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All around the blogosphere, seasoned bloggers are doing it. These crafty writers are tricking their readers into commenting. And they are so good at it, that few have taken notice. But now, they will be exposed.

Here are 3 sneaky tactics that are being used on the web every day.

Sneaky
by: auspices

1. Tantalizing, Inflammatory, and Outrageous Headlines!

We’ve all seen these blogs, the blogs whose headlines alone just cry out for attention! Even before you read the article, you know that you will probably comment.

Two of my recent favorites which both shamelessly commit this offense are Skelliewag.org and FranklinBishop.net.

2. A Little Bit of Love & Quite a Bit of Wooing

Another set of bloggers encourage commenting by making their readers feel especially welcome. They often do this by rewarding commenters with the ability to get listed in a top commenters list. Others feature nice little plugins like Comment Luv or Disqus.

But the clincher is the wooing. Even though these bloggers get a super-size serving of daily comments, they manage to get through them all and respond to each and every one.

On this list are friendly blogs like Dollar Shower, (Anti) Social Development, and Thou Shall Blog (my most recent find).

3. Proudly Displayed Stats

And then there are the blogs which show off their stats. They might have a FeedBurner subscriber count of well over 2K. Or perhaps they are flaunting sub 50K Alexa traffic rankings. And while this is probably done to entice prospective advertisers, this tactic also works like a charm for encouraging new readers to subscribe and comment. After all, everyone likes to be part of an active community.

A few more…

Some other widely used comment-generating tactics include:

hiding the publish date. Most of us like to comment on fresh material, and many bloggers know it. So they’ve hidden the date. (One way around this is to peek at the RSS feed. Sorry guys.)
inviting comments. Surprisingly, some bloggers have a higher number of comment when they explicitly ask for them.
being controversial. I suspect that many bloggers create controversial posts just to engage their readers. It’s a great tactic, but it can grow stale if done too much.
asking questions. Sometimes posts are not open ended, and readers may not know how to add to the discussion. By asking a question, you can draw them in.
creating a contest. Some of the most popular posts are those which feature a contest. To encourage commenting, make all entrants submit a comment.

Perhaps getting readers to comment really isn’t about trickery, but about being a good blogger…

So, what tactics do you use to encourage comments?

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Tags: blogs, comments, FeedBurner, WordPress

21 Responses to “3 Sneaky Ways to Trick Readers into Commenting”

On December 22, 2008 at 9:14 am,Kim Woodbridge wrote:
Hi! Thanks so much for the link and the kind words. I never thought of it as wooing commenters but I guess it is. I just want people to visit and interact.
I can’t stand it when the publish date is hidden – I want to know if the information is current. I didn’t know I could get it from the RSS so that is really good to know.
I wrote a controversial post at the beginning of November basically as a test as to whether it would generate more comments or not – it definitely did but I got some nasty ones, which were hard to deal with. I definitely couldn’t deal with writing articles like that all of the time.
On December 22, 2008 at 10:17 am,Blog Tips for Beginners wrote:
Hey Shirley
Thanks for the mention. Truth is I’m having a hard time trying to cope with comment reply while keeping up with reciprocal commenting. I’m not aware of hidden dates, probably I was paying too much attention to it but I’m with Kim on the hidden date. Well, I don’t see the point either.
Oh ya, thanks for dropping by my blog and look forward to seeing more of you.
Yan
On December 22, 2008 at 10:36 am,Velvet Blues wrote:
@Kim, Yeh I am not big on controversy either. But yes, it is definitely effective.
@Yan, If you actually managed to reply to each one of your commenters, I’d think you were superman. You have some amazingly popular articles with comments well into the hundreds! Still, I definitely see your Gravatar interspersed at regular intervals in the comments.
On December 22, 2008 at 10:45 am,Ajith Edassery wrote:
Shirley,
Thanks for the shout out and terming us friendly But I didn’t like Kim and Yan’s names in the friendly list
Check out Barbara’s BWAB as well. She has the knack of getting so many comments by asking a lot of questions and giving assignments to her students.
And Kim & Yan are awesome bloggers. I haven’t seen Yan writing anything negative. His blood group is Be +ve. And Kim is such a friendly character.
Cheers all,
Ajith
On December 22, 2008 at 10:45 am,Blog Tips for Beginners wrote:
LOL….superman? Almost……but I’ve lost the super power.
You know what? I’ve depended solely on blog commenting to create the kind of community you are seeing today and I can’t think of any other way that is equally effective than blog commenting. I could be wrong but fact is it has worked well for me.
Yan
On December 22, 2008 at 11:13 am,Velvet Blues wrote:
Yes, blog commenting really does encourage community, in a way that forums and social bookmarking websites do not… except, perhaps, for Twitter.
@Ajith, Thanks for visiting. Great comments. I’ll definitely check out Barbara’s blog.
On December 22, 2008 at 4:58 pm,stratosg wrote:
well one more thing if i might add. making a blog post just for fun might drag some more attention since fun is a great deal when reading a blog. if i laugh or find a post as entertaining i will definitely comment…
On December 23, 2008 at 2:36 am,Barbara Swafford – Blogging Without A Blog wrote:
Hi Shirley – My ears were burning, plus your title intrigued me, so I had to come by and check out your post. As Ajith mentioned, I ask questions. Most of my posts are set up in “lessons” and “assignments” and I encourage my readers to share their thoughts. I’m also a big proponent on answering all of my comments, although I may miss some that land on older posts. I also visit the blogs of those who comment on mine. Reciprocal commenting, to me, is a great way to show our gratitude, although some view it negatively “tit for tat”.
I tried writing a controversial post, but that strategy didn’t work for me, plus that’s not my nature. I’m with Kim on those who hide the date. If I’m doing research, I want to know the content is current. If I can’t find the date, I leave.
Although many proudly display their stats, I don’t. I’ve heard stories of how people are intimidated by them and begin to feel “lessor than”. I certainly wouldn’t want any of my readers to feel that way.
I do agree a headline can make or break a post. If we don’t get our reader’s attention fast, they may not even consider reading the post.
P.S. Thank you so much for dropping by my blog. I’m so happy you did as now I’ve found you. I love how that works.
On December 23, 2008 at 3:48 am,Kurt Avish wrote:
Nice blog. Just added you in my rss reader. I came here from Dollar Shower.
I think that the top commenter and comment luv widgets have really prove to increase interaction among readers.
I use the top commenters widget and also ask some questions at the end of my post so that people tend to re-read it and voice out their opinion.
Another way to get more comments is to reply to all commenter s and let them know that you actually read and their comment is important for the discussion flow.
On December 23, 2008 at 7:51 am,Velvet Blues wrote:
@Stratos, That is a great point. If something I read has me laughing, I’ll definitely respond to it.
@Barbara, Thanks for stopping by. Yes, I am a big fan of the reciprocal commenting as well. As for the date, it really bothers me when its hidden. But often, I have already read the post by the time I realize that I’ve been tricked, and so I respond to it anyway.
@Kurt, I’ll have to thank Ajith. Yes, those widgets are good ideas. Sometimes, they increase the likelihood that I will comment on a blog that I find. Hmmm… Perhaps its about time that I ‘pimp my blog’ and add those widgets.
On December 24, 2008 at 1:17 am,Carla wrote:
Giving and receiving comments are one of those hidden time stealers that no one tells you about blogging until you’re already doing it. I’m having a lot of fun with it though!
On December 24, 2008 at 7:15 am,Velvet Blues wrote:
@Carla, Oh yeh, big time stealer. But its great. Sometimes, I spend hours ‘blog leaping’ as I read and comment on one, and then visit commenters websites, and read and comment on their articles… It’s this continuous cycle that never ends, but only gets more time consuming as you find more interesting ‘corners’ of the web.
On December 26, 2008 at 8:51 pm,Houston search engine optimization wrote:
I use the top commentator widget as well as the comment love which people seem to like. Also I ask for comments at the end of each post and tend to leave it somewhat open ended for suggestions. I have never heard of the Disqus that you mentioned here but I checked it out briefly just now. Can you explain that a bit more? Sounds interesting but I’m not really 100% clear on how it’s supposed to work.
-Gerald Weber
On December 26, 2008 at 9:03 pm,Velvet Blues wrote:
@Gerald… Thanks for visiting. I agree, leaving posts open-ended does help spark conversation. Whenever I read an article that seems ‘finished’, I really don’t have anything to add to the discussion except “I agree”… Unless, of course, I don’t agree.
Disqus is a service (check out disqus.com) that aggregates comments and allows users to create a profile. It gives commenters additional visibility and is said to greatly increase blog comments.
On February 28, 2009 at 3:51 pm,Wendy Merritt wrote:
Nice article. I currently use Disqus. I haven’t used it long enough to ascertain whether or not it has increased my traffic. I like what commentluv has to offer but I do not believe that you can use it and Disqus on the same blog.
Thanks for the great read.
Blessings,
Wendy
On March 27, 2009 at 11:04 pm,Tari Conley wrote:
This would be a good place to add “top commentator” as a sneaky blog trick to get more comments from readers. It works!
On August 25, 2009 at 2:16 pm,David from Tip Top Internet Marketing Portland wrote:
You forgot one of the better ways to trick readers into commenting on blogs. It is to have stats on the top commentors. this not only entices them to comment but also encourages repeat and loyal visitors to your blog. You can’t beat that!
On October 16, 2009 at 3:40 am,Steve @ Find Retro Shower Curtain wrote:
I use the Top Commentator widget, KeywordLuv, and CommentLuv. There are a fair amount of people searching out sites with these plug-ins looking for link juice. I only accept on topic posts that add to the conversation. I did pick up a few good ideas in this post. I plan to write a few controversial posts that end with a provocative question. I’m looking forward to seeing how this works.
This is my first visit to your website. I like it. Just bookmarked it. Thanks for the great post.
On August 16, 2010 at 3:56 am,web assessment wrote:
Top commenters on the homepage with do follow links for those elite few is how to get alot of comments and peopel competing.
On January 25, 2011 at 3:32 am,Jen wrote:
Great article. Good tricks to get lots of people commenting on your blog.