By Bill Wynne

Interactive blogs are the most successful and plenty of quality comments is a good indication that your blog is healthy and that it will be successful. There are many reasons why people may not make comments on your blog posts and we will cover a number of ways to make it easier or more attractive for people to leave comments on your blog. Of course this is assuming that you do have a steady flow of traffic to your blog and perhaps even a following of people that appreciate the valuable content that you share. Let’s get started on the 7 ways to get people to leave comments on your blog.

1. Ask for blog comments – Sounds too easy but a lot of bloggers don’t ask for comments and people are not sure they should comment, no one wants to be the first to comment or there is no value in commenting. We will talk more about making commenting valuable for people more in the following points. The end of your post include text or a blog comment icon to stimulate blog commenting or something else that will indicate the desire for leaving comments.

2. Attract numerous people with request – The way you request people to leave a comment will encourage or discourage people from leaving a comment. For example, people love to be a pro and let people know they have something to share because of their ego. Give them the opportunity, ask them to share and let them know when they do share that you appreciate their comments. You can try to leave text like, “What do you think?”, “Do you agree?” or “Are you for or against?” can encourage people to leave comments.

3. Dofollow blog comments – Not all links on the Internet are equal. There are “nofollow” and “dofollow” links. Dofollow links have more value to webmasters because dofollow links are backlinks that search engines will count as popularity to your site and will increase your page rank. On your blog you can change the code so that the links in the comments box are set to “dofollow”. This will attract people to leave comments to get the backlink. This will also attract spammers but if you have something like Askimet or other spam blocker you should not have any problems. The blog software will also allow you to set the criteria on comments so they will only be approved by keywords or other criteria.

4. Get the ball rolling – If you have a friend that follows your posts you can ask them to “get the ball rolling” by making the first comment on your blog post. Once people see the blog post comments they are more likely to leave more comments. Many people don’t want to be the first to leave comments on blogs.

5. Incomplete post - If you are so thorough to cover everything with your post then there really is nothing to share except to say, “Good job” or “Thanks for the post”. Leave something for someone to fill in. Develop the desire to share information and experience. Consider your post subjects as well. Some topics are not the kind that people have opinions about. Choose some hot potatoes in your niche to write about to get people commenting.

6. Blog comments hidden – Is your comments box obvious or do you have to hunt to find it. The layout of some blogs is counter-productive in this aspect and should be corrected.

7. Register to leave comments - If you force registration in order for people to leave a comment you may not get comments. People like to be free to comment and not comment to a registration. With so much spamming online people are hesitant to comment if they have to register.

Implement some or all of these ideas to increase commenting on your blog. Visitors really like to socialize and interact with each other and this will help. I wish you success.

---

Read more great articles at Bill Wynne’s blog. Get useful ebooks and other gifts for free. Bill has been a successful internet marketer for over a decade. Read articles on Add Comments to Blog and Online Article Marketing
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

By Lucy Thorpe

In the world of broadcasting, where I come from, interactivity has been the single biggest change in the past ten years.

Viewers and listeners who tried in vain to get on a phone-in or wrote angry letters to ‘Points of View’ were suddenly given unprecedented access to the presenters they listened to and admired. Texts and e-mails were broadcast within minutes, not weeks of sending them in and the audience became part of the show.

This intimacy has been mirrored in the business world, with blogs and other social media bringing service providers up close and personal with their clients like never before.

Many people find this loss of distance quite hard to deal with. The radio presenter suddenly has the critic right in their face, correcting anecdotes and heaven forbid, suggesting new ideas. The business blogger gives detractors an open platform to publicly put the boot in to the company's product and it’s scary.

But if you look at the way the best media practitioners have dealt with this development, we see them using it as an opportunity; an opportunity to build a relationship with the audience, to listen and to feed back.

BBC Radio Five Live for example appointed a Peoples’ Champion to gather listener comments and ideas, which could then be fed back into the programmes. The PM programme on Radio 4 started IPM which used listeners’ story ideas as a starting point for an entire new show.

By capitalising on the amazing opportunities opened up by text, blogs and e-mails, radio has strengthened the audience bond. There is no quicker way to disarm your critics then by opening the door and welcoming them in.

I know one very senior BBC boss who did just this. He responded to a man, who had been vitriolic in his complaints, by inviting him to come down to London to edit the show, thus turning his worst enemy into his greatest advocate at a stroke. See http://wp.me/pHqcg-t for the full story.

People love to feel as though they have privileged access or ‘the inside track’ and a well executed blog can give them just that. The dialogue you create with your customers and the feedback you invite and receive is like the bond between a radio presenter and his audience.

It’s a continuing conversation that everyone really hopes will carry on. It wouldn’t be practical to go down the pub with all your readers after work, but the relationship you build-up makes it feel as though one day, you just might.

Lucy Thorpe offers blogging advice, social media and writing services. She is a former BBC broadcaster and journalist. If you enjoyed this piece get more on Lucy’s blog at www.LucyThorpe.wordpress.com, commission your own piece via e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or connect on Twitter @LucyThorpe

By James Junior

There are a lot of articles and blog posts on the web that will present a list of things you should do in order to run a successful blog, this is not one of those articles. I want to discuss some of the things you shouldn’t do, opinions may differ but most of these you will likely agree with.

1. Don’t call yourself, “An Authority” or, “Expert” on your blog’s subject.
If you run a great blog and seem to have a great answer for everything, then yes, you are likely an expert or authority; but the minute that you announce to your readers that you are, you become a jerk instead. Think about it, the people who we admire the most are those that are modest and in denial about their own talents, whether they fake the denial or not, it is the cool thing to do. Same thing goes for heroes right? When was the last time some guy pulled a kid from a burning building, and when the reporter calls him a hero he says, “Yup, absolutely, I am incredible, aren’t I?” Never, that’s when. Anyone in that position knows that they have to say, “Hero? Nah, I was just doing what anyone else would do, I ain’t no hero.” Otherwise, he would be a jerk.

2. Don’t argue with your readers.
It doesn’t matter if he is the biggest idiot in the world, and you are right as rain; you are the only one with something to lose: your readers. If you think that your content is so good that you can say whatever you want to whoever you want, then people will go out of their way to ignore your blog and tell all of their friends to do so also. Treat everyone with the same respect that you would want, even if they are wrong, it will make you look like the better of the two.

3. Don’t fail to remember your theme.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but there are so many blogs that ramble on and never recover. Please do not get the wrong idea here. If you write a blog about playing baseball, then each and every one of your posts do not have to be about baseball, but if the last twelve posts are about your mother-in-law’s divorce struggle, then you seem to have lost direction. Yes, people want to understand that you are a real person, with real problems, but unless your blog is specifically about those problems, then stick to the subject.

4. Don’t alienate the “majority.”
Now this is a big one I see continually. Please don’t think that just because two or four people want your blog to go a particular route, that ALL of your readers want it to go that way. Keep in mind, a successful blog is about pleasing the majority of your readers. Just because you have a few people who LOVE a particular type of content, it doesn’t mean that all of them do. Remember, you likely have many readers whom you will never hear from on your comments, but are extremely in to your blog. So how are you supposed to know which direction they want you to follow? Well, try using the poll feature in Blogger or Wordpress, and ask your readership what they like best; you may be surprised. Also, keep a mailing list that is up to date, and ask your members for their view; most people jump at the chance to offer their voice in a matter that concerns them. Plus, it will make you look great that you are asking for their input.

5. Please do not be a rolling billboard.
Look, everybody understands that advertising is what pays the bills for a full-time blogger, but when you jam ad copy down their throat at every single turn, it gets annoying. Take care of the most vital thing, the content, and the rest will take care of itself. Yes, ads are significant, and you should optimize your ads and put a ton of work into it; just don’t be overbearing with them. They are there, people see them, and if they are interested, they will click.

---

James Junior – When I started my first blog years ago, there was no blueprint to follow or system in place that told me exactly what to do and what not to do. Today, bloggers are lucky that there are guys like Rob Benwell around to teach bloggers his award winning blogging system. If you want to become wealthy through blogging, then this system is the way you do it. Click here to read more about it.
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

By Steve Shaw

I know that it can be mentally taxing to try to come up with new ideas for articles. After a while you may feel like you’ve written about every aspect of your subject that you possibly can.

Here’s some good news–you don’t always need to come up with new writing ideas. Sometimes all you need to do is look at your previous articles and go more in depth.

Your Homework:

• Look at your last 5 articles.
• In each article, search for at least one point that you covered that you could cover more in depth in a new article. No matter what your article was about, you should be able to dig a little deeper on every major point you make in your articles. You may even find some minor points that could use elaboration.

I’d like to give you an example:

I recently wrote an article outlining several ways to get out of a writing slump. As I was writing that article, I came up with about 7 or so ideas for getting your brain out of a creative rut with your articles, including some article template ideas and some writing productivity techniques.

I submitted the article, and then thought– Each of those ideas for getting out of a writing slump needs to be elaborated on and explained further. I can do a new article for each idea.

And so I did–so far I’ve bounced 4 or 5 articles off of that first article, and I have even more ideas that I’ve gotten from that first article that I haven’t written about yet.

This approach tends to work better for articles that are jam packed with information and/or those that take a broad, aerial view of the topic, but it can also work with articles that are a close up view of one specific topic.

For example, I’ve written many articles on how to create an effective resource box, and from that one very laser beamed topic I have branched off articles on extremely specific elements of that already specific topic.

I assure you, no matter what your article is about, you can write about it more in depth in a new article.

Alternative Homework for Blog Owners:

Look at your recent blog posts–are there any insightful comments that are worthy of being addressed more in depth in an article?

I get ideas all the time from comments on my blog. Or look at your blog comment replies–do you find yourself writing an in depth reply to anyone’s question about your post? That is often a good indication of a related topic that could use some more detailed attention.

Conclusion:

A trick to writing fresh content on a consistent basis month in and month out is to learn to look at your topic from all angles and all levels.

This is beneficial for your readers, because you are creating a library of information that covers your topic inside and out. This is also beneficial SEO-wise, because you are systematically creating a collection of resources that covers your subject backwards and forwards. This creates a greater chance of your article turning up for searches on every aspect of your niche.

Last but not least–learning to cover your topic from all angles and all levels of depth is beneficial for YOU, because it forces you to establish your expertise in your field. If you are not already an expert in your field when you start writing articles, you surely will be after a year of consistently writing articles on every conceivable angle of your topic each month.

---

For more info on how you can use article marketing to reach thousands of potential prospects for your website, go now to http://www.submityourarticle.com/report Steve Shaw is an article marketing expert and founder of the popular article submission service used by thousands of business owners.
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Writing posts be it for your own website or for someone else can transform your marketing efforts over night. A great post has the potential to drive huge amounts of web traffic to your website and turn you into an authority figure. If you're anything like me, you write for the sake of helping others, sharing your knowledge and as a mean to achieve your personal and business goals. Here are 7 tips which will help ensure your post gets noticed.

1. Offer Value - Readers reading your post assume you'll know more than they do on the topic. Write about subjects which your knowledge can help others and avoid writing about subjects which you know little about. A great tip for ensuring you offer value is to quote another post either from your website or someone else and improve on that post.

2. Stay On-Topic - Readers found your post and took the time to read it because they found the topic of interest. It's very easy to divert from the main topic and miss its focus. Posts which are all over the place will appeal to less readers, thereby lowering its chances of getting noticed. A great tip for ensuring you keep on topic is to format your post as a list, for example top 7 or to 10.

3. Keep It Precise - One of the keys to get noticed is to avoid going around the bush and keep the post precise. When it comes to great content, size does not matter and often the best posts are the short ones.

4. Express Your Opinion - Don't shy away from letting readers know your stand on the topic. Posts are not written by computers, they are written by you and I. By expressing your opinion and using your own tone of voice more readers will be able to relate to your words and if they like what you have to say, it will help get the post noticed.

5. Use Correct Spelling - If you're looking to wow readers with your knowledge it's a good idea to also get the spelling right. There's no excuse everyone has a spell checker.

6. Ask For Comments - A great post is often that with many comments, views and opinions of others. Some readers and in particular those who are new to your website or blog might hesitate from leaving comments. Make it a practice to end each post with a message asking readers for feedback.

7. Encourage Sharing - Paying attention to this tip is absolutely essential to ensure your post gets noticed. Sometimes to get your post shared, it needs a nudge in the right direction. There are a number of web tools which could help readers easily share the post. Here are some choices:

A. Social Marker - Social Marker is a service designed to aid in the process of submitting websites and web pages to social bookmarking and social news sites.
B. Add This - AddThis helps website publishers and bloggers spread their content across the web by making it easy for visitors to bookmark and share content to their favorite social destinations.
3. Share This - Very similar to AddThis, ShareThis makes it easy to share ideas and get to the good stuff online.

What are your tips to get your post noticed?

Guest post by Nikki, CV Writer and founder of My CV and Me. Nikki offers complete job search solution to candidates from CV writing to job interview coaching.