I wanted to share with you one important tip for increasing your readership – thanking commenters.  Comments are the bread and butter of a blog – evidence that you have created a conversation. If you aren’t commenting on blogs you read, please start doing so.  Without comments, bloggers feel like they are talking to an empty room.  Don’t be a lurker and start commenting if you want others to do the same for you!

Commenting doesn’t have to take up much of your time either. Just make sure that the comment is pertinent to the post you are commenting on and whatever you do, don’t spam! It is ok to put your website link as a sort of signature but make sure your comment references the discussion and gives your point of view.  You do need some substance!

A great way to engage a new commenter, is to thank them personally.  Now, many of you may not have the time to do that each and every time a new commenter pops up on your blog.  That’s ok – there is a WordPress plugin to help you – Comment Relish.  Comment Relish is a WordPress plugin designed to send an e-mail message to users who comment on your website who have never commented before by grabbing their email address that they entered. The message sent to the user is defined within the plugin’s preferences. Numerous tags have been integrated to allow for information to be included in the message easily (I.E.: timestamp, author name, comment, ETC.). I often forget that I even have this plugin installed because it only takes a few minutes to set up, then you never have to think of it again.   It’s a small gesture, but I’ve received many responses to the email (they go to your admin email address) which has started up valuable conversations between me and my readers.

So start engaging your commenters and create that conversation (but remember to start commenting yourself!)!

Oh, if you don’t have a WordPress blog (self-hosted) and you want one, talk to me!