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5 Tips to Getting More Feedback on Your Posts

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Getting More Feedback

As the owner of a blog or website, you may find yourself with less feedback on your posts than you would like. There are various ways of encouraging feedback, but one of the most effective methods is to nurture a sense of community and dialogue. If you neglect this, readers may not feel the need to provide feedback. By making them aware that their feedback is valued, you can greatly increase your chances of receive more. Here are some tips to getting more feedback on your posts.

Ask Questions

This is one of the most direct ways of getting your readers to leave feedback and can also be very effective. Consider ending your posts with open questions, and inviting readers to comment and discuss the questions. This directly invites your readers to participate in a discussion and provide feedback on your post. You might even include a question early in your post, letting readers think about it as they read the post. By the time they finish, they may very well have something to say about the topic at hand, and therefore will be more likely to comment.

Interact with Your Readers

While it can be somewhat impractical on larger-scale blogs and websites, directly interacting with your readers lets them know that their feedback is noticed and appreciated. While you cannot easily answer every question your readers have, participating in your readers’ discussions can help foster a sense of community. Readers are much more likely to leave feedback if they know that you read it, and are especially encouraged to do so if they know you actively respond to their concerns and questions.

Reward Your Readers

Like interacting with your readers, rewarding those who provide quality feedback can be an effective way to encourage even more. There are several ways of doing this. You may consider displaying your sites top commentators, directly rewarding those who contribute the most feedback to your site. You can even implement a comment rating system, allowing your community members to rate the value of each others’ post, further enhancing a sense of community. One of the best ways to reward those who provide particularly valuable feedback is to feature them in a future blog post. If readers see one of their questions of concerns addressed in its own post, they are more likely continue contributing.

Allow Readers to Rate Your Posts

Some readers may not have the time or feel comfortable enough to directly comment on your post, but allowing them to easily rate the post provides a quick and easy way to get more feedback. You might consider letting your readers rate your post on a scale of one to five stars at the end of the post, displaying the average overall rating. While this form of feedback is less specific than comments, it can allow more readers to more easily respond to your content.

Create Targeted Posts

This is one of the simplest and most effective ways to encourage participation. Create posts based on what you think your readers are interested in. Examine previous posts to determine what topics seem to get the most feedback to gauge the interests. Make your content writing provocative enough for readers to respond, but not to the point that you will alienate them. Keep in mind the goal of your website, but target your post directly toward your readers to make it more engaging, and therefore encourage more feedback.

About

Corry Cummings is the owner of Content Customs, a content creation company that specializes in high quality web content writing services. He also runs a blog over at Content Customs, which is managed and written by one of the head writers of the company.

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{ 30 Responses }

  1. Rae says:
    Interesting tips. very effective way for getting more feedback in a post.
  2. Fiona Bosticky says:
    Great bunch of tips. When you are writing a blog, whether for your business, or blogging followers, sometimes people can forget that blogging began as one of the first channels of "Social" Media. The emphasis on being social. Writing a blog is only half the work, the other half involves sharing the blog across other social media networks, and engaging your readers - encouraging them to comment, respond, and discuss your blog ideas. I think once people understand this premise, they are already well on their way to receiving more feedback on their posts - mainly because they are open to it. Sometimes the best way to receive feedback, is to give it, and give it honestly.
  3. John says:
    I like to ask questions to get more response from readers. I also think it is important to always respond to your visitors comments. That will let them know that you do pay attention and appreciate them.
  4. Richard Carter says:
    There will be few more thing you can add like a) No sing up needed ,I never leave comments on the sites who need to be sing up before making comments. b) and the user must be sure that his/her email will not be spammed.
  5. Biodun says:
    You should make it easy to give feedback there is one situation where I rarely leave a comment even if the post deserves it blogs that require me to login before making a comment.
  6. TJ McDowell says:
    One thing that I think encourages more posts is to have the comment box before the list of others' comments. This may not be obvious as to why I think this encourages comments, so hear me out. On some posts, the comment I want to make seems so obvious to me that I feel like someone else has probably already made the comment, so I will either take the time to look through all the comments, or skip commenting altogether because I don't want to read everyone else's responses. However, with the comment box first, I usually take that as a subtle hint that the blog author prioritizes new comments over forcing the reader to go through the entire conversation to comment. Does the placement of the comment box make a difference for anybody else?
  7. Alison Moore Smith says:
    There is a WordPress bug — haven't figured out the trigger yet — that automatically shuts down commenting on EVERY post and also changes some of the discussion settings. It's been happening daily for a few weeks now. Talk about loosing feedback! Sheesh, it's making me crazy.
  8. Kimi says:
    I guess i have done most of all advices above ahaha. Except of "Let them rate my post". This one i haven't applied it to my blog. My reason is i have to use plugin :( I don't like to use plugins for some things that it is not REALLY necessary. Thanks for this great advice, Corry!
  9. Jason says:
    Another way to get more comments is to dofollow your blog - like famousbloggers.net, for instance :-) Of course many of those comments will then be helpful things like "Thanks for sharing - buy my Caribbean vacations," but countermeasures such as akismet can help you deal with the spam, and there are real people more willing to get involved and contribute to the discussion if a blog is dofollow.
  10. Colleen says:
    "Ask Questions" is a good point. We blog about a bunch of local events and most folks simply find us then go on their merry way with information in hand. Asking questions might get a few more comments. Nice post Corry! :)
  11. Inge says:
    From experience I know rewarding quality comments with, for instance a dofollow link, can be a very effective strategy to generate more comments.
    • Alex says:
      You are right Inge, but exposure to high traffic and connecting with other fellow bloggers can be an incentive to write comments too. Think about big website(blogs) that have a high number of comments even if they don't give a dofollow link people comment because the content is intriguing and they can ask/complete/flame/argue about the contents. Thus increasing their popularity in the blogosphere (of course it they write "high quality" comments). But the expectancy of getting something in return, like a reward(prizes, a link, fame, etc) make people comment a lot :P
      • Inge says:
        @Alex, that's also true. I suppose the comment strategy for your blog should depend on the authority you have as a website, and on the other hand your target group. What do your readers like for a reward.
  12. Andreas says:
    Replying to useful and important comments also shows the reader that interaction with the author is possible and he/she is more likely to post a comment on a busy site than on a site where the comment is most likely never read.
  13. Tinh says:
    Asking readers some questions is a great way to get more feedbacks and I have not tried rating on my blog yet. Great suggestion!
    • Karan says:
      Well Yes this can be done by adding a few lines after every post asking for their feedback and thoughts on the topic discussed.
      • Tinh says:
        Yes, that is popular way to get more feedbacks :-)
  14. Isabel Rodrigues - Pro Blogger Journey says:
    Feedback is very important for any blogger. I agree with all your points mentioned to effectively have the readers comment and leave valuable feedbacks
  15. Julius says:
    Asking for feedback is definitely the best way you can get more feedback. It's what has worked best for me. I simply add several questions at the end of each article and then let readers comment on it. It works great.
  16. karan says:
    Well rewarding your readers is the best way to attract traffic. Everybody loves getting rewarded and is a great way to engage more people into discussions.
  17. Patricia says:
    Hi Corry Brilliant post with some great pointers. I find if I interact with my readers, they come back for more. Of course the content of the post is important. I've been working on headlines lately as that peeks visitors interest to click on a read. Yesterda I had an encouraging comment from a visitor who hasn't been to my blog for awhile. She noticed that there are some good conversations going on. That is cos I interact on Twitter and other blogs too. Have to build community and then people feel free to ask questions. Need to respond when people take the time to comment. those are the blogs I go back to and ask questions or interact in the conversation. I love it. That encourages the blog owner too. Patricia Perth Australia
  18. Extreme John says:
    It's amazing how you can till which bloggers become more educated and learn along the way vs those that are new and just talk TO the readers vs talking with them. Great tips.
  19. Richard says:
    Hi Corry, I like the writing style of posing some questions to the reader. I think it also doesn't hurt to open your post with a really stimulating question and then go through the post in a discussion format. It allows readers to chime in on both sides. The targeted post idea is also a good SEO tip. Occasionally, I will see what searches are bringing people to my site and if there is a particular phrase that people are interested in, I may create a post targeted to that phrase. Not only does it generate discussion, but it can also help in search engine rankins.
  20. Murlu says:
    One way that I've noticed that really gets readers to interact has been to intentionally leave parts of the post open. Telling someone exactly what to do is very helpful but it becomes so complete that there is no reason to do anything more but to nod and go about your way - when you tell people things like "there's already guides on this, check them out here or just ask me about them and I'll explain further" not only can you keep the post really night and tight but it does open that "hey, what did you mean by X"
  21. Robert says:
    Cheers for this, I'm always looking for ways to get more comments, I think another important factor is to have commentluv installed
  22. Jeevan Jacob John says:
    Great Article, Corry. Interacting with your readers is an important thing when it comes to blogging. Without interaction, blogging is nothing. There is no use of blogging if you don't interact with your readers. You have got some great points that will surely help a newbie blogger. Asking questions is a great way to trigger the thought of commenting. I agree with all your points. Jeevan Jacob John Note : Nice to meet you. Hope we can connect in the future.
  23. Mani Viswanathan says:
    I'm collecting some money to reward my discussion makers. Till then a Commentators widget would work. A Call to Action as you mentioned as your first point is perhaps the most vital out of the lot.