How to Encourage More Comments on Your Blog

How to Encourage More Comments on Your Blog

How can you get more blog comments when all you hear is crickets? These 12 tips will help turn your one-man show into a community.Have you ever published a post, then waited a few days…and only heard crickets?

Feels a little lonely, hmn?

Well, if you’re looking to build your blog, you have to start with the most basic of all things: creating community.  And the lifeblood of a thriving community is the discussion.  Not only does good discussion enhance your readers’ experience on your blog – it’s also great for your search engine optimization (SEO).  The tips I’m giving here aren’t just good for getting people to leave comments – they’re good practice for community building in general.

So how do you get more people to leave comments on your blog?

I’ve got 12 tips to help you get people talking:

1) Step out of the shadows and leave comments on other blogs.  Not just “thanks for the post,” but actual, insightful comments.  Ask questions and engage your favorite bloggers.  Be a friend.  When people see you commenting on their blogs, they’re likely to follow the link back to your blog and they’ll be more open to leaving comments when they get there.

The blogging world is fueled by generosity of spirit. Expect to give long before you get anything back.

2) Make it easy for people to comment on your blog – take as much hassle out of the process as possible.  If you’re blogging on WordPress, let Akismet do your spam filtering and leave out the Captcha code.  If you want to moderate all your comments, be sure to approve them in a timely manner.  Don’t leave us hanging.

3) Take the time to reply to the comments you receive – even just a word or two.  Let us know you care.  If you want to take this a step further, then follow up with not just reactions to your reader’s comment, but further questions.  Encourage your readers to share more.  Bring them out of their shell.  Just try engaging a handful of your commenters in a two-way discussion, and see what it does to grow your community.

4) Use a WordPress plugin like Comment Reply Notification to let commenters know you’ve responded to them.  No one wants to “haunt” a blog after commenting to see if the blogger responds, and if you use this (free) plugin, they won’t have to.

5) Share the love – Some people use comments as a blog growth strategy, and why not make this easy for them?  Use a plugin like CommentLuv (free) or CommentLuv Premium (which I use here) to add a link to your commenters’ latest blog post right below their comment.  When other readers can see the titles of a commenter’s own post, they’re more likely to follow that link and check out that blog.  What a great way to reward your readers for leaving comments!  (Psst – wanna’ give it a try?  Leave a comment below and see how it works!)

6) Feature another blogger’s work on your blog.  When Jimmie (of Jimmie’s Collage) posted about her favorite homeschool blogs, people came out of the woodwork to leave their comments of appreciation.  Generosity of spirit leads to conversation – and new friendships.

7) If you really want your readers’ input on something, create a poll that’s easy to participate in.  We all love to share our opinions, so give your readers a good way to interact with you (and each other!), and maybe they’ll find it easier to leave a comment on your next post.  You can create polls through a third-party site, but if you’re a WordPress user, Polldaddy has a plugin that brings their polls right to your blog.

8) Every once in awhile, take a stance on a controversial issue – it doesn’t have to be aggressive, just enough to “stir the pot.”  Because whether people agree with you or disagree, they’ve likely got something to say.

9) Don’t make your life look too perfect on your blog; Share even your “bad days” that people can relate to.  I recently saw this in action on Gypsy Forest, where Stephinie posted about a tough week she’d had.  From the tone of the comments she got, a lot of people had the same experience.  This is community building in action.

10) Request ideas for posts, or suggestions for things you want to learn more about.  People LOVE to share their expertise, so let them.

11) Don’t sound like the ultimate authority.  If you’re approachable, people will talk to you.  Show your personality in your posts.  You want to sound like a (very nice) person, not a computer.

12) I hesitate to list this last one because it’s so overdone…but it’s okay to ASK for comments.  Just not in every post.

…did I miss something?  What would YOU add?

Leave a Comment:

143 comments
Teje says

Hi Jeni! You are so right. I haven’t learnt to use comment-luv or even poldaddy, but I like to write comments like a small letters and I’ve seen that my blog friends like that and they also write more to me. It’s like sending short e-mails about our crafts and pets etc. In the beginning I didn’t answer to my comments and thought it’s better to visit their blog, but I realized my mistake, and now I answer all of them and that makes us all good friends. We share in comments our tips, funny happenings and it’s really nice!
Thank you for your posts! They are always good and teach us something new!
Finnish wishes from Greece! x Teje

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    Jeni says

    It’s amazing the friends you can make through blogging, isn’t it? (by the way, that quilt you just finished is beautiful!)

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    Janalyn Voigt says

    Thanks so much for this post, giving practical ways I can encourage my website visitors to comment. Encouraging others to chat doesn’t come easily when you’re a little shy, like me.

    I have a question on Comment Luv. I’ve hesitated on installing it because I’ve heard that it can bring spammers to your website because of the backlinks it provides. Since you have the pro version, I suspect you haven’t found that true, or else it’s been worth the risk. Would you please give a perspective?

    Reply
      Jeni Elliott says

      Hi Janalyn,

      So sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you – I was flooded with comments on another post the day you left this and somehow I missed it!

      In my experience, spammers will eventually find every site anyway; I don’t know whether a plugin like CommentLuv Pro will increase that, but if you have a good spam blocker on your site, that will prevent the spam from getting through. You should take a look at some of the security plugins I recommend on my Best WordPress Plugins post – those are what I personally use and I don’t have a problem with spam now. Hope this helps!

      I appreciate you taking the time to reach out and ask, Janalyn. 🙂

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        Janalyn Voigt says

        Thanks for the reply. Since leaving my comment, I came across Wordfence and have it installed now, possibly in time to save one of my websites from being hacked. I’ll have to check out the other plugins at the link you provided. Thanks so much!

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Teje says

… that CommentLuv is great! I would love to add it, but does it work if I’m not self hosted? x Teje

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    Jeni says

    You do have to be self-hosted to use CommentLuv – when you’re self-hosted, you have many, many more options available!

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Jimmie Lanley says

Posing a question for which you want advice is another great comment generator. I had a question on a guest post I did, and I wanted to write an answer to it. But instead of offering all of my ideas, I asked my readers for their tips. My plan is to do a follow up post that includes my readers’ ideas as well as my own. I hope it works!
(Thanks for the mention.)

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    jeni says

    What a great idea – it’s two posts for the price of one. 🙂 I’m looking forward to seeing how it works out for you!

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Mary-My Life in Scotland says

I recently did a de-lurking post. I knew people were reading from my stats, but there weren’t any comments. Who were these people?!?! So, I just came out and told them that I wanted to gt to know them and I wanted to be friends. I asked them to answer a few questions in the comments. SO MANY PEOPLE COMMENTED!! I’ve been getting emails and making one on one friendships with my readers. It is so great! Now I know who is reading and who I’m taking to. I also feel like I can share more because I am getting to know them as well.

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    jeni says

    Wow, that’s a great story – I guess sometimes it pays to just come right out and be direct! 🙂 Good for you!

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    Suzanne Minskey says

    I love this idea! It’s a great way to get people to come out and introduce themselves, not only to you but to the rest of the community of readers. I think I shall work this in at some point!

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    Deb says

    That’s a great idea! I’ve also wondered who are these people who know things about me, but I don’t know them? Why not ask! So obvious now. Thanks for sharing this – I’m going to try this too.

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Alaina Frederick says

I know that when I shared about my emotional finding out of our baby’s gender I was ready for people to say things like my own family had but they didn’t. Not only did I get a bunch of supportive comments I also received a NUMBER of private emails thanking me for letting them know they weren’t alone in feeling that way.

I wasn’t even going to post that – but I felt convicted to do so and through it I know a number of people who are not Christians were touched by that post and through my difficult pregnancy post that were brought one step closer to the Truth.

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    jeni says

    It can be scary to share things that are so deeply personal, and it sounds you have a wonderful, supportive community that welcomes your experiences. A blessing for sure.

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Ginny says

Jeni, I just added the comment reply notification to my blog. Does the commenter have to check the “notify me of follow up comments via email button,” or are replies automatically sent to their email? What a great plugin. Thanks for mentioning it!

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    jeni says

    Ginny, you can choose the default settings under Settings > Comment Reply Notification. You can set it to automatically send everyone a notification of comment replies, or allow them to choose (by default checked) or allow them to choose (by default unchecked) It’s pretty self explanatory once you get onto the settings page. Enjoy!

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      Ginny says

      Thanks! I set the notification up. But, do I need to add my blog name into the code below for the email subject line notification, or will it do that automatically?

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        jeni says

        It will automatically populate that for you – it just gets the info listed in your General preferences. So you should be good to go!

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Lori says

Jeni,
As a new blogger, I found your list of 12 ways to encourage comments to be so helpful. (I hope that we can do “comment luv” on the blog that you’re helping me with!) I don’t often read comments on blogs, but in reading the ones above, I got more great ideas. NOW I know to read comments and make comments.
Thanks and aloha,
Lori

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stephinie says

Thank you! I loved this post. I really liked the “de-lurking” idea in the comment above too. I might try that one 🙂

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SARAH BEALS says

I agree with the commenting back on comments. It is hard sometimes to find time, but I try to “do unto others” in this area. Thank you. 🙂

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    jeni says

    I like that idea – “do unto others.” I usually call it generosity of spirit, but you’re right: the golden rule really does apply. 🙂

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Johanna Hanson says

Great post, with so much good info. I have to agree with the comment reply notification. As a reader, I really dislike having to go back and check if someone wrote me but I don’t want to have to subscribe to everyone’s comment just so I can read a reply to me. That was one of the first things plugins I added.

I love your idea for requesting ideas for posts. I have done that before on Facebook, but it would be a good idea to do it right in a blog post as well.

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    jeni says

    Do you know what’s funny? I actually won a giveaway somewhere this week – that I completely forgot about. But since the blogger didn’t have comment reply notification, I didn’t know I’d won…until a week later, when she finally tracked me down via my blog! So there’s another reason to have comment replies turned on. 😉

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Loriann says

I recently had a discussion with my hubby about how I was getting discouraged because since no one comments on my blog, I don’t know if anyone is reading it. To Mary-My Life in Scotland: How did you know people were reading just not commenting?
I am going to add the suggested add ons to my WordPress blog.

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    jeni says

    I’ll add my $0.02 until Mary gets here (I tweeted her to let her know) – if you have Google Analytics set up, you can check out your page views and your number of visitors to your website. That would at least tell you how many people have been there.

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      Loriann says

      Thanks, I have Adsense setup, I think Analytics will be easy to setup from there.

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        Mary-My Life in Scotland says

        Thanks for chiming in Jeni! Analytics tells me how many people are reading my blog daily, where they are from, how long they stay on my blog, and what they are reading. If you use Blogger there is a STATS button and you can get some general information from there. No set up needed. So, I could tell they were there but no one was saying anything. But since I’ve de-lurked it has been SO much fun! Lots of emails and comments to enjoy. Not to mention I’m following a bunch of new great blogs and I feel like I’m making friends along the way.

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    jeni says

    Loriann, I just stopped by your blog and wanted to comment to say congratulations on your new little one!! But I couldn’t, because I’d have to be logged in to your blog to comment. That makes it really difficult for people to leave comments, and I think you definitely need to remove that barrier.

    Another shortcut to viewing your stats (while I’m at it) is to install Jetpack and you’ll be able to see your stats right on your WordPress dashboard.

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      Loriann says

      Thanks I’m soo excited! I had added the log in because I was getting nearly 100 spam comments a day even with Askimet setup and numerous sites / IPs blocked. I made the mistake in January to turn on that Google Ad thing. I do not recommend it.

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Melissa Telling says

I’m always afraid to post anything controversial. I guess the middle child in me just wants everyone to get along. I guess I’d rather listen to the crickets chirping than be stuck in the middle of a debate, wondering if people are mad at me. 😉

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    jeni says

    🙂 To each her own…but I think it’s all in the way you present it. If you give your opinions with grace, it can spark some very helpful and productive community discussion. But I know what you mean – I’ve definitely seen it done the wrong way, too.

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Nadene says

Jeni, you shared such simple but basic ideas here – thanks! And from reading your comments to the comments, you demonstrate how wonderfully personal, specific and encouraging the dialogue becomes!

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    jeni says

    Thanks, Nadene – I try to be helpful, above all. 🙂

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      Desiree' says

      I completely agree with Nadene. Thanks Jeni. Being a new blogger & reading through these posts has affirmed how important it is to not only read through the comments (the content is great), but then to actually respond like you do… It builds a shared community. Lesson learned.

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Taryn Kae Wilson says

Great tips Jeni!
I can’t even think of anything else to add, you covered it. 🙂

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Brenna says

I love your blog, so much great information. I just found you on no other that Pinterest. I plan on moving to WordPress soon and your site will be a valuable tool. I can’t wait to put all your advice to work.

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Stephanie@cre8tive says

I don’t reply in my comment section when someone leaves a comment. I don’t know if they will know if that I did, so I send them an email instead. Which is good and more personable, but it also looks like I don’t respond when people read thru the comments…I wonder if there is a plugin that you can hit reply and send them an email and have it show in the comment section. I use Disqus.

Love all your insights, and suggestions. Glad I found you.

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    jeni says

    Hi Stephanie,

    I use Comment Reply Notification here on my blog, and I love it. It keeps the reply posted in the comments, but also notifies the commenter (via email) when she receives a response. Hope this helps!

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      April says

      Since you don’t have dates on your blog I can’t tell when you wrote this. Comment Reply Notification apparently hasn’t been updated in over two years (last update was 2010-10-13, and it’s 2013-08-03 today).

      Do you still use it? Has it given you any problems? Is there another plugin like it that you recommend if you don’t use it anymore? All I can find are ones that subscribe you to all subsequent comments (vs. just replies to your single comment), which I think is really annoying.

      PS: Is your “Yes, I’d like to get updates from Biz Mavens!” checkbox a comment reply notification thing, or a way to sign up for your newsletter or something? It isn’t clear.

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        jeni says

        Hi April,

        Comment Reply Notification definitely still works for me – in fact, when I hit “reply” on this comment, it should email you with the message. You can test out different settings on the plugin, but I just have it set where everyone automatically receives notification if *anyone* replies to their comment. But no – it doesn’t subscribe you to everyone else’s comments. Only the ones directly replying to yours.

        The little check box below the comment form is something separate – it allows people to sign up for my mailing list straight from the comment space. I suppose that could be a little clearer in terms of what you’re signing up for, except it varies based on what I’m doing at the time. Basically, you’re on my list, so I’ll send you a note if I publish a new post or find something super helpful to pass along to my readers. But nothing scheduled or official – I keep things pretty informal around here. 🙂

        Hope this helps!

        Warmly,
        Jeni

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          April says

          That does help, thank you!

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Stefanie says

I’m on a learning streak this morning! I just installed (I think) the comment reply plug in. I tried to find the free version (our blog is on a fixed budget 🙂 ) of CommentLuv but all I could find was the premium version that costs $67 – $97. I’ve only recently started commenting on blogs, thanks to your suggestions. I don’t know why I never did before, it really is fun talking to others! I am getting ready to go check out Jimmie’s Collage and her favorite homeschooling blogs. That is definitely going to be fun. Thank you ~ once again ~ for all your guidance and wonderful help.

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    jeni says

    Hi Stefanie, you can download the free version of CommentLuv here. Glad you’re having fun! 🙂

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Peter D. Mallett says

Hi Jeni,
I just started my writing blog this month. I learned some thinks here. I came to the site though Pinterest and the articles about pinterest and then I clicked on this one. I guess those things you mentioned work eh? 🙂 Have a great day I’ll be back, it looks like there is a fountain of information here.

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    jeni says

    Hi Peter, thanks for stopping by! Hopefully you’ll find plenty of useful information here. If you have a question or idea you’d like to see discussed as a post, make sure to drop me a line. I do take requests. 🙂

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Zero Dean says

Just wanted to say thanks. I’ve been getting a ton of traffic from Pinterest, but it’s mainly invisible. I think people are just looking at my pics and that’s it — no new blog subscribers, no comments, nothing…

So I was googling ways to fix this and came across your Pinterest posts… which then led me around to other things you’ve written, including this post.

In any case, it always seems rare when you can visit a site and immediately pick up one or two really useful (and valuable) pieces of information/advice (and for free!).

And I did just that today. You’re a rock star. Thank you!

Zero Dean

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    jeni says

    Hi Dean, glad you found what you were looking for. 🙂 Don’t discount all the comments on Facebook, either: if you’re counting “reach” for potential advertisers or another reason, you should include the activity on your FB page, as well. It could be that people feel more free to comment on FB for whatever reason. Anyway, I’d love to hear how it turns out for you if you implement any of the strategies I recommend. Thanks for stopping by!

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      Zero Dean says

      Thanks Jeni. 🙂

      I may consider adding a connection to my facebook feed, but I feel I already have so many links to FB, it might be overkill… then again, most visitors from Pinterest visit once and are gone…

      It’s not really my written posts that get attention from Pinterest, it’s my motivational images section…

      http://blog.zerodean.com/post/motivational-images/

      Although some are far, far more shared than others.

      PS. Dean is my *last* name. 😉

      http://zerodean.com/about-the-name-zero-dean/

      Thanks again. 🙂

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Scott says

Thank you so much for this info! I’ve been struggling to get people to comment on my blog about Alaska. Hopefully this will help!

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    jeni says

    Hi Scott, thanks for stopping by! Glad it was helpful; when you try out some of the techniques in the post, I’d love to hear how it goes for you.

    Warmly,
    Jeni

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Amee says

Jeni,
Thank you for these awesome tips!! I can’t wait to incorporate these ideas. 🙂

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    jeni says

    Glad they’re helpful, Amee. Please stop back by to let me know how it goes for you!

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Shannon says

Wow! So much great information!
While my site visitors have increased considerably over the last 6 months (I use the Statcounter plugin on self-hosted WordPress to keep track), and I get good pinning activity for some of my tutorials, I still get very few comments (even from my subscribers). I’m a community kind of gal, so I’d love to have more interaction with my readers. I’m going to try your poll suggestion. Maybe there’s something that my readers need that I haven’t considered.

You are to be commended for giving so much quality information to your readers. I’m a new fan!

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    jeni says

    Hi Shannon, thanks for your comment! If you try the poll, I’d love to hear how it goes. Please stop back by and tell me about the results!

    Warmly,
    Jeni

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Barb says

Thanks so much Jeni for all of the information you have posted on your blog!! My on-line purse store will be opening within in the month and a lot of your tips will definitely help me to get my business going!!

Yours Truly,
Your new Pinterest and Twitter follower!!

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Jayme Madden says

What a perfect post to stumble upon! I am just building my blog lovers (aka audience, fans, stalkers – ha ha kidding) and I was brainstorming about ways to get followers and comments! It is a lonely world when you’re posting with no comments:(. Thank you for sharing, I will try some of these tips!

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    jeni says

    Glad you find it useful, Jayme. I’d love to hear how it turns out for you!

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Kala says

I’m loving your blog! I just found it today and have wasted WAY too much of my work day on here! I’ve also added multiple new plugins from your posts and just added Comment Reply Notification to the list! Thanks!

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Alicia Walker says

Wow, this was very informative I will have to try this my blog has cobwebs .

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    jeni says

    Cobwebs – ha! Thanks for your comment, Alicia. If you try some of these ideas, I’d love to see how it turns out for you. 🙂

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Jason Venter says

Hilariously (to me), this post is a great way to get engagement and responses, to grow your community a tiny bit more. And of course, that’s because it follows the advice in your own post. I agree with what you’re saying, too; community building definitely is the key to a lot of comments, but sometimes it’s difficult to build the community if you barely have anyone visiting in the first place. These tips are great once you have dozens or maybe hundreds or thousands of people reading each article, but in the meantime what do you do?

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    jeni says

    Hi Jason, thanks for your thoughtful comment. You’re right, most of these tips would make you look foolish if you don’t have a lot of readers. There are two things I would do here: first (and most importantly, for a blog with a tiny following!), stop displaying your “posted-on” dates. If you’re focused on writing evergreen content that will still be fresh and useful five years from now, then you want anyone who happens on your site to feel like they’re finding timely advice. (You’ll notice I’ve done that on my blog, even though I have a larger following.) You want new people who stop by to think that perhaps you’ve just published the post they’re reading, so they feel like a comment they leave will be relevant. Second, I would make sure to continue to invite comments on each post. I created a graphic for my blog that shows up as my post signature. It says, “Warmly, Jeni. P.S. Please leave a comment – they make me smile.” I’m careful to engage new people who come by, to make sure they feel welcomed and as though I’ll actually be listening (and I am!) when they leave their comment. I’ve had to think on this one for a few days…it’s obviously a sensitive issue when you’re just starting out. Hope it helps! And thanks again for visiting. 🙂 ~Jeni

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Ahmed Tarek says

Hi Jeni, thanks for this great post. I was really wondering how to encourage my blog (http://developmentsimplyput.blogspot.com/) visitors to comment and share feedback and your post gave me some ideas to work on. Thanks 🙂

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    jeni says

    I’m glad it was useful, Ahmed. If you apply some of these strategies, I’d love to hear how it goes for you, so please stop back by!

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K.T. says

Your suggestion to use the “Comment Reply Notification” feature is brilliant. Thanks for sharing your insights.

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Cortney D says

Hi Jeni,
Thanks for all these great articles. I just started blogging and these are helpful tips… though now I’m a little worried that I should have gone with WordPress instead of Blogger! I followed a pin to your site and now I’ve been here for an hour reading one helpful article after another. 🙂

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    jeni says

    Hi Cortney, I won’t lie – there are definitely advantages to blogging on self-hosted WordPress, but I still think Blogger is a fine place to start. After all, it’s hard to argue with free! 🙂 If you decide to move to WordPress later, that’s always a possibility, but for now it’s probably good to get your feet under you where you are. I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog – hope to see you here for awhile!

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Julie Jones says

I’m finding your blog so helpful. I love all the handy wordpress plug ins you provided in this post. It really does spruce up my site. Thank you so much Jeni!

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Kevin Kao says

It’s funny how much I can relate to the “take a stance” point right now. I recently took a stance on an–apparently much more controversial than I thought–issue about commercial music studios and independent piano studios. However, all the stirring is happening at another really big piano forum because somebody posted a link to my post there.

Also, from one of your comment replies, so THAT’S why I some of the big blogs I visit don’t include posted dates. Thanks! Haha.

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Leslie says

Thanks for the tips. I am finding that people comment more often on the Facebook link then the actual post. Not sure why this is though. How do you gently encourage them to comment on the blog?

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    jeni says

    Hi Leslie, if you find that most of the discussion is taking place on your Facebook page, then that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it can be helpful if you ask a question right there, at the end of your post so that they feel compelled to answer it immediately and not go back to Facebook to leave their comments. The other thing is to make sure that the links you’re leaving on Facebook are going directly to that one post (not to the whole blog) because that way, when they get to the bottom of the post, the comments form is right there at the bottom and they don’t have to go through extra steps to get to it. Hope this helps!

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Michelle says

This has been very insightful. I think I am much too small at this stage to encourage sponsorship which is the keyword I search under to find you. however some of your other tips are helpful, to encourage comments and grow my blog. I have never heard of comment luv and an very curious how it works

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Anna says

This is really great, and I’ve installed some of the plugins you mentioned. I’m so glad to have found your site. Thanks for all the terrific articles!

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Lori @ A Bright and Beautiful Life says

Hello. I really appreciate all of the information you are sharing on your blog. I’m new to blogging {about 4 months} and I have a lot to learn. Your tutorials on sidebar images and all of your shared knowledge of how to get and keep readers reading have been so helpful. Thank you. I’m subscribed and will check in often. Have a great day.

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David Nickell says

Hi, Jeni,

I have to be honest here. I have an ulterior motive, namely to test Recommendation No. 5 about commentluv. It sounds like a great suggestion. (It hooked me, as you can see.)

Other great suggestions as well. I intend to try to some of them. They sound promising.

Comments are the lifeblood of a blog. They prove not only that people are reading what you write but that they care about it. And the interaction and discussion are just added bonuses.

One thing I’ve done, with rather limited success, is to ask people with some impressive credentials to leave a comment. These are people I know, in some cases only in passing. While it didn’t create a domino effect of more comments, it gave me some nice endorsements to use on Pinterest.

I truly appreciate not only the ideas you present but the how-to’s of implementing them. I will be reading a lot more.

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    jeni says

    Hi David, thanks for your note – despite the ulterior motives. 🙂 I think that once a blog has a healthy amount of interaction in the comments, it helps feed the blog’s further growth and success. That’s one reason I’m not big on incorporating Facebook into your blog – people tend to leave their comments there instead of right on your blog posts. Also, people want their comments to link back to their blogs, and not to their Facebook profiles. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts!

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Sonia says

Hi Jeni,

Just wanted to say a HUGE thanks for all your wonderful support, advice and tips. I have just spent a very enjoyable morning trawling through your blog in search of the all the answers I need to run a better blog! Thank you thank you thank you, you have an avid new fan!

:)) Sonia XxX

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Natalie Dalpias says

I really want to see comment luv work.

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    jeni says

    Hi Natalie, here you go – should be working now. 🙂

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Pam says

Great content! I’m pretty new to blogging and need all the help I can get. Thank you for sharing all the great info!
~Pam~

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2 Sisters Recipes says

HI Jeni!
I have to tell you that your tips and advise have been wonderful and so helpful to us. We can’t thank you enough!
Warmly,
Anna

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Morgan JT says

Thank you so much for the information!
This is extremely helpful.
I’m still very new to the blog and the website and even pinterest.

Have a great day 🙂

Morgan

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Angela Irving says

Jeni! Thanks for this post and your encouragement. I have been thinking about ways I can feature other bloggers work. I feel nervous about approaching someone or suggesting it. I would love to read a post about this.
xoxo Ang

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    jeni says

    Hi Angela, I’ve been thinking about your comment since you wrote it, and finally had a few thoughts to share. I don’t think any blogger would be offended or find it strange if you wanted to feature their work. I think that if your motives are pure and you genuinely just want to share someone’s great resources with your readers, they’d be happy to let you do it. There are some guiding principles here, though. If you’re thinking along the lines of asking for a guest post, most people who are out asking for guest posts do so because they’re approaching “bigger” bloggers and really just want the traffic. To make sure you’re not perceived as one of those people, here are a few things to think about: (1) Are you content to point your readers to the content on the other person’s blog, or do you want the content to be published on your own blog? Either way, you need to work this out ahead of time. (2) Are you planning to use images from the other person’s blog? Definitely need permission. (3) Are you wanting to feature work the blogger has already done, or were you wanting fresh content to feature?

    My own work has been featured on several dozen other bloggers’ sites, but almost always in the “right” way. That is, they’ve found something useful here and just wanted to tell others about it, so they mentioned what the resource is, how they used it and the results they got, and then linked people to the post on my blog. This is always appreciated, and I always stop by the blog to thank the writer personally. I also get requests to guest post on other blogs a lot, and while I always decline the requests (I’m too busy doing other things right now!), it never offends me. But if you do want to work with other bloggers, make sure you focus on finding a benefit for THEM. This is the way everyone grows and everyone wins. 🙂

    Just my $0.02 here – hope it helps.

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Paulette says

Thank you for sharing all this great information.
It is appreciated.
Paulette

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    jeni says

    You’re welcome, Paulette. Glad you found it useful. 🙂

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John says

Hey Jeni,

Thank you for sharing this post, there are some great tips for me to build my blog, if fact there are quite a few posts here that will help me. I like your number one tip, I call it ‘blog hopping’ and I think people are compelled to return the favor!

Best regards

John.

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Nandini Rathi says

Loved this quote Jeni – “The blogging world is fueled by generosity of spirit. Expect to give long before you get anything back.”

The concept of building a community on blogs started with comments. And most of the times, bloggers/publishers fail to realize the effort taken by their readers to leave a comment on their website.
Sharing, Liking, Tweeting are one-click actions and don’t require effort on a readers’ part. But it takes time to leave a valuable comment.
I have also shared my thoughts on building a community in comments: http://www.betaout.com/blog/the-art-of-building-communities-through-comments/

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joanne says

Great post. And definitely you know what your talking about by all the COMMENTS! My blog is only a few weeks old and pretty bare, but I’ve changed my comment widget a couple times.
There seems to be so many choices. May I ask which you use? It looks very sharp. I like the addition of the twitter user name up top? Do you think a facebook log in can be added or when does it get to become too much for the commenter? I would like to make my comments as accessable as possible.

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Noorain says

Hey Jeni,

You are truly generous for sharing such great ideas and helping all fellow blogger’s. Believe me in my mind out of 5 questions about blogging queries you must have answered almost all 5 here and Thank You for that and please do keep writing and spreading the generosity 🙂

xx
Noor

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    jeni says

    I’m so glad you’re finding it helpful, Noor. Lots more great stuff to come, so stay tuned… 🙂

    Warmly,
    Jeni

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Sara Lewinski says

How Jeni! Thanks so much for all of your wonderful tips. I have only been blogging for about 3 months now and have previously viewed your posts about building your site traffic through Pinterest. In the last week I have been putting your advice into practice and it has been working wonderfully! Thank you so much for all your help! It is greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Sara

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Rosemary says

I’ve just found your blog and I have been devouring everything! I have already done the spring cleaning (winter cleaning? haha) on my Pinterest and I have made some changes for the better (much better!) on my blog. Today, I’ve just made a quick video asking my readers to comment and give me their opinions on a video that I’m planning to make doing a tour of my apartment here in Ukraine and answering questions. I am so excited! Now, I just hope that people will respond. 🙂 It’s slightly nerve wracking! In any case, thank you, thank you a million times over for what you do and all your hard work. You clearly put a lot of time and effort into it and it is hugely appreciated. I’ll keep you posted! Thanks again!

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    jeni says

    Thanks so much for your kind words, Rosemary. I’m glad you’re here. 🙂

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A Romantic Porch says

Thank you Jeni for this helpful advice. I just found your blog today and I am anxious to look at several of your posts. I have been trying to figure out how to grow my blog and give it a NEW look the first of the year, I am not very good with technical computer stuff, so what I have read has been very helpful. I am also wanting to see how the commentluv thing works. Thank you for taking time to post. I have pinned your post to my pinterest board “Blogging Tips”!
Rachel

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Danielle Jenkins says

Hi Jeni!
Thanks so much for this post. I can’t lie, I’ve been a pretty lazy blogger. I need to get focused and organized and then work on the things you listed here. Do you recommend WordPress over all the other website hosts? I’m currently on blogger, but I’ve never been overly happy with it. I’m actually not sure why I’ve stuck around on it for so long. Lol but I’ve been searching for the last week trying to decide where to move my blog to. Unfortunately I have no subscribers, but about 2000 page views, so I’m not too worried about switching over and losing anything.

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    jeni says

    Hi Danielle, I definitely recommend WordPress – almost 20% of websites worldwide are powered by WordPress, and it’s possible to do anything from delivering online courses to selling items from a shop straight from your blog. I wrote a little more about why WordPress rocks here on my site. That said, make sure that if you do move, you go ahead and create a hosted website where you’re paying a low monthly fee to host your files and NOT the free wordpress.com. WordPress.com doesn’t really buy you many advantages over Blogspot for the long term. Hope this helps!

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Catie McClure says

What a great article! Just what I needed to get my blogs and those of my clients on track this year. I am experiencing so much interest in the blogging arena and this article gives Wonderful go-to guidelines.

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Cassandra says

Hi, Thank you for all the great information, I always enjoy visiting your blog.

Have a great day!

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Lauren says

I’m seriously loving your advice. As a new blogger it’s a lifesaver to have so many resources all in one place. Thank you!

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Akhil K A says

Really enjoyed your article, and these tips are very helpful for getting more interactions from users.

Thanks.

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Heather says

Love all your tips, thanks so much for sharing! I have a question… I’ve been looking for a customizable comment reply email, that can be used when people post comments on my blog. I installed comment email reply plugin. It works, but the email it sends back in response is pretty standard and I can’t change it. Do you recommend any other plugin to notify my readers when I respond to their comments?

Thanks so much!
Heather

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    jeni says

    Hi Heather, there’s another plugin called “Comment Reply Notification” (it’s the one I use) and it allows you to customize what the email itself will say when it goes out to your commenters. When you install it, it’s off by default, but you just need to check a box that says to notify people “whenever anyone replies to their comment.” Hope this helps!

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      Heather says

      Thanks for the info, I added the comment reply notification plug-in. Everything works great, minus one question… do you know where I can change the email these automated replies come from? Mine are defaulting to a bluehost email account. Your email reply shows Biz Mavens and I want mine to do the same with my blog name, not an automated email address (sadly showing a bluehost email). Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

      Heather

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J.T. Smith says

Those are 12 fantastic tips.

For another one, I think making a sort of game out of your comments is a good way to get return visitors. This is easy if you use a platform such as disqus, because they keep track of the number of comments each person makes and allows their comments to be shared individually and upvoted.

Implementing the “game” atmosphere smoothly is difficult though. I’m trying it on my blog by wording my call-to-actions at the end of each post in a competitive manner.

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Mark Barnes says

I guess you know a lot about engagement. Wow! You get hundreds of comments. I’m going to try lots of these. Tell me, what comment feature do you recommend. I’m using LiveFyre with very little luck. Thanks.

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    jeni says

    Hi Mark, I use CommentLuv premium, just with native WordPress comments.

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Maggie says

Thank you for these tips. I’ve been struggling with this on my personal blog as well as my cooking one. It’s nice to get comments and I know I need to be better at commenting too. I also really liked number 9 – Bad days happen to everyone or even just bad moments. It’s too easy to want to be perfect and to only show that side of you!
Thanks again.

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Angela says

Hi Jeni – I’m new to blogging this year and my first attempt at a blog hasn’t spurred much comment love. I’m working to correct that and relaunch with the vision of building a genuine community. Thank you for this post. I’ve pinned it to go through again later and I signed up for the newsletter. I’m excited to see more of your material. -Angela

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    Jeni Elliott says

    Thanks, Angela – glad you’re finding it useful. Welcome!

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Ian says

Hi Jeni,
As a first time visitor I’m happy I’ve found your site. I will be trying some of the things you suggest with my own blog. A question for you… are any of the plugins you mention work with Blogger blog?

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    Jeni Elliott says

    Hi Ian, unfortunately, Blogger doesn’t allow people to use plugins – neither does wordpress.com (the other free blogging platform). Only self-hosted WordPress lets you extend the functionality of your site with plugins…which is why all serious bloggers eventually make the switch to self-hosted WordPress.

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      Ian says

      First, I apologize for the poor grammar in my first comment. I have to learn to slow down on the post button. Secondly, thanks for you reply. I figured that was the case. For what I’m doing so far I’m quite happy without a lot of plugins etc to manage. I too have signed up for your newsletter. Ian

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Timothy B. Miller says

Interesting post Jeni, it always help to get more comments on ones blog! Makes it look busy and Google likes it too. Thanks for sharing a educational post here. -Tim♫

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preeti says

Insightful post Jeni:) Actually very helpful for a new blogger like me:) Thanks so much.

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Lina says

This is so insightful! Thanks for sharing, will try these tips out on my blog, blogger doesn’t allow me disable the captcha code and I think it’s making my readers not leave comments, any tip on how to get past that?

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    Jeni Elliott says

    Hi Lina,

    Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with Blogger enough to tell you, but I did find this tutorial that might help. Honestly, having better control over your comments is one reason many bloggers end up switching over to WordPress. Hope that link will point you in the right direction!

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Kimberley says

Still in the research and development stage of my new blog and I’ve read so many blogs on blogging and ebooks on blogging it was becoming confusing. I’m so relieved I happened to find your site tonight. I love that each post is so straight forward. You get right to the heart of each topic, providing honest, useful information and terrific implementation tools. I found the filet mignon of blogs! Too bad I had to ingest so many PB&J’s before I finding you!

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    Jeni Elliott says

    Ha! PB&Js 🙂 So glad you’re finding it helpful, Kimberley. A lot of what bloggers do is on-the-job training, but it does help to go in with a good plan. Wishing you a great experience getting started!

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Lillian Hallberg says

Very helpful! I am enjoying my Rejuvenatement (not retirement), taking poetry classes and now posting on a poetry/photography blog I’ve created. While I’m not in it to rack up hundreds of followers, it would be nice to have a few more and more comments. As I’ve always said since my children were young, “Use your words”…..and now, I find I’m paying close attention to the moniker! Your suggestions are very helpful —

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    Lillian Hallberg says

    well….somehow my blog address is not visible. https://lillianthehomepoet.wordpress.com

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    Jeni Elliott says

    Glad you found it helpful, Lillian! I hope you find success with working through a few of these strategies for getting more comments. 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment here, as well!

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Halima Khatun says

Hi, great tips! I defo agree about a not-so-perfect or off topic post! This worked well for me when I wrote an article about getting conned in the street. So many people responded with similar stories.

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Marianne says

I love reading this blog. It keeps inspiring me to work on my style of blog-posts. I’ll definitely start incorporating blogs with questions in the near future!

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Jaizy says

Hello, Jeni!
This article is the first of your many articles I read.
I’m researching something on google and stumbled on your blog. Awesome Blog, I must say! Thank God, I found a blog that’s full of useful tips especially for new bloggers like me. Thank you for sharing what you know! I’m now one of your many followers and count me in as your fan as well. 🙂
All the Best, Jeni!
By the way, I now use commentluv, as well.

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    Jeni Elliott says

    Glad you’re getting a lot out of the blog, Jaizy. Welcome. 🙂

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Antony says

This is awesome..really useful indeed.

Thanks
Antony
Piping-Info

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Amanda says

Wow! I just stumbled onto your site, and it’s super helpful. I get pretty decent, sometimes great, reader interaction, but they’re leaving the blog to post on my Facebook page. I’ll take what I can get, but I’d love to build community outside of Facebook.

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shoaib says

Thank you for sharing this with us and keep going with all of your efforts to help people!!
https://twitter.com/newspaper_cat/status/583015267229265920

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Faye Kroese says

This is some great stuff!! I love all the ideas. I really liked the idea to just come out and ask who our readers are. I have been wanting to get to know those who read my blog but was unsure how to go about it. Thank you again!!

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Francis says

Thanks a lot. It’s also a great challenge for a blog I manage urbanview.ng. You’d think after all the hard work, one would get a comment or two. That would at least be something

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Hanuman says

Hello!

I really enjoyed this post but the thing is that I already do all those things and yet no one comments. It got to a point where I don’t even want to blog anymore. I have about 50 people per day reading my blog. However, none of them comments

What should I do?

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Jan-Wilhelm says

You recommend to use the comment reply notification as plugin. However when I followed the specific link, WordPress told me it is outdated and not serviced for about 2 years now. I don’t know if there is an alternative now? Maybe you can tell me? Other then that I think i can build my community a bit further with the tips you wrote!

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    Jeni Elliott says

    Hi Jan-Wilhelm, Comment Reply Notification hasn’t been updated in awhile, but that’s because the code is so basic, it doesn’t need an update. Your best bet is to install, use, and if it ever stops working, find another solution then. 🙂

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Natacha says

Very helpful post! I just discovered you, so I’ll have to check out your other posts

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Munna Hossain says

Helpful article. This tips must help me to get more comments on my posts. Thanks for sharing.

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Jean | DelightfulRepast.com says

Jeni, love these tips. No matter how many comments I get, I always want more! 😀 From the beginning of my blog, I’ve tried to reply to every comment and, if the commenter is a blogger, visit his/her blog and leave a comment. I wasn’t thinking about growing my blog at that point, I just thought it was the polite thing to do. And I’ve built quite a community from it. It’s been rather amazing. I’m looking forward to reading more of your blog.

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Kali says

With havin so much written content do you ever run into any issues of plagorism or
copyright violation? My site has a lot of exclusive content
I’ve either created myself or outsourced but it seems a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without
my authorization. Do you know any solutions to help prevent content from being stolen? I’d really
appreciate it.

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Jenny Coacher says

Thank you so much for this valuable post.Keep updating new post.

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Paykasa says

I really liked my wordpress guests very much

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Alex says

Thanks for sharing this. Love idea #10, Request ideas for posts. Sometimes we’re too into our heads that we forget what really matters – the audience. Let them tell us what they want instead of us telling them what we want them to hear.

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