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Started a blog some months ago and are yet to receive a comment? That is a bad situation indeed and I can tell from experience that it is very frustrating. Getting comments on your articles is a sure sign that you are going in the right direction, since it indicates that you have made an impression on your readers. While it is always great to see positive feedback on your work, even criticism is far better than not getting a single remark.

So let’s get to the point – what to do in order to encourage comments? Aside from quality content, which is a must here and in every aspect of blogging, there are some guidelines to follow if you want to get more feedback on your work. Below I will try to explain some effective techniques for doing just that, so be sure to stick with me!

Let People Know you Want Comments

Instead of being shy and just waiting for comments to start rolling, why not ask for them? Although it is exactly as simple as it sounds, many bloggers never care to apply that approach. Adding a few lines at the end of your article, asking your readers to share their thoughts, is just enough to get you a boost in the number of comments. It works for me, it should work for you as well. Combining that technique with the one below can do miracles.

Engage by Posing a Question

Another similar way for getting more comments is to pose a question in your closing paragraph. That is a method, which has proved its effectiveness over time. After starting to utilize it, I definitely saw a lot more interaction. So be sure to leave one or two thought-provoking questions, of course making sure that they are well related to the topic.

Read more on how to end your blog posts: “The End: 4 Solid Strategies for Concluding Your Next Blog Post”

Always Reply to Comments

The feeling of writing a 200 word long comment and not getting a reply is definitely not a pleasant one. Even though getting interaction is among the main goals in blogging, these days a lot of bloggers don’t have the habit of adding a follow-up. Leaving unanswered questions is unprofessional and a sure sign that you don’t really care about your readers. Remember that by responding, you are building relationships as well. Those can prove a turning stone for the success of your blog, therefore I advice you to take five minutes of your time (it is not that time-consuming, is it?) and write a reply. Check out Tristan Higbee’s point of view on why you should reply to comments!

Give Something in Return

You might get kinda confused here – you are giving value, what else there is to reward commentators with? A straight-forward answer – backlinks. Everyone is trying to get their hands on those nowadays. By turning your blog into a dofollow one, search engines will count links in the comments section as backlinks, resulting in higher rankings in search results for commentators’ websites.

In order to go dofollow, you need to scan through the blog’s template and remove rel=’nofollow’ code snippets. Check out a tutorial for doing it in Blogspot – “ How to Make Blogger Blog Do-Follow”. Fortunately for WordPress users, a simple plug-in is all that’s needed – Dofollow Plug-in. Turning your blog dofollow is undoubtedly one of the most effective ways for drawing in more commentators. You also get the chance of submitting your blog to dofollow only directories. The one I’m using is Followlist and it is a good traffic source.

Consider installing the CommentLuv plug-in, which gives commentators another link, pointing to their latest article. This blog is both dofollow and has CommentLuv enabled, so you get maximum benefit from commenting here. Be sure to do so!

Make Commenting Easy

Always make sure that leaving comments on your blog can be done by a five-year old. That is the area of your blog where simplicity counts the most. No matter how compelling your content and how good your widgets are, don’t expect seeing any comments if finding the comment box, filling in the required information and posting it takes like half an hour. Blogspot blogs have a lot of problems in that aspect, but luckily there’s a solution. IntenseDebate is a great comment system and installing it is real ease.

Give Commentators Higher Exposure

Using widgets can help you improve a lot of aspects on your blog and things aren’t much different when it comes to getting more comments. Top commentators widget for example is a great tool that can be a good motivator for visitors to leave a comment. I will also be implementing it on this blog soon. Adding a widget, showing the latest comments is yet another good idea, getting implemented by more and more blogs.

Applying those techniques is almost sure to get you more comments. They are not time-consuming so I advice you to start working on them right away. If you have more effective techniques, feel free to share them below!