, they may see things they like, and they may comment. They may see things they like and go on their merry way. You just never know. People are weird that way.
Mostly though, it’s a mystery
For all of that, I still don’t really have a solid 100% answer. I’m still learning about the world of blogging. It’s still extremely gratifying for me every single time I get any comment, and I hope it always remains that way. When I write a post that resonates with people, well, that’s the gold, isn’t it? But you can’t hit gold every time, and you have to learn to roll with the punches.
If only you could tell where those punches are coming from…
Does that help?
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Margie..aware of the irony, I’m going to leave a comment on your blog about why people comment. I think you’re right ..time is a thing. But I also think motivations are different. In my experience people comment on blogs for any of the following reasons:
They are outraged/sparked by what you write
They are an expert in/know something about the sphere you are writing about and so are compelled to comment
Want to raise their profile with you the blogger
Want to be nice/encouraging to you the blogger
Want to raise their profile with the people they think are looking at the blog
So in reality only one of the motivations for commenting (the first) is based on the blog content (hence it is so unpredictable).
Thanks, Louise. Glad you appreciate the irony 🙂
Very good point – I was certainly the lucky recipient of support from people who must have just commented for charitable reasons when I first got started, and I find that I am inclined to comment on blog posts when someone is just getting started.
Thanks Louise, irony sometimes lost on me, for the irony. I want to share a comment made by a reader of my gardening blog; she said I love to read your blog until you start talking about that gardening @*$#. Ironic isn’t it? I do want to tell you the purveyor of the comment is a very funny girl but she let me know that perhaps to get my readers to listen I probably need to entertain a little. Thanks for the valuable input.
Gaga
I love your gardening posts! They’re so well-written and refreshing!! I suppose some variety is okay, but still…
I agree, again. 1. I write very few post. So, that may be one reason for few comments. 2. Most comments come from people I know . 3. Until recently, I’d read a very nice blog post and would never comment but Retweet.
Yeah, I think people often are not really sure how the blogger wants them to react. I’ve found that telling people you’d like to receive comments (nicely) helps guide the process a bit.
I have no clue how to “bait” readers so they’ll comment. I can only offer two experiences:
1. I critiqued the “hot, new idea” of a major (we’re talkin’ major) marketing guru. He posted a detailed defense almost immediately. The conversation was then pickd up by a number of other blogs and Websites.
2. I posted a lament about how tough it’s become to make sales thanks to the many charlatans out there. The post struck a chord with readers and they responded to it (like no other post before or after). I think it hit people where they live.
Yeah, that gets back to my controversy post from yesterday – controversy definitely does spark interest, but you also need to be ready for the possible negative ramifications. I think some people think they can get a lot of traffic but no hate mail, and it seldom ends up working out that way (at least from what I’ve seen).
It is also definitely a matter of what resonates, and that is often very hard to predict.
Happy New Year! 😉 (backatcha)
I do think that not every post we write is written for the audience we have in mind that visits our blog.
Some content shouldn’t be published at our blogs and that may be the key to developing a community for our voice and content where engagement is fostered by the audience we reach.
Guest posts continue to be where I see lots of comments than at my actual blog and as a result more people subscribe to my blog.
Having a blog plan for what you want to accomplish (i.e. value, service, purpose) will drive the kind of engagement our content receives.
Very well stated, Michael. It’s a great practice to look at your most popular posts and see what you can learn from those. That’s part of why I keep a list of “what people are reading” on my homepage. It’s interesting to track what posts people tweet versus what people comment on, too.
I will retweet a great blog but don’t always comment. I do not have my own blog but I do agree with Louise’s comments above on why folks would comment.
Look forward to more posts Margie!
Thanks so much, Peggy!
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Corley, Marjorie Clayman. Marjorie Clayman said: Are you going to comment on this? http://bit.ly/fVu0Qx Thanks, @gagasgarden, for the inspiration! […]
You might not have a miracle answer but it’s sort of reassuring actually! I’ve only just started my blog so I’m a total newbie, I suppose the more sensational and shocking topic get more comments but that’s just a guess. Personally I find it really easy to comment or retweet directly on twitter and to be fair that’s how I found your blog when someone else did just that so it certainly serves a purpose. Twitter let’s you comment or show your approval and support quickly without time consuming forms and I think that’s key, but if people know you want comments specifically then they’ll (like me) genuinely want to help so my advice to anyone reading would be, just ask!
Certainly Twitter has a great deal of value. My only thing about Twitter is that it pulls the conversation away from where the blog is located, so it can be easy to kind of lose the thread of what actually started the conversation.
Filling out forms is kind of a bummer. I’ll say that blogs that use Disqus are becoming more and more common, and I can kind of see why. It’s nice not to have to fill out info every single time.
Thanks so much for your thoughts.
I think Louise summed it up pretty darn well.
I find that people comment on either very personal posts – aka – Louise’s “be nice” group – or on controversial items – “outrage”.
I also think that ending your post with a question helps because then it IS like a conversation and it is the reader’s turn to “talk” or comment back to you.
I know real life friends of mine that have emailed me in response, but were too intimidated to post in the comment section. Anyone know of a way to make it less intimidating?
What do they find intimidating about the commenting process? Are they worried that you or other commenters will say, “Ahhh nooo booo!”?
I would try to get to the bottom of what is standing in the way of your friend and see if you can coax him or her out. Ill be interested to hear how that goes!
Hi Margie,
Thank you for saying what many blush to admit. It is often those last minute, I’m not quite sure where this is going, posts that take on a life of their own. From my limited experience as a blogger that is certainly true.
Everyone has great comments here. There is one more reason I would add: If I feel the post is complete, and I have nothing to add, I won’t comment. I will Tweet those I enjoy, however it feels a bit silly to me, perhaps bordering on spam, to only comment, “Great post”. So if you don’t get many comments but lot’s of Twitter Love maybe that is the reason.
Oh interesting. Well, here’s what I would say about that – if you feel like you can add a new perspective by blogging about something someone else has blogged about, you definitely can add a new perspective in the comments section.
Although, now that I think about it, there are times when someone has literally said *exactly* what I wanted to say, so sometimes in those instances I won’t comment. I might say, “So and so said my piece!”
Good point. Very good point.
I was reading a french article about the online participation of a newspaper with 600,000 visitors a month.
It was saying that people posting comments were only 1% of visitors and that 80% of commenting people were always the same.
That’s quite similar to Nielsen’s Alertbox http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html
Nielsen also give some good advices quite similar to yours, very good advices I must say, that’s why it’s always a pleasure to leave my comment here 😀
Well I certainly appreciate your comments! And your compliments!
It’s true, not many people in general respond to tweets or comment on posts. That’s why I always say it’s a gift that should be honored!
I have a question that may seems odd, but “should we care about comments ? Isn’t the most important to get your thoughts shared and widespread ? What is it you wish more comments should be kept in mind.
Very good question, and I think I might write a post about this, but I’ll say for now that everybody is different. For some people, comments aren’t that important. For me, in this blog, comments are extremely important. They tell me if I’m offering useful information, they tell me if I’m helping people who previously were confused about something, and they give me a chance to learn. That’s just me though 🙂
Dear Margie,
You are a natural at conversation starting. You have indeed provoked some wonderful comments from some very great writers and each worthy of note. I apprecaite them. I still sense silent readers who have things to say or shall I say I know they are there from emails and encourage them to post comments. Some readers just say they can’t figure out the WordPress comment section. But today at my hand therapy session I realized while reading your post I can read it on my iPhone when it’s not viable to post a comment. I got one of my answers while in hand therapy. 😉
Thank-you,
Gaga
aka
Susan Fox
Aren’t the comments great! I’m the luckiest blogger in the world, for sure.
Credit to you for asking such a great question!! 🙂
Hi, I confess that I am a bit of a lurker, mostly because I have to fit everything around my kids (6yrs & 11 month old) so I often need more than one sitting just to read the blog let alone comment. So I tend to reserve my comments for when I have something interesting to say rather than only being able to say great post. I am a new reader to your blog and the few that I have read have all had quite a few comments already and I always read other peoples comments before deciding whether or not I can add value.
Also, I almost exclusively read and comment via my phone, which is ok but not as fast to do as on the computer and your comment system results in horizontal scroll which makes it even harder. Am hoping you don’t have captcha as that takes even longer, have to find the box.
Well I certainly appreciate you taking the time to respond to this one.
I agree, the mobile-friendliness in commenting systems needs to be improved a great deal. Disqus and Livefyre don’t show up on my Blackberry at all. Sorry my commenting form here is difficult as well.
Excellent point about captcha – very hard to do on a phone. I wonder if someone will create a new system to make that a little easier.
Thanks again!
Oh and I don’t know if this is the right way to do things but I always end my blogs with 3 questions. I.e I would have ended this post with So what do you think is the secret to get more comments? What makes you leave comments on a blog? Do you obsess about the number of comments you do or don’t receive?
But as you recieve more comments than my blog does I am not sure I am not so much offering advice but asking if you think this is a good approach 🙂
Oh, there are plenty of times when I don’t get any comments at all, believe me!
The questions thing is advice that I’ve seen a great deal. I can tell you that when I first started blogging, I asked blog expert Denise Wakeman for help and she suggested (kindly) that I use the questions approach. For me, it didn’t seem to help much. In fact, I tried a post that was literally *just* a question, and still no comments.
I think a lot of it depends on your community. A lot of the people I interact with in my community bring great questions and thoughts to the table like you just did. I find that more often than not, I’m inspired to write more blog posts via questions I get in the comments rather than me inspiring people with questions.
That being said, I think it’s a good prompt and a good approach – you might want to change it up from blog post to blog post because otherwise it might end up seeming a bit mechanical, if you will, but if it encourages people to think about your questions or their own, it’s well worth it!
Thanks for the advice, O have worried that the questions can come across as very contrived.
I wouldn’t say that, but I think people will see them as a vehicle if you do it the same way over and over. Keep the concept but change up the details now and then 🙂
Thanks for starting such a great conversation! I’ve only been reading blogs for the last year and it often feels like a way to get distracted and I have to limit the number I read. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the content available online.
As you mentioned, maybe things like Disqus will help in the future. I’ve often written out comments only to find I’m not registered with the service used by the blogger or the responses won’t come to my email, only RSS. There’s a lot to learn in the online world!
Definitely true. I’ve been laboring over whether to add Disqus to this site…I think this system works okay – but I guess my readers would be the better judges there, eh?
It’s definitely easy to either not read enough or to feel overwhelmed. Everyone needs to find a happy medium that makes them happy.
I have taken to making a list of blogs I want to visit every day, and it’s helping me a lot so far. I’m doing so with an old-fashioned notebook and pen, btw! 🙂
How could I not comment?
The funny thing is that even though I’ve been reading and occasionally commenting on blogs for years and have a blog of my own, I can’t tell you what the “secret formula” is for getting me to comment on a blog post, let alone getting others to comment on my blog.
I’ll often comment if I disagree with a post, but not if I disagree so strongly that there’s no point of agreement to start from or I’m afraid it might sink to a flame war. I’ll comment if I agree with a post, unless the author’s already said everything and there’s nothing left for me to add. Sometimes I’ll comment because others have already left interesting comments and I want to join in the conversation… unless it’s turned into a flame war or an echo chamber.
From a blogger’s perspective, it’s nice to receive comments but I don’t think that’s the only reason we blog. Whether it’s business or personal or somewhere in-between, there are many ways to respond to a blog and commenting is only one. If I never got comments, I’d be frustrated; but if a post doesn’t generate any comments, I just move on and write the next one.
I view comments as other people participating in a conversation. So I mean, is it the end of the world if I don’t get any comments? Well, no. But it does mean that that particular comment didn’t spark any conversation, and that bums me out. I love situations like this comments section where people are offering all kinds of different ideas and perspectives – it not only helps me, but I think it enriches the experience for everyone way beyond what just my post could do.
Did I think this post would garner this many comments?
Nope. 🙂
Hi Margie,
I’m back. I love it. Don’t you? You have had some great thoughts here. Karen E. Lund’s reply was so cerebral! I am still contemplating what she said! But now I have to figure out why I’m not getting all these comments. Here’s my new mantra! Must write call to action items-get comments ;)!
Love Ya!
Gaga
My comment was cerebral? Good grief, I’ve got to get out more.
Blame it all on Margie: she makes me think in spite of myself.
As for a call to action, titling your post “Will you comment on this?” is about as potent a call to action as you can get. Perhaps every blogger should write one post with that title some time.
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