want to get more comments on your blog?

There are a number of things you can do to encourage more comments on your posts, but today I want to focus on the simplest way. The good news? It's completely within your control.

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

It really is earth-shattering...

Ok, here it is:

Turn off you comment word verification.

"What?" you ask, "how could this make a difference with the amount of comments I receive?"

Most people who visit our sites don't have all the time in the world. (I know, duh.) If you're lucky enough to have reeled in some readers, they are probably there for a quick read of your post (maybe they've popped over from their google reader) and now they want to quickly leave a comment and buzz off to the next blog or task.

I often wonder how many times I've left comments that never got published on posts because after commenting I've clicked off to my next destination without first refreshing the page to make sure it posted... only to then see the word verification pop up. {Arg!}

When you sign up to Blogger and go through the steps to set up your blog the back end suggests that turning on the word verification helps protect you from spammers, so most newbies follow those prompts. (I did when I first started - who wants to be taken over by scary spammers?!?!!) But I quickly learned how annoyed other bloggers felt about word verification and experimented with turning mine off.

I can now tell you that I've only ever received two outright spam comments in the nine months that I've been blogging. (Not including the highly irritating "Hi, follow me!" comments that people sometimes leave.) And even if it were a few more than that, it doesn't take much effort to delete any comments that I don't want. I think readers deserve the ease of commenting over my small inconvenience of having to delete a few spam comments a year.

So here's the bottom line: 
If you want to encourage more comments on your posts your first and most simple starting point is to turn off your word verification. (This is even more important if yours comes up in a pop-up window instead of imbedded into your post.)

You'll be glad that you did. More importantly, your readers will be glad that you did.

Dear friends, this is the first post of my new series called Bloggy Bits {simple tips for beginners} that I've been wanting and meaning to start for months now. My aim is to help people kick-off their small blogs well. I'm no expert, but I have learned a few things along the way that I'd have loved to have known when I was a newbie. I've got several topics lined up, but please let me know if there's something you'd like to see included in Bloggy Bits and I'll see what I can do. And now... tell me your thoughts about word verification. Does it affect your commenting on others' blogs? Do you think it might affect the commenting on your own blog?

just sharing what i've learned,

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011
do not reproduce without written permission