Preston asks – “I started a new blog about a month ago. I got about 40 topics written. But only 2 comments. I’m thinking of faking comments, making a few users and get a nice sample of comments on some of the blog posts I’ve made.
Is this not a good use of my extra time, and i should do something else related to my blog? or spending some time doing this, is a good idea.”
Thanks Preston. Let me share a few thoughts.
Congratulations on your new blog and the 40 posts that you’ve written. 40 posts in two months is a great effort and if you can keep up that level of posting you’ll have a great foundation of content for your blog.
Don’t be too discouraged by the lack of comments to this point. For a month old blog I don’t think it’s too bad an achievement to have 2 comments. While I know you’d want more I’d encourage you to stick with it and be patient. Many month old blogs would probably not even have 2!
Fake comments. Hmmm – I think this one will cause some debate and I’d love to hear how many ProBlogger readers have written them in the starting of their blogs.
I’ll be honest and say that on my first blog I did do a few fake comments in the very very early days. I used them in the same way that you’re suggesting here – to get conversations going and to make the blog look a little more active.
So I understand the temptation to use them – however I can say from my experience of them that they didn’t work very well for me and the conversations that I had on my blogs in the early days that had a more lasting impact were natural ones with real readers. Instead of going with fake comments I’d really recommend that you work on the content on your blog and writing in a way that is engaging (Read more on the topic of generating comments).
A Word of Warning – while I can see why people go with fake comments (my suspicion is that if bloggers were honest that a majority of them probably have done it) there is of course some danger in it if you’re caught. Blogging is built upon transparency and honesty. I’ve seen a handful of bloggers exposed for fake comments and it probably set their blogs back a little.
What else could you do with the time you might put into fake comments?
- write an extra post a week
- email another blogger in an attempt to get to know them
- email a friend or family member to ask their opinion of a post you’ve written
- leave a comment on someone else’s blog
- think of a question to ask your readers
I’d suspect that all of these things have the potential to generate comments on your blog and build a sustainable readership for it.
Have you left fake comments on your blog? Why or Why Not? Are there times when they are OK?
Hi Darren,
I have been regularly visiting your blog for quite a long time now.I first landed on your blog while searching for ‘Make money online’ about a year back.At that time you had a PR of 7,if my memory serves me right.Now you’re not even on the first page after the last PR update.How do you deal with such unexpected downs?,Are you making a conscious effort to get the position back?
I do not think leaving fake comments work
No matter what we do over the internet, the crucial thing we need to ask ourselves is “Are we benefiting our readers?”
My personal experience is when we engage readers to leave comment, ask a question, they normally will comment on our website.
Sometimes we get readers commenting our website at other social networking places except our sites, and this is what we do to share their comments with other readers:-
http://secretofunlimitedprosperity.com/55/reviews-what-others-say-about-us/
Cheers!
If I posted comments on my own blog I might be very rude and argumentative, and start flame wars with myself, and then I’d have to ban myself from my blog. This is why I’d never do it.
I’ve never written fake comments on my blog, even when I had 0 comments when I first started. I don’t feel that it would be honest, and even if no one ever “found out”, I would know. If your blog is new, it’s new….why try to hide it?? Eventually it won’t be “new” anymore, and if you are writing valuable content for your readers, you will get comments and/or questions re: your content from your readers.
Congratulations on your 40 posts so far, keep on working on it and it will fall into place. :) We all have to start out somewhere, and I agree with Darren in the level of honesty that needs to be build with your readers….it is a vital component to your credibility and can be lost very easily by doing something like posting fake comments; it’s not worth it because once you lose it, how can you be trusted by your readers?
Hey Darren,
I have a question for Preston, was one of the comments your own?
I have never faked a comment on my own blog, but I always try to answer/respond to any comment by a reader. Voilia… A Conversation ensues.
Just my .02
I did not fake comments when I first started my blog 2 1/2 years ago, but I had pretty low expectations, I guess. I didn’t start my blog with thoughts of it turning into something, I just did it because I was curious. At this point, I love getting comments. It does take time to build an audience but I agree that the key is honesty and transparency in your writing.
By the way, I’m not one to judge, so if you think faking a few comments will help, then go for it but I think there are better ways to begin a conversation, as Darren has suggested.
Fake comments are tempting, but I would think doing it well would be more work than I’d care to do. It’s far easier to come up with a good comment on something someone else has written than it is to worry about if you’re sounding like yourself pretending to be someone else on your blog.
I’d definitely recommend leaving comments on other people’s blogs. Make them constructive and generous, in blogs that are related to your own – people will be curious about a new voice, pleased that you’re involved in the conversation, and will start dropping by and commenting on your own site.
Best wishes with it
Joanna
why don’t you use MYBLOGLOG. It will be helpful.
I’ve never faked a comment and have never considered it.
Personally, I read a lot of blogs and comment and if someone commenting has something interesting to say I usually go check out their blog, and if I like it, add to my rss feed, check and comment when something strikes me enough to comment. Case in point, this blog which I found yesterday through a different blog.
Read other blogs, comment when you have something relevant to add to the conversation, make sure to link to your blog in the website section and over time it will drive traffic to your site including comments.
Leaving fake comments sounds fundamentally dishonest to me.
Darren wrote:
“my suspicion is that if bloggers were honest that a majority of them probably have done it”
I’d say that if bloggers were truly honest, they would not leave comments intended to mislead.
And, Darren, the problem with being dishonest is not the possibility of getting caught. But, I suppose you know that.
Mike
I think there is no need to fake comments. As an earlier comment suggested, the only thing bloggers have is their integrity. You lose that, you lose your blog.
I only had a handful of comments for the first six months of my blog. It wasn’t until I started recording video cigar reviews that comments and traffic exploded.
Be patient, be yourself, be honest and the comments will come by themselves.
When I started my blog in February, I was tempted to put in a few fake comments but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Having a lonely blog is better than having a blog where the only people talking are you and your imaginary friends. I just kept writing and eventually people started to comment.
Most of my traffic comes from comments on other people’s blogs (like this one!) The traffic is high quality, and people who read comments tend to comment themselves!
I find myself struggling to find time to comment in other people’s blogs…I don’t have time to do fake commenting in my own blogs. Sure I’d like more comments because I like the feedback but I know if post is getting viewed or not without the comment feedback, you know? and getting comments is not my intention with any of my blogs. I’ve also seen other bloggers who never turned on comments or turned them off who get an amazing amount of traffic, so I’m not too concerned with getting comments or know if I ever will be.
I think in some cases it can help your blog become more popular. Some people will not comment unless there are other comments. I have tried it and really I don’t think it helped increase comments. As a wrote more quality posts, the comment increased.
I’ve never faked a comment on my blog, I am found that if the content is good or through-provoking, people will usually comment. I guess another good factor would be how much traffic you were getting to your blog… if you are keeping stats, you will be able to tell how many people came to your blog and did or didn’t comment.
I admit I’ve done it. I looked at my blogs pageviews and # of comments and saw that something didn’t add up. I figured if I started a little conversation that all the people who viewed the pages would be more inclined to leave comments. Nothing really happened. My experience with good posts is that many people would read an interesting post and think “I agree”, but who wants to add a comment saying “I agree”.
I have not created fake comments for my site, in all honesty I am not even sure of how many people (if any) read my blog/s but I think I would rather it comes naturally.
I haven’t done it, but there have been times I’ve left the first comment as a way to get the ball rolling.
I know of one blogger who regularly fakes comments. Word got around that she was responsible for many (if not most) of the comments on her blog. I can’t read her now without wondering if *any* of her comments are genuine.
It kills your credibility. Don’t do it. Go leave comments for others instead.
Preston – You should consider spending some time on your site format and make the comments button stand out a bit. I don’t see a single comments button on your home page and your title mouse over is a strike-through, which doesn’t envoke one to want to click it.
If you want comments so badly, you should make it so so easy for people to make them.
As far as the fake comments, I think that isn’t real honest, but you know that. Do what you want, but I say to do things I try to teach my daughter to do and lying and faking isn’t that.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to fake comments. One thing pretty much every blogger has right out of the gate as an inherent advantage is honesty and integrity.
I find the best solution to get people to comment on your blog is to do it yourself. If you visit other blogs and comment on them people will be moved to check out your blog and possibly comment, too. But it comes back to the content.
I choose to comment primarially based on the quality of the content not the number of comments.
I’ve really been tempted to make fake comments but I think it would seem like a fraud. Also, like Darren suggested, I could use that time to network or to create better content.
Hello. I had the same problem. In the first 2 months, with almost 180 articles, I had only a few comments (15-20). I never thinked about faking ones.
Although, I wrote an article about the importance of the comments to a blogger, and the idea worked well.
Now, I have 286 articles and 549 comments. Pretty well, I think :)
I have not posted any fake comments. One thing to do is to create a topic for discussion. Ask a question and request input. Today I ask a rather silly question on my blog, but hopefully it will generate some interesting conversation.
Funny idea, fake comments – it’s a bit like ventriloquism. Or fiction writing. Looking at it that way, I think it may even improve your writing, getting you to take up different points of view.
I guess it depends on the kind of blog you have. If it is fiction-oriented, fake comments may be quite useful and entertaining.
For a non-fiction blog, I don’t see the benefit. Okay, it may look more dynamic and “alive”, but there are a lot of blog readers who don’t care that much about comments and commenting.
Also, writing fake comments takes time and energy, and unless you really enjoy that aspect of impersonation (I wouldn’t), I guess the better option is to just write your own, very authentic comments in other peoples’ blogs.
Add me to the “This never even occurred to me.” Club. I have (very rarely) added supplementary information to a post with via the commenting system…but I always identify myself when I do.
Great post again Darren!
What I have found to work for me is asking people for their opinions (just like you do) at the end of each blog post. It gets people stimulated and encourages them to write. Some blog owners do not try to get comments and use the blog as a way to position themselves as an expert in their field.
If, however, you want to get comments a simple way is to just ask for them! At the end of each post encourage the feedback of your readers!
I have also found that if you comment on other people’s blogs in an intelligent way and add value to their blog post they are likely to come and do the same to help you. Many of their other readers will also come over as well. I suspect that there is a pretty high correlation between people who comment across multiple blogs – ie if someone comments on one blog they are likely to do so on another so you can recruit commenters to your blog by replying to posts on other blogs.
I don’t think leaving fake comments is a good idea, unless as someone suggested you comment as yourself just adding extra info to the post. (But then, why wouldn’t you just update the post itself with the addendum?) I find that posts come to my blog if I:
a. make an effort to actively comment intelligently on other peoples’ blogs;
b. post regularly; and
c. link out to others’ posts as often as possible.
Failing the above, I would rather see you invite a couple of your friends to comment on your posts to get the ball rolling. Yes you’ve invited/planted them there, but having real readers comment is better than the blogger posing as someone s/he’s not.
I write the posts; that’s where I encourage people to leave comments, through my writing and the topics I select to post about.
If you feel that you have to leave fake comments on your blog, maybe you should really look at how to change your writing to encourage people to leave real comments.
I have pondered this myself. My site is updated 3-7 times daily with the latest music news. I get very few comments on posts, and I worry that it makes my blog look unsuccessful. The traffic to my site is growing steadily. But even a post that gets clicked on 50 times in one day will receive 0 comments. I think this is because people don’t traditionally comment on news. One post that I wrote continue to get a steady stream of comments, but no one would know because it is so far buried now. What to do when writing a topic that does not inspire comments – I have straight up asked a question at the end of a post and received none! And, with a site that has new 3-7 new posts everyday? Posting frequency is not my choice (it’s my boss’) so I cannot post less posts with more quality.
I read about faking comments in the early days (not too long ago) of my blog, but I just didn’t have the time to do it. I’m glad I didn’t because the comments that I DID get actually came in on blog posts that I didn’t suspect and posts that I wouldn’t have faked on. You never really know which articles you write will inspire a ton of comments.
Well… I did actually write one blog post with the intention of soliciting comments. It was a social experiment that put men against women and their points of view. It worked quite well. :)
Anyway, I would highly suggest not putting your efforts into writing your own comments. Put that into writing more good content. If you already have content for the day the save a post for the next day or keep it filed for that blogger’s block day. We all have them.
In the early days I admit to having placed a couple on comments on my sports blog myself. But now I have nearly 400 posts in a year and well over that in comments I haven’t even thought about it since the early days. I rationalized doing it because I wanted to show people its easy and to not be shy, to go all out. Looking back I was new to the blogging world and I wish I had not done it. I certainly would not do it now. My blog has tons of street credibility and it has been quoted in papers on sports pages throughout the western states. I have been interviewed on ESPN radio and Fox Sports radio twice and my blog was given the coveted Sports Illustrated blog of the week in just its second month.
If I had to make an honest assessment on whether I needed to comment on my blog to get readership, regardless of the ethical questions, I would say that I did not need to. My content is what gave me all the legitimacy and credibility I needed. That is what put me over the top. I would say that to anyone who asked, and remember its coming from someone who did cross that ethical line. Please dont do it. You will regret it. Focus on your content period.
JJ
Faking comments isn’t wise. Instead, visiting other blogs and leaving comments there will likely elicit visits to your own blog. Also, consider linking within a post to other blogs and you’ll bring in traffic that way too.
Happy blogging!
Personaly, I don’t like this practice, it’s lying. I don’t do it. And I don’t add false subscribers to my feeds ever.
Honestly, I’ve never thought of doing this before, and I don’t think I will. I’m in the same boat as a lot of people that have commented: recently stated up my own blog, and thrive on receiving comments.
Also, not receiving any comments can mean that you posts aren’t of any interest to your readers, or they aren’t written all that well (that’s if you have any readers in the first place, which his hard to archive when starting up a new blog).
When you write a good post, receiving a comment makes it all worth while. It also lets you know you have readers, and readers who enjoy you posts.
Fake comments definatly risk your credibility as a blogger and that is half of the battle when it comes to owning a blog. If your readers don’t trust you, you basically don’t have a worthy blog. Commenting on other blogs often (comment on more than 10 a day) will get you some comments left back on your blog.
Commenting on your own blog is a bad idea. If you get caught you basically have 0 credibilty and that is half of the battle when it comes to owning a blog. Just comment on 10 other blogs on a daily basis and you will get some comments left on your blog.
Long time reader, first time commenter. Well, that’s not fair. I’ve only been reading for about a month now, but I’ve always wanted to comment. This is the first time I’ve felt like I could add something to the conversation.
Anyway, I’ve thought about doing this once or twice. Especially since coming back from a week of no blogging (had to leave for a week for a funeral, no internet access), I had a bit of lag in regards to getting some commenting back. But like many others have said, there are better, more honest, ways of generating comments. For me, as a new blogger, the best thing I’ve found I’ve done is to comment in other blogs similar to my own. Those people have then commented in mine, and we’ve created almost a comment-ring quite organically.
Don’t fake comments. That’s what relatives are for! (BTW, I did forward Preston’s URL to a friend who should be very interested.)
I have never done it so I can not say whether it would work or not. I don’t want to sound self-righteous, because Lord knows I probably done thinge i should be ashamed of before, but I just think faking comments is dishonest. There are so many other ways to generate relationships. I think when your only goal is getting comments you forget the substantial reasons to be in the blogosphere. I feel like it is so easy to make relationships in the blogosphere and I have found other bloggers to be kind and helpful even when they are a virtual stranger. I have had bloggers help me set up my page and helped bloggers set theirs up. I think that these relationships are on a level that I would hate to be fake anything with any of them.
However, I imagine (i haven’t clicked the link) that being featured on pro-blogger you probably are getting a lot of traffic now, and comments! :) So kudos on that. AND that is a way of being transparent by asking if that is appropriate or not. So you also get cool points for that :)
Comment on your own posts. You’ll need comments but it won’t matter where they’re coming from. My site at http://www.MedicalSpaMD.com has 20,000 uniques but only gets 10-15 comments a day. The best ‘comment bait’ is when I exchange comments with others or comment on my own post.
You should never fake your comments. You are really not gaining anything and you put yourself at extreme risk of losing the integrity that is the foundation of any good blog.
Besides, there are alternatives.
I have blog that is only a couple of weeks old, and I have 37 comments as of today. I did two key things to drive up comments on my blog.
1. I disabling nofollow on my comments, rewarding those that leave a comment with link that search engines will follow. You can read about it on my post I Follow.
2. I wrote a post about joining I Follow. This attracted some people to come and comment.
My first comments were all about the I Follow, but now I am starting to get comments on my other posts.
David
I can certainly sympathize with the frustration felt by others who’re not getting many comments. I’ve been blogging with a fair consistency for over 3 years now and I still get few comments. Even in spite of trying to phrase my posts in a way that’ll prompt some input and leaving posts open-ended, I’m still not getting much participation.
Honestly, I’d never even thought of faking comments. I spend too much time trying to make sure I have actual content lined up to post (and fretting about the lack thereof when I’m in a dry spell) to mess with adding fake comments.
Make ya a deal. Visit my blog & leave me a comment or two and I’ll pay you back in kind – maybe even twice over. Fair enough?
… I’m betting he’s already done it. ;-)
It’s not fatal. If you’re a credible writer with something to say you won’t lose your credibility because you tried to kick start your blog conversation. Here’s the trick though — you don’t have to do it. The reason you aren’t getting comments is a simple matter of statistics. I found when launching Diary of a Rat that I needed to get about 300 visits before a comment appeared. Depending on the quality of traffic that number will go up or down (e.g., lower for return visitors, much higher for Stumbles or Reddit visitors).
You just need to build traffic and that will take time. Use the tips you find here and on sites like The Wrong Advices (http://thewrongadvices.com/) and give it time.
One word: Desperate.
Also, isn’t trying to get relatives to leave comments just for the sake of comments kind of pathetic as well?
How do you reply to “Nice writing honey bear! Don’t forget to take the trash out Tuesday.”?
I have been guilty of slightly changing spam posts by getting rid of their website, change email etc and slightly change the post, does this count???
Hmm, fake comments? I did not do it when I started, but maybe it is just because I did not think to do so. I was really desperate to get my site off the ground. But I never thought of that.
The people who comment most on my blog are other bloggers whose sites I comment on. I think just being out there and active in the blogging world will help.
I actually never did write fake comments on my first (now defunct) learning blog and rather regret it. I should have either disabled commenting or commented on my own posts. Not having comments showed potential readers that the blog was newish, I think, and discouraged them from bookmarking or subscribing to my page.
I think it is just lame to make fake comments on your blog. It is like selling something and in the same time you are the one that purchase your own products. I would not recommend to anyone to fake comments on his/her blog