Welcome to Book Blogging 101, a weekly feature on Parajunkee’s View that answers your questions and strives to share great book blogging tips and some helpful hints to help you on your way.
It is said, by those “Oh Knowledgeable Ones” of web guruness that about 1% of your viewers are actually actively engaging (meaning they are commenting regularly), 9% periodically contributing. The rest, complete lurkers.
I did the math on my stats (which is probably wrong since I barely remember my multiplication tables – yes, when that Algebra teacher said you’ll use it in everyday life, she lied. Graphic Designers luckily do not need Algebra, they call their printer) for the last two weeks. I took my average number of comments, which seems to be about 15.5 a post, and I factored it to the amount of unique visitors I’ve had in the last two weeks. It came out that for every 50 pageviews, I get one comment. Every 1 in 50.
Wow, to compare I looked up what else is in that ratio:
- 1 out of 50 of the “found” planets in our Universe could possible contain life ¹
- Rick Santorum has a 1 in 50 chance of winning the nomination.²
- 1 in 50 New Food Products are High Fructose Corn Syrup-Free ³
Since I don’t expect to find alien life in my lifetime, I doubt Rick Santorum will become the Republican Nominee and it is DAMN hard to find food without High Fructose Corn Syrup, I’m going with 1 in 50 as horrible statistics, LOL. And considering most of us quantify our reach by the amount of comments we receive, this is terrible news to me. In my mind a post without a comment is like a restaurant without anyone seated, lonely and depressing and reeking of salmonella. Yet, shouldn’t these numbers be reassuring? This means that most likely your post is being read – check those stats, did you have pageviews? They just aren’t commenting. WTF?
Reassuring yes, but we shouldn’t just throw in the towel and accept these lurkers non-commenting ways! Because a non-comment post says to me, basically my post wasn’t interesting enough to elicit a response. Or am I just being sensitive?
How do I make my post interesting enough to get more comments?
- Ask Questions.The most obvious way of getting a response is to prompt one. Ask a question in your post.
- End your review with, a question, like “Have you read ____, what did you think?”
- Bring up a discussion topic, ask a question based on the genre or author. What are your favorite books in the paranormal romance genre? Can you suggest any other books by this author?
- Does the book have a sexy hero? Ask about their favorite sexy hero. Does the book have an interesting locale? Ask about interesting locales.
- Ask For Comments. Some people are scared to leave comments, they might need a little prodding. Specifically invite your readers to comment in each post.
- Respond. If you get a comment, respond back! This should be a given, but I find so many blogs that don’t do it.
- Conversation Posts. Write your post like a conversation, stating your feelings much like you would talk to a friend about something you feel strongly about.
- Controversial or Negative.
- Negatives. Unfortunately I have to say my negative reviews get a lot more comments than my positive ones. Why is this? And should I be promoting this? That is the question. I think it might break down to the fact that I get a lot more “into it” when I write a negative review. Mostly because I feel I must prove why I didn’t like a book, whereas if I enjoy a book I don’t feel as motivated to lay it all on the lines. There are only so many ways you can say, creative, original and emotional…etc. This is my theory though, it could be that people like drama and are more apt to respond to “sucks” than “wow”. I can’t promote this as something to do on purpose though – because if your blog starts pumping out negative review after negative review, you might form a reputation that will be hard to recover, especially with authors. I’ve seen a few blogs come and go that had a rep for being mainly negative, reviewing “Pop” books just to bash them. People do get tired of negative, so it is good to watch your Voice.
- Controversial. There is a reason that my stats for THURSDAY are off the chain. We are talking 3 times my usual daily visits. Do you know what my highest-ranking post is for 2012? My name thievery post. It was controversial, it called out a big no-no topic in the Book Blogging world, I even pointed fingers, which I usually don’t do, but felt it was necessary instead of just doing a generic appeal. I didn’t expect it to get so much attention, but it did. I didn’t do a controversial topic, just to do one, I had been specifically asked to help. And I think this is how these things should go, you shouldn’t try to be controversial, you should only do this if you feel passionately about a subject – because if not, you’ll look like you’re just being combative and pushy. I think every now and again it is good to throw all your cards on the table about a subject — just make sure that you are informed and your argument is well thought out before you post, it is easy to get egg on your face when a controversial topic is played.
- Easy Commenting: People aren’t going to comment if it is hard!!!!!!
- Take CAPTCHA off – it is useless and just makes me want to shoot someone. You will not get spammed, if you do you can just delete it! If you are so worried about it, make it that you have to approve the comments. Take CAPTCHA off.
- Make your comment link easy to find.
- Login required? Guess what I’m not commenting, why should I login?
- Comments that require personal information? I think not. No comment.
- You might be trying to battle spam, but all you are doing is pushing away would-be comments. Commenting should be ridiculously easy.
So what did we learn from this post? Be passionate about what you blog about. Ask questions. Turn off captcha and be controversial in the right time and place.
My question to you: What has worked for you? What kind of posts have received the most comments (besides giveaways)?
For entertainment purposes, and personal shameless self-promotion, have you guys checked out our Sh*t that Book Bloggers Say video?
I can’t get to all the questions, but please ask your BB101 Questions here…bring it on.
¹’Super-Earth,’ 1 of 50 Newfound Alien Planets, Could Potentially Support Life. (2011 September 13). Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/13/super-earth-1-50-newfound-alien-planets-could-potentially-support-life/
²Krauthammer: Santorum Has 1 In 50 Chance; Ron Paul Has Zero Chance. (2012 January 2). Retrieved from hhttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/01/02/krauthammer_santorum_has_one_in_fifty_chance_ron_paul_has_zero_chance.html
³1 in 50 New Food Products are High Fructose Corn Syrup-Free. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/1-in-50-new-products-are-high-fructose-corn-syrup-free.htm
Great post. Your so right about the CAPTCHA thing. I try to comment as much as I can each day on random followers blogs, but if that CAPTCHA thing asks me to repeat.. I’ll give up. It just takes way too much time to wait for the page to load again and all that mess… So yeah I agree! Say NO to CAPTCHA!
Yes, SAY NO TO CAPTCHA! not to mention the Google Captcha is terrible, I can never tell if it is an N or an H or an M — gah!
Thanks. You raised a good point about CAPTCHA. The last thing anyone should do is set up barriers to commenting on a blog. The more hoops, the more easily people will give up.
I’ve actually written comments to a post but not been able to post my comment. (This rarely happens with WordPress; it’s far more common with Blogger.) Besides getting comments, I also love WordPress’s “like” feature. You don’t have to share the post on Twitter or Facebook, but you can click that “like this post” button. Sometimes, we enjoy a post, we just don’t have anything to add besides, “Good post!”
I’ve done that too – something times out in Capthca or what not. I never comment again because I usually get so upset. WP is easier, but Blogger people try to rectify this with those installed commenting systems — which are HORRIBLE! I remember trying to comment on an ID site, I think it was Intense debate and I couldn’t log in for anything, it wouldn’t let me and I was just like, well screw this…and left the site. I shouldn’t have to login.
I find that I get more comments on discussion-type posts. I like your ideas about adding questions to the bottom of reviews. As always thank you for the fantastic advice!
Thank you for commenting! The question could either fail miserably or actually get people talking. Who knows, doesn’t hurt to try.
I realized that I have no idea if I have CAPTCHA on or not, and when I went to look, I couldn’t figure out how to find if there is a setting for it in Blogger. So I may be requiring CAPTCHA and not know it, and not know how to fix it if I am. I’m such a bad blogger.
Aaron (Dreaming About Other Worlds).
You should always test your blog on another “non-logged-in” browser. You would go to settings and commenting in blogger, I believe. Wait let me check — LOL
Ok – I couldn’t figure out how to do it in “New” blogger — whatever. So go to that little Gear on the top right side and go back to the OLD LOOK. Click on Settings (under your blog name) and then Comments, scroll down to “Show word verification for comments?” and click on NO. I don’t know why this isn’t in “New” blogger – hmm glad I’m in WP again and again.
Thank you! I reverted back to the old interface and eliminated the CAPTCHA. I don’t even remembering setting it to have CAPTCHA. Maybe that’s the default that Blogger selects for you.
Aaron (Dreaming About Other Worlds).
I think it is the default setting. I don’t know why — another quirky Google thingy.
This actually happened to me! I hated the CAPTCHA myself and secretly made faces at my blogger friends who had it…until another good blogger friend sent me a very friendly tweet asking me did I realize that I had it and it wouldn’t let her comment! I was embarrassed – mainly because I didn’t know how to take it off – but I was more grateful that she told me about it.
You are SOO Right! I love interaction with the people who are viewing my blog. I am just not starting to get comments on my Reviews, it seems like giveaways get WAY more posts for obvious reasons lol. I try my best to reply to every person who comments on my blog, sometimes it gets a little hard and that’s when I reply and thank everyone for commenting and let them know that I really do appreciate it. I do this very rarely, and mostly on giveaways. I really enjoyed this post, I HATE CAPTCHA!!! Sometimes I’ll stick it out and comment because I like the blog but sometimes I give up. Making it hard to comment isn’t a good way to get comments. I just turned on comment approval and if I don’t like it I’ll just deny it.
It does get very hard to reply to all, I know I can’t do it on my Feature & Follow posts, mainly because it would be a whole lot of “Thanks for stopping by…” comments.
I’d love to turn captcha off but I have no idea how to do it on Blogger. I guess I need to do a little google search because I didnt think it was a choice.
I do get frustrated when I make a blog post and I can see the many many page views. I get excited but then don’t understand why no comment on my blog. I get folks tweet me back (like today for instance when I have an awesome quick blog post up) and they go, “that was awesome” or something like that. I get lots of “likes” on my my link on FB and quick comments on FB links but not my blog. I love the comments but I want them on the blog LOL.
I agree that it just must be such a hassle to blog comment. I want to make it easier.
So off I go to research how to stop captcha from displaying. Thank you once again for amazing blog101 posts. I adore these updates. This is why I have this blog as one of my favourites on my Blog!
Michelle Kelly
anotherlookbookreviews.blogspot.com
Hey Michelle,
Go to settings-> comments-> scroll down to “word verification” and hit no and save. That should turn of the captcha.
Good luck with the commenting! I understand your frustration fully!
Jordan
That is not where it is in the new template of Blogger. I am still looking in the new template now. It should be there, but I am not seeing it. Thanks so much for your reply!
I looked around everywhere — it’s not in the New blogger interface at all from what I can tell. You have to be able to revert to the old interface.
Yeah I found this from blogger help…
Unless DarkUFO knows of a way on the new interface, there isn’t one. You need to go back to the old interface to turn off word verification. From the new Blogger dashboard page, click the gear symbol under your profile picture and select “Old Blogger interface.” On the old dashboard page, click on “Settings” then click on the “Comments” link below the tabs. That will get you to where you can unselect word verification. Click “Save Settings” at the bottom of that page when you are done. there is a link in the upper right hand corner of the old dashboard page so you can get back to the new interface. I hope this helps.
I found it on the NEW blogger. You have to get used to the location of things, but I like it. Anyway, I was already logged in, so I clicked on “design” at the very top of the page. On the left is the navigation where you want to go. It starts with “Overview” and ends about 8 categories down with “Settings”. Click on settings and then you will see about 4 more categories. Click on the one that says “Posts and Comments”. Then you can customize what you want. Specifically for captcha you want to click on the “Show word verification?” drop down and click “no”. **Make sure to save your settings after you make the changes, or it will just revert back to what it was before.
And TY! TY! TY! I didn’t even think I had mine on and it was. Also, I had only registered users marked to comment. Fidiot! I should have checked that. Now anyone can comment and I just moderate the comments myself. Yay! PJ saves the day again!
Why research when you have me… see my response to Aaron’s comment.
I’m hoping one day there will be an option to incorporate facebook type commenting into a blog.
Thanks as always so helpful!
Except FB isn’t threaded
I admit that I’m a baby blogger, I’ve only been doing this since July of last year and since I have a thing against doing “follow me and I’ll follow you” posts, I only have 64 followers. My goal is to find people who follow me because they care about the reviews I do and what I have to say, not just because I’ll follow them back in return (which I usually do anyway). I’m okay with the idea that that will take more time.
That aside, I’ve done giveaways that have a had a ton of publicity, but not a lot of participation. I’ve posed questions, general thoughts on controversal issues and always ask for response, yet get nothing. But I have at least 100 page views a day. So someone is obviously checking it out, yet I can’t get commenters. This doesn’t always frustrate me because I think of how many blogs I follow and read but don’t comment on but at times, when I make it a point to ask for opinions- I want opinions! It’s how we figure out what we’re doing right and what needs to be rearranged.
To be honest, I’m not sure what else I can do, so I wait it out and post as usual. I gain a couple of followers every two weeks and so it in itself is reassurance that someone likes what I’m doing! I just wish they would talk more!
Much of it is just about getting your name out there!:) I only started blogging in November last year, but have gained a lot of followers simply by interacting with bloggers I like, both on Twitter and by leaving thoughtful comments on their blogs. If you never comment on other blogs, how will they know you exist?:)
I do comment on other blogs, just not all the time, I also network through various groups on Facebook and BookBlogs. Twitter is definitely my downfall though, for the longest time I just couldn’t figure it out! (I’m finally getting there now, how dumb does that sound? Twitter is so simple…)
There are many other programs that keeping popping up from other bloggers I need to check out, just haven’t gotten around to doing it yet.
Thanks for the imput!
To get meaningful followers and comments, go and make friends on twitter, post in forums like on ning and things like that. I hope you are not going from your Blogger pageviews though — because those have proved unreliable. In fact I compared mine to Tynga’s Reviews, we have very similar followers and topics — and we were getting the same referrals and things like that, so I think the Blogger stats might be off. You should probably install analytics and it would give you a more reasonable idea of your pageviews. You should be at least getting 1 comment from those views
There is also nothing wrong with joining in gaining follower memes and joint things, sometimes you get some really good followers this way. I have to say, just sitting back and believe that if I post they will come might lead to disappointment. You do have to promote yourself, if not how will anyone know you are there??
Well of course your Thursday post draws trafic! They are always helpful =)
In the almost three years I’ve been blogging I had to use the caption in the past because I would receive tons of Russian characters comments a day. Than changed to moderation when it slowed down and I got annoyed to autorize each comment individualy and turned the whole thing off. Now anybody can comment on my blog easily and I barely get 1-2 spam comment a month. I still get notification tough, so I don’t miss any comments!
As far as most commented on posts, my early review for Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead (there were no ARCs and I got my finished copy a week before release) was my all time most popular, along side the discussion post I published the day of the release.
Also, I do posts from time to time when there’s big event in my life and those get a great response everytime.
If we consider the more “normal stuff” though, my Daring You to Read feature usually gets a good amount of comment even if there aren’t that many participants who enters just yet.
Hey I was just commenting about you — hee hee. About Blogger saying our biggest referrer was that one blog – LOL. That still freaks me out and makes me think that the Blogger stats are complete BS. I happen to run my biggest draws on Thursday, because it used to be my slowest (besides weekends) and now look at it! LOL
Hot books will also get me a ton of comments, Young Adult mainly. Regular, run-of-the mill PNR gets hardly any comments, which is a shame because, I only started reading YA because I was getting so many for review. I really wanted to focus on adult. I guess you go with the flow.
lol yeah I saw the comment ^^
I’m in a YA slump right now. I just feel like reading adult UF & PRN so I’m knocking myself out lol Penguin books are getting a lot of love lately!
I agree! Personal posts are fantastic from time to time and really help your readers feel connected to you.
Yes, commenting should be EASY. There have been a few book blogs I would visit and write a lengthy comment and when I click POST… nada. Usually, I can figure out why my post isn’t posting and make it work, but there have been quite a few where I just give up and don’t bother posting comments from then on. It kind of sucks since I want to share my thoughts to the blog post, but if I have to jump through a million hoops to it, not thanks.
Sometimes embedded comments will time out for some reason. It is very important that bloggers check the ease of commenting on other browsers and their friends computers.
If I find a blog wth CAPTCHA? I will probably only leave a comment 1 in 50 times (like what I did there? LOL)
I also noticed that discussion posts get by far the most comments. I think sometimes people are unsure on memes and reviews what to say synod the simple generic comments.
Jac @ For Love and Books
Love what you did!! XO – like anything else and IRL, if you just walk around saying “I love cheese” not many will respond. But if you say, “I love cheese, what flavor do you like?” Someone will probably respond. Hopefully, or they will think you are the crazy cheese lady.
I do like cheese, although I am a bit of a cheese snob. Not a big fan of the Kraft American. How about you?
(I hate HATE the generic “Great Post! Come follow my blog!” almost as much as I hate CAPTCHA.)
I agree with you about asking questions: most of the time that really is all it takes to get comments. I know I often find myself questioning what to write when I comment on blogs, but with a question at the end of the post I have some direction for what to write:)
I always get the most comments on my Top Ten Tuesday lists, with In My Mailbox in second. Surprising, I know. I also get a lot of comments on reviews of books that haven’t been reviewed much. This doesn’t necessarily mean brand new books, it can also be older books that never got much attention when they were released.
Exactly!!! Great point. You direct your readers into what to write about.
Another excellent post!! My Catcha is now off. Thank you! I had no idea it was even there. Kat
That seems to be a going fad — it must be a default setting.
There’s nothing I hate more than having to work at posting a comment on a blog! If your blog takes forever to load, then I have to load the specific post that I want to comment on, then I have to log-in, then I have to deal with numerous illegible captcha’s and then blogger spazzes out and I have to repeat the whole process all over again chances are I’m giving up. That’s assuming that I didn’t give -up earlier on.
I’ve been trying to figure out my commentors’ logic since I started blogging. Usually ARC’s/new release reviews generate more comments, negative or super glowing reviews too, and on days I comment on a lot of other blogs I get tons of them in return. It’s all about being up-to-date and putting in the work. There really are no shortcuts.
Thanks for the shout out about the video.
Excellent point with the commenting on other people’s blogs. I didn’t think of that, but it does work.
YESSSS! I agree with this one. If you leave thoughtful comments on other peoples’ blogs, they often comment back… it comes back to the networking you were talking about above. If you talk to other people, get to know them, and interact, they’ll often to do the same in return!
Excellent post! Yes, I agree make it as easy as you possibly can to reply. Like others, I would also appreciate a “like/thumbs up” button so that you can still provide some sort of comment but without resorting to a simple “good review”.
I was glad to know that as a new blogger, I seem to be implementing all of these suggestions already. I try to ask a relevant question at the end of my reviews. For example, if the book was about being able to tell when someone would die, my question would be “would you want to know if you were going to die today? what would you do?” . However, no one actually responds to these questions, but I still enjoy creating them so oh well!
Say NO to CAPTCHA! I can’t stand those things! I was at a blog early this morning, my nose was 2 inches away from my screen and I still couldn’t make out what the letters were! What was I thinking, straining my eyes so early in the day? lol
I also don’t like no-reply comments! Especially when someone asks a question and they don’t leave an email, you know that they’re not going to come back and track down their comment – I appreciate the comments, but it would be lovely to be able to answer back to them too!
Thanks so much for this post! I really needed the pointers
Hate. Hate. Hate. CAPTCHA
Just when I think I’ve submitted a comment that thinks shows up. Sometimes I’m sure I’ve left the blog thinking that my comment posted.
Really hate them during a blog hop when comments are requires to enter.
Turn it off please. Sometimes if I see it and I’m in a pissy mood I’ll just cancel my comment and go on about my business. I know that sounds bitchy but sorry. I follow WAY too many blogs to have to deal with that thing on everyone on of them.
Sadly, one of my most popular posts was the one I did about Negative Reviews, when all the hup-la about authors vs. bloggers was reaching its peak.
I’ve also noticed a HUGE amount of people being drawn to my blog who have searched for anything relating to Andrea Cremer’s prequel series, Rift. I did a post about it, which included the first chapter, and it’s quickly overtaking every other post in terms of popularity.
So I guess the moral is, give the people what they want? Sneak peaks and controversial debate topics! Lol
I loved this post and I whole-heartedly agree with removing Captcha – although until today I didn’t know that that’s what it was called!
Kelly
Radiant Shadows
What are your thoughts on the DISQUS comment system? That’s what I’m using and I’m still not sure about it. I switched over because I was getting spammed out of my mind and that’s been cut out almost completely. I’d shut off CAPTCHA a long time ago (hate that!!!), thank goodness.
I love these posts. They’ve been really helpful in making my blog better! Thank you!
I actually subscribe via email so I read your posts that way. I don’t often click on over here. Thus, i don’t often comment. I do read your posts though. I guess that makes me a super mega-lurker. O.o
I do all of these minus getting controversial.
AMEN on Captcha. The dang thing just got harder for Blogger users. ICK. I hate Captcha.
I refuse to believe that Santorum has a better chance at receiving the nomination than Ron Paul.
I’m with you. *fingers crossed* for Ron Paul.
I find negative reviews get the most comments. I think (at least for me anyway) when a book is so hyped and you’re one of the only people not liking it it’s nice to find someone who agrees. I always feel like somethings wrong with me when I don’t like a book everyone loves.
Hate HATE hate captacha. I try to spend time commenting but it takes forever to type in all that crap. I turned mine off and rarely get spam. I just delete it if I do.
I don’t get too offended by lack of comments. I think no one is reading my posts then all of a sudden someone will mention a review I wrote on Twitter a week later so they are reading.
For me, I try to read a lot of blogs but I just don’t have time to leave a comment on every post. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t interesting to me & I know people get upset when you say “great review” but sometimes that’s all I have time for.
Good topic.
Reading through the comments I remembered someone who enters one of my feature every weeks, and I never could comment on their post because I can’t find how! That’s just sad =(
Great post as always. I hate CAPTCHA, I can never make out what the damn letters are and it just really annoys me. If I read posts in google reader I tend not to comment because then I have to go onto the blog itself to do it…I wish we could comment from inside google reader. I also wish there was a little “I read this” button you could click, for acknowledgement without having to read the whole post. I get an average of 10 comments per post, sometimes more sometimes less, and I’ve noticed it’s usually the same people commenting, and I usually comment back. I think those sort of relationships are really important! Commenting is about mutual respect. If someone takes the time to regularly read and comment thoughtfully on your posts you really should try to do the same in return in my opinion.
The Cait Files
yea!! or a “like” button or a “I was here” button! Great idea.
I loved this post. Coming from a brand new book blogger, it was definitely helpful. I’m taking notes and will make sure to include these on my own blog so that it doesn’t become a steaming pile of sh*!. The Book Blogging 101 feature is brilliant and extremely helpful! Thank you for taking the initiative!
#6 is so right! I cannot count the number of times I have just clicked out of a post because there were too many hoops just to comment.
Another great post.
So glad you said that about Captcha… when I have a few minutes to visit blogs and comment, it takes TWICE AS LONG to enter that spam stopper stuff, which 1/2 the time I type in wrong. Ok, not half, but quarter, at least. And those “drop the knife in the bucket” things?! Good grief. “You didn’t drop the knife in the bucket, you can’t post your comment!!”
Thanks.
I get the most comments out of bloggers hopping back to my site, returning a visit. I leave up covers of my reviews, so comments trickle in all the time. I don’t have captcha on, I think I took it off – anyone wanna check?
Questions are a great idea – like at the end. When I ask in the middle, I get one answer out of 10 comments. And I recheck my preview a lot before posting to make sure it’s easy to skim and still catch the gist, ’cause I appreciate the same.
Yes… I watched the video. Gotta watch it again, though… the first time thru I thought you were poking fun and I was blushing madly since I love all that stuff. Then again, there was a nerf dart game in the background, so it’s not like I heard it well. I’ll watch again… AND COMMENT!!
Love your blog.
If Romney gets the nom Im going to gouge my eyes out…..!!!!
Great post! I love your comment about a restaurant without visitors! It does feel like that when no one leaves a comment.
I find that posts that are NOT book reviews get more comments too. Things that are current for people, like a post on Valentine’s Day that then draws comments from people that don’t normally comment.
Because my wordpress automatically links to Twitter and Facebook, I find that most [if not all] comments or ‘likes’ are kept there. People seldom venture from FB to leave the comment on my blog. ;_; I will need to see about simply having the link show so they must navigate to my blog to read.
This was such a helpful post, thank you! I usually get the most comments from weekly memes. I don’t normally get them for my reviews.
CAPTCHA makes my blood boil. I so badly want to ignore every blog that has it on (no offense to those who use it) but I can’t bring myself to be rude when I’m usually responding to a comment that was left on my blog.
I hope your post prompts a bloggyverse-wide response to turn that crap off.
The posts I get the most response out of are:
1. Giveaways
2. FF
3. Teaser Tuesday
4. IMM
5. Reviews
That sucks.
I say you cry, throw tantrums, and pout until people comment. OR just post hunky pics of book boyfriends. Yea, that last one works for me even though I do the former more often.
Then again… you could always force people to google Santorum if they don’t comment.
I hate Word Verification, Captcha, and Disqus now a lot lately. I took it off because it annoyed me. I don’t do any of these. When I go to a blog, or want to comment, it should be easy. I think the posts that I have always have the most for are in my mailbox or when I write a negative review (still don’t understand this, yet it does happen). I like Young Adult, but lately been wanting to read more Adult PNR books.
My biggest barrier to commenting on blog posts is Google Blogger. Blogger has the drop down menu that says> Comment As: (select profile). When using Internet Explorer as a web browser (the only option that I can use on my laptop unfortunately), that drop down menu doesn’t function at all. And if I can’t login, then there is no way for me to comment. It is really frustrating and has kept me out of many blog conversations.
This is never a problem with wordpress or other blog hosts, but I seem to come across a lot more Blogger sites than others. Does anyone else run into issues like this?
Really enjoyed this informative post. Lots of good advice for novice bloggers such as myself. Now why didn’t I think of asking a question? So simple. I’ll have to try it.
You Friday Follow is challenging for me to get even a few links visited, but I’ma keep trying to improve my skills.
I applied your mathematical calculation to my own blog comments statistics; I am happy to report that I should receive a comment by about mid May.
Very good blog.
Good post I have to admit I too hate the Captcha thing… it makes me crazy.
So I have followed your advice and taken it off mine too. I am sooo not doing the math but I see how many people look and no one comments, they look but don’t comment. le sigh.
Off to check out Sh*t that Book Bloggers Say video, I am intrigued
Great post – bookmarking for reference. I agree with the CAPTCHA thing = I HATE IT! I will not really comment on blogs that use it. It’s too time consuming.
Agree SAY NO TO CAPTCHA!. On my blog I just didn’t want people to have a hard time commenting so captcha was never an option
With your commenting advise… I personally never ask people to follow me (ie: follow for 1 point for a giveaway). This keeps me from signing up.
While I would love more comments (I get very few, about 5-8 a post after 3+ years of blogging)…. I blog to share. I also read a very narrow range of books, this doesn’t help. The running community is tough to get into (it’s seems to be a click with a barrier of some sort). Book blogging is such a friendly community…. now I’m rambling.
That said, I would love to know who’s really reading my blog. I’m shocked by the stats most days… who are they and why do they care about my world?!!
Yes! Dear GOD, I HATE captcha! Seriously and with a freaking PASSION!
I loved reading through the post! I’m so bad about reading post like these and not commenting after and I love comments on my own blog so I don’t know why I do that! The thing that I don’t understand is that obviously SO many people hate CAPTCHA… WHY DO PEOPLE STILL HAVE IT?
From what I can tell it’s a default setting on blogger and no one even realizes that they have it on.
I agree with the easy commenting thing. I mean, even commenting forms like yours that require me to put in my name, email, and all can get tiresome after a while! I’ve also been trying to boost comments and I think one way I get that is by book memes. Thanks!
I don’t even want to calculate my comment average, it would be depressing I’m sure. My most viewed review post ever is a 1 star review I wrote. But it got barely any comments.
You’re definitely right that asking questions at the end of posts usually leads to more comments. At least that’s been my experience thus far. Also, negative reviews tend to generate more comments than positive ones, especially when you actually give reasons for why you didn’t like a certain thing or why it was downright bad. It’s been my experience that seeing that sort of thing tends to pull more people out of the woodwork. No clue why.
And I’m heeding your advice about the CAPTCHA issue. I’ve been having problems with it over the past few days myself. Even if the words are easy to read, for some reason if I try to comment on a Blogger post with my WordPress account, no matter how many times I try it constantly says that I typed the CAPTCHA words incorrectly. Switch to my Google account to comment and everything goes through. So I’m definitely taking that advice and turning that part of my comment system off. You’re right; if I get spammed, I can just delete the comment. No harm, no foul.
As a new blogger your BB101 posts have been so helpful to me. I was reading this one, thinking about how much I hate CAPTCHA when I read one of the comments about how there is no setting for it in the new blogger. So I followed your instructions to check and see and I had CAPTCHA turned on. I think it’s unfortunate that blogger has it turned made it standard with no options in the new blogger.
I forgot to note that I did turn it off. If it’s annoying to me it’s annoying to other people too.
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Great post! I’m still trying to find out what works best for me, because I don’t have a lot of commenters. Thanks for the tips
I really like your word press template, exactly where do you get a hold of it through?
http://ikajhoelo6.webs.com/apps/blog/
Ls-Land Issue 17 Forbidden Fruit 10
You made various good points there. I did a search on the subject matter and found most folks will have the same opinion with your blog.