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Health & Fitness

8 Top Tips to Increase Your Blog Comments

Probably the number 1 biggest complaint I get from frustrated, beleaguered bloggers is that of the empty, lonely comments box. I know, I tell them, I have been there, and often times, I’m still there, resorting to a steady stream of urgent pleas for interaction from my faithful. Payments sometimes work, especially for a teen comment. But still, we all quietly want to increase our blog comments. Admit it.

I’ve let all this go, slowly, for the most part, as I’ve found that in the last 3 years of steady blogging, slowly but surely my readership has, indeed increased and so has the response rate. Somewhat. Understand however, that just because folks aren’t commenting does NOT mean they are not reading, absorbing and appreciating your words. Did you get that?  I said "Not much of a correlation!" Did I make your day?

I’ll let you in on how I came to this realization, and then began to happily track it on Google Analytics to make sure I wasn’t fantasizing this: I was on line in Starbucks one day about 2 years ago when an acquaintance on line behind me whose daughter goes to school with mine casually told me how much she enjoys reading my blogs in The Patch.

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Really? People read my blogs in The Patch? I had no idea.

How would I know that, I thought, I rarely get any comments. Not only was I tickled pink that someone other than my mother was reading my blogs, but it jolted me into the realization that

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Most folks Just. Don’t. Comment.  The sad truth is that the latest stats say that less than 9% of all blog readers will comment on your blog, and most of them are regular commenters, looking for links or are editors. How does this sound?  Too busy! Don’t want to be identified! Etc.! You’ve heard it all before and I’m here to tell you it’s ok. Really. If we take a big step back from our self involved and ego laden blog to evaluate the biggest reason we’re blogging in the first place, the most important reason would be to get your words out…to be viewed as the expert in our field, or to put forth wily words of wisdom, to create a community forum for idea’s, in essence, to create VALUE on our website, right?  If our blogs are being written for these higher reasons, we don’t necessarily need to have our ego’s stroked by fawning fans every week, correct?

This all being said, I know you’re still jonesing for ways to increase comments on your blog. It’s ok, I get that too.

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