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We often see bloggers implementing many startegies to attract comments on their blogs. How important are the comments to you considering the fact that it is mostly the co bloggers who comment on your blog and not others. The other loyal readers simply read and thank you in their hearts for having produced such beautiful content.
And a question: What strategies have you implemented to attract comments on your blog?
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Comments are important, IMO. I've seen many blogs where people post dozens or comments. I am talkibg about individual personal blogs, of course. The kind of readership that it requires must be very high though. I suppose once a person frequently reads someone's blog, they ultimately start commenting on something. But I'm sure it is a slow process that builds up enough of a connection with readers that they feel compelled to speak up.
I have no strategy. Mine is a new blog, barely a few days old. Am open to intelligent imitation though. So, who's got the strategy? speak up, NOW!
Go to a school where children are not much aware of blogs and comments. Teach them something about blogging. Ask them to visit your blog and keep commenting. Loyal readers. Trying to do something like that for my own blog.
err, am I one of your "students" too? hehe
yes...comments are the treasures a blogger can get!! its hard to get genuine readers to the blog and some of them even if they read may not prefer to comment!!
lately i have been getting some good comments on my blog posts...earlier i was not so much into blogging!! but these days i spend more time reading other blogs and commenting on the posts that totally impress me!! and i try to make sure my comments are more than "nice post" "good read" etc.. i try to go deep into their content and comment with my whole heart!! now thats helping me get more people to read and comment on my blog too. 
its a give and take relation when it comes to blogging friends 
there are few of my friends who are not into blogging..they do comment about my posts too but mostly through mails and chat box...they dont usually prefer to comment in the blog!!
You are right about leaving genuine comments, only then people take you seriously...
U're so right Cinderella :)
I so agree.."its a give and take relation when it comes to blogging friends" :)
As stated, therelies the problem. Real readers read but do not comment. Co Bloggers read (I'm not sure) and comment only if you do it. A perfect balance between these two things is necessary.
I follow a reverse strategy 'A take and give relation'
good read, nice post, and certain two worded comments are a turn offs really, and to add to that, a request to visit them back and comment on theirs makes things go a lill far too much..
Plus 1 Hemal
Very Very Very important!! They motivate us to do better, keep us honest, lets us know if people like what we serve and definitely inspire us to do better the next time...
As far as strategies are considered I write comments on new Blogs which I like once in a while and see if they too reciprocate... But I have my wonderful set of friends who follow my blog religiously and comment on each post...
Another thing is that I always reply (comment on their blog) to people who have visited and commented on my blog for the first time...
Hey Ranjith, Nice topics man..love the initiative u're taking out here - many of ur topics really made me rethink a lot about many forgotten aspects of blogging :D
Good one here too..think comments give a blogger tht reassurance tht his posts r being read n r being appreciated. I know some bloggers who revert to comments by commenting back and I think that's a real cool thing.. I'm trying to do the same :)
One 'strategy' which I used was this, which I temporarily discontinued cos somehow didnt like the way it later turned out.. :D
Good job, Ranjith :)
@ RAJ Thank you. never thought that one can give so many awards for commentators (Regarding the link)
I remmeber one joke: There was an award ceremony being hels to give away titles to the best perfrmances in serials. And the award list goes in this way: Best wife, Best husbanmd, Best 2nd wife, Best 3rd wife,.....Best 100th wife, Best maid, and so on.......
More than promoting the post comments are of prime importance, what is the use of having 100s of followers but lesser comments is a downer. I feel ultimately it is the connect on common subject matter. Comments should be motivating, guiding and in real sense a feedback too. This will help in editing the post in case of deviation. I know one Mr Shrinath Vashishta who helped me to correct the post on Andaman Nicobar.
Well said. We need to take the suggesstions given by our readers seriously. After all it is for them that we write.
I wonder if girls get more comments than guys. hmm.
+1 to that thought.
What makes you think in that way?
I too have felt it sometimes but not always the case.
@Rumbaho yeah, its a long debated topic at IndiBlogger.. if you dust trhough old discussions, you may find many such issues raised by the "male member gang" about the side treatment we are receieving. 
Comments are what keep keeps you gois in the initial phase. It feels good to be know that people read you and bother to engage with you.
But after a while, when you have travelled further down the blogging journey comments are just a method of social proof.
and even further down, they dont matter :)
maybe. i dunno really. I'm still in the "good-to-know-that-people-read-what-i-write-and-bother-to-engage" stage.
@Aditya: You are kind of right. When I started blogging, I used be so happy whenever I would see a new comment on my blog. But today after two years of blogging, I know comments are not everything. I've learned a lot in these two years. There are people who just comment on your blog for the sole purpose of getting you to comment on theirs. Then there are people who comment just for the sake of it. This is not a good practice in my view(That is what I feel.Don't know about others. To each his own). I read many blogs, but I don't comment on all of them, I only comment on those where I have something to say.
I would prefer one sincere comment on my post rather than 100s of present sir/madam or I-commented-on-yours-now-you-must-comment-on-mine comments.
@Aditya, I dont agree with you that comments dont bother you after a while... I have been blogging close to 2 years and still eagerly wait for my regular set of friends comments...
But yes as Shilpa mentioned only Nice Post comments dont bother you anymore...
@ Aditya Well said
@ Arti You may realise that after five more years. If you have hundreds and thousands of readers (who simply read and not comment) you can still be happy by looking at your Google Analytics account: the average time spent ona page by readers.
Ya but the stats cannot be compared to words... Kind and motivating words inspire you much more than looking blankly at your visitor count!!!
@ Arti That is also true.
I am happy to get some comments from people on indiblogger, but it would be great to have some found-your-blog-on-google comments too. know what I mean? That way, I know I am being seeing by people without having the visibility that one gets here.
On this site, we are all bloggers patting each other's backs. It's encouraging, but its not enough. It's like me telling my friend that he is doing a good job, or some random person on the street tellling him the same because they found my friend to be doing something good. I think comments from unknown people are very important too.
dunno if my opinion will change or not. will keep writing meanwhile and hope for the best.
My experience is that people coming in from Google rarely comment... They mostly do if they have a query or have a personal attachment to something that you wrote on...
@ Art accept with your view. But at the same time, some even search for blogs of their niche.
@ rumbaho What you said about the IndiBlogger community is true. Even today I can't believe that I had found IndiBlogger only after a long time after I knew what blogging is. The network should expand. The comments made on an IndiBlogger's blog seem to come only from other members in this community.
Must be true. *dhishum*
;o)
@Rumbaho you are right!! comments from unknown people are important too!! only then we know how much exposure is our blog getting beyond the bloggin network we are in!! but as arti said people coming from outside the network rarely comment!!
Two sides of the coin never meet.
Some bloggers i have seen have disabled comments, maybe because of spamming or the language used, in such case we are eager to comment but we are left with only limited options to tick interesting or rate it.
One can intelligently diable comments if the blog gets hardly any comments and sate that commenting was disabled to keep a check on spammers. Another marketing idea.
Comments are very very inspiring because they signify reader involvement (when they don't signify link-building :D ). Probably 2 out of every 100 of your readers will comment. Comments are indeed satisfying for this reason.
