One of the most basic skills that any blogger should spend time working on from the very early days is responding to comments on your blog – and that’s today’s task in the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog Project.
While this is one of the simplest acts that a blogger can do (I almost didn’t publish this because it’s so basic) it is something that can have a real impact upon your readers.
Despite this – it’s often one of the things that slips for many bloggers over time as a result of a growing blog and/or the busyness of life. I’m as guilty of this as anyone and have been attempting to put more time aside in the last couple of weeks to comment more on my blogs (it’s a daily struggle).
So block out a little time today to scan through the latest comments on your blog. Answer questions, respond to others ideas, leave a welcome message and continue conversations by asking questions of your own.
This acknowledgment goes a long way and is one of the best ways of developing a commenting culture on your blog.
PS: Here’s another quick tip that I found very useful in the early days of my own first blogs. Click the links of those who leave comments on your blog. When you do this you’ll find that some of those who leave comments on your blog who check their own blog’s referral statistics will notice your visit and come back to see if their comments have been responded to.
You can take this another step further by leaving a comment on their blog to further develop the relationship.
This is one of those little 1%er tips that may not send a deluge of traffic to your blog but that can have an impact on a reader by reader basis (you might also find a good blog or two in the process).
I mention 90% of comments in my next blog-post; only omitting obvious ‘nuts’.
When I was ‘off air’ for a week some of my ‘commenters’ continued a comment-conversation between themselves. That was rewarding !
What a smart and great idea.
After 5 months of blogging every day, I realize that I had by comments set to registered only. Good grief, not a good thing to overlook. So I am sure that turned off a whole bunch of people. The way I figure it, I am pretty much starting from scratch.
i usally respond to all comments. or at least i try. but sometimes it’s useless because some people post comments just to get link their websites and its really annoying
If anybody comments on my blog, I make it sure to reply it back. I also thank them for taking time to comment.
I respond to comments. If the reader can take the time to input something, they deserve a reply. We put them out there for people to read. If you do not respond you are treating your blog like a sponge. Soaking up everything and giving nothing back. I do visit their sites and if I have something to say that is constructive I will make a comment.
I have just written a post on how to make sure to respond to comments. I am awaiting a good response.
Can you link my post here in order to make more people to benefitting from it?
Thanks.
Excellent, I had no clue where to begin before. But now I’m armed with the right steps. Thank You.
I agree. Responding to comments is a key way to grow your blog!
I really like this step as you can actually interact with anyone who has added a comment as usually they will if they are bothered about other peoples opinions about there comment they will check back, I do this alot on mylot.com and it becomes addictive chatting and getting to know everyone and that is how things go in the blog comment world.
Cheers!
When they get the email that says there are new comments and the comments are asking open-ended questions, that is attractive for a reader to make a return trip and respond.
Allowing comments on your blog is vital . It gives the reader an unbiased opinion since they can read about other people’s responses to the topic. Readers can challange the content, which creates better validity.
Thanks,
Bob
http://www.lessonplansforfree.com
I must commend you for allowing comments on your blog without the bureaucratic bottle-neck of having to log in and then having to worry about a PIN or pain-in-the-neck password. This is so real as annoying as it maybe. Imagine, I went to a website, so what I like, bought the product, and was very happy with the price, one of the best on the internet that I have seen, wanted to leave a very favorable review, but got discouraged by the site asking for my name, logging name, and basic information which ofcourse wasn’t too bad except that I don’t know of anyone in the world who has all that time in their hands. I believe the name of the company or webiste was malltropolitan.com, now, I don’t know if that is a common practice with most websites as I rarely buy anything on the internet. I am your traditional type of person, that is until I came to this blog. Lol. Is this typical of most blogs? Keep up the good work.
Making relationship with reader who comment in your blog would be hard I think. Michael Porter PHP programmer
You can get a lot information in my website .I respond to most comments on my blogs and have ended up in some quite long-running conversations on-page as a result.
I am more willing to leave comments when I an sure my e-mail will not be sold, or marketed to. Good tips, will give it a try on my blog.
It’s funny, I looked at a lot of other blogs to try to get a feel for the etiquette of responding to comments, and got a sense that responding was not a good idea. So many bloggers simply do not. I’m glad to see this article, because I like to comment back.
Hi everybody,
I do reply to all the comments on my blog. I once had a blog that used to attract a reasonable comment and I used to reply to them. I feel that one should appreciate other’s person who took time to write a comment of ur blog whether good or not good.
Regards
yes…agree with your posting, build good communication and popularity ….. create loyal visitor
What a generous attitude you have to other bloggers and thanks for sharing your invaluable tips. It makes it a bit easier for the inexperienced.
I must say that i was shocked to read that you almost didn’t publish this information… I had absolutely no idea that i had to respond to comments on my blog, and i have two blogs… It appears that i’ve abanadonned something very important.
As a blogger, imagine the benefits to your readers if they are no longer “anonymous” but instead can choose to bring their photo and name with them from their TypePad profile. Commenters can also link back to a rich profile that contains their comment history, links to their own blogs, and even their accounts on Twitter, Flickr, Digg, or dozens of other services.
——————–
sandra
dating
I want to say – thank you for this!
It’s raining here so I decided to stay home today and do some blogging. So while reading a few blogs I came across yours. I’ll reply in full later, just want to say I enjoyed reading your posts…
How do you manage to come up with such an excellent site? It is a first class work in terms of design and content.
I really wish that I’ll do half as good as you in my blog.
Thanks for this lovely post with lots of great information and professional reviews.. I agree with the writer in this section. There should be more progress…
Here is more details on this page.
I agree with you
Thanks for the great post. I had added a link to your site to share this information around.