It’s New Years Eve and I want to wish you and your families a Happy New Year.

After a comment by Rowell Dionicio, saying “I’m starting to see more comments on my blog but would like to see more interaction.” I decided to look at my stats and I noticed that I had gotten my first 134 comments, and then I noticed that I only have 8 posts. After a little math it came out to about 17 comments per a post. I know it’s not really that much but for a new blog it seems like a nice average.

So I wanted to share with you all, a few tips that I think can help you get the reader engagement that you want.

1. Writing quality readable post’s.

I like to think at least half of my posts are high in quality, and that all of them are easy to read. I recently wrote about writing better posts so i’m not going to go into too much detail, but  if you write quality READABLE content you will pull in more comments. When I say readable content, I mean posts that are literally easy to read.

2. Write about controversial topics.

When I say “write something controversial” I don’t mean post about opinions that a ton of people frown upon. I’m talking about topics that every one has an opinions about. My most popular post so far has to do with posting frequency, the reason I think it became so popular is that so many people had their own opinions on how often to post.

3. Your posting frequency matters.

I wrote about how posting frequency can get you more comments (the controversial post) a little while ago so I won’t get into too much detail. But the general idea is that the less you post the more reader interaction your gonna get.

4. Comment else where A LOT.

I’m definitely not a Dennis Edell when it comes to commenting but I find my way around, and I comment at about 40 blogs per a week. Not only do I get some decent traffic from these comments, but I usually get at least one comment here at blogict at for each comment I make elsewhere. Although it’s usually a blog owner that comes here to leave a comment, you will get some occasional gems like, Rowell Dionicio, who wander in and leave quite a few quality comments.

5. Give ‘em a little something, use them plugins.

I personally try to comment at blogs that have the CommentLuv plugin (which I have here) or a Top Commentator lists in their sidebars. Why? Well it’s simple, if I take the time to add a little something to your blog I like to get a little something back. Since CommentLuv gives me another chance to pull a new visitor to my site, I will usually leave a comment and that little link at all the good posts.

I also just installed a plugin that allows people to subscribe to comments on a specific post, this can theoretically get you repeat commentators it’s still too early for me to tell.

6. Ask questions.

I’m not too good at this really. I just tend to ask a question at the end of the post, saying “what do you think?” But it’s a time tested technique, and if you can manage to ask questions through out the posts the right way, you can pull in a ton of comments. I’m talking about those quality comments too, not those spammy “Nice Post” comments.

7. Follow up on comments.

I love to follow up on comments, and your readers & commentators will love it too. If people see that you will take the time out of your day to reply to comments and questions one by one, they may post a comment because they see you appreciate their comments.

What other people say:

I obviously don’t know everything their is to no about attracting comments, as I’m still fairly new to this, so I dug around the net to find some more tips for you all.

8. Quote them.

Skellie points out that if you quote comments in a positive way it shows your commentators that what they say means something to you, and that you actually listen to them. (I can’t find the exact post that I read it at but, I gave it a shot in this post)

9. You can get old ones back.

Hussein talks about getting old commentators back using a plugin by Ajith. If you use this the right way I really think you can get a lot of your previous commentators back for another comment or two.

10. Link out.

Ikki talked about a little bit in a comment below and I thought it was a tip worth mentioning. When you link out to other blogs, weather it’s within an article or in a link love, it’s going to show up in the persons WordPress dashboard. 90% of the time those people you link to will come on over to your blog wondering why and where they got mentioned. If its a positive thing, these people will most likely drop a comment thus adding to the conversation.
If you want to talk about the domino effect of linking out; in the long run you may get a link from them in return thus adding to your traffic and comments.

11. You tell me.

You guys and gals have any other super secret tips you wanna share? Spot number 11 is open for a good tip from you.

Just as a side note, this actually happened as I wrote this post, Blogict.com now has a PR of 3!!  Party anyone? I started a thread about it at my favorite forums, WTF, if you wanna talk about the PR update check it out here

Image by: kaibara