Have you ever noticed how some bloggers get consistently high levels of comments on almost all articles that they write? If you are not getting similar levels of comments, you may assume that it is a matter of post quality or traffic numbers. But what if you read their posts and they do not appear superior to your own? And what if you take a quick look at their Alexa or compete ranking and the problem does not appear to be one of traffic?
If this is the case, chances are that they are just better at sparking conversation with what they post. There are many ways of sparking a debate when posting on your blog and you can easily learn to do so just as effectively.
Surprisingly increasing comments is not always a matter of writing better posts or even increasing your traffic. I will now outline seven ways of sparking debate and increasing comments on your blog.
Make a Statement
This is probably the biggest mistake bloggers make when it comes to low levels of commenting. Nobody will comment on a post that sees both sides of an argument. Every post that you write should be packed full of opinion. By giving your readers your opinion, you are inviting them to either agree or disagree with you. On the other hand, a post that states two contradicting possibilities as having equal merit leaves nothing to be added.
Be Negative (in moderation)
Whether it is right or wrong, posts that paint a product or service in a negative light tend to garner more comments. And while it would be unethical to discuss a good product or service negatively for the sake of comments, when you find something that you do not like, post about it. You will be rewarded with both comments thanking you for your honesty, not to mention a wealth of people who disagree with your opinion.
Respond to Any Comments That You Are Getting
There are two reasons why this is so important. For a start, you are rewarding the readers who have already commented and encouraging them to do so again by telling them that their comment and opinion is appreciated. Secondly, you are telling other readers that you will respond to them if they comment.
One important guideline for responding is to make your response specific to the comment. Bloggers don’t like generic comments and readers don’t like generic responses.
Don’t be a Know it All
Although providing useful tips and tricks is one of the key aspects of any successful blog, asking for tips and tricks in return is one of the key aspects in getting more comments. Therefore whenever you write a guide or tutorial on a particular topic, ask your readers if they have anything that they would like to add on the subject.
The advantage of this is that you are not only gaining comments, you are also making your blog more informative on that particular topic.
Failure Has Advantages Over Success
Many bloggers naturally enjoy writing about their particular successes in a specific area. There is nothing wrong with doing this but the strange thing is that readers are generally more likely to comment on posts about your failure to achieve a specific goal. Posts about failure invite comments of commiserations, comments on how you can achieve your goal in the future and even comments demonstrating empathy.
Never be afraid to write about failure, for some reason people enjoy reading and commenting about it.
Write Shorter Posts
One key thing to remember about comments is that people generally only make them after finishing your article. If your posts are over the five hundred word mark, you may unwittingly be causing your readers to finish reading half way through. If you can pack all of that information into a three hundred word post, more readers are likely to finish your article and subsequently leave a comment. The other advantage of course is that you can write posts more frequently.
This of course is not necessary every time. Long posts have their perks too, and many if I may say.
Surprise Your Readers
One guaranteed way of getting people to comment on your blog is to catch them off guard. Perhaps you frequently write in a specific style or generally take a specific stance on certain topics. Write a post that is completely different to anything that you have written before or even go as far as contradicting what you wrote about something in the past.
While, you cannot constantly flip flop if you want to keep your readers respect, the occasional reversal is both interesting and comment inducing.