Using Comments To Better Your Blog
Genesis Davies is a work at home mom of two. She currently runs three blogs, one of which is At Home Mom.
As bloggers, we tend to be obsessed with stats, but have you taken a look at other areas of your blog? Take comments, for example. They can be a very useful way to find out which of your posts are hitting home and you can use them to narrow down your focus.
I recently learned this lesson after writing about a week’s worth of what I thought were great, informative posts on work at home businesses. But that whole week, I got no comments, not a one!
Upon examining my comments a little closer, I suddenly realized something. The posts that I thought were important and relevant . . . weren’t the ones my readers were looking for! The posts that draw the most comments are my ones on time management or keeping your children busy while you work.
You see, comments aren’t just a fun way to connect with your readers. They offer great insight into what your public wants from you. By checking frequently and analyzing the posts that your readers are commenting on and linking to, you will quickly get a better idea for whether or not you should adjust the focus of your blogging.
When you think you have things figured out, use your comments as a test. Write three or four blog posts in a row on the topic areas that you have noticed the most activity on and you will be able to see how well they fare by monitoring comments. It’s a great way to help improve your blog on a continuing basis.
I have noticed what posts seem to be the most popular but I haven’t really ever studied it. I think it would perhaps be a good idea to write out a spreadsheet and really pay attention to which topics have the most comments.
I also pay attention to search terms. I might be getting a few searches on a topic I haven’t talked about in a little while so I will make another post on that.
Comments are a social indicator of what’s good or not on your blog. Of course they work best when combined with other types of statuses, like post views or how much time people spend on your site after publishing a certain post.
Agreed! After much practice, I am slowly learning the topics that really hit and miss as far as comments go. It seems that some posts are simply informative, and don’t quite elicit as much comments as others that ask questions or give controversial statements. All in all, learning to write blog posts to provoke comments is becoming an art form!
Very good post. Comments are important, another tip is, if you are just starting out, edit your template to completely get rid of comments (on the front page only).
Then once your blog gets bigger, put them back in. No-one wants to see a commentless blog, its a sad thing.
.
Great post Genesis. Yeah comments can be a real good indicator of what’s hot and what’s not. I think reacting to comments is just as important as well, as commentators need to know that they’re being listened to and that they count in the blog’s community.
In reaction to Leonid – ever tried faking comments?
Agreed! The best critizism you get out of your blog is what your readers say. I find it very affective to read every comment and take a second to think about it.
I think we’ve all had posts that we thought we really good and ultimately drew very few comments, if any. Sometimes I think it can be the nature of the article that doesn’t encourage comments. Even articles that may not be that great but ask questions of the readers will draw more feedback