And, now I have a bone to pick. I’ll put it in an open letter to bloggers everywhere:

Dear Bloggers,

Thank you for the invitation to comment on your blog. I read your blog post thoroughly and took time to write a thoughtful response. I hit publish and waited… and waited… and waited…

So, back I went the next day, and the next day, to take a peek, and still waited… and waited… and waited…

I was getting anxious to see my comment in your blog for three reasons:

1) I took time out of my day to read and comment, so to see my comment would be nice;
2) I always like to link to your blog post in Facebook or Twitter to share what I’ve found; and
3) If the genre fits, I may also post something about you and your blog on my blog to share you with my readers.

Now, after several days of waiting for my comment to appear, I just give up. I’m not going to share your blog post until I see my comment – that just makes good sense. So, I wasted my time, and you lost a reader, me; but also the readers I would have shared you with.

I’m just a humble blogger, but I want to increase traffic to my blog, so I take your advice to heart.

Now, it’s time I share a little advice as a reader/commenter: Don’t leave us dangling waiting to be moderated. And rescue us from spam when we fall victim. If you are too busy to moderate, hire someone to do it for you. That’s my 2 cents.

Thank you,
Patti Winker
http://www.RemarkableWrinklies.com

p.s. I know you’re busy, but a little reciprocity is nice, too.

But you’re right and it’s been fascinating reading the advice of those who do it better and are successful. I’m a raving fan of Pat Flynn but on this occasion I’m going to take the advice of Connie Ragan Green and experiement with addressing my readers needs more.

I’m a raving fan of you too Nicole but it felt way too obsequious to say that here – Oops!

I just happened across your website today & I really like what you are doing here. Commenting is one of those things that I both love and hate.

The great thing about it is the sense of community and sharing of ideas that can come from commenting & forums. Blogging is, of course, a social media.

Having said that, I don’t really worry too much about the number of comments I get on posts. Well, on my niche sites, I have comments disabled (still not sure if that was the right decision). On my personal blog, I do enjoy comments and the conversations that happen.

I have noticed that there are a few topics that seem to draw more comments. Posts about comments and backlinking strategies often do well. And, usually, very short posts do better than longer posts unless the blogger is well respected. DoFollow, CommentLov, and KeywordLuv also seem to help in getting more comments.

I tend to comment on blogs only when I find a post to be unique or useful beyond what is normally available out there. Unfortunately, so much of what is out there seems to be material spun from other posts around the web.

I enjoyed the different perspectives on commenting. Have a great day!

One more thing: don’t freak out if you try all these strategies and you still aren’t getting comments. Rome wasn’t built in a day… it takes focused effort but is well worth it!

This is a very good point … definitely something to put some serious thought into. However, I do have to say that most of the time I force any links in a blog post to open in a new window or new tab. This way I can leave a comment (easily) if I like what I’m clicking through to.

So this makes me wonder if many others do the same thing I do and/or is it better to make your out going links open in a new window?

And on a completely off topic side note this also reminds me of a huge pet peeve I have … that being when I do right click on a blog or site and force it to open in a window/tab and I get a little pop-up box telling me what I’m doing is “naughty”. Grrr! That irritates me because it makes me feel as though I’m doing something wrong.

Hmmm … maybe this isn’t as off topic as I thought … could be turned into another tip. If you *must* disable right clicks on your site … just do it. Don’t tell your visitors they’re doing something wrong … especially the ones that simply don’t want to lose their spot on your site!

Sooooo …
– Should we disable right clicks?
– Should we have our links open in new windows?

Anyway, thanks for this amazing and informative post. Surely reading your blog, is not a waste of time. I definitely learn and will grow from it. 🙂