Everyone knows how important comments are to a blog. They virtually breathe life into a post! When people see that a post doesn’t have many comments the first impression could well be that the post itself is inferior. This could cause them to move on without reading the post or at the very least it can give them a preconceived perception that the post is somewhat imperfect in some way.

Knowing that to be the case I have over the years conducted a personal crusade to show people how important comments really are and what they should do get more comments on their blogs. I’ve even written posts, like Teaching People The Proper Way To Comment to help commentators improve their commenting skills so they have more chance of getting their comments approved. More importantly I’ve tried to show them how leaving great comments will actually increase traffic to their blogs.

In my post How Much Do You Really Want To Cheese Off Your Readers I listed reasons why I wouldn’t comment on people’s blogs finishing off with a poll asking people to vote on what things stopped them from commenting on a blog. I think it’s time we analyzed those results.

What Stops People From Commenting!

• Closed Comments: OK, obviously you can’t comment if you have the comments closed but the thing to be aware of is that if people can’t comment they may decide not to stop by anymore. 59% of people said selected this choice.
• Need To Subscribe: 36% voted that they would not comment if they had to subscribe to do so.
• Third Party Comment System: 34% voted that they would not comment on blogs that used third party comment systems. I know those people who use it say people will comment regardless but the facts speak for themselves. What really makes no sense is some of these people say it actually attracts comments and that is just crazy.
• Poor Blog Content: 27% said that they would not comment on a blog with poor content! That alone should be incentive enough to publish the best content you know how. Make it interesting and appealing enough and you’re bound to get more comments.
• Comment Moderation: 25% of people said the blogs who constantly moderated their comments pissed them off to such an extent they stopped commenting and if they’re not going to comment they probably won’t read it anymore.
• Pop Ups: 25% of people found pop ups so annoying they left without commenting, and probably without reading it as well.
• Rude Blog Owners: These are blog owners who were unnecessarily rude to some commentators. 23% said they would no longer comment on blogs that had rude owners. Message here is to be polite at all times. Show that you are the better person.
• Being Ignored: Only 16% said that being ignored would stop them from commenting. I’m one of those 16% so if you don’t want me to comment read your blog then don’t bother replying to my comments.
• It’s A Blogger Blog: only 16% said they wouldn’t comment on a blogger blog. I occasionally do but only if I know the blogger.

Well, that’s it for that poll, and with the end of one we have the birth of another.

Why Social Media Should Begin At Home

Isn’t it weird how so many people are so into telling others how important social media is for growing their business or building their blog but when it comes to interacting on their own blog they are somewhat lacking? Well hopefully this and other posts will educate them somewhat by showing them how it really starts off with their own blog. Heck, it makes no sense at all to do all that interacting on social media sites to get people to visit your blog and once you get them there you fail to continue that very interaction that got them there in the first place!

And yet social media is an important part of getting people to know who you really are as well as building a sense of trust between you and those who have chosen to follow you, something that you need to continue once they come for a visit.

I feel this is a brilliant topic for another poll. In this poll you get to vote twice by telling everyone what your two favourite Social Media Sites are.

What's Your Top Two Favourite Social Media Sites

• Google+
• FaceBook
• MySpace
• StumbleUpon
• Digg
• Twitter
• Reddit
• Linkedin
• Blog Engage
• Other

View Results

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Once you’ve voted please leave a comment telling us why you chose the ones you did. You may also choose to use the social media buttons on this post to spread the word amongst your contacts because as with most polls you always get a better result when a larger representation of people take part.

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