While guest comments don’t hold any SEO value with Google anymore, they do hold a significant amount of value to you as a blog owner when new visitors frequent your blog. This is very important if you’re running a site that hinges on your professional credibility. Visitors can see what people are saying about your thoughts and ideas, how (or if) you ever respond, and how open you are to criticism.
As a blog reader, I don’t find myself moved to bookmark and return when comments aren’t allowed or encouraged on sites. This goes double if I’m looking for information that comes from a credible source. So often I’ll read through an exhausting post about how to tweak my SSD or how to make something work better in Linux, only to read the comments and find that someone (thankfully) commented on a better/faster/cheaper/easier way to do something than what the blogger provided.
Organic comments are just plain good for the blogging business.
Here’s 6 Tips to get on the Path to more blog comments:
1. Be first
First on the list of things you can do to get more comments is, well… to be first! Be the first one to share any kind of content (ideas, advice, news, stories — whatever) and you’ll get more comments. As content ages, it loses its virgin luster. Look at Jeremy “Shoemoney” Shoemaker back in the early days of Internet sales. He earned a massive following, massive adsense checks and massive referral benefits just by being the first guy to publicly out himself as an overweight geek who found a way to make massive money with his clickfarm blog networks. His blog is one of the most commented in the Internet Marketing niche to this day.
2. Be yourself
Look at some of the most mammoth business bloggers in the business and you’ll find tons of comments on most of the posts they make. If you share information and opinions on the things that matter to you, instead of trying to SEO for every niche term in the book, you’ll find like-minded and even polar opposites eager to share their voice in the comment section. I don’t want you to feel like I’m limiting things to entertainment, politics or opinion pieces either. How-tos, “Top __”, moving personal stories, etc., all work to get people thinking and posting their thoughts and questions to your blog. Trying to fake it just doesn’t work with the masses, in most all cases. Visitors can literally smell the B.S.
3. Invite support and contradiction
People either love you or hate you, right? Nothing gets those comment ideas flowing than an invitation to prove or disprove a statement or method you’ve divulged in a post, or make a outrageous statement about you or someone else (someone you know, someone in the public eye). Tell the world you think Gary Vanyerchuck is a phony or that Frank Kern “fell into money without really working for it.” Get people feeling sympathetic, agreeable, or downright inflamed at you and the comment fireworks are sure to follow! Make it clear that you’ll only delete comments that use profane or seriously disrespectful language and that everything else is up for grabs. This is another thing Shoemoney does exceptionally well — he’ll let most any comment slide, personal, professional, or otherwise.
4. Mix lots of short and long content — then track what works best
Look toward any of the major headline sites out there that get lots of comments and you’ll see a mix of short (300ish word) and long (500 and beyond) articles for visitors to choose from. Visitors in your niche might not be interested in reading long how-tos when a shorter one will take up less of their time. At the same time, a heavy opinion piece detailing your thoughts on the current state of the union may not get the point across in less than 1000 words. If you notice a pattern in the length-to-comment ratio of your posts, adjust your content game accordingly.
5. Offer incentives
Rarely in life do we get something for nothing. That’s why buy one get one free offers are so popular — even if the price of that one item is double the MSRP. Get a bunch of t-shirts embossed with your site logo, a picture of you, a famous quote you like to use, etc. Then pawn out that schwag in exchange for comments. Offer a shirt, some other cheap memorabilia, free software, it doesn’t matter. Offer a freebie to the first 20 people to post a comment, or save even more cash by offering to put commenter’s names into a draw for a more expensive prize.
6. Fear, failure and life in general
Nothing is truly more relate-able than the day-to-day we all face from the time the alarm goes off until we’re tucked safely back in bed at night. Talking about life, love, the pursuit of happiness and the victories and failures that happen along the way is a great way to inspire comments. Move people with your honesty, shock them with your weird thoughts and hangups. Tell your readership how you have this strange phobia that you’ll one day smash your front teeth out while spitting out the toothpaste and rinsing while brushing their teeth (comment if you too, like me, have this particular hang up.)
Now, if you found this useful: leave a comment.
If you agree with some or everything I’ve said: leave a comment.
If you disagree… you know what to do!
