Make Money Online With Snowboardjohn

I’ve been amazed at the extremely SHIT quality advice around on “how to get more blog comments” - and how to begin starting community conversations.

So in this post I’m first going to explain the different types of social structures that encourage blog comments, and then lay down an exact blueprint for getting more of the topical comments that help build awareness and word of mouth traffic about your blog (and business).

Last night I read FIFTEEN “how to get more blog comments” posts, and was disgusted to see that ALL OF THEM were COMPLETE CRAP. (Some of them were from people who should know better too.)

I actually feel that giving people rhetorical “be nice and helpful” advice is toxic - because people waste years of their lives trying to be nicer and more helpful then they already are - and never end up GETTING ANYWHERE.

So before you read on, understand that I’m NEVER going to suggest you get blog comments by:

1. Being MORE helpful.
2. Responding to any and all blog comments you get.
3. Being controversial (that’s such a vague fucking piece of advice, it’s right up there with “be more helpful”)
4. Asking for feedback (Puleez, if people don’t feel like responding, that isn’t going to change just because you ASK them to - telling people to ask for feedback is such weak advice it sickens me)

So SBJ, how DO you get more blog comments? Glad you asked!

First of all, let us examine some random blogs which already get a large VOLUME of comments:

• Shoemoney
• Bob Parsons
• Perez Hilton
• John Chow

If you visit these blogs, you will notice they get a large volume of comments. However, you may also realize these blogs get a VERY LARGE volume of traffic to go with those comments.

In fact, if you were to break down the visitor/comment ratio, you would discover that as a percentage, these blogs really don’t get many of their visitors leaving comments, or participating in community discussions.

Some do, but most don’t. My guess is it’s LESS then ONE PERCENT of visitors who leave comments.

So using these blogs as models for community conversations is actually a BAD IDEA. Also keep in mind that many of the people who leave comments on niche marketing blogs like John Chow, or Shoemoney are just doing it to try and get more exposure for their own blog and business.

And unless your blog is perceived to get a similar market reach of Chow and Shoemoney, you won’t get people motivated to leave comments on your blog to get themselves exposure - so don’t even bother trying.

No, to get topical conversations going we must understand WHAT MOTIVATES people to stand up in a crowd and say “here’s what I think!”

One of the luxuries I have as being a large list owner in several different markets is that I see the response rate for different types of messages.

I can change my message, I can play off of different emotions, and I can literally MEASURE the rate at people respond to what I send them.

An interesting thing I’ve noticed is that as a percentage, people are FAR MORE likely to respond to an email message then they are to respond to a blog post.

A blog post is very impersonal. It’s you talking from a podium to a room of people. People KNOW when they read a blog post that they are part of the crowd who is listening to you. And like a person in a crowd, they have a lot of social self consciousness to overcome when it comes to SPEAKING IN FRONT OF EVERYONE.

It’s amazing the rude “fuck off” messages people are happy to send through an email account - because the social environment allows them to act invisibly. The same person who sends “fuck off” email messages is probably extremely POLITE when the social pressure changes, but through the anonymity of an email account, that person will be as obnoxious as the social pressure they feel ALLOWS them to be.

A persons behavior is dictated by social pressure FAR MORE then most consumers are aware of. (I say consumer because it’s slang for “uneducated person who reacts to their emotions as if those emotions are REAL and follow what they FEEL unquestioningly”).

Until you are aware of the EXTENT to which your and my behavior is dictated by social pressure you will find it impossible to influence that behavior. Don’t be a naive idealist that says “people shouldn’t care what other people think” - people DO AND ALWAYS WILL care what other people think about them. It doesn’t matter why (and it’s evolutionary btw), just accept it as fact and move on to HOW do I use this to my advantage?

ADVANCED CONCEPT: It’s easier to to appeal to a persons fear then a persons self interest. People will do more to avoid pain then they will to gain pleasure. Hence it is easier to to make people internally UNCOMFORTABLE enough through a post which FORCES them to voice their thoughts - because NOT voicing them would actually cause them more misery then speaking in front of a crowd does.

Let’s look at some more blogs which get a lot of comments:

1. Standup101
2. BlueHatSEO
3. itsChrisCrocker (a youtube video blogger)

As you can see, these blogs have a very varied subject matter. But they get a LARGE PERCENTAGE of their readers RESPONDING to what they write (or communicate).

Now BlueHatSEO gets a lot of comments for different reasons then the other two - but I’ve included it because people who are very knowledgeable in their markets may be able to do what Eli does.

The comments BlueHatSEO gets are mostly clarifying questions. People want more information, and they are prepared to speak up so that they DON’T MISS OUT. They don’t want to look stupid, but Eli speaks with so much authority, in such a logical way that people are SURE he has an answer they NEED and MUST HAVE . They RISK “looking stupid” to avoid the bigger pain of MISSING OUT.

Lucy and Chris get comments for a different reason (and this reason is very accessible and replicate-able).

It’s NOT because they are controversial - it’s because they POLARIZE people’s CORE VALUES.

People have an internal set of core values - some of which they are taught, and some of them I believe they were simply born with. Their values are hardwired INSTINCTUALLY, through evolution.

Humans are empathic to others because we are pack animals. We live in large, organized, hierarchical, social structures. These social packs occur naturally because it’s how we’ve evolved as a species.

And when people have their HARDWIRED values challenged they FEEL THEY MUST RESPOND. Internally NOT responding causes them more pain and misery then speaking up in front of a crowd.

In fact, when it comes to core values, people want to share their gospel with everyone - whatever that gospel may be.

The key however (and this is where you MUST BE VERY CAREFUL) is to keep on topic. Attention for attentions sake is useless. You want organized, purposeful, useful attention.

I believe Chris Crocker will never be as financially successful as similarly infamous gay youtube video blogger William Sledd - because William Sledd has used his ability to polarize, around a TOPIC that clothing companies have a COMMERCIAL INTEREST IN.

William Sledd dishes out fashion advice in a very polarizing way - people love him or hate him. But, he keeps his focus directed squarely on FASHION. And thus garners a large conversation ABOUT FASHION - not about RANDOM CORE VALUES.

The key is to know what core values people have, and then play to those values in an ON TOPIC kind of way.

So let’s take a look at some common core value themes/polarizations, and then we’ll talk about how to use them TOPICALLY:

• HONESTY - TREACHERY
• GREEDY - ALTRUISTIC
• LOVE - HATE
• DISCIPLINE - SELF INDULGENCE
• HELP OTHERS - SOCIOPATHIC
• GET RECOGNITION - FLY UNDER THE RADAR
• UNDERDOG - ESTABLISHED CHAMPION

A powerful example of “Helping Others” was executed by Marketer Jason Moffatt a few months ago when he asked his readers to help a woman who was a fellow marketer, who had an abusive husband and had fled her home.

She was stranded in a shelter with no money. Unfortunately Jason has removed his post, but click on the link and read the comments which are still there - you will get a real feeling for what I’m talking about when you read through them.

The post received an enormous commentary both from people who wanted to help AND WHO WANTED TO VOICE THEIR CORE VALUE OF HELPING ANOTHER PERSON IN NEED.

Similarly, Buzz Marketer Dean Hunt received an enormous percentage of his visitors commentary when he tapped into peoples underdog feelings against the established champion (and big bully) Google. People don’t like dictatorial behavior and will stand up and voice their “fairness” values when an opportunity they feel strongly about presents itself.

YOU MUST GIVE YOUR READERS THAT OPPORTUNITY IF YOU WANT THEM TO RESPOND AND LEAVE COMMENTS!

But you must do it TOPICALLY.

Jason Moffatt was helping a MARKETER who other marketers could relate to.

Dean Hunt was giving the finger to Google’s treatment of small webmasters. Other small webmasters wanted to join him and voice their support for the cause.

So now you understand a few powerful ways to get blog comments… I’m going to ask you a TOUGH question:

Do you really NEED blog comments?

Here’s some well read blogs who make it impossible (or almost impossible) for you to leave them comments:

• Seth Godin
• Aaron Wall
• Ralph Tegtmeier

Of all the marketers in the world who would encourage marketing conversations - you would THINK that Seth Godin would be LEADING the pack.

But he doesn’t. He doesn’t want your comment.

Why? This is what he says.

Personally though, I only think he’s telling you half the story in that post.

He doesn’t allow comments because he is EXTERNALIZING the marketing conversation. He knows if you can’t talk about what he writes on HIS BLOG, you will have to DO IT ON YOUR OWN BLOG.

This increases his blog reach dramatically because instead of a centralized conversation on the Seth Godin blog, he gets a DECENTRALIZED conversation about the Seth Godin blog all over the internet and blogosphere!

ADVANCED CONCEPT: It’s not really about blog comments - it’s about topical community conversations that directly or indirectly involve something YOU have said. WHERE those conversations take place is dependent on your “market brand recognition” and “market celebrity”.

The more social proof you have, the more people who know who you are, the more you should EXTERNALIZE the conversations that take place around you, your blog, your business, and your brand. This has a LOGARITHMIC progression affect on your market reach. Instead of the linear progression you get from simply allowing people to comment on your blog. Perez Hilton could increase his reach enormously if he didn’t allow blog comments.

However, if you have very little recognition, small reach, and are building things up - then allow comments and a centralized community to form around you - and then decentralize the conversation.

Remember that you don’t NEED a ton of comments on every post, and that subscriber numbers and subscriber RESPONSIVENESS is a much better indicator of your post quality then comments are.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 12:57 am and is filed under Communication, Make Money Online Tip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.