I get a lot of people who tell me that if they can get lots of people read their blog they will consider it a success. More eyeballs the better. These are people who still have a media viewpoint of the web.
I believe traffic is important, but linking and commenting are each equally important also. It is about conversations. That means you need people listening (traffic), but you also need people talking back (links and comments).
Today’s question: In your experience, what kinds of entries generate the most comments?
I think I could also ask: What sort of entries do you comment on? What qualities or traits do they have?
Posts like this are *ALWAYS* good at generating comments.
I have written 2000 posts with nearly 10,000 comments. And I have no idea what gets comments.
Sometimes controversial posts do. Sometimes posts that get highly linked do. Sometimes smaller posts. Sometimes posts where I say nothing at all.
I honestly have no idea, for my readership, what gets comments. I know one mechanism that has drastically increased comments: a comment notification system.
Now when users comment, if they want to find out if others comment after them, there’s an option to get emails.
Now I get real conversations happening, and that’s great to watch 😀
What type of post gets the most comments?
Your guess is as good as mine!
I have had many comments from longer posts, short posts, and even what I considered less interesting posts.
On the other hand, those same types of posts have generated no comments at all.
It’s impossible to predict comments, in my opinion.
I tend to comment to blog entries that ask questions of the audience or ones that pose problems and are looking for solutions.