Blogging

How I Started Getting Comments on My Blog

getting comments on the blog

Wait.

You might want to know the secret sauce of blog commenting here!

Right?

Well, I got more than one to share with you!

Hop in.

Let me clarify something before I get started!

I’m not the best expert to tell you how to get blog comments but all I can share is that what I did in the last few months that increased comments on my blog.

Let’s admit.

Comments show that people are interested in your opinion — more importantly, it shows that there are a bunch of people who are coming over to read and respond to your content. It gives a huge signal to the first timers who land on your blog post.

Listen up.

There is something that hurts me.

I feel bad that some newbie bloggers step on the wrong foot.

What they do is that they comment JUST TO COMMENT.

No offense…

I guess they believe that the biggest reason for leaving a comment on someone else’s blog post is to leave the link on his or her property to gain the benefit.

This mindset could take them off the rails, and that’s what I don’t want to happen.

You don’t have to put your blog post or page’s link in the comment URL.

why-blogpost-link-in-the-comment

WordPress has made the comment URLs nofollow ages ago.

So, if your SEO friend tells you to go aggressive on commenting to get the SEO juice, you might want to check that reference. It clearly tells that WordPress 1.5 and above versions will attribute nofollow to all user-generated comment data.

Back to the point!

Well, I wasn’t seeing any traction underneath my blog posts.

But I never thought to do the cliché SEO things — not for a split second.

Here is what I did:

I Got More Engaged in the Facebook Comments

Does it look like a strategy?

No?

Exactly…

It doesn’t!

That’s why most of us miss out in the first place.

I started thanking everyone who used to like, comment, and share my blog posts on social media.

engaging-in-the-facebook-comments

A fellow blogger John Paul Aguiar does that. I saw him doing that. Perhaps, that was somewhere in my sub-conscious mind.  He goes on to thank every single person who likes or comments on his Facebook posts.

When I did that, it influenced not just my blog visitors, but it also increased the number of comments.

You might say 20 comments!

Is that your best number?

It means 10 unique comments and 10 of them are your replies!

Well, two years back, I was on zero; so yeah I’m happy about that.

I’m telling you to use the power of Facebook comments. If you share your blog post on your timeline and 3 friends like it, go to your comments, thank your friends by tagging them. It does impact on your overall engagement. It’s a fact that when you interact with people and they respond to you on any big social media platform, the platform encourages that sort of activity.

So, get off your couch and start interacting with friends after sharing your blog post.

I Started Interacting More on Twitter

I felt that I’m really not cashing in on Twitter. Using the right hashtags would attract the new audience; what about the people who’ve already followed you. If they aren’t interacting with you, then it’s a big problem.

Do you know what I did?

I started interacting with a lot of them.

Anyone who notices me on Twitter, for example, like my tweet, retweet it, or follow me. I tend to start off a conversation even if it’s a short one.

Sometimes, it’s just a THANK YOU tweet!

interacting-on-twitter-more-than-ever

Sometimes, it’s a DM.

twitter-interaction-in-DM

I felt that I was missing this thing out.

If you’re thinking what twitter interaction has to do with the comments, then let me tell you.

Perhaps, it’s not going to make a big difference but I’ll take my chances.

The reason is that my blog URL is on my twitter profile. Anyone who visits my Twitter profile could land on my blog after a single click. Additionally, I’m using the Twitter cover to the fullest. It also reveals my blog URL. So, the chances are, out of every 100 people who see my Twitter profile, at least, 8 people could come visit my blog. I’m an optimist; I won’t dwell on 92 readers that aren’t coming to my blog, instead, I’d be pumped to serve the 8 readers that are stopping by.

I Started thoroughly Reading Others’ Blog Posts

There is a clear difference between a comment that is done after a thorough read and the one that is done without reading the blog post.

Although, I never ever left a comment on someone else’s blog without reading the blog post.

But I started reading the blog posts from other bloggers compassionately to understand the point of view. And, I started leaving the comments about what I observed about the blog post, in fact, highlighting the key elements of the blog post did help the cause.

reading-others-content-before-commenting

What it did was that my comments on others’ blogs got better.

Because once you read the blog post and comment explaining what you’ve learned;  what you think about the points being discussed — it just takes the comment to the next level.

I’m not the one who stops by on others’ blogs every single day just to comment. Usually, I take a couple of days every week to read some of the interesting blog posts that I recently came across. Sometimes,  I open up through my inbox because I have subscribed to various blogs or I use the Pocket tool to read the bookmarked articles.

I Started Sharing Others’ Content More Often

Believe it or not, sharing others’ useful content with your friends has its perks. You can’t always come up with a fresh content of yours. The best you can do is share your friends’ content with your Facebook and Twitter followers.

It does work very well. Not only does it built relations with other bloggers, but you also get to feed fresh content to the followers. I make sure that I share others’ content on both Twitter and Facebook.

sharing-others-content-on-social-media

You might see people doing this all along but they don’t realize the importance of this strategy, therefore, either they don’t do it on a consistent basis or they stop at some point.

So, having the clarity of what you’re doing does help.

As you can see, I’m discussing the wireframe of my personal blog commenting strategy and I’m trying to explain that sharing others’ content on social media has helped me gain more comments on my blog.

So, I’m crystal clear what I’ve been doing lately and what I’m conveying it to you. The clarity matters.

I Encouraged Subscribers to Comment On My Blog Post

Of course, I share my blog posts with my email list.

Whenever I send them a newsletter, whether it’s an update or a weekly newsletter, I make sure that I tell them about the recently posted blog post. In fact, I go one step further and ask them to leave a comment underneath the blog post.

asking-my-newsletter-subscribers-to-check-out-the-blogpost

The reason is that email subscribers are the ones who have been following you on a different level. They trusted you with their email addresses and they’re open to receiving your emails; probably because you’ve impressed them or helped them in the past.

There is no harm in asking your email list subscribers to open up the blog post to check it out and leave a comment at the end of the blog post.

It’s time to Wrap up the blog post

There is no hidden secret behind the comments on my blog.

I’m not bragging that I get so many comments — because I don’t get so many comments, after all.

I just shared the strategies that have started the commenting process on my blog.

People stop by and leave comments more than ever.

Blogging is all about sharing something useful with your readers.

I did exactly that.

You should do the same with your readers.

Are you struggling with your blog commenting?

Let me know in the comments below and keep an eye on others’ comments on this blog post because there might be great opinions coming your way through this comments section. Stay tuned.

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16 Comments

  1. Great strategies Hassaan, I always focused on delivering knowledge, what i have learnt over the years. I feel if knowledge is delivered via two way communication, it always have a great impact and sometimes, I also do learn a lot through it. So so, engaging your audience is very very important, after all you also want to know the feedback of your visitors.

    Great read!

    1. Ali bhai,

      Thank you so much for your comment. Of course, engagement and feedback are crucial to our success. The audience feedback not only just helps us understand what they think about our content, but it also helps guide us in moving forward.

      Thanks, again!

  2. Hi Hassan

    Very timely post quite helpful for those more particularly who fail to get more comments on their blog posts.

    The best way to get more comments on your blog is to be with more and more people as you well pointed in this post.

    I remember those early days of my blogging when in desperation sometimes I used to make a direct request to people to come to my blog and comment.

    It is the quality of your post and your networking that brings more and more people on your post and its readers engagement makes them share their feedback on it.

    Thanks for sharing

    1. Mi, Sir!

      I learned a lot of things from you. Building relationships with other bloggers through the power of genuine commenting is one of those things. I feel so happy when you leave your feedback on my blog. It means a lot.

      As you mentioned that early stage, we all go through such periods. I’ve learned that if you’re passionate about something, you got to invest your time in improving the craft as well as grow a spine to take on every negative energy that comes your way.

      I believe blogging is a journey of a lifetime — what makes me worried is that a lot of people would quit even before the adversity hits. Every blogger sees platform transitions, hosting problems, errors, and search engine ranking issues and how many of them go through that funnel and continue to blog is what that defines their journey and success.

      Thank you for being an awesome part of the community!

  3. Hassaan you are doing a fabulous job!

    Really it is just being social for the sake of being social. You share your thoughts freely on my blog, on Blogging Tips and wherever I see you. So folks gravitate toward you and just wanna share their thoughts with you. 1 hand washes the other. Ya just gotta be really social and genuine and add value and yep, avoid doing the lame comment drive-by bit. That is a quick way to NOT get comments and also to kill your rep online.

    Ryan

    1. Ryan,

      Thank you so much for stopping by. It means a lot. I have been looking at the overall commenting system for quite some time. I don’t say that I’ve all figured it out, but I tried to share what I have done so far.

      Obviously being genuine and authentic will take you further in the long run. I learned a lot from your blog posts and videos. Thank you for being such a motivational blogger.

  4. Great post Hassan.
    I have been trying to pratice blog commenting lately. And I too have been put off by spam comments especially on blogs using comment luv. But I think it can be a great tool to build relationships with other bloggers.
    Regards

    1. Hi, Millo!

      Thank you so much for stopping by.
      I’m glad to know that you’re taking blog commenting seriously. I tried to explain what I have done in the recent past and it worked for me.
      It does take time, but at the end of the day, it pays off. It’s a long-term game, which a lot of bloggers take it otherwise.

  5. Hassaan, a nice article on an important topic. I feel that commenting is good in a way that it works on the law of reciprocity. It is a psychological feeling that if someone has left a comment on your blog post (for perhaps more than once), there is a need that you replicate the favour as well.

    I agree, this should not be the spirit of leaving comment but in real life, this does make a difference. I have found many friends (and genuine ones as well) through blog commenting. Keep up the great work, off to share. Cheers.

    1. Ahmad,

      Thank you for your comment. I agree that commenting is crucial to building relationships but how it is perceived by a lot of blogging starters is not promising.

      The blog post itself explains the importance of commenting.

      I’m glad you highlighted the reciprocity angle of commenting. I liked it.

      THANK YOU!

  6. You write really well! I am going to use your tips for my own website! Great blog! Thanks!

    1. Thank you so much, Malalai!
      I’m glad you liked it.
      Subscribe to the blog to stay updated!
      Thanks, again!

  7. Hassaan, excellent post!

    I loved the idea of using Facebook comments and thanking the readers for even a like. I need to work on this. Also, making use of twitter the most.

    Another thing that works really well on getting more comments is the power of content. It does work in my case. If someone produces a solution-solving post then he/she should be sure about the positive feedback in terms of comments, shares, and appreciations.

    I also like what Ahmad said, ‘law of reciprocity’. It truly makes difference.

    Arfa

    1. Thank you so much, Arfa!

      I’m glad you read this blog post and left a comment.

      I have seen people bragging that ‘not replying is the new cool’…

      I feel sorry for them.

      Brands spend millions of dollars for the attention of the audience. I tried to showcase what worked for me. I’m happy if you start taking Facebook engagement seriously.

  8. Hi Hassaan

    Thanks for a really good article which was very informative.
    I can see your blog article is all the way back from 2017 and now we are writing 2021.

    It really is an excellent article, even though it is from 2017, and that is exactly what I am working on now in 2021.

    I just created a FB group with Boomerang of comment to help each other with comments, (hope it’s okay I throw the link to the FB group here, otherwise you have to remove it again): https: //www.facebook. com / groups / boomerangblogcomment

    But the FB group is only in my own niche, Starting an online business, Making money online, Invest.
    Because it is very important to establish strong connections with other bloggers within the same niche.
    It’s important to create real connection with other bloggers in the same niche so that you get stronger exposure from google.
    And let’s not call each other in the same blog niche for competitors, but kon-colleague.

    But how are you right in that it not only helps with small comments, but you also read other people’s articles in full and comment based on what you have just read.

    And not only do you help others read and comment on their articles, you get so much BOOMERANG back. Because as the saying goes “your success is my success”!

    Thanks again for the good reading, I will follow you over …

    The best greetings
    Adele Lazzarotto

    1. Hi Adele,

      Glad to see your comment. I’m more active on StartedBlogging.com. I’d highly recommend checking it out.

      Thanks

      Hassaan

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