How to Get More Blog Comments - IMP#28
In this podcast episode, you'll learn my 3 best strategies for getting more comments on you blog posts and we'll analyze why one of my recent posts got so many more comments than any of the others...
...but perhaps more importantly, we'll also answer the question: should you actually care about blog comments or are they just another useless vanity metric that will have you chasing your tail?
Listen in to the episode below to find out:
Podcast Audio
Unfortunately, this recording is long lost. This episode was hosted on a service that no longer exists and no backup copy was found.
Links
- 4 Steps to a Dramatically Better Blog (free course)
- The post with 100+ comments, just because I did something silly in a video.
- Comment subscription plugins mentioned in this episode: Jetpack, Subscribe to Comments Reloaded
- Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
- Subscribe to the podcast on Stitcher Radio.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and (you guessed it) I will reply. If you have any other thoughts to share about this episode, any comments are welcome.
16 comments
Comments are closed. This discussion is archived from the original site.
Great ideas today Shane. Would you be able to provide a link for the comment subscription plugins that you use. I had overlooked this simple step. Does hybrid connect have this functionality in it?
Domo Arigato.
The plugins I mentioned in the episode are: Jetpack, Subscribe to Comments Reloaded.
I've also added the links to the post.
Shane, I find your advice to be of great value. I also enjoy your webinars on Thrive Themes, which I am using and which I think will make a difference in my blogging efforts.
Thanks so much and please keep up the great work.
Thank you for your comment, Gregory! I'm very happy to know that you are getting good value from the webinars and I've got a couple more planned that will be announced soon.
Shane, I am trying to decide WHERE the most effective place is for client comments; on the BLOG or in FACEBOOK, or a G+ post ? In other words, where should the tip of the sword be? Is there a way to have the same comments on all platforms?
Scott
I don't think it's possible to have the same comments on all platforms. I think there's a plugin that syncs Facebook comments to WordPress comments, but even there, it means you have duplicate comments and it only works one way (FB -> WP).
In general, I recommend that you "own" your comments as much as possible. With comments powered by a different platform, you never know what might change. Especially Google is notorious for retiring products and making changes that are universally hated by their users.
What's worked quite well on some of my sites is a combination of Facebook and WordPress comments, so the visitors can choose which platform they want to use. But for the most part, I just use the WordPress comments feature.
Another very informative post Shane
I wonder if the level of comment engagement on this post is lower due to audio v's video?
:)
Graeme
I think there are two reasons for it. First, the podcast episodes tend to get fewer comments because of the length of the content (longer content = fewer people listen to all of it). Second, this topic isn't highly relevant for my target audience. If this was posted on a blog about blogging, it would probably get a more enthusiastic response. But since my main topics are product creation, marketing and entrepreneurship, there are fewer people in "my crowd" for whom blogging is a big thing.
Now that I've written this, I realize I should have mentioned the first point in the episode as well. Though you can get a great response to long pieces of content, short content generally gets more attention and more people making it to the end (where you call them to leave a comment).
Shane, I think I never fully understood why comments were important to begin with. Now I know more, thanks to you. I have the same questions as Scott does. I still need to do a lot of work to my pages, but I have started. The frightening part to me is publishing before completetion in order to "see" what I have done. Now I have to figure out how to get the social things on my site!
I did subscribe and received the email confirmation so I know that is working. I will be so happy the day I can actually teach someone a class.
Thanks
Jodi
Thank you, Jodi. I'm happy to know that you got good value out of this. :)
I've replied to Scott's question, so you can check the answer to that above.
Shane-
I 'tuned' back into this post three times so as to glean all. So lucid and logical, I knew I was hearing the same level of quality I've discerned in you for the past three years. Keep up the good (understatement) work.
Best
Steve
PS: I have a few sites, though I find traffic still a problem...freebies, autoresponders, videos all seem to be required to be in place Before 'step one', slowing progress down considerably.
Thank you very much, Steven!
I know traffic can be a really difficult sticking point. If you haven't yet, please watch my "Forget Traffic" video. Ignore the fact that I look like I didn't get enough sleep in that video (hint: I didn't) and I think you'll find the message to be exactly for you.
Learned some important tips from your post Shane. Looking forward to implementing your tips about responding to relevant comments and ignore the trivial comments to better engage my readers. The call to action about answering questions will be useful on my blogs also.
Thank you, Danielle! Always happy to know that my posts provide some real-life value. :)
Hey Shane, awesome podcast. I really enjoyed it!
I rarely get impressed with podcasts, but yours is great. Nice job!
Thank you very much, Josue!