Mike Butcher ever said that blogging is a conversation, Matt Smith has said blogging after all is a community.
Both statement shows that blogging is a form of communications. You can deliver your opinion, you can promote something you like, or even better you can do business through your blog through interactions online. As your media platform of community it is always nice to get people interactions by leaving comments in your blog.
Having an interactive blog through blog comments is something that many bloggers dream of, but sometimes reality says different ways. No matter how hard you have tried to make it happens it still seems too hard to be real. If so why don’t you check out one of the post ‘How To Get More Blog Comments?’ from Matt Smith of OnlineIncomeTeacher.
I myself wondering how exactly getting blog comments is, I do some research on this but I think it would not be completed if I can’t get Matt to speak. Thus I was thinking why don’t I ask Matt directly for deeper explanations. As such, I decided to interview him to get quality advice on how to get comments in your blog. Here are his deeper explanations on this matters. Feel free to enjoy it;
How did you end up starting OnlineIncomeTeacher, would you mind to share your reasons?
Well, I only started OnlineIncomeTeacher.com back in June 2011. Prior to this, I had a number of websites and blogs that I was running successfully online. People that learned what I was doing for a living would always ask me how I earn money from websites. This is what inspired me to launch OnlineIncomeTeacher and help teach people how they too can make money online with their own site. I really enjoy helping people and teaching them all about websites.
Every blogger has their own hard times in the blogosphere? What about you and how did you pass through it?
Well my very first site wasn’t very successful! It was a small blog that I wrote about my favorite movies, as that is one of my passions. It took me ages to get to grips with, almost had no readers and barely made me any money whatsoever, mainly because I didn’t have a clue what I was doing back then.
Despite all this, I really enjoyed what I was doing, so I was determined not to fall at the first hurdle and give up. I learned a lot from my first site, which helped me massively when I started my next site and the one after that. I think a lot of people would have given up had they been in my shoes back then, but mistakes are only bad if you don’t learn from them!
How do you use your blog to accomplish your business goals?
Well my blog is my business! Without it, my site wouldn’t be able to function and I would struggle to get any visitors. My blog helps me to attract new readers, write detailed articles helping people set up their own website, lets me make money by promoting affiliate products and advertising space.
I have read one of your posts about blog comments. In your opinion what are the advantages of getting post comments on your blog?
Blog comments are a great way to get feedback from your readers. After all, if you spend all that time and effort writing a detailed article to publish on your site, you want some sort of feedback from the people who are reading it! Whether these comments are positive or negative, they help you to understand what is working and what isn’t, which should help you identify areas that you can improve your site.
Of course, the best thing about getting comments on your site is that you get the opportunity to reply to them. This helps to build a community around your blog, where people can ask you questions and get answers from you directly. People are much more likely to keep returning to a site that genuinely helps them, rather than just telling them what to do.
One of your posts – ‘How To Get More Blog Comments?’ is a problem for many new bloggers. What was your inspirations in making that post?
Well exactly that! I get emails everyday from new bloggers needing help, who I am always happy to help. A question that I always seemed to get asked though was “…how can I get more people to leave comments on my blog?” Now, because I was getting so many of the same question, I figured that this was a major problem that people were struggling with, so it seemed like a good idea to write a detailed post and help these people out.
What is the hardest parts in getting blog comments on your blog?
Well the hardest part in getting blog comments is related to getting traffic to your site! It’s common sense after all that you have more chance of someone leaving a comment, with the more people there are reading your article. That’s why I always tell people to stop worrying about getting comments and concentrate on driving more traffic to your site.
For new bloggers, I always suggest that they go and learn more about; search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, guest blogging, email marketing, etc. These are the things that you need to learn about to grow your website. Like I say, work on these aspects and the comments will flow naturally.
What do you think a blogger should do if they still do not have any comments on their blog?
They shouldn’t panic! If someone is still not getting any comments, then they probably just need to keep working on driving traffic to their site. But saying that, there are a few ‘tips& tricks’ that you can use to encourage people to leave comments.
Ask questions within your blog posts, that way people may leave a comment in response. You could write your articles in an opinionated way, which will encourage people to leave comments agreeing or disagreeing with you.
Ask for comments! At the end of your posts, simply try asking people to leave a comment below. Alternatively, you could try switching to a different comment system on your blog. Perhaps people are being put off by the complicated system that you are already using.
Should a blogger comment on other blogs? How about you, how many times do you make a blog comments in a day?
Absolutely!!! Bloggers should spend some time commenting on others sites of the same niche. If anything, this is much more important that getting comments on your own site because it can help attract traffic to your site. We in the industry refer to this as ‘Blog Marketing’.
Leaving comments on other sites has many benefits. Primarily, it helps you to build relationships with fellow bloggers and get your name out there for people to see. Also, many comment systems allow you to include a link to your website when people click on your name. This can help your site’s SEO ranking, as you can build the number of links that are ‘pointing’ to your site. I would warn you though, leaving a comment solely for the purpose of getting a link is SPAM!
Your comment would most likely be deleted by the site owner. Instead leave a comment related to the post that you have just read, or try to help someone out by answering a question. People will see that you are helpful, and therefore more willing to visit your own site.
I myself make sure that I spend time commenting on other sites. I wouldn’t say that I have a set number that I have to do each day, but I make sure that I spend a hour or two a week making sure that I leave quality comments on blog posts that I like. It has helped me build relationships with a number of other bloggers and increase my presence within the blogging community.
What do you like best from blog comments?
Personally, I like the interaction that I can have with people. Whether it’s replying to comments on my own site or answering peoples questions on other sites, it’s nice to be able to help people out and interact with them.
I think a lot of new bloggers have the mentality that ‘if I build it, they will come’, which is not true. You can’t just build a site and hope that people will just suddenly turn up and start talking to you. You need to get involved with everyone else, blogging after all is a community!
On a scale of 1 to 10, what number is ‘getting blog comments’ in your blogging plans priority? Do you mind to share your blogging plans this year?
If I had to rate it on a scale of 1-10 for my own site, then I’d have to give it a 2 or 3. It really isn’t a priority for me as I have tons of other stuff that I need to work on that is more important. The most important (definitely a 10) would be to continue growing my website and driving more traffic to it. I am aiming for the end of the year to be getting at least 1,000 daily visitors if not more, as well as continuing to produce quality blog posts on a regular basis. We have been quite successful to say that we are still less that 1 year old, but we intend to keep putting in the work and improving the site to make in better for our visitors.
What are your predictions for making a living from a blog in future?
2012 looks set to be a great year for bloggers and internet industries in general. The internet is seeing more people logging on throughout the world, with more countries like China, India and Brazil getting more people connected. More companies are acknowledging that blogging is an integral part of getting traffic to their website and ultimately selling products. Social media sites and search engines are expanding at an incredible rate and the use of smart phones goes through the roof. The online community seems to be shifting up a gear as we all come to integrate the internet as an important part of our everyday lives. Blogging is only going to get bigger and bigger!
The importance of getting blog comments is debatable, some bloggers might say blog comments is not so important, but other might say a blog without comments is a soap-box, plain and simple. Blog comments is like a distractions for many new bloggers, moreover if you see other blog that has so many comments in each of the posts.
But be careful, don’t spend too much times of your effort for this distractions, there are many things you can do to build your blog, so focus on build your blog performance as a whole. I have learned from this interview that there is a formula on getting blog comments as much as you can but the result would differ for each blogs.
One thing for sure is to keep making value from your blog content first then what you want will come in the end.
About Matt Smith
Matt Smith is the founder and editor of OnlineIncomeTeacher. He is a Professional Blogger, SEO Consultant & Web Developer, running a number of sites from the UK.
Read other interview :
- How to Build Profitable Online Business
- How to Make Money Online
- How to Make Money with Clickbank
- How to Obtain Legitimate Online Presence
- How to Build a Successful Blog in Any Niche
- How to Sell in Social Networks
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