Blog Traffic - The Care and Feeding of Blog Commenters - 3 Tips

As you become a more popular blogger, people will start leaving comments on your blog. You may or not get a lot of comments, but by treating commenters well, you can turn many of them into regular readers if not fervent fans. Here are three tips to help.

1) Answer comments on your blog

Not all comments need responses, but many do. You can answer comments in additional comments, or sometimes with an entirely new blog post.

I find I answer the majority of comments in another comment, and often end up starting conversations this way.

Don't worry about getting so many comments that you can't answer them all! If you become that popular, just be happy and answer the comments you can.

2) Email commenters and thank them!

Commenters are special. Most people don't leave comments, perhaps only one percent or less. Consider emailing commenters and thanking them. They will remember and be more likely to visit your blog again and leave additional comments. Realize that many commenters may not be regular readers of your blog. Often they've just stumbled across your blog for the first time.

3) Interview particularly insightful commenters and post the interviews

This can be as simple as a short email interview, perhaps 3-5 questions. Most commenters will be flattered. And do you think the commenter/interviewee might send you some traffic, perhaps link to you or tell others? They usually will.

Interacting with others is a great way to build blog traffic, and a primary way to interact on a blog is through comments. By considering the tips above, you'll interact more effectively with people that leave comments and turn many of them into regular readers if not fervent fans.

And for over 100 more tips on successful blogging, I invite you to grab your free copy of my ebook Secrets of Successful Blogging at http://www.secretsofsuccessfulblogging.com

Comments

[Lindsay]

I like the idea of interviewing helpful comment folks.

I don't usually email anyone, unless they ask a specific question and obviously want an answer. I personally don't want a response most of the time when I leave comments on people's blogs (I'll check back if I'm interested in the conversation) and already get a ton of email so am rarely looking for more. Might just be me though. I'm an introvert, what can I say? ;)