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Home » The Famous Blog » 5 Reasons Why You Should Answer Your Readers’ Comments

5 Reasons Why You Should Answer Your Readers’ Comments

August 29, 2010 - Last Modified: August 29, 2010 by Tran Tinh

Answer Your Readers

How is your feeling when your comments on other blogs have never been answered? Do you feel disappointed when you see other comments answered but not yours? That is a very popular question that can never be solved if bloggers do not understand the importance of answering all readers’ comments.

I have seen a lot of blogs with hundred of comments and most of them were responded even with a “Thank you” from either blog author or owner. However, there are many bloggers who rarely or even never respond to their readers’ comments. There are many reasons that they have never answered their readers’ comments. However, in terms of relationship, traffic and brand building strategy, answering your readers’ comments seems to be a MUST as below:

Respect your readers:

You should respect your readers’ feedbacks and comments even they are not relevant to your posts. Your readers come to your blog for many reasons; however, as an author of the post, you should pay attention to their ideas & concerns. This will show that you are passionate about what you share in your posts.

Naturally, most of us feel happy when our comments and feedbacks get responded by authors and we would then like to come back in the future. But, what happens if your comments remain unanswered all the time? Will you think the blog you leave comments on is an auto-blog?

Relationships building:

Interaction with your readers is among great methods to build up good relationships. Content is the king but it is a king without power. Relationships should be considered power of the king. How to do this? You can interact with your readers by answering their comments or debating with them on some controversial issues of the posts.

The best way to create a good debate is to give a question at the end of each post for your readers’ brainstorming. I have seen a lot of bloggers who have successfully done with this method. Why not you?

Boost your blog traffic:

If you respect your readers by answering all of their comments, they will trust you for sure. They will likely have some relationships with you sooner or later. That means they will come back or even linking to your posts and bring more traffic and backlinks to your blogs too.

Looking at Famous Bloggers blog, there have been a lot of blogs linking to its articles as reference and I am sure that it has received a lot of traffic too.

Increase trust with readers:

With that said, your readers will trust you and they will believe on what you share now and then. How great if your readers trust you? There are a lot of benefits that you will receive from this point.

I just want to give you an example: When Darren Rowse and John Chow introduce a product/service for their readers; there must have been a lot of fans who are willing to buy or sign up. You can see ProBlogger monthly revenue proportion to see how big his ebooks sale and affiliate commission is. That is because his readers trust him!

How he has created a great relationships and trust with his readers? The number of 150k feed readers say it all!

Make money:

As I said in the “trust” part, you will likely have opportunities to make some extra money from referring your readers to use services. However, if you want to convince your readers use your affiliate links to buy products of your recommendations, you should show them that you are a reliable blogger.

To be a reliable blogger, there are many things to do and answering your their comments can be one of them.

Your comments and feedbacks are highly appreciated!

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Filed Under: Blog Comments

About Tran Tinh

Follow @azblogtips

Tran Tinh is a disabled blogger from Vietnam who can make over $2,000 per month from blogging. He is blogging at Affiliate Marketing Tips and you can visit his blog to see how he has done a great job with affiliate marketing.

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{ 110 Responses }

  1. Rae says:
    What you say are really true. I like this post. comment from the reader are mostly ignored.
    • Tinh says:
      Thanks for your comment :-)
  2. Michel Marques says:
    I understand when people with 50 comments for post don't answer comments, I really do. But blogs with 2 or 3 comments? Come on. I can't understand why these bloggers have comments enabled.
    • Dennis Edell says:
      As someone who's regularly received high double to triple digit comments on different blogs, I just say, don't let them pile up first and it's fine.
  3. Kharim says:
    No matter the case I always try my very best to reply to my comments as soon as possible. If you don't reply to your readers it's like shouting in a cave and listening for your echo and nothing happens. Your readers need to know that you care about them and one way to do this is be having respect by replying to their comments. Great post :)
  4. John Paul says:
    Tran..Great post man. You are so right,, it is all about conversation, relationship building and in a blog.. the comments is the only place to have that back n forth dialog. It takes minutes to reply to a comment, but with a huge resturn
    • Tran Tinh says:
      Thanks @John. Long time no see :-)
      • John Paul says:
        Anytime man. I know. I been busy,, but I'm around looking haha I see you Tran..
  5. Usama says:
    The real question is, is there any reason why anyone shouldn't answer their readers comments. Because replying to comments does you good in every way. Thanks.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      You are right @USAMA. Thanks for your comment, I feel happy replying to my blog comments too :-)
  6. vincent says:
    This is a great article. Thank you very much. I do have one question. When I do reply from within my blog is there any way that the visitor receives this comment other than returning to my blog? Does the visitor get a prompt in their email that a response was given. Again thanks for this excellent article. blessings Fr. Vincent
    • Tran Tinh says:
      Yes, I know there are several plugins that will notify the commentators when there is any reply to his/her comments. You can try ReplyMe or Subscribe to comments
      • vincent says:
        Thanks for the reply I was not certain that those who willingly left comments on my blog were being notified that I had indeed responded to their comments, thanks to all who responded. vincent
  7. pandora says:
    of a reply to a comment I left. I think there are still a lot of bloggers out there that reply to comments w/in their own blog
    • Tran Tinh says:
      They did and they also got success from what they did too :-)
  8. Udegbunam Chukwudi says:
    Responding to your commenters could help increase your blog's comment count and in so doing make your blog look even more popular ;-)
    • Tinh says:
      This is just a small effect but you are right, responding to comments can benefit you more than making your blog look popular LOL
  9. Joy says:
    Tran, that was just what I needed. I was recently contemplating whether I should start responding more to my commenter’s. I have noticed that the writers here on this blog do a really good job of responding so I guess I should do the same for my site. If it works for you then it should work for me, right?
    • Tinh says:
      Hi Joy, sorry for my late response but I did miss this. I must say that it would definitely work for you and any other bloggers too :-)
  10. Alan Mater says:
    Hi Tran, I couldn't agree more. Getting replies to my comments encourages me to come back again as it makes me feel welcome. I practice the same on my own blog as I want my readers to feel welcome and realize that I appreciate them taking the time to stop by and leave a comment. It's common courtesy when you think about it. Great article.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      That is also why all comments on my blog are replied on time ore a bit late but I have not missed any so far. Hope to keeping doing this in the future too :-)
  11. Harsh Agrawal says:
    Replying to comment is the 2nd part in 6 sphere of social media marketing. That is engaging users in conversation.. Initially I used to reply to each and every comment but now I hardly get time to reply to all comments..So I try to reply to those comment which has a comment ....Else I let my community to answer or reply other questions.!!
    • Rohit says:
      @ Harsh At the earlier stage you replied all comments and now you have build one community on your blog and I think this community is helping each other by replying comments. Now you are enjoying your earlier hard work.
      • Tran Tinh says:
        You are absolutely right @Robit, it takes time with right strategy too
    • Tran Tinh says:
      It takes time to get others reply instead of blog owner but it is not at the beginning. You have done a great job so far :-)
  12. Dean Saliba says:
    Replying to my reader's comments is very important to me, they took the time to leave a comment so the least I can do it spend a minute and reply. :)
    • Rohit says:
      Totally agree with you and nice thought. This is like they are guest and you are welcoming them.
      • Tran Tinh says:
        I do agree with you on this point too :-)
    • Tran Tinh says:
      That is what we should do, however, we can encourage other readers to reply to comments for us in case we can not :-)
  13. Mani Viswanathan says:
    Building a better relationship on the internet is pretty imp. And I keep coming to this blog & commenting because I know my comment will most probably have a reply :) Love the reply stuff in here.
    • Tinh says:
      That is why I decided to guest post here regularly :-) Thanks friend
    • bryan says:
      hey mani, totally agree with you. I think this blog is where you will most likely get replies for every comment made
      • Rohit says:
        Yes ... this is very friendly environment here ... and its like we are talking to each other. One blog where you will get reply for your comment is quicksprout.com. This is Neil Patel's blog
        • Tran Tinh says:
          That is why I guest blog here and I will never be afraid of being lonely here too :-)
  14. ZK says:
    I answer to all comments like I am talking with them. This certainly gives comfort to my readers and they come again and again ... and when they come again ... I welcome them.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      That means they will be your friends sooner or later. I make a lot of friends from replying to my readers' comments too :-)
  15. Colleen says:
    Also, I've noticed that those who answer reader's comments have a plethora of links coming back to their site. I guess a selfish reason, but certainly a motivation to respond to each and every comment left.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      That is also a good way for link building regardless of nofollow or dofollow :-)
      • Colleen says:
        I agree Tran. Plus a guest poster can really create a name for himself/herself through replying to reader's comments. Almost all the blogs I regularly visit are result of guest posts, and/or comments.
        • Tran Tinh says:
          That is also a good way for personal branding too. Do you think so?
          • Colleen says:
            Totally agree Tran. Especially a blog like this one. There are a lot of folks who visit here.
  16. Brian says:
    Another important aspect of comments is the fact that they still play a part in SEO. Search engines look for changed or added content when crawling a site, which is exactly what blog comments are. Having the ability to drop in a few of your targeted keywords here and there is just another added benefit of being responsive.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      I forgot this point. I can't agree more on this as comments will notify Google about your post updates too :-) Thanks @Brian
      • Rohit says:
        Yes ... this is add on benefit. Because of spam problem many blog owners are not providing do follow links juice. But through this kind of blog we can get the recognition to world at large.
        • Tran Tinh says:
          I guess Google is not taking both backlinks then nofollow disabled is not a good idea as you will loose many things rather than PR :-)
  17. AJ says:
    And not only is it important to respond to your commentators but also ask them questions - it's your blog so if discussions aren't happening naturally it is your job to get them started
    • Tran Tinh says:
      You are right !AJ. You can answer their comments by raising a question so they will come back and join our discussion too. Great idea, thanks
  18. Julius says:
    I agree with you here Tinh. You must reply to comments. And at least you must try to reply all comments. I mean it can happen that you don't reply to every single comment still you should try to. Your readers will feel disrespected if you don't answer their questions.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      Thanks Julius. I did not mean to reply to all comments but we should if we can as all commentators love see their comments answered :-)
  19. Dennis Edell says:
    I've been a screaming advocate since day 1, you must reply to comments! However, you mentioned a couple things above, that are not entirely true... 1. "You should respect your readers’ feedbacks and comments even they are not relevant to your posts." Oh? Irrelevant usually means they didn't even read the post. Why should I respect them, if they first disrespect me? Irrelevant comments get deleted. 2. Darren Rowse and John Chow: Are you serious? Not only does Rowse NOT respond to comments, he was one of a few "pro-bloggers" to state publicly, "comment reply's are a waste of time." I don't think Chow does either. 3. "Thank you" replies. I no longer respond with just a thank you. You also have to think about ALL the other commenters, especially the ones subscribing to comments. It can get VERY irritating receiving 100 or more "useless" emails with simply a "thanks for commenting" reply. Know what I mean? Everything else is spot on, good tips man. :)
    • Tran Tinh says:
      Hi Dennis, your comments are always welcome and I think I need to reply to your each point in this comment as below: 1. Irrelevant comments are defined by different concepts, you have your own concepts for what comments are relevant and irrelevant. I do not always consider "Thank you" or "Thanks for great post" irrelevant. On the readers' side, they might not have ideas to share and just want to appreciate your post. It should not always be considered spams and deleted. However, I keep an eye on that commentator to see whether such kind of messages happen again and surely remove it if it is intentional to get backlink without reading the post :-) 2. To some high profile bloggers like Darren and John Chow, they are too popular and they have a lot of work to do rather than replying to every single comments. However, I have observed their post and seen that a lot of readers replied instead of the blog owners. To do this, they have worked hard at the beginning to build relationships and trust with their readers. What happen if they have only 100 RSS readers? They still replied to some valued comments too. I did not mean we have to answer every single comments but we should in order to build relationships and trust with our readers. 3. "Thank you" should only be applied when you have nothing in mind to answer or you can leave that comment unanswered until you get new ideas to respond to it :-) Thanks Dennis !
      • Dennis Edell says:
        We'll have to agree to disagree Tran man. ;-) Any comment not of value is gone. 9 outa 10 lets say. As for "popular bloggers", as I replied above, As someone who’s regularly received high double to triple digit comments myself on different blogs, I just say, don’t let them pile up first and it’s fine.
    • Colleen says:
      "Oh? Irrelevant usually means they didn’t even read the post. Why should I respect them, if they first disrespect me? Irrelevant comments get deleted." Totally agree Dennis. It is proper etiquette to let the blogger know you have read the article by reflecting so in the comment. "Nice article," does not cut it with me and always gets deleted.
      • Tran Tinh says:
        I am not totally supportive of this point as everyone's comments should be respected to some extents. I myself sometimes visit my friends blogs but I did not know how to comment as it was just about something that I could not share my ideas then I could only say "Thanks for your updates...." It depends on what commentators's purposes to get it approved or deleted :-)
        • Colleen says:
          Yeah, but in your example you have a relationship established with your friends. A comment like you have mentioned would be ok, but the random visitor who leaves a "nice article" type comment is not right in my humble opinion.
        • Dennis Edell says:
          Agreed with Colleen, friends don't count in this matter. ;-)
  20. Shiva says:
    Hey there Tran, You are so much right with this post. Replying to comment is an essential thing for every blogger. I too most of the time reply to all of my comments. Even though for the last month due to some personal problems I have been hardly able to reply to the comments that my blog posts (not even mine, the guest blog posts) are getting and I really feel guilty and bad about it.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      You should not feel guilty about that as not all comments are answered all the time, however, you can answer them in the next post too :-) My intention was that you should not leave your readers' comment unanswered all the time
  21. Tom Baker says:
    I think this is great information. I feel bad when my comments go unanswered and I've looked over my blog and there are occasions where I have ignored (not purposely) comments. I will try to do much better because I want more traffic and more return traffic.
    • Tinh says:
      I tried to answer all comments as I can or delay for several days if I was busy. That was good way to build up relationships and gain more traffic too :-)
  22. Abhishek says:
    Hi Tinh The points you make are awesome and must follow by every blogger .I always keep above points in mind when I use to reply to comments or even to contact someone. Thanks For Sharing Them -Abhishek
  23. Lena & Dima says:
    Your readers will treat you the way you treat them! Love your readers and they will love you. This is a 'simple' formula for success. L&D
    • Tran Tinh says:
      That is two ways effect and you are right!
  24. Alex Whalley says:
    Blogging is all about reciprocity and reply to comments is just the foundations to that! It's also a good thing to remember that you don't have to reply to comments every time either. Great post Tinh (bet you are making sure to reply to each comment onthis post LOL!) Take care
    • Tran Tinh says:
      You are right, but at least you should not make your readers think you are not responsive and it does not also mean you have to reply to all :-)
  25. Cindy says:
    Having people to comment on your blog shows they are interested in your topic, and its nice and polite to reply to them showing your appreciation. If my comments on other blogs dont get replied to, its fine... unless I make a follow up question about the topic, I would hopefully expect for an answer.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      That is also a great idea for following up questions in the topic but as you said, most of us expect immediate response for sure :-) Thanks
  26. chandan says:
    Yes it is very very beneficial to reply to the reader comment. It help us to drive more traffic on our blog. Reader more often come to our blog to see the reply of their comment.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      That is the last point of my post as it will finally benefit you when your readers trust you :-) Thanks
  27. George Serradinho says:
    One needs to repsond and build a good community around your blog/website. With more interaction, your community will increase and your blog/website popularity will to. It's also nice to get a response when you have left a comment, you know someone has read it.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      That will contribute to the development of the blogging community worldwide and everyone love seeing their comments responded too :-)Thanks @George
  28. Murlu says:
    One subconscious bonus to answering your comments is that when people look at the comment count and see there is a heavy amount of conversation going on they usually seem to chime in more often.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      You are right to this point as most of bloggers love leaving comments on posts with numbers of comments received already :-)
  29. Gino Dizon says:
    Replying to your readers' comments is very important indeed. It's shows them that your blog is not a robot. It shows them that you are also aware of their contributions. Also, another note is that you should also try to visit their site if needed be and comment to theirs as well. What a great post! Keep it up!
    • Tran Tinh says:
      That is what I intended to say in this article. There are many things more that response could bring you in the future :-) Thanks @Gino
      • Gino Dizon says:
        Your always welcome! And did I say that you have an awesome blog! Subscribed!
        • Tran Tinh says:
          Thanks as you liked it @Gino :-)
  30. element321 says:
    I noticed a lot of the design niche sites and a lot of guest bloggers tend not respond to comments. I remember on multiple occasions I would ask questions and others would ask questions the author and the website owners did not respond back to my to any of the questions. I remember on a post at least 20 different people asked questions and they didn't respond. Finally another reader had to step up and help us. I get tired of this and look for new sites, but it seems to be a trend in the design niche. For me, I try and answer all questions and respond to as many comments as I can. Sometimes it takes a few days, but I can still get to all of the comments.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      No matter how long you can respond to your readers' comments but it should not too long :-) The important thing is that you care about what you are telling you and how you can handle their questions. I have seen this issue too. Thanks friend!
  31. Tran Tinh says:
    You are right @Ashley, I love seeing my comments replied even with a "Thank you" from post author, that is why I come back for next time. I would recommend using ReplyMe and Subscribe to comments plugin to ease this process too. Thanks
  32. mijie says:
    of course when reader comment to your blog, they need a response from u and want to know either u are read their comment i believe when reader make a comment they need an apperiacite
    • Tran Tinh says:
      All of us need response, not only for an appreciation but also mean blog authors read their comments. You are absolutely right in this point :-)
  33. Tom Patterson says:
    It is important to reply to show appreciation for MEANINGFUL comments left. Ashley has a great point above.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      MEANINGFUL comments are always welcome but regular comments should also be answered too. What do you think?
  34. Tia Peterson says:
    Hey Tran! P.S. I just used your blog for some Thesis tips. :) I agree with you that there are benefits on both ends - for you and for your readers - when you respond to comments. I enjoy doing it. No one likes to feel like their responses are unacknowledged and just saying "Thank you" is such an easy thing to do. It makes a huge difference.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      Thanks @Tia for using my blog for thesis tips and I hope everyone can master thesis theme some days. I do agree that responsiveness is very important for both readers and blog author too and "Thank you" is a great way to do so when you can not answer them in details :-)
  35. Mike says:
    I find answering my readers comments is the best way to make a connect and start a conversation with them. I love to talk to people, discuss with them about things that I and they both care about. Besides that, I haven't thought about the reasons that you have listed in your post. They are interesting points :)
    • Tran Tinh says:
      Love talking with your readers shows that you are really passionate about what you are telling them and you are seeking for someone to discuss this too. Great way to build up relationships and more benefits to come soon. Thanks @Mike
  36. Catherine Lockey says:
    Thanks for the reminder. I think I make the mistake of thinking that I am the only one who diligently checks back to see if the blog owner "noticed" my comment. Of course, as a local expert, my local followers would want the same from me!
    • Tran Tinh says:
      Yes, that is why using notifier plugins on our blog can ease this process too :-) Thanks @catherine
  37. Steve says:
    Tran, you are absolutely right. Most of the information on specific blogs is "out there" somewhere in some way shape or form. People may start coming to your blog because they find some "ideas" interesting, but ultimately they keep coming because of the relationship they feel with you. In other words they come because they like you. It is possible to get someone to like you in a one sided "celebrity" way. But to get "big" enough as a blogger that many people come because of your "status" you have to get that status. The only really good way to do this is by building personal relationships.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      Content is the king but the king without power if he does not have relationships with his people! I do agree with you that interaction with our readers are extremely important to improve our blog authority :-) Thanks @Steve
  38. Imran Yousaf says:
    There is also another aspect of replying to the comments of your reader. By replying, we are actually giving them importance. They feel like we are listening to them and understanding their view. These things bring a feeling of being important and ultimately, they become permanent part of our blogs' community.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      That also means we really care about what they are saying and it helps us build up a good relationships with them too. Thanks
  39. Sajib says:
    I have faced so many blogs where I leave a comment and they remain unanswered for years. This totally discourages me to post further comments. I try to respond to all the comments I receive on my blog. Being unresponsive to the commentators of one's own blog looks like he or she doesn't care about the people who spend time reading his/her blog and commenting. Good post there.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      You are right @Sajib and I have seen so many blogs like that too. It is so bad when readers' comment never answered and I considered them dead/autoblog :-) Thanks
  40. Lennart Heleander says:
    Hi Tran Tinh, Great post. It’s important to answer the comments with all information you can give, positive and negative, it’s creating a good relationships. This is also a nice way to build up a sell trust.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      That is why I love reading the blogs that post authors are willing to respond to my comments :-) Thanks for your comment @Lennart
  41. Ileane says:
    Hey Tran, This is so true. Your reputation and credibility depend on your interaction and response to feedback is critical to your success. Thanks for the post!
    • Tran Tinh says:
      Thanks @Ileane for your comment. Most of high profile bloggers go from this way too :-)
  42. Ashley Pichea says:
    One of the things I like as a commenter is when I get a notification of a reply to a comment I left. I think there are still a lot of bloggers out there that reply to comments w/in their own blog, but if I forgot I left a comment (or where I left it while I was blog hopping), I'll never see the reply and the relationship possibility is dead. Having a way to let your commenters know that you're responding is crucial for any blogger. I have found this to be true w/ my own readers - as I respond via comment AND email, conversations have taken place and relationships have grown.
    • Tran Tinh says:
      You are right @Ashley, I love seeing my comments replied even with a “Thank you” from post author, that is why I come back for next time. I would recommend using ReplyMe and Subscribe to comments plugin to ease this process too. Thanks

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