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5 Simple Ways to Encourage Blog Participation
May 4th, 2007 by Matt HugginsIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
When starting a blog, it can be somewhat discouraging when there is little participation occurring in your posts by your readers. But not to fear, there are some simple changes you can implement in just a few minutes to give your readers that extra incentive to provide their own input on a topic. Below I provide 5 simple ideas to get you started.
1. Make it easy for your readers to comment on your blog posts. Some blogs require user registration, which is just one extra step that will simply prevent readers from commenting at all. Most of these bloggers who require registration state they do so because they want to discourage spam. Fortunately tools exist for automating the removal of spam today, such as the Akismet plug-in that is included with WordPress by default. Even if you insist on having extra protection against spam, tool such as this captcha plug-in can be implemented.
2. Write your blog posts in a manner such that it encourages participation. Consider ending with a question that your readers can answer.
3. Include a link on your blog to your RSS comments feed in addition to your RSS posts feed. Be sure to update the head region of your HTML to include the comments feed as well. In WordPress, this can be done by modifying the header.php file of your current theme to include the line highlighted in red below.
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="<?php bloginfo('name'); ?> RSS Feed" href="<?php bloginfo('rss2_url'); ?>" />
<link rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml” title=”<?php bloginfo(’name’); ?> RSS Comments Feed” href=”<?php bloginfo(’comments_rss2_url’); ?>” />
4. Reward your commentators. One of the best (and easiest) ways to accomplish this is by providing a top commentators list including a link to whatever website URL they provided when commenting on your posts. In WordPress, this can be done easily with the Show Top Commentators plug-in. Those utilizing WordPress Widgets can make use of the My Top Commentators plug-in.
5. Allow your readers to be notified by email of new comments on a post when they submit a comment of their own. This can be done easily in WordPress with the Subscribe to Comments plug-in.
What are some things you’ve done within your own blog to encourage reader participation? How successful were your changes?
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May 4th, 2007 at 3:31 am
beware of the top-top plugins though. The time I installed that Top Commentators plugin on my blog, was also the first time ever my Akismet filtered so many spam.
May 4th, 2007 at 3:44 am
Are you saying that Akismet was filtering comments that were not actually spam, or that you were observing an increase in the amount of spam after implementing the plug-in? Though I’ve not looked at the WordPress code at any great length, as a developer I can’t imagine how the use of the Top Commentators plug-in could affect the functionality of the Akismet plug-in. Regardless, I’m hoping it was the latter of the two!
May 4th, 2007 at 3:49 am
it was the latter of the 2. haha Sorry if I got you confused.
I noticed an increase of spammers and they’ve been filtered by akismet. there.
May 4th, 2007 at 3:56 am
Okay, that makes sense to me then.
Thanks for clarifying!
May 4th, 2007 at 9:05 am
These are great suggestions, Matt. After reading your post, I’m considering implementing point 5!!
If you’re talking to NEW bloggers, I’m split 50/50 on point 2. I agree with: “Write your blog posts in a manner such that it encourages participation.” But I disagree with: “Consider ending with a question that your readers can answer.”
It’s all about perception. If I visit a blog, where the writer asks questions but no one comments (which is normal when starting a blog), I get a negative impression; I’m less likely to subscribe, comment or return. I know it’s “wrong” to judge so quickly, but creating a strong image/brand is a reality of online marketing.
In my experience, I suggest NOT asking questions (at least not at the very beginning). Write from your passion, knowledge and experience — comments will start coming in and they’ll be spontaneous.
Questions: Other than removing the most barriers possible, how else can I know if my blog is “comment-friendly”? I’m no techie — can you clarify point 3 — what does it look like?
May 4th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Good point about #2, Cristina. Thinking back, I did write many of my early blog posts without directly asking the reader questions. I simply provided an account of personal experiences that demonstrated my ability to work to make money, (which is what my blog is about). Perhaps those original posts assisted in encouraging participation in later posts when I started to directly ask questions.
With regards to point #3, here is a bit more detail (assuming you’re using WordPress). Within your WordPress administrator, click on the “Presentation” link, then the “Theme Editor” sub-link. When the Theme Editor loads, ensure that your current theme is selected. (It should be selected by default, but it’s good to make sure you’re editing the right thing!)
Once the right theme is selected, click the link along the right that says either “Header” or “header.php”. The page will refresh with a bunch of PHP and HTML code. Search for the code that looks like the first line of code I posted in this blog post. When you find it, copy and paste the second line in red from this blog post, and click the “Update File” button.
Go to your homepage, and click the refresh button in your browser. If you’re using Firefox, you should see an RSS icon in the location bar. Previously clicking it would take you straight to your post feeds. This time when you click it — assuming everything worked right — you should now get a drop-down asking which RSS feed you want to view. Here’s what it looks like on my blog:
May 8th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
2 is the killer, for sure. Even with a plain review I always invite readers to tell me what they think on the last line. When I forget, I get less comments.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Thanks for sharing, Steve. Between your comment and Cristina’s, it sounds like there is a little bit of give and take when deciding whether to end with a question for the readers.
May 8th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
I am using WordPress. Thanks for the step-by-step instructions, but my Theme Editor is not writable. But I think I already have RSS feed on my blog. Only, when I click on the RSS icon, I don’t get a drop-down of options, I go directly to this page: http://blog.cristinafavreau.com/feed/
Is this the same? If so, I can check off #3 as done!!
Thanks a bunch Matt!
May 9th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Cristina — The behavior of your blog is that of the default behavior in WordPress. It does not include a comments feed, meaning your readers will not be able to subscribe to it through the RSS icon.
Unfortunately, because your WP Theme is not modifiable, it will be a little more difficult/technical for you to include the feed. If you are really determined, there are two ways to do this, both of which will require you to access your site via http://FTP.
The first method involves updating the header.php file locally and re-uploading through http://FTP.
The second method involves changing the access rights on the files in your theme’s folder via http://FTP. By changing the folder (recursively) such that all files are writeable (I just set mine to 777, which is not optimal but works), you will then be able to use the Theme Editor as I originally explained in this post. If you are not tech savvy, the former method may be your best bet.
Hopefully this will help you. If you still have trouble, please let me know! I’d also be happy to do this for you sometime if you need. Feel free to get in touch if so!
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