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Have the last word
By Alex on July 22nd 2008 - 0 comments
If you've been blogging for a while, you probably have some sort of audience. People who read every one of your posts, and comment on the good ones. Sometimes you'll see a comment from somebody who has never commented before. In either case, you want to bring these people back to your blog. You can do that by having the last word.
What I mean is having the last word in your comments. The first comment is usually from a regular reader, and after a while you might think you don't have to reply to it because this person comments all the time. But if you don't interact with your readers, it gives them a lot less incentive to come back and keep commenting. But if you reply to that person's comment within a few hours, there's a very good chance they'll reply to your comment and you can start a whole new sub-conversation.
If a new readers finds your blog and goes to a random post, first impressions are important. If the article is a few days old and has no comments, they might assume your blog isn't very popular. If they do find a post with comments, but they're all from readers and none are from you, what incentive do they have to leave a comment? On the other hand if they see you interactive with your readers they know there's a good chance you'll talk to them, too.
Your comments can turn into extensions of your blog post too. Like another paragraph that you "forgot" to put in the article. I've done this a few times answering questions people leave in comments. I answer in the form of a comment, instead of updating my article, because the commenter isn't very likely to re-read your article just to see if it's been updated. Instead, they will find their comment and check for replies.
Having the last word means replying to almost every comment on your blog. This will ensure that people who want to interact with you will have a reason to come back and keep interacting. It will also show people who don't know about you or your blog that you do appreciate your readers enough to read and reply to their comments. It's a great way to gain more readers, and keep your current loyal readers.
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