Comments to a blog post are no less than oxygen to our life. The magnitude of engagement of readers is known very well through comments. Along with revealing famousness of the blog, comments are useful to share information, feedback, and experiences.

It surely adds traffic to your blog, but we aren’t looking at that aspect here. It is helpful in many other ways to a blogger and the readers as well. Maybe I will write a post about the usefulness of comments very soon.

However, let me reveal 9 ways to boost the number of comments on your blog.

• Encourage Discussion:
  Do this. At the end of every article, ask your readers to discuss the topic and share ideas on the post. Let me repeat, THIS ISN’T FOR TRAFFIC. This helps you tremendously to become a better blogger. People share new ways of writing. They let you know where you went wrong. Many of my readers have experienced what I haven’t. So I learn from them. You learn to look at an issue from numerous angles with the help of comments.
• Leave your Blog:
  And visit other blogs. Comment there. Don’t just sit back and wait for comments. They will come to you only if you do it to others. Get out of your blog and get involved.

• Interact with readers:
  Replying to the comments is the most important element of a blog, most often forgotten by bloggers. I would prefer talking to a streetlamp than to someone who ignores me. If some reader has asked a question, reply at any cost. If you don’t know the answer, don’t be ashamed to say that you don’t know much about it and you will get back to him/her after researching on it.
• Value added comments:
  Whenever you post a comment on other’s blog or reply a comment on your post, remember to provide some piece of information in it. A comment cannot be of 2-3 words. It has to be 2-3 sentences without grammar mistakes, with person’s name, a question (optional), and information.
• Connect with them everywhere:
  It isn’t important that your blog reader cannot be your chat friend or cannot contact you by email. In fact, you initiate contacting them through various sources. Let them feel a sense of belongingness and unity.
• Keep it simple:
  Commenting on you post shouldn’t be a tedious process. Don’t ask them to login or fill a captcha entry or fill some weird form just to leave a comment. This would avoid most people from commenting. If you are concerned about spasm, get a spam filter.
• Rewarding them:
  Reward your readers for commenting on your posts. You can opt to advertise their posts on your blog or provide page rank. You could also promote their twitter status. And there are various other options for rewarding them. If they get something, people will happily comment on your blog.
• Display your top Commenter:
  Create a separate tab on your blog that mentions 5 or 10 names of ‘top commenter’ on your blog. These names have a direct link to their blog. This will boost their ego and their page rank. They know it and hence they will comment more.
• Lastly, do something different:
  The above mentioned steps are generally adopted by many bloggers. However, to get a real boost in the number of comments on your blog, be creative and do something that no one has thought about. May be offering an ebook on blogging to the top commenter of the year. Or something like that. Make sure that it’s exciting.

That’s it. Let me know what the other ways to increase comments are.

No, I am not aggravated by all the finance blog post on the internet. I personally love them and honestly, I have benefited by many blog post. However, today I am talking about the bloggers who still haven’t understood the significance of personal finance blogging and how to write them.

Cluttered Blogs

While writing personal finance blogs, bloggers need to understand that readers seek a precise piece of information, an unambiguous direction, or a personal viewpoint on the subject. Many articles today are cluttered with junk information or repetition. Recently I read an article about managing finance during retirement and I found that every paragraph had the same message. It’s quite exasperating. Why don’t they write a shorter one rather that repeating the same message over and over again? Bloggers should remember that the people reading their post are the ones facing financial crises or searching ways to make optimum utilization of the available funds. They are already facing problems.

No responses to comments

If someone has taken up the responsibility to start a blog, he/she should be courteous enough to reply to the comments received to the posts.

Recently I came across a very though provoking personal finance blog post that dememded appreciation and a discussion. It was I of the few I sincerely like. So, with much dedication and concentration, I posted a long response and subscribed to the comments RSS feed to make sure I don’t miss the blogger’s response. Predictably, the response never came. Why do they do this? Such an irresponsible behavior makes the reader feel ignored. I, as a reader, promised never to comment on any posts because it’s quite infuriating not to receive a response.

The vagueness

Again, people reading personal finance blog posts are not seeking entertainment. They need guidance, accurate information and updates, acknowledgement, and some sincerity. Sometimes (actually many times), I start reading the post because the title is quite attractive. However, there are two things that I generally and sadly find under such titles. First, a long introduction before coming to the point which is not at all needed. Second, there is no information in the article. Some bloggers just talk around the topic and conclude.

Reading Complexity

Some bloggers find it quite exciting to decorate their posts with bright background and brighter font. What is it, some weird web designing contest? Readers are attracted to posts that provide quality information or at least a pleasurable read and not by attractive colors. It isn’t an advertisement banner, it is a blog post.

I understand it’s important to use financial terminologies while writing a personal finance blog post. However, it seems that some posts are written by a highly educated finance professor especially for his few students in a financially-coded language that should not be understood by other. Please try to keep it simple. Internet is a platform that avails the ease to share the information globally. You cannot know, by any means, who will be reading your posts. Avoid jargons and use simple English. Is it that difficult to manage?

Self-centeredness

Most of the bloggers today do not understand that a blog post is not a one-way propagation tool. It’s is okay to provide personal touches and personal experience occasionally. Some blogs a found were full of me, my, myself, and I. This will frustrate the reader. An effective way of blogging is addressing the reader. They wouldn’t be interest in reading a story that mentions how you spent a boring night in a local restaurant, unless you are a celebrity.

To avoid such irksome mistakes while writing a personal finance blog post or on any other topic, please read it twice or thrice before posting it.