Apr 3, 2012 / Beginner

Comment Community

As a blogger, there’s little more satisfying than getting the notification that someone commented on your post. It means that not only are people reading your work, but that they’re also moved to leave their own reflections. In addition to the personal joy of seeing comments on your posts, comments and pingbacks help to build readership and bring new readers to your site. So, how can you foster an active commenting community on your blog?

Start by making it easy to comment on your site. You can control all of your comment settings via your Settings > Discussion page on your blog’s Dashboard. Some settings to be aware of: ensure that other blogs are notified when you link to their articles (pingbacks), don’t automatically turn comments off on your posts after a short amount of time (the default is 14 days), and enable both the option to follow your blog and the comment thread when someone leaves a comment on your post. If you choose to moderate all comments on your blog, that’s a great step toward maintaining a well-curated commenting community. Just be sure that you don’t leave pending comments in your Comments folder for too long, since that detracts greatly from the experience of visitors commenting on your posts.

To keep the discussion going, it’s best to reply to all comments left on your blog within a reasonable time frame. If someone’s comment piques your curiosity, ask questions. The idea of the comments section is to generate discussion. As visitors to your blog add their point of view to your posts, it helps to enhance your story. Similarly, discussions generated on your posts can help give you new post ideas, in addition to building relationships with other bloggers and your readers. For example, if someone disagrees with your point of view, that’s a great opportunity to expand on your thoughts even more with a new post. Some bloggers even ask their readers to leave comments on their sites. For example. the Freshly Pressed blogger/musician Holley Maher inserts an image that she’s create into the bottom of all of her posts requesting that readers leave comments. If you choose to add either a line or an image requesting feedback, you can create a template and use the Copy a Post tool for your new posts so your sign-off text or image is automatically inserted into your post.

Above all, leaving comments on other blogs helps to generate comments on your own. In case you missed it, check out Erica‘s post, “Are you well-versed in comment etiquette?” The difference between blogs and websites (and the best part!) is that blogging allows for interaction between writers and readers, as well as the opportunity to build relationships. Paving the way for an active comment section on your site helps to build those relationships and to find new sources of inspiration.

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  2. Personally, I don’t usually edit comments. However, if you feel that a comment is detracting from the discussion on your page, it’s okay to modify the message or a portion of the message. Also, changing spelling mistakes/grammatical errors always seems like fair game to me 🙂

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  4. very interesting read Erica! I discovered some new things, like the 14 day validity. I am into blogging for the conversations and discussions. So, I love getting comments, and make it a point to respond to them within a day! My face book friends, who don’t have word press accounts find it difficult to comment on my blog. How can I make it easier? Is it possible to let them comment with their Facebook identities?

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  5. Great post, Erica!
    I moved to WordPress from blogger so I am still figuring out the pingbacks, etc.
    This is such valuable information.
    Thank you!

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  6. Thanks to this very helpful post !
    I hope your work will be award !
    Me too, i created a blog few days ago and I read your posts to help me.

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  8. Half of the reasons I follow some blogs religiously is due to the comment section. The whole back-n-forth, and sometimes 3-ways, are so fun to read and you get to know fellow bloggers. I have followed new blogs based on the wit in the comment section. That said, I WISH WordPress would have a “like” button for each comment. I usually, time permitting, read through previous comments before leaving mine so there’s no duplication, and there are many other comments that are so funny and eloquent and thought-provoking that I would love to just click “LIKE”.

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  10. That’s look great that people would love to share their educational matters and experience on internet, this would be good for readers who must face again this issues in their projects.

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  11. Thank you for this insightful and helpful post. I’m definitely going to follow up on your suggestions, starting with writing more comments on other people’s blogs, hence …

    I was also inspired to write a post of my own, called “Comments are like a game of ‘tag.’ Tag, you’re it!” with the hope that I’ll attract more feedback on my own blog. And yes, I did reblog your post at first (as it says in the comments above) but I decided it worked better in this case to cite your article in my post instead. I hope this isn’t a major faux pas … I’m still learning!

    Great discussion here, people. Keep it rolling!

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  12. The whole point of writing a blog is to attract readers. So having a hook that encourages engagement is one of the best things that new bloggers can adopt. One key to having others leave comments on your blog is to leave comments on other’s blogs yourself. Especially in the beginning of a blog, it is important to build a network with other bloggers.

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  13. This is a very good post, Erika. Every time I come back there’s always something interesting. I found your blog accidentally, but I enjoy it every time I read it.
    I’m leaving now. Thank you for your advices. Let’s make it real….
    I will come back.
    Light and Peace for you and for all your bloggers and readers

    IVÁN
    Reiki Therapist
    http://www.reikiterapiavigo.wordpress.com

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  15. These were really good suggestions. Maybe a month ago, I decided to change the location of the sign-up button on my blog from the bottom of the side bar to the top because I thought that maybe people did not see it on the side and didn’t know they sign-up to receive my posts. I was thinking about it the other day and think that it has made a difference because I’ve had more subscribers since then compared to to the total time I’ve actually had my blog.

    I think I could include more questions to encourage readers to leave comments which I’ve only done a few times, as well as posting a bit more regularly.

    Thanks for sharing these 🙂

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  18. Excellent new topics, always interesting to read articles that are relevant to the topic, thanks for all the great news and responses.

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