5 Reasons People Don`t Comment On Your Blogger Blog
When it comes to free blogging platforms, Blogger is the most popular one. I`m going to be doing a series starting later this week on how to use Blogger effectively and how to customize it to really make it work, but first, let`s take a look at why no one is commenting on your blog if you already have one, which many of my readers do.
1. You only allow Blogger accounts to comment. Trust me, this is the absolute WORST thing you can do. It will kill the comments on your blog. Not everyone has a Blogger account and many people don`t even want one, so if they can`t leave their name and URL on your blog, they will most likely click away. I know I do. (while I do have a Blogger account, it is for tutorial and experimental purposes only, I don`t want to send people to it.) Change this by going into Settings, then Comments.
2. You use captchas. I know, I know, they protect you from spam. But let me just say that I frequently run into captchas on Blogger that I simply cannot read. And truthfully? I`m not going to sit there for 20 minutes typing in letters over and over until I finally get it right. If you`re worried about spam, turn on the comment moderation instead. Once you get to the point of having dozens of spam emails every day, you should definitely consider moving your blog to Wordpress.
3. You don`t ask. Make sure you ask for people`s opinions . . . most readers will never do something on their own, but if you let them know what you want them to do, they are going to be far more likely to comment. Something as simple as “What do you think? Share in the comments.” will work fine.
4. You make your comments pop up. Ok, this probably isn`t a huge issue, but there are many times when the pop up window simply doesn`t load. And if it doesn`t load, there`s no way anyone can comment. Keep comments on the page and you`ll be able to get plenty of comments.
5. You aren`t interesting enough. Ouch, right? But it`s true. If you aren`t writing anything interesting, why would anyone comment? Amp up your writing, make sure you`re offering quality information and see if that doesn`t help.
Your turn . . . what makes you NOT comment on a blog?
great post. my issue with blogger, and maybe you hack queen can figure it, if you don’t have any account or blog, there is no way to get the email of the person. and since there is no notify me in email for the comments, i can’t continue having conversations with people.
i totally agree about all of the above!!!
Actually, you CAN put a subscribe to comments button in Blogger, I`ll be covering that shortly. You might want to subscribe to the blog if you haven`t already so you get the latest posts.
Good article, it’s the first time I’ve read anyone point out the atrocious versions of capcha, there’s several versions that have quite legible images, yet some developer goes and uses some form that’s so twisted that it turns into a guessing game, makes me wonder if they’re actually using their own site.