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Only 1 out of every 100 Readers Comment on your Blog
A Jakob Nielsen study once found that 90% of online community users are lurkers (read or observe without contributing) with only 9% of users contributing ‘a little’ and 1% actively contributing.
Are only 1% of your blog’s users are actively engaging with your blog?
And are the rest (at best) only occasional contributors?
The study is a bit dated now and wasn’t just on blogging, so the actual numbers could be more or less than these and would no doubt vary from site to site anyway but I’m sure the general principle still holds true…
The vast majority of readers leave a blog WITHOUT leaving a comment or contributing to it in any way.
Some bloggers actually like it like this and switch comments off. Read more on whether to have comments on or off here and the up and downsides of comments on blogs here.
But comments and interactivity are the first step to building community around your blog and I believe this is really important.
When it comes to comments there are some ways to encourage more interactivity and participation on your blog:
10 Ways to Increase Comment Numbers on Your Blog
1. Invite Comments
I notice that when I specifically invite comments that people leave them in higher numbers than when I don’t. To some degree this confuses me as most of my readers know that they can leave comments on any post – but I guess inviting a comment triggers a response to some extent. Also keep in mind that new readers that are unfamiliar with blogging don’t always know about comments or how to use them – invitations to participate in well laid out and easy to use comments systems are good for helping them participate.
2. Ask Questions
Including specific questions in posts definitely helps get higher numbers of comments. I find that when I include questions in my headings that it is a particularly effective way of getting a response from readers as you set a question in their mind from the first moments of your post.
For example, here’s Nine Types of Questions to Ask On Your Facebook Page to Get More Comments.
3. Be Open Ended
If you say everything there is to say on a topic you’re less likely to get others adding their opinions because you’ll have covered what they might have added. While you don’t want to purposely leave too many things unsaid there is an art to writing open ended posts that leaves room for your readers to be experts also.
4. Interact with comments left
If you’re not willing to use your own comments section why would your readers? If someone leaves a comment interact with them. This gets harder as your blog grows but it’s particularly important in the early days of your blog as it shows your readers that their comments are valued, it creates a culture of interactivity and gives the impression to other readers that your comments section is an active place that you as the blogger value. As the activity in your comments section grows you may find you need to be slightly less active in it as readers will start to take over on answering questions and creating community – however don’t completely ignore your comment threads.
Whether you struggle with or get a kick out of interaction, it is an important aspect of blogging, so here are 12 Ways to Be a More Interactive and Accessible Blogger.
5. Set Boundaries
I noticed that shortly after I set the rules for my comments section (with a comments policy) that my comment numbers jumped up a little. I’m not sure if it was just a coincidence or whether readers responded to knowing what was and wasn’t acceptable. It’s just a theory but I think a well managed and moderated comments section that is free of spam and that deals with well with people stepping out of line is an attractive thing to readers. I personally don’t mind people expressing different opinions to one another in comments but when I sense things are getting a little out of hand and too personal I often step in to attempt to bring some order to the situation (I rarely delete non spam comments). I find that people have responded to this and that comment threads generally stay constructive as a result.
6. Be humble
I find that readers respond very well to posts that show your own weaknesses, failings and the gaps in your own knowledge rather than those posts where you come across as knowing everything there is to know on a topic. People are attracted to humility and are more likely to respond to it than a post written in a tone of someone who might harshly respond to their comments.
7. Be gracious
Related to humility is grace. There are times where you as the blogger will get something wrong in your posts. It might be spelling or grammar, it could be the crux of your argument or some other aspect of your blogging. When a someone leaves a comment that shows your failing it’s very easy to respond harshly in a defensive manner. We’ve all seen the flaming that can ensue. While it’s not easy – a graceful approach to comments where you admit where you are wrong and others is right can bring out the lurkers and make them feel a little safer in leaving comments.
8. Be controversial(?)
I put a question mark after this one because it doesn’t always work (and I personally avoid it as much as I can these days) – but there’s nothing like controversy to get people commenting on your blog. Of course with controversy comes other consequences – one of which is the risk of putting off less vocal members of your readership.
9. ‘Reward’ Comments
There are many ways of acknowledging and ‘rewarding’ good comments that range from simply including a ‘good comment’ remark through to highlighting them in other posts that you write. Drawing attention to your readers who use comments well affirms them but also draws attention of other readers to good use of your comments section.
10. Make it Easy to Comment
I leave a lot of comments on a lot of blogs each week – but there is one situation where I rarely leave a comment – even if the post deserves it – blogs that require me to login before making a comment. Maybe I’m lazy (actually there’s no maybe about it) or maybe there’s something inside me that worries about giving out my personal details – but when I see a comments section that requires registration I almost always (95% or more of the time) leave the blog without leaving the comment that I want to make. While I totally understand the temptation to require registration for comments (combatting spam in most cases) something inside me resists participating in such comments sections. Registration is a hurdle you put in front of your readers that some will be willing to leap but that others will balk at (the same is often said about other comments section requirements that go beyond the basics). Keep your comments section as simple and as easy to use as possible.
So – what do you think? How have you increased the levels of comments on your blog (had to ask)?
Also check out my Four Pillars of Blogging – Build Community Course to expand your reader engagement and unlock the power of community.
This article was first published October 12, 2006 and updated September 22, 2022.
Sometimes I sound like I’m arguing, when I’m actually not. I just have a way of putting my posts stronger than intended.
It’s easier to keep out of the conversation and not take the chance of being misunderstood.
I have passed this on many of my friends, thanks for the insite.
Ok! I have read all of your information on blog commenting. You have set rules like this in place for a reason. I understand why. I have had problems in recent past with spamming myself. However, after reading your post I know have a different approach to this problem. Thank for this great post.
I am 1 of the 100 then :P
I try and always ask a question to push for interaction at the end of a blog post, but i am now considering making incentives like ‘winning money’ for guest posts or comments.
Just launched a website to promote my learn to surf camp in Costa Rica. Found out about bloging a few days ago. Added a blog to site. now here i am gobling up all info. Good stuff to get me started, thnks
i have tried this on my blog and it is really working i am getting some good comments and my visitors are also increasing
thanx darren
I always get new ideas in this site. How come?
Anyway, thanks again for this wonderful posts and i will try some of this and hope my traffic will increase.
Thank you
Charles
http://www.resourcesandmoney.blogspot.com
I will try my best to follow these techniques and get traffic,
If there will be any problem then i will ask you.
Thanks
Hank Freid
http://www.hank-freid.com
Obviously just the mention of leaving comments works. This blog, with all of it’s many comments, is proof.
Some good ideas & learning lots. Thanks!
I have passed this on many of my friends, thanks for the insite.
This is both interesting and thought provoking. As a lurkette, I want to say that most of the time I just don’t have anything to say of interest that furthers the conversation. Maybe I’m scarred from too many inane letters to the editor (inane is the kindest description, truly) and want to avoid inflicting the same on you and your readers. Yet the seed is planted for later contemplation. So, don’t take lack of comments to heart. Some of us are just self-editing.
You failed to mention – Traffic. Blog comments are not as genuine or as simple as your 10 pointers make it seem.
I don’t know of percentages due to the immensity of the Internet. But, this I know! Most comments are tailored to the blogs traffic rank. It is mostly about link traffic and return clicks.
There are hundreds and thousands of well written and meaningful blogs whose posts go without comments.
I know why!
Have traffic? Will comment!
It’s a comment to find the commenter’s RSS feed, and from that it will post their latest headline underneath their comment. But I look forward for more features from this plugin like displaying all the comments by a reader. You can see this plugin in action on homepage’s sidebar.
singh1
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I agree to post something that will cause controversy adnd this encourages a responce example
you can see the problem and this winds people up just enough to make them want to respond
Good advice in this article. Don’t require the reader to register to leave a comment – you can say that again!
I have a blog on blogger.com. I am confused as to how I am going to get people to comment when most of my readers/visitors are not registered to blogger.com… Should I have chosen a different blog site?
http://www.lovelyladyluxe.blogspot.com
This blog post is right on the money, ask for comment and you will recieve comments.
I’ve tried many of the tips on this list, but even though my blog gets over 300,000 uniques/month, I still don’t get more than 1 or 2 comments on most posts.
Feel free to drop by my site and let me know if you have any ideas on something that you’d change to encourage more comments.
I guess you have implemented them on your blog as results of comments I see here.
Re: “10. Make it Easy to Comment”
It’s a shame that many blogsites seem to “require registration for comments” no matter how universally-accessible the individual blogger may want his/her comment-boxes to be.
Your blog entry was very informative. Thanks for your effort. We have started a new site called FaithTube (http://faithtu.be). It contains religious videos from all around the internet. If you could visit us then it would be great.
Thanks.
Simone.
I’m sure comments can be a great way to bring live to a blog. This article is truly amazing, thank you very much.
I’ve been considering making my own social network site and one of the main attraction is really comments on each others page. I guess comments is really a powerful tool.
Best regards to you..
http://www.megastarmedia.com
I am finding it difficult to spark up debate on my blog. I find that some comments are made, but they never really amount to any kind of conversation.
Mind you media training is not really an exciting subject, but the media is. That is why we are moving more towards a blog that reports on the media goings on in the world. Hopefully this will help us!
This article is great though and I am sure will help us in the future.
Thnx for the information. I still am new to the whole blogging thing. I just started about 2 weeks ago and there is so much to learn still. But can’t figure out excatly how to get people to my blog. I have 2. The 1 is about weight loss and every thing else you need to know about dropping a few pounds naturally and the other one about the struggles parents have with their kids.
How can I get people to see me?
Thank you very much for your post. This is a nice posting. I really like this post and absolutely very usefull to me. Thank you.
Thank you – I will be going through your techniques and hopefully will start to see my comment numbers increase.
comments really help all the people to get the better page ranking
thanks for suggestion
http://earnforcash.blogspot.com
Well! I’m leaving you a comment because it seemed inappropriate not to. I am a new blogger and have one of those blogs where 1 in every 1000 readers leave a comment. Maybe you could send me one of yours, every so often… I messed up my blog big time yesterday because I was trying to improve it with a new template. I’m on blogger and wanted to go to three columns, and ended up losing a ton of links when uploading something I ended up not even liking. Anyway, I’ve spent a lot of time since then looking at other sites with blogging advice and then ended up stuck on yours for several hours. You’ve made me feel better about having two columns- I just have to clean up my clutter.
But, I wonder at why people are not leaving me comments. One of the reasons I wanted to change the template is that the one I am using has a tight format where each post is squeezed on top of the other and the comment link is barely visible. I don’t know enough about code to fix it. But, I know that I have regular readers and that a lot of the lurkers are even some of my friends, but they don’t feel compelled to speak up.
I spend two to three hours almost daily on each post. It’s a lot of work and I feel like it just goes out to space somewhere- the black hole of commenting. Maybe it is my writing style………… Sob, sob, sob… I’m writing for a niche audience who is most probably passionate about the subject (fiber arts, quilts, fair trade, etc.). This is not a niche that is going to attract a gazillion readers, but the regular readers should feel comfortable enough to react in some way to what I am saying. So, would you be kind enough to take a look and tell me if I am doing something that is blatantly a turn off? I really appreciate your approachability in your articles and know you must be awfully busy, but if you believe in heaven, you’ll get brownie points there for steering me in the right direction. (That goes for the rest of you vocal ones, too!) Maybe I’ll just post a naked lady in every article and get a reaction that way………. (That’s an inside joke!)
Thanks for all your good work! I rss’d you. One last question: How do you find out how many people have bookmarked or added your site to a reader?
Great find. Thank you man, you made my day. Now, I’m gona try to apply these techniques to my blog.
11. ) Create a blog post about getting more blog posts. There’s a huge audience of bloggers looking for more comments, and they’ll likely leave comments on your post about comments. ;)
great post btw,
http://www.musicianforest.com
Thanks for the tips on creating more Blog interaction through comments. These are good suggestions.
Thank you – I will be going through your techniques and hopefully will start to see my comment numbers increase.
I have been told my many over the past few months that blogging is a good way to “get your name out there” and I have tried to spend some time researching how, with whom etc. Getting comments has never been something I considered important until we started our own website and we are looking to get traffic. So this has been quite helpful. I noticed other articles on this site which I will be looking at as well. Thank you for taking the time to point us in the right direction.
They’re very useful, but actually I still thought the most important thing is traffic at the beginning. I really want more comments, and feedbacks:)
This is just what i need. I am just starting a new blog and this world perfectly help me. Thank you.
Thanks! I find it very hard to get blog posts, and I’ll dfinitely attempt to use these methods.
You should do get comments by writing a good article and getting a good traffic. If your site dont have a good traffic. Whatever you do, you wont get any comments.
http://www.resourcesandmoney.blogspot.com
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Thanks al lot or the helpful information and tips on creating more Blog interaction through comments. These are good suggestions and i will try to use it on my blog.
Sue
Some of these are really helpful for me to apply as I am not getting good number of comments. commets are always necessary for sccess of bloggers as they help to define line of content according to readers likings.
this is a great list …very helpful for me i’ll apply thise methods
I am definately going to start to impliment these tips onto all 4 of my blogs.
Thanks
Be gracious is important
This is both interesting and thought provoking. As a lurkette, I want to say that most of the time I just don’t have anything to say of interest that furthers the conversation. Maybe I’m scarred from too many inane letters to the editor (inane is the kindest description, truly) and want to avoid inflicting the same on you and your readers. Yet the seed is planted for later contemplation. So, don’t take lack of comments to heart. Some of us are just self-editing.
mirc
mirc indir
Another good way to pick up comments is to add a comment aggregation service. Some of them are coComment, Intense Debate and Disqus. I actually use coComment more frequently since they have a sooo many conversations for me to pick a fight in and they do not require me to use their commenting engine like Disqus does….although I do like the speed of Disqus.
*whatever valuable comment you would like to leave related to the post*
This is exactly what i was looking for getting more comments will try out now to see what happens
Looks like your question thing at the end of the post worked. Also not having to sign in is nice too. Good job. Nice list. Thanks.
I think nowadays getting commets is not a problem anymore because there is a lot of spam aroung. But what is hard is to get good comments!
I am the worst at getting comments. I think I’ve only gotten 1 comment for over 23,000 views in the last 5 months. That’s pretty bad… okay, except for the spammers that I delete :)
Good tips. I need to follow through with some of these.