As I’ve talked about in previous posts here on Teenius, the commentators are one of the most important parts of any blog. Not only does it make your blog look professional if you have lots of comments, but it also builds a community which will lead to a spiral effect in traffic, meaning your blog will get bigger and bigger.
This article will discuss different techniques to make sure you reward your commentators. After all, if you reward them, then they’re bound to return and leave more comments!
Plugins
It seems common knowledge amongst bloggers nowadays, but I’ll give it a quick mention anyway. Plugins such as the Top Commentator Widget (which shows a list on the people who’ve left the most comments on your blog) and CommentLuv (which shows the commentators last blog post on the end of their comment) give commentators link, which will act as advertisement, thus making them feel more obliged to comment!
Contests
By running comment-related contests such as the one I have on at the moment, you’re bound to increase the comment count. I know I personally received a substantial increase in the amount of comments I’ve received since the contest began. If you don’t have the energy to run regular big contests, you could try doing a small, regular contest. Ali from InternetHow Blog runs a weekly contest on his blog where the winner gets a free banner ad for a week!
Comment Back
As I said at the start of the post, comments are crucial for any blog, so a great way of getting more comments is to return the comment. What I mean by this is that if someone leaves a comment on your blog, you then visit theirs and leave a comment for them! This is actually how I got most of my commentators when I first started this blog, so it’s definitely worth taking the extra time to do!
Interact!
This is the simplest one, and every blogger should be doing this. Basically, if someone leaves a comment on your blog, reply to it! I will often thank first time commentators for visiting, and if anyone leaves a good comment then I’ll reply to it. By doing this, you can not only make friends, but also add extra value to the posts you write which can give your blog a really nice boost!
What do you do?!
How do you thank commentators on your blog? Would you add anything to this post? As always, I’d love to hear your views on this post and this blog as a whole, so please feel free to leave a comment below!
Post image from Odadeo.com
Good post.
Covered all the bases there.
I always reply to my comments and read most of the commentluv posts!
Glad you enjoyed the post, David!
As for checking out the CommentLuv posts, that’s always a good idea!
Out of interest do you comment on the posts you see?
Where possible I will leave a comment.
Sometimes when you read a post that is on a topic I am not familiar with I will usually not because I don’t believe that I will be adding any value to the post.
I think comments are all about showing respect to the writer and adding your opinions on the topic.
Very good point. It’s nice to see you’re only leaving quality comments on people’s blogs; I know personally your comments on here are awesome!
I usally go back to their blog and comment back. Also, I try to retweet, digg, and stumble their content.
this is a great way by which you increase the traffic on the commenters blog
Exactly. After all, the commentator is only really commenting to get something (usually exposure for their website), so if you add to that further by actively advertising their post, they’re sure to return.
Nice one Ali!
I think it is nice to return the favor
Twitter is something that I am still pretty new to.
I try and retweet posts that I enjoy, or that I think my followers will find interesting!
Awesome!
Remember that for some awesome Twitter related tips you can see my ‘Twitter’ category 
I will also make it my habit. Nice suggestion.
Good points covered here.. to contribute my commentators.. I did the following..
1. Installed TC Widget.
2. Allocated 124*125 ad slot for TC of month.
3. Became Do Follow.
In future.. will introduce Commentluv plugin!
Ahh, I can’t believe I forgot to add in dofollow! I even wrote it down on my notes LOL
Thanks for adding it though!
I think conducting contest is a very good one. We can contribute our readers in terms of money and you are doing it..kudos..
Another great point to add to the list. Maybe I’ll do another post with even more steps to thank your commentators!
Good points, I love it all. It’s always nice to see more comments on my blog because it’s a sign that we are blogging the right way and we are not on our island alone
Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment, Phaoloo, hope you’ll be back soon!
But, yes, having comments is for me the best part of blogging. It gives me a chance to interact with other people, and also makes me feel that my work is appreciated
Good article Simon.
First of all, I must say I liked that Post Image at the top
About what I do to get comments, not much actually but yeah “Comments Back” is a good one to give time to, rest I’ve given job to “Top Commentator” & “CommentLuv” plugins.. haha.
Nice article, once again !
Thanks for the comment, Enk. Yeah, I too liked the image (I credited the original author at the bottom of the post)
I thought you created the image.. didn’t notice the author link
though it’s not working ! :/
Haha – my picture-making abilites aren’t anywhere near that high!
And, as for the link not working, that was the site where I got the cartoon from, so if it doesn’t work then it’s an error at their end!
Another teenager blogger that I have known so far. Really appreciate this post and I am using both plugins too. It encourages readers to comment more and return. Thanks
btw i am teenager too but last year in my teenage i am 19
Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for the comment
I don’t always thank every commenter, but I do try and comment back on their blog. And I have top commentator installed.
Farhad, is the Blogging park down? can’t see :/
Yeah, I noticed that you try your best to comment back, but you sure get a lot of comments on LetsSermo so I can understand if you didnt!
Guess hosting some commenting contest and adding some of those useful plugins really attract people to comment on
Interacting is also an important thing the blog owner must do, by replying to comments, you will encourage your commenters to reply or even keep commenting, which is what I’m doing now
By the way, I have to add, I love how all of your blog posts have tiny little pictures that illustrate what the post is about, really attractive! Keep it up!
Good second paragraph there. Replying to your commentators not only encourages further comments, but infact it also makes you as a blogger look better in my opinion, as you’re connecting with other commentators rather than just leaving them!
And, glad you like the pictures!
“Interact” is very important, especially with first time commenters. I make it a point to officially welcome all to the blog, even if I have nothing to reply to their actual comment.
Commentluv not working.
Dennis, I often do the same, but generally speaking I’ll only reply to quality comments, as the people who left those are, in my opinion, the one’s worth my attention
And, as for CommentLuv, I’m working on it. Like I’ve said I’m having a bit of problems with the hosting on my site so plugins are a bit tricky, but when it’s sorted I’ll reinstall it!
I only replt to quality comments as well, but not all reqire an actual response. I always make sure to at least welcome them to the community though.
The subscribe to comments plugin needs to be first when you get things straightened out. I only came back here because I happen to remember it when I was commenting on another post. lol
Don’t worry, when I get it all sorted there’ll be STC plugin, fixed commentluv, heck, I might even go crazy and add some new features! :O
Another nice post, you have covered all the topics in the same post. I useually reply to my readers.
Hey, Teenius The amount of comment have increased on your blog. The traffic is coming very fast. I think its all due to contest.
I think some of the traffic is down to the contest, but I also feel that the comments are mainly down to me doing more posts, as I haven’t really brought in that many new commentators, just getting more comments from my current ones
I’ve done all those things you mentioned above except ‘Contest’
and talking about contest, you get a great buzz from your contest, and i see your comments count per post is increasing. Well done!
Yeah, I feel holding a contest every now and again is really important, as it’s a great way of not only thanking your commentators, but also connecting with more people!
The most important part is thanks giving mail. This will encourage the readers to visit again. And also i am having a plan to conduct contest… Hopefully i will come up with a contest in my blog soon.
Deepika´s last blog ..Contest @ teenius.com:Win Prizes worth over $800
Interacting with commentators and giving away something useful to them for eg: backlinks to their blogs can make it a returning visitor or helps in increasing your subscriber’s count. ultimately giving your blog a good exposure as well
nice concept based post…
I am following these steps initially from the day of my blogging
except the contest one 
. What do you think Simon??
But why do many probloggers do not reply to the newbies in comment section?? This question is making me to get a negative feeling on them
Hi Sunny, thanks for your comment.
The reason probloggers don’t usually reply is purely because they don’t have the time. If you get 50 comments on a post, then it’s going to take ages to reply to them. Also, you have to remember the probloggers get hundreds of emails a day. It’s a lot of work!
One of the good ways a webmaster can thank the Commentators is by just sending a thank you email. This is the 1st step that i consider more important than anything else.
We use Commentluv to thank our commentators.
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