Just about every New Member that joins our Active Rain community wants to know “How to Get Started with their blogging, and How to get more comments on their posts?” Bryan Beckstead
recently joined Active Rain and saw one of my posts about Joining More Groups in Active Rain. He had written about 8 posts, and had only received one comment on all of them. Bryan stated that he did not expect to have overnight success, but wanted to know “How to Play in the Rain and Get More Comments?”
Here was my response to Bryan’s email to get more comments on his posts.
Yes, Bryan. I am afraid that getting more comments on your posts will not happen overnight. But, this is what you need to do to get more comments. You need to take the time, first of all, to find out and to pay attention to who the most consistent bloggers are in the Rain. Those bloggers who only post once or twice a month won't return your comments, since they haven't learned how to play in the Rain.
I was originally told to comment at least 20 times per day, and start subscribing to some Top Bloggers. Well, in the beginning, I would comment sometimes 30 to 40 times a day, and I immediately subscribed to 20 blogger's post. But, the trick is knowing, who to subscribed too. If you understand how to find the Top Bloggers on the leader-board in each state or city, that will help you to decide who to follow. Again, when you click on someone's blog, look to the right on their sidebar, and see how many posts they have for each month. Those that have less than 10 posts per month is not a good place to start. Note** I did most of my commenting at night or in the early mornings.
Look for those bloggers who are posting 30 to 50 times or more per month, subscribe to them, then start commenting on their posts. You must leave constructive comments, and don't be a "Drive By or Copy and Paste commenter". Example. "Nice Post" Thanks for the information". You will quickly learn that those folks who leave comments like that will not get many return comments. Liz and Bill Spear have written some nice posts about "Ms. Bad Manners". Look them up. You will want to subscribe to them too.
You can also go to the Featured Blog roll to see who the Top Bloggers are too. If they have a lot of Featured posts, they must be good at what they are writing. Click on that Gold Star and see how many Featured posts they have. If it's more than 10, then you might want to subscribe to their blogs.
As far as your Profile, You need to take time to dress it up and make it look good. If you want some examples look at Lenn Harley's, Anita Clark's, or Richard Yates.. Your profile is the First Place most seasoned bloggers will look to see who you are and what you are blogging about. They want to know more about you, and your Profile will tell them a lot. If you are getting more than 50 clicks on your posts, then many are actually reading your posts. Don't expect to get a lot of comments on Listings, Market Reports, or Community Reports. However, these type of posts is what will make the phone ring for business. It's those informative posts about your industry, or some type of tips, recommendations to help others that will get you Featured and a lot of comments. Especially if you Ask a Question.
I will take a look at your blogs, and see if I can offer some suggestions. I only wrote 10 my first month, and 10 the second month, and it wasn't until that third month that I began to get a lot of comments. By that time I think I had over 50 people whom I had subscribed too. But, it just wasn't any 50, there were the Top Bloggers in the Rain, or very consistent with their posting.
I also gave Bryan Three of my favorite bookmarked posts to check out.
1. A SEO Tutorial for Optimizing Your Name Fields by Katerina Gasset
2. How to Improve your Active Rain Profile by Richard Yates
3. Active Rain Where Everybody Knows Your Name by Deb Brooks
Comments(34)