This is my first visit to your website. I like it. Just bookmarked it. Thanks for the great post.

Thanks for the great read.

Blessings,
Wendy

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.

-Gerald Weber

@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.

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.

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.

@Ajith, Thanks for visiting. Great comments. I’ll definitely check out Barbara’s blog.

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

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

@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.

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

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.