ipears

Performancing’s Chris Garrett shows a good list of ways to get more comments on your blog:

1. Ask!
2. Seed
3. Ego
4. Links
5. Hint
6. Restraint
7. Usability
8. Open
9. Topic
10. Observe

3 points I find interesting:

1. Ask! - Ask for people to comment, you are more likely to get comments if you ask for them. Sometimes people do not know it is ok to comment. Just because there is a comment form does not mean people automatically feel worthy to post a comment. The higher the profile of the blog or the less the person feels they “know” the blogger the less likely they are to comment. By “giving permission” they will feel more entitled to comment.

3. Ego - People like to talk about themselves, provide the opportunity. They might not be experts in the topic but we are all experts in our own experience and we all know what we like. You know the famous phrase about everyone having an opinion. Sometimes it is nice just to give people the opportunity to brag.

9. Topic - If you want to attract comments then you have to pick your subjects. Some subjects people just do not have an opinion on, others you can’t stop people talking about. Current affairs are good but it needn’t be contraversial, politics and religion get people talking but can also send your blog down a path you might not want to go down. Press peoples buttons. You can endlessly recycle some topics, others are shortlived.

Personally I am happy with any kind of comment, but that is in this phase of my blogging-career. The whole list applies better to websites with a bit larger quantity of visitors I guess. What is your experience with comments?