HOW TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO LEAVE COMMENTS

The focus of this post is something all bloggers love - comments. Unfortunately most blogs, especially new blogs, receive very few real comments from real people (everyone gets spam comments though). Why is it some blogs have a ton of comments while other blogs never receive any? In this post today I will talk about how you can convince people to leave comment replies to your blog posts.

Let me set something straight right now.

If your blog has no traffic you will not receive any comments. It makes sense of course, but some people don't see the connection between these two elements. If no one is reading your blog then no one will leave comments either. Simply posting great articles to your blog is not enough - you have to *market* your blog to bring people to it.

For now, understand if you don't receive any comments to your blog it's probably not that your content is bad or people don't like you, it's because you simply don't have enough traffic. If on the other hand you do have some traffic, yet no one replies to your posts, there are ways to stimulate comments.

Try these tips to begin with :-

• Write articles that reference or focus on other bloggers. You will get their attention that way and there's a good chance they will come to your blog and leave a comment as a result.
  
• Ask your readers a question at the end of your article.
  
• Write about topics that stimulate conversation, such as current events (think politics, news, entertainment).
  
• Be controversial with your writing. Have a strong opinion and others with strong opinions will reply to argue or agree with you.
  
• Be patient. Sometimes you just have to wait until the first person leaves a comment which opens the floodgates.

WHAT IS SOCIAL PROOF?

Social Proof is when humans take action or make a decision based on seeing other humans doing it first. It's sort of like an implied recommendation - if other people do it, it must be good. It's like when you see a bunch of people all looking up at something in the sky at the same time. You can't help but turn your head skywards and see what all the fuss is about.

When first time visitors to your blog see other people making lots of comments they are more likely to decide there is something valuable at your blog and bookmark or subscribe to it and may even make a comment. This is good for blog traffic. This is social proof in action.

I was very conscious of always taking part in comment conversations at my blog and consequently my readership was growing in leaps and bounds. I stopped and I noticed I hit a wall and my blog didn't grow quite as well as it was. I know a blogger who has a rule - she responds to every single comment made to her blog. Consequently she has developed a fantastic community around her blog and her traffic has skyrocketed in a short period of time.

Remember, comments on your blog are very important, take the time to respond to them.