When you publish a post of particular interest to your readers you will know immediately—or almost immediately. Typically they will let you know what they think about what you have written. This tends especially to be true if you write about something they strongly disagree with or agree with.
I have another blog called As the Spirit Moves Me. It has its home here on my other website. However, many of my posts are also published at VibrantNation.com. The other day I published a post in both places that generated quite a few comments at VibrantNation.com. Here’s one that generated a few at As the Spirit Moves Me.
Many blog programs allow you to decide if anyone can post a comment or if you will moderate all comments. (In WordPress this is in under Settings-Discussions.) This means you decide if the comment will appear on your blog. There are also plugins that help get rid of spam comments, such as Akismet. It’s a good idea to monitor the comments on your blog–another reason to stay on top of what’s going on even if you are scheduling posts.
It’s also a good idea to reply to comments if you can. This lets your readers know that you appreciate them and the time they have taken not only to read your blog but to tell you what they think of your posts. It also allows you to dialogue with them. Notice that I did reply to those people comment on those blog posts.
You reply to comments in much the same way you would to comments on any other blog, only you do so from within your blogging program.
In some cases, you can even begin asking commenter’s questions about your blog and its subject matter and getting even better or more targeted feedback in this manner.
If you aren’t getting comments, you might not have many readers yet or you might not be striking a chord with the readers you have. Sometimes readers are just shy. It takes a few people commenting before others speak up. At VibrantNation.com, readers comment often. On As the Spirit Moves Me, I get much fewer comments. I have another blog, though, My Son Can Dance, where I get quite a number of comments simply because of the nature of the blog and the readers.
In my next post we’ll begin talking about ways to drive more traffic—readers—to your blog. That will, as I said, increase the number of comments you receive.
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