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Ways to become a better comment whore

Okay, so that’s not my most catchy title, but it was meant to be a follow up from my recent article asking for more comments from my blog visitors.

The result has been pretty encouraging so far, with some new readers who dropped by to say hi via comments (yay!) and emails. Here are some valuable lessons I learned from them:

  1. People whom comment on blogs are usually bloggers themselves. To this, I agree vehemently. Actually I ran this “I am a comment whore” campaign on two blogs - one here, another on my personal blog. As expected, the initial response was greater here on Viral Voices, but not so on You Got Me Blogging. The reason? People on Viral Voices are bloggers themselves, and they understand the importance of commenting to build a sense of community, plus traffic. Readers of my personal blog are generally my friends, and most of them are not bloggers, hence the less tendency to leave comments. (I knew they are reading because when we meet up, they keep teasing me about stuff that I blogged about! :D)
  2. Another great way to encourage comments - turn off that comment moderation! I didn’t realise that until a reader pointed it out, and I thought, yeah, if I am a commentor, I would love to see my comments published immediately, and not until the blog owner decides so. Immediately I deactivate my comment moderation options on both my blog, and now I am just relying on Askimet to catch those dreaded spammers!
  3. Comment on others’ blog, and they will return the favour. I left a couple of comments on Untwisted Vortex, and gained some traffic from there (including the fore runner of my comment whore contest - Hari!). I also commented on Kidsblogger Carl’s blog, and conversed a little over email, and this high profile blogger came by and left a comment too. Therefore, do to others what you want others to do to you.

It’s early days yet, and already I am learning more on how to become a better comment whore. Haha.

What’s your personal rule of thumb to encourage more comments from your reader?

January 29, 2008 | Filed Under Blog Traffic | 3 Comments 

I am a comment whore

Every blogger’s dream is to have huge traffic to their blog.

And every problogger’s dream is to have a crowd of active, engage audience to their blog.

What do I mean by active and engaged? Such audience are ones who return to your blog very frequently, comment on your blog posts, tell for their friends about your blog, and subscribe to your RSS feed and email newsletter.

From my webstats, I know there are visitors coming to this blog. Some of you came here for the first time (welcome!) and some came here periodically. Here’s what my stats programme tells me about you in January 2008:

Viral Voices' Traffic in January 2008

Viral Voices' Traffic in January 2008

So, I know you guys are out there reading this. But knowing you guys through my stats is like… reading personal classifieds trying to find the right one, you know? I don’t know what you like, what you don’t like, what makes you come here, etc. etc. All I see are lines of text, with clues of the person you are. Good luck to me trying to know you better.

Actually, this is my long winded way to tell you this. I want to get to know you, and I can only do so if you leave a comment on my posts.

Yes, leaving a comment. That’s all you need to do, so that I can have a conversation with you. Here’s why you should leave a comment:

  1. It tells me that you are here, and that you are reading this
  2. It shows you care about the topic discussed
  3. It gives you an opportunity to ask a question, to criticise my posts, to voice an opinion
  4. It links back to your blog, giving you some nice Google juice
  5. It lets you build a rapport not only with me, but also with your fellow commentators

Here’s a little incentive to you to leave a comment. I will be monitoring my commentators for the next two weeks, and the top commentator who posted the most number of comments gets a free advertisement spot right here on the front page! You will get to put a nice little square banner under “Sponsors” (see the first sidebar to your right), with a one-line text link to your blog.

All you have to do is to leave comments on my posts, from today till 14th February 2008!

(That’s Valentine’s Day, by the way)

When I receive your comment, I will visit your blog, and if I have your blog interesting, I will include you in my blogroll to read, leave comments, subscribe to your feed etc.

One good turn deserves another, eh?

Now, what can you comment on? Just post the first thing that cross your mind. Here are some suggestions

  1. Tell me if you think my post is interesting, and why. Let me know if you are linking to the post from your blog, so that I can pay a visit
  2. If you hated my post, and think that this is the worst thing that has happened since Paris Hilton, let all my commentators know! I am more than willing to be corrected and learn from my mistakes
  3. Show a similar posts somewhere on my post topic, or (better still) you have blogged about something similar before? Let me know, so that I can add on to my post as “related posts from other bloggers”
  4. From time to time, I will pose a question at the end of my blog posts. Your comment can simply be a response to the question
  5. If you really have nothing to say… just leave a comment that says “Great post!” or “Your suck” or “Hi!”. I won’t fault you for that… sometimes I really want a blogger to know I was at their blog, but I have little value to add to their blog post.

Now… you can get started by simply answering this question:

Do you think this post is a great idea?

Fire away, my blog readers. I am looking forward to hear from you :)

January 27, 2008 | Filed Under Blog Traffic | 10 Comments