You want your readers to actually get through your blog, and ideally even read your blog comments, and that is what this article is going to help you to do. However, it is not always the best idea to have people read through your blog comments. For example, if you have ever read the comments on YouTube then you will be horrified at the sheer idiocy of our own nation. Perhaps read the comments yourself before applying the tips listed below.
1 – Request that people add in their own suggestions to your blog post list
This is a commonly used idea, just do not do that thing where you say, “Over to you”, because it is cheesier than a mouse’s teeth on a day trip to France. Instead, you should explain that you have racked your brain to add in all the entries you could, and ask if people known any others you may have missed.
Also, if you have any respect for your readers then do not purposefully omit an entry because you will get one person suggesting it and fifty people suggesting you are an idiot for missing it. For example, do not write a top fifty gangster films of all time and miss out all the Godfather movies.
2 – Be purposefully controversial
It is a technique that works but it is old hat. Oddly enough, you can write plenty of non-controversial stuff and still have people comment because they are violently offended by it. So, even if you do go the controversial route, you do not have to be overly controversial.
There were reams of comments on a YouTube video of Avril Lavigne singing a song with a guy, and one comment said, “You are great Avril, you don’t need him singing with you,” which was just a nice way of saying she is a good singer. The person to reply was appalled that someone suggested she not sing a song with what turned out to be her husband. So, at the end of the day, you may simply remark that you think a person is a good singer and there will be people offended by it.
3 – Write something thought provoking
If you can get people thinking then you can get them commenting. The idea is to keep them thinking after they have finished reading, which is the golden moment when they may write a comment.
4 – Start the comment threads yourself
This is just a case of getting the ball rolling. Add in a comment near the top of the blog comment section so that maybe people reply to it and you.
5 – Reply to the comments and keep them writing
If you want to keep the ball rolling then you simply keep engaging with the commenting people and you reply to the people that replied to you. Do not get drawn into arguments. Remember that the people commenting are not your silent majority. In fact, they represent no majority, even if they all seem to agree on a subject (which is often unlikely). They are just commenters and do not forget that many people are braying morons with too much time on their hands so do not waste too much of your time arguing with them.
6 – Remove barriers and make it very easy to comment
Get rid of Captcha, and give people the option of signing in with their Facebook profile account if they want, but do not force them to. Make it so that they can comment without an account if they wish. You can make it so that if they do not have an account or if they do not sign in with a social media account then they have to wait for you to approve the comment before it is posted. This will help stop repeated spamming attempts by the same person.
7 – Close your blog posts with a question
Since you are a blog writer, you should make the question a little more personal. There is nothing wrong with asking a question regarding your own post such as, “How is it possible that we still have to brush our teeth in an age where we can grow meat?” But, you may get more responses if you ask a personal question such as, “Should I have let her see other people for a while because we had been together since high school?” You will get a few thought out answers, a few contrary answers and a few nasty and/or funny answers, but answers you will get.
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The post is written by Sonia Jackson from cool-essays.com. She helps students in writing academic papers on different topics.