5 Blog Writing Tips To Get More Comments

October 4, 2006

There are very few absolutes when it comes to blogging. Plenty of discussion continues on all the nuances of writing a great blog post. But over time, “best practices” do emerge. They’re not absolutes. They’re not perfect. And rules are made to be broken.

But, used as guidelines, there’s a plethora of good help out there on writing great blog posts.

What about tips on how to create more discussion? To get people to comment? Short of yelling or begging, let’s take a look at 5 blog writing tips to get more comments:

  1. Controversial / In-Your-Face Headlines. Write a headline that’s opposite of what people would expect. Write a headline that takes an obviously controversial or bizarre stance. Write a headline that’s “in your face” and to the point. The most popular post I’ve ever written was titled, “5 Things You Shouldn’t Spend Money On When Starting a Business”.

    Or, write a headline that asks a very direct question, or a question that’s bound to ruffle feathers. The 2nd most popular post I’ve ever written was titled, “What Do Real Estate Agents Do Exactly? Where’s The Value And Innovation?”

  2. Keep Posts Short. There’s a time and place for long posts, but if you want to generate comments, keep your posts as short as possible. I’m not recommending that you exclude information from your arguments, but the longer a post goes, the more people skim, and the less likely they are to get the information they really want; the information that’s going to get them to comment.
  3. Take a Stand. If you wiffle-waffle in a post, or present too many sides to an argument, no one will bother commenting. Take a stand, stick with it, argue as persuasively as you can, and then let the “yays” and “nays” battle it out in the comments.
  4. End Blog Posts With Questions. Make the question as specific as possible. “What do you think?” might not be inspiring enough to get someone to comment. Re-iterate the point or argument of the blog post in the question, to make it as direct and pointed as possible.
  5. Put a Kicker Inside. It’s understood that the start and end of a blog post need to pack a punch. People read the intro, skim…skim some more, and read the end right? Well, some people do read the middle. And you may be able to nab someone into commenting by putting some kind of kicker in the middle. Give ‘em something meaty to chew on, and they might even skim the rest of the post so they can comment right away. If the middle is drab, people will be less inspired by the end anyway, so shock ‘em on the inside.

How-to posts are not going to generate the most comments, unless someone disagrees with your approach. And while comments like, “I agree totally!” are very flattering and a nice boost to ye old ego, they don’t necessarily encourage discussion.

Commenting is all about discussion. Get people talking and debating through comments and you’ve got something extremely powerful.

What are your tips and tricks for generating comments? What has worked for you in the past? Tell us!

And in case you forgot — it’s Blog About 5 Things Week. Join the fun!

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Comments
  • Ben;

    I just read about your new role in Grasshopper Media over on Chris Brogan's site. Congratulations! Chris has a huge passion for this emerging market, and he's excited about your take on the business angle, which has the rest of us who know Chris excited for the future of Grasshopper.

    Perhaps we'll see both of you down at PodCamp Pittsburgh in November?

    Best wishes.

    Justin
  • Hi Justin - thanks for stopping by and commenting.

    I'm not sure about PodCamp Pittsburgh, although I'm sure Chris will be there.

    I'm definitely looking at PodCamp Toronto though in February - seems so far away though!

    Keep in touch, and thanks again!
  • Davezilla
    I totally agree. I've done the same tactics (ending posts in questions, etc.). If you don't engage them, they will read and move on. Ask for their opinion. They'll give it!
  • Thanks for the feedback Davezilla. I'm glad you liked my thoughts.
  • Interlinking - now there's a great idea. I came over here from your 8 Steps...One At A Time.

    Some good advice here, too. It's not easy making the headline both "in yer face" but also SEO friendly. But it is possible.

    I just wish my recent headline had grabbed a bit more attention.
  • Rory - the thing with headlines (and posts) is that it's very hard to know what will be popular. I've written some posts that I thought were uber-gems, and no one seemed to care. Others, people hop all over.

    Your post about Digg and James Kim looks like the type of thing that could get noticed on Digg (save for the fact that it's somewhat anti-Digg.) When it comes to Digg, I've found it's almost all a question of who Diggs the post first - if it's a top Digger you've got a shot at making some noise, otherwise it's very tough.
  • I hear you, Ben. And thanks for the frank comments, they are very helpful. It is too easy to fall into the trap of wanting to write the killer headline, and that just goes against the "One Person At A Time" ideology. So it's pretty much doomed to failure.

    Hey, if I cared so much about the James Kim story I would throw it into the fray, wouldn't I? It's just that I have been a bit reticent (maybe read "cowardly", or "overly cautious" if you are a forgiving sort)D'you know, I might just go over and do that now, just for the helluvit
  • Hey Rory - I don't think trying to write a killer headline is a trap. Overly-obsessing is -- cause that's never healthy.

    The truth is, even the best headline might not work sometimes, but certainly there are better headlines than others out there.

    I spend a lot of time on headlines. Not all of them are gems. Not all of them are intended to get dugg or generate lots of traffic. For some I do hope that's the case.

    Best resource: http://www.copyblogger.com.
  • Ben, thanks for taking the time to comment on this. It's a learning curve for me. Your honesty is extremely helpful.

    I'm subscribing!

    And I have thrown the story to the wolves...gulp!
  • Good luck with the wolves Rory, and thanks for subscribing!
  • Since I just got started with blogging, I'm looking more and more for articles about blogging. While I enjoyed this post, I don't totally agree with every aspect.

    Item number 2, "keep posts short." I'm not totally buying this one. I thing more appropriately, keep posts succinct and meaningful. Anyone can write a short post but sometimes short equals senseless. I would argue to focus on quality and not quantity.

    Despite my slight disagreement, I did enjoy the article. Glad I found your site.
  • Bret - you're certainly right - quality over quantity rules the day, every day, all the time.

    I could have said "Succinct and meaningful" but I was trying to be "short" about it. *laugh*

    The goal of this particular post was on how to generate more comments.

    At the end of the day I do think shorter posts will result in more comments. That doesn't mean a post of 1 sentence will generate more comments than a post with 10 sentences. But a post that goes on for pages will be very hard pressed to generate commentary.

    Thanks for the comment, and I hope we'll see you around some more in the future!
  • Now, this is what I was looking for while scanning the numerous articles on successful blogging - how to get more comments. Thanks for the tips.
  • Ben,

    I remembered some of your suggestions when I wrote my most recent blog entry. Alas, I forgot 2 of them, namely, keeping it short and ending with a question. Hopefully practice will make perfect. Please do visit my site and comment on the post if you have the time. I am not as rabidly passionate about Open Source as it appears in the post. But then I was commenting on someone else's article and he did get my dander up!
  • I agree totally!

    haha! I couldn't help it!

    Good post though
  • I'm a new blogger, and I've gotten few comments so far. Nevertheless, #3 worked for me a couple of days ago when I wrote about the incident between AirTran and the family the airline kicked off the plane. Not only did it elicit some comments (and quickly), I learned alot about why people feel the way they feel.
  • KWiz - that's great. There's a difference between taking a stand and being an abusive jerk. If you take a stand, express yourself intelligently and focus on your reasoning you'll illicit (hopefully), smart, worthwhile comments. If you're a brash, argumentative type you'll get comments, but most of them won't further the dialogue.

    Thanks for commenting, hope to see you around.
  • I'm stymied... I've posted a variety of longer and shorter blog entries, very opinionated and also completely uncontroversial, and posts that were sorta open-ended. Yet, with it all, I still get very few comments. My stats indicate that people are visiting and I've gotta assume that they're sticking around long enough to read some of my ramblings, but only rarely do they comment...
  • Rob - it is tough. My only thought after reading a handful of your posts is that the content isn't focused on a particular subject. You've got lots of interesting posts, but they range from topics like music, your heating at home, etc.

    It might be a question of your audience being very dispersed - so they find your site (let's say through Google) but there's not enough similar content to keep them engaged and coming back.

    It's also a fairly personal blog, and I think those naturally get fewer comments than advice or news-related ones.

    Maybe it's time for a contest? Use comments to determine the winner, offer some kind of prize, do something fun that would engage your audience...
  • Thanks for the input, Ben. You're right, the post topics are kind of all over the place, but that is sort of the nature of it being a personal blog.

    I do like the idea of a contest. I'll have to work on that...

    One odd thing is that I refer to (a.k.a. "pimp," "hawk," or "trumpet") my blog at work fairly often (although I do try to be subtle so it doesn't become annoying) yet few of my buddies from work seem to frequent the site. More often, the folks who're keeping up with it regularly are friends from halfway across the country.
  • Rob - I think that makes sense though - friends from far away don't get to see you regularly, so they're using the blog to keep up to date.

    And I agree in terms of it being hard to get comments on a personal blog, I think that's the nature of a personal blog.
  • Short but godd article. But sometimes is Ok to write some really useful and long article...
  • Luke - there's no question that there's a time and place for long stories.

    When you go with a long story you just have to make sure you break it up well and use certain writing techniques and styles to keep things flowing...
  • I agree totally!
    Short but godd article. But sometimes is Ok to write some really useful and long article…
  • Goddag!
    Check this out!
    ,
  • Ben,

    You should also try PostReach ClickComments to make it easier for your readers to comment.

    Check it out at www.postreach.com

    ...postreach
  • Thanks a ton for sharing those pearls!!
  • Ben, thanks for the awesome tips. I keep finding great articles on how to write good blog posts, but nothing on generating comments/discussion. One of the purposes of my site is to create discussion, so these will be very helpful.

    One thing I'd like to add: Include your website URL in any signature you use for forums, blog comments, etc. By using Site Meter, I've tracked that about half of my incoming traffic is from my comment/forum signature.

    For a future article: How about a top five on how to visually set up a blog to generate the most interest?

    Thanks again for a great article.
  • @Eric: Thanks for the comment.

    I do agree about putting a URL in a signature on forums ... in blog post comments I always find it a bit much. Mostly because your name already links to your site. I don't typically remove these when people do it, but I find it a bit invasive. Just my thoughts on that...

    As for the top five ways to visually setup your blog -- there are lots of good articles out there on good design. I've written some of my thoughts on good blog design as well (do a search for "blog design" and they should come up!) Especially with my recent redesign, I wrote something on Problogger.net about it that was quite detailed.

    Good luck!
  • Thanks for the tips. As far as short narratives, does it make sense to re-write blogs already posted into short more concise blogs and re-post them. For example go back to the 1st post that is still relevant news and create a shorter version with more spice.
  • @threio: I think so. And that's a good question for sure. I've been tempted to do that myself - go back and look at previous posts (often shuddering at how poorly written they were) and then re-styling them into newer/fresher posts. I may still do that in fact.
  • I agree with your five points, but what if your blog is really about you the person, like the blog is part of a larger thing and "taking a stand" about a blog issue isn't really an option...I like the title idea very much, but I know its going to drive me crazy...OCD!!!
  • @Chuck: Not everything I mention is doable by all bloggers and certainly not on every single blog post - so you go with what works, and evolve from there.
  • a good read.
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  • Wow Thanks sharing these this topic. I have seen a lot of how to write's. But how to write a comment I didn't see before. I am searching the internet thoroughly, in search for useful writing tips. And just came up with a few really great sites. Yours helped me out! Thanks for sharing and visit this useful website: http://www.howtowrite.info/writing

    It adds over 45 How To Write tips especially crafted on professional documents like proposals, business plans, resume but also more personal like how to writing a song for example. Helped me out!

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    Debby
  • I'd like the idea of raising Controversial headlines.. Good option for more readers to look on and comment.. Thanks for the idea anyway.. I was searching for internet and here i land upon.. Im gona use it on my blog www.lokapriya.com for sure :)
  • Wow.... good job.... thank you!!!!!....
  • All is good ;)
  • This is great advice! Def some good tips for me to continue "blogging"!
  • I think one of the tips is to comment other blogs too! And make the posts interesting so the reader likes to read it.
  • Thanks a lot for the tips
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