Is there anybody out there? How to encourage comments on your blog
I’ve been thrilled to see quite a few new bookstore blogs spring up over the last few months. Congratulations to all of you who’ve taken the plunge. I’ve tried to add everybody to the list of independent bookseller blogs on the side of Booksellers Blog, but if I’ve missed you, please let me know. You can leave the link in the comments so others can see it as well.
You might be wondering why few people seem to be commenting on your blog.
First: have patience
From experience, I can tell you that it takes time to build a readership that is a) large enough and b) comfortable enough to comment. Like anything else on the internet, a very small percentage of readers will ever comment. The statistic that is often thrown around is that 1-2% of readers will comment. Most readers are happy to “lurk” — that is, read your posts, absorb your information, maybe even attend the author event or buy the book — but they won’t comment. That’s just human nature. However, as your readership grows, though the percentage may not change, the number of commenters will also grow.
Make it easy for people to comment
While you may fear an onslaught of spam, comment moderation and captcha codes are hoops that many people just won’t jump through. Your blog host likely has pretty hefty spam filtering. We’ve found very little spam on our blogger blog, and this self-hosted wordpress uses a spam filter. What little spam does get through is simply annoying: someone leaving a generic comment with a link to their site. It’s easy to block. If you find otherwise, you can always turn on stronger measures later. To begin, leave your comments open and unmoderated.
Write to encourage comments
You can also try to increase the number of commenters by structuring your posts in a way that makes it more natural for your readers to comment. Asking a question at the end of the post often works well. “Tell us what you think.” “What have your experiences been?” “Leave your recommendations in the comments for others to see”, etc. I have found that this is very effective when it’s not too contrived.
Some people will deliberately leave “room” for reader comments. For instance, if you are writing a post about “10 books that feature a local setting”, it might be better to call it “5 books” and leave some unmentioned, ending the post with a “What are your favorites?”, for other readers to add in the comments.
Take guidance from the experts
Problogger.com recently ran a great article about other ways to encourage comments, How to Create Compelling Content Through Reader Interaction. It’s well worth reading and bookmarking — and maybe even printing out to keep near your desk where you blog.
Lastly, realize that comments aren’t everything
While it’s tempting to evaluate the success of a blog based on the number of comments, there are other ways to measure how you’re doing. Are people commenting about your blog when they are in the store? Are readers emailing you directly, or calling the store to reserve a book you’ve mentioned? Are they clicking through to your website? Are others linking to your blog? Has the media picked up on one or more of your posts? Any of these, and others that I haven’t mentioned, are signs that you are providing value to your customers.
Though I do confess, I love it when I get an email that I have a new comment.

Karen says:
August 7th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Of course, I had to comment on this post! Very useful advice; I’ve obeyed point 2, printed out problogger story, and will work on being patient.
jennie nash says:
August 14th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
THank you for this post. I’m a novelist trying to blog, as well, and it’s good to be reminded of how much I have to learn!
Sandy Scott says:
August 17th, 2009 at 10:35 am
You didn’t mention checking your blog stats (I’ve only used Wordpress, but I assume that other blogging sites would offer something similar). That’s what I check to see how many readers we have, and it seems like one of the simplest ways to measure the success of a post. Our readership is quite small, but I definitely see spikes on Fridays, which is when I update, so that lets me know that people are interested.
Launa McNeilly says:
September 17th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I’m a newly published author and it is good to be reminded to slow down and not expect big numbers of anything at least for a while. I have been told to blog, blog, and blog by my publisher. Sometimes it seems like we are talking or typing to the air but regardless, I’m still blogging. I think I am too new an author for anyone to be interested in anything I have to say. At least at this point. I have a second fiction novel in the hands of my agent and we shall see if that gets published and helps with the first. Hoping so. Well, thats my blog for the moment. I welcome anyone that wants to talk to me. In fact, I’d be extremely excited! Bye for now and thanks for the good advice!
Mikayla says:
June 15th, 2010 at 8:54 am
I’m a newly published author and it is good to be reminded to slow down and not expect big numbers of anything at least for a while. I have been told to blog, blog, and blog by my publisher. Sometimes it seems like we are talking or typing to the air but regardless, I’m still blogging. I think I am too new an author for anyone to be interested in anything I have to say. At least at this point. I have a second fiction novel in the hands of my agent and we shall see if that gets published and helps with the first. Hoping so. Well, thats my blog for the moment. I welcome anyone that wants to talk to me. In fact, I’d be extremely excited! Bye for now and thanks for the good advice!
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