Make Your Blog More Comment-able

I failed at this assignment terribly. I read the articles, but really didn't put the effort into this one. For me it's about the quality of the comment not the quantity.

April 06 - 22: 11 post/106 comments
I'm happy with that :)

...the bane of my existence

Blogger's comment platform falls quite short for me. A few months back I tested a third party comment platform for my blog; Intense Debate comment system can be used to replace Blogger’s. I created a test blog and invited my readers to give it a try but they found it confusing. My readers don't like... I don't like, so I decided not to use it on Slightly Off-Center.

I like the Wordpress comment platform. I like the fact that the blog author can reply to individual comments left on his/her posts - gives a more personal touch, I think.

So now that the BIP assignment for the next few weeks is about "Comments", I will have to get the old thinking cap on and start doing some research on this topic again. Stick around to see what I come up with.

Week #7 is going to be all about making your blog more comment friendly. During the goal setting project (Week #1), a lot of people made it a goal to leave more blog comments. This is important, but I think it’s also vital that once you get a new reader at your blog it’s easy for them to engage with you by commenting on your posts. Don’t worry, Week #8 will more specifically address that because it’s going to be about leaving better comments.

One article about comments I found very helpful was “7 Reasons Why I Won’t Comment On your Blog” by Jamie Harrop. Some of his best suggestions include giving commenters direction by leaving some discussion questions at the end of your post, and responding to all comments on a post within the first 12-hours after it’s posted. Read the full post for some more technical suggestions that made me think about blog comments a little more strategically.

Darren Rose at Problogger has “10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog.” Some of his suggestions include inviting readers to comment, leaving your posts open ended, setting a clear comment policy, and reward commenters. Again, read the post to go through the suggestions in detail — it’s really good.

On other idea comes from Beatblogging.org from the article “The art of hoisting comments” which talks about techniques that popular bloggers to highlight user comments. This is one very specific idea, but sort of a cool one if you have the time.

The Assignment!

* Take an inventory of your blog comments. Write down how many comments you have as of today, then track how many comments you get per day over the next two weeks (I’m curious how well all of this is going to work).

* Pick 3-4 of the techniques from the articles to implement over the next two weeks (or more, if you’re ambitious). Print out the posts or write down a list of techniques to leave by your computer so you’re always reminded of them while you post.

* Spend the next two weeks trying to make your posts more comment friendly. By Saturday, April 18, write a post about which techniques you used and how well you think they worked. Sign the Mr. Linky below. I’ll do a wrap-up post to try and see which of these techniques worked best.

Completion date: April 20
Next assignment: Assignment # 7: Make Your Blog More Comment-able
March 16: Assignment #6 - Let's Get Social, Assignment #6 - Plinky Prompts
March 13: Assignment #5 -- Social Media, Use Facebook to Promote Your Blog
March 1: Blog Basics, Update
February 14: Content is King
January 19: Brainstorming Ideas
January 5: Setting Goals — What Is Your Blog For?