**UPDATED: First, you should DEFINITELY be reading the comments on this posts. Lots of more great tips and insights. ALSO, I’ve updated some of the information in this post based on the comments. The updates are in italics.
Cause we all want more comments, right???
No matter if you get 3 comments per post or 30, you want more. Am I right? Or am I right? Comments are sort of like french fries — you can never get enough. So here are a few simple ways you can increase your comments, fueled by my own frustrations with leaving comments, mostly, and also a few tactics I’ve discovered that have helped increase my own. (This is my How To post for this week, incidentally.)
1. Don’t make your readers be logged in or signed in to comment. I left a blog in frustration the other day becuase I had to log in and I couldn’t figure out my Wordpress loggin. Which is a bitter irony considering that I have FOUR Wordpress blogs. I never could figure out what I was doing wrong, so I left without commenting.
UPDATE: In Blogger, go to Settings – Comments to change your sign-in requirements if you so desire. In Typepad, it’s under Configure – Feedback. In Wordpress 2.7, it’s under Settings – Discussion.
2. For the love of all that’s annoying, get rid of the spam filters! On Wordpress, there are plugins to help alleviate the spam problem, but when I was on Typepad, I did not use the spam filter thingy. And I rarely got spam. You can set your comments to close after 2 weeks, and that helps avoid spam as they often seem to attack older posts.
UPDATE: In Wordpress and Typepad, you can set up your comments to automatically close after 2 weeks. In Typepad, that is under Configure – Feedback. In Wordpress 2.7, it’s under Settings – Discussion. This helps to reduce spam comments GREATLY.
In Blogger, you can set it up to moderate comments that are over 2 weeks old. You’ll still get the spam comments in your email, but you can delete them before they go through to your blog, and this alleviates having to moderate every comment. To do this, go to Settings – Comments.
3. Comment, comment, comment! If you’ve read any of the sleep experts, you have probably heard that “sleep begets sleep.” And so it is with comments. If you sow seeds of comments around the blogosphere, you will reap a bountiful harvest in your own comments!
Now that’s a rare poetic moment, right there. I’ll pause a moment so you can savor it.
4. Ask questions. I get more comments on those posts where I ask questions. Everyone has opinions they’re just waiting to share so give them an opportunity. Which reminds me of the movie Parenthood, which contains one of my favorite movie quotes of all time regarding opinions. However, since I prefer to keep my blog G-rated, I will refrain from repeating it here. It still makes me giggle when I think of it.
5. Discuss a controversial topic. I hate controversy as much as anyone, but you can discuss controversial matters in a respectful way. Sometimes you might *gasp* actually learn something! Try it and see!
What’s your best tip for getting more comments?
(See there? See how I did that with the question? That’s what I’m talking about!)
UPDATE:
6. From the coments, someone suggested participataing in carnivals to increase comments (and readership). GREAT suggestion! Then someone wanted to know what a carnival is.
A carnival is usually a weekly event (it can be more irregular) where a blogger hosts a theme and other bloggers link to their posts. For instance, I host a carnival called What I Learned This Week every Tuesday. My hope is that it will begin to develop into a little community where we all read one anothers’ posts and share the comment love! 
Other popular carnivals are Wordless Wednesday, Works for Me Wednesday, Things I Love Thursday, and there are TONS more. Find one hosted by someone in your niche and be active in the community and watch your community grow. 
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Just a mom attempting to juggle three kids, four blogs, a blog design business, and the laundry. 
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Great comments! I have been so frustrated lately with lack of response in all areas of social media. I found a new weekly carnival to participate in and got zero(!) comments from other carnival participants. Zero! On Twitter, I haven’t been getting much response to my tweets. I reply often to tweeps, but it’s not reciprocated. same on Facebook. I am frustrated that I take time to comment and reply, and don’t get anything in return!
Sorry for complaining in your comments. I try to do all of the above. Sometimes I don’t get to visit other blogs as much and have to catch up on my favorite blogs, but I still try to comment when I’m reading a blog. Golden Rule. But I haven’t seen much return on that lately. Again, sorry. I’ll quit before I turn your comments sections into my own personal tirade!
great tips. Experienced bloggers will tell new bloggers that getting comments takes time. I have found that you really need to invest time, and it will come back to you (like you said).
I HAD to come back and tell you that I rarely get spam – just one once in a while which I delete. Then, a few hours after commenting on this post I got 7 spam comments at once – each on a different older post!! I had to go around deleting them and then changed my setting to where I have to approve comments on posts older than 14 days (which I wouldn’t have known about if I hadn’t read this post!). Crazy! But now I think it will be taken care of.
great tips!
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