We talked about your commenting system in the previous post. Let us take a look at more ways to make the most out of comments.
Some bloggers take comments for granted. That is, they think that if their entry is good enough, comments will come naturally. This is true – but only to a certain degree. You should also do your part in encouraging your readers to comment. Aside from writing great content, try to encourage comments outright. At the end of the post, ask your readers what they think. End with an open ended question. More so, you can change your blogging template to reflect something like “Be the first one to comment!†instead of merely displaying “No comments.â€
Another way to encourage comments would be to recognize those who leave their comments. Of course, their comments will be displayed on the individual posts. An additional incentive that I find particularly useful is to install a widget that shows the most recent comments. Seeing one’s name and ideas on the front page of a blog is something that can encourage readers to leave their mark.
Be open – do not ignore or block negative comments. This is the beauty of blogging, actually. People can voice out their thoughts, whether they are positive or negative. If you can post both the negative and positive on your blog, then why can’t readers share both the negative and positive as well? As such, resist the urge to delete negative comments. Instead, see if there is some value in their comments and act on them accordingly.
Originally posted on May 18, 2008 @ 6:23 pm
