Getting Participation and Comments on Your Blog

Show the Carrot

Instead of threatening to prevent people from commenting, you may want to consider giving them a positive incentive to comment.

For instance, you could put some lower bound on the number of comments you must receive before you will create another post.
Example:
You might say that you will only post after you have received at least 30 comments from readers.

With this said, it is important that you follow the response to this policy over time. Make sure that readers aren’t simply posting “good work” or “nice post,” but instead are actively participating. Otherwise, this system will not work and you may need to switch to something else.

Note: I can’t stress enough the importance of the “carrot” principle in place for this strategy:

You need to show people what’s next.

Tease them about the next blog post and make it clear that you’ll post this new exclusive post right after you reach a certain amount of comments.

Make a Typo

Similar to the tip, Creating a Poll, which involved creating a poll that purposely excluded certain categories of response, you may want to consider drawing comments by intentionally making a mistake.

You can do this by occasionally making a typo, which will incite those who cannot accept typos to comment.

Of course, with this strategy, it is critical that you do NOT go over-board. Frequently making typos on your blog will make you look unprofessional and will hurt your chances of long run success.

Donna Ward
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