How to Triple Your Blog Traffic, Comments and RSS Signup Using CommentLuv!

Everyone agrees, blogs are a 2 way communication tool.

But what happens when you’ve labored to create a well designed blog and has written what you know to be wonderful posts but no one cared to add a comment?
If your blog has become a one way street (it just seems you’re the only one walking that street) do you throw your hands up in frustration or just sit down and complain?

Traffic, comments and RSS signups are definitely good signs of your blog’s activity. You may update your blog daily but if there are no comments, visitors to your blog may question if anyone ever reads the blog.

And so a few months ago when I was faced with this situation I had to put on my thinking cap. And after implementing a few tactics the result was increased traffic, more robust comments and increased RSS signups! I would have kept this to myself while searching for more ways to improve on it but having seen the FamousBloggers.net and ComLuv blogging contest, I’ve decided to write this post detailing the different tactics which resulted in more comment activity on my blog.

I hope you will be able to find some other ways of adapting these tactics to your own advantage.

1. Using Commentluv To Reward My Readers:

While I was searching and brainstorming on what I could possibly do to encourage more activity on my blog I got to know of commentluv. Though I have seen this plugin in many blogs before now but I have never really given it much consideration. And so I had to read more about it. Once I understood the potentials I downloaded and installed the plugin and registered my blog at the comluv.com. After this I wrote a post on my blog to the effect that we now reward our readers with commentluv. I then went to blogcatalog.com and started a discussion with a link back to the post. This pulled in some good number of traffic immediately and of course they posted comments. This was a real motivation for me as many of those who visited expressed their pleasure with my content and the blog design.

Feeling really elated I thought of some ways I can keep the tempo up.

And so…

2. Draw More Attention With “What Would Seth Godin Do” Plugin!

Realizing that the post I made about the readers’ rewards had been pushed down the line by new posts I had to come up with a way of ensuring that every visitor, whether returning or first time, knows that we reward our readers with commentluv. And so I re-worded my welcome message using “What Would Seth Godin Do?” plugin. You may wonder why do so when every visitor can see that commentluv is enabled in the comments section?

I simply reasoned that drawing readers’ attention to the fact that we “reward” every comment was an ethical pull to leave a comment. Besides, not every blogger may definitely know the purpose of the commentluv plugin, just as I was before now! So drawing their attention to it is important.

To encourage RSS subscriptions I also included in the welcome message the importance of signing up for free updates so as to be informed of new posts. This soon generated RSS signups and has continued to do so. Today most of the blog traffic comes from return readers who have signup for updates using RSS feed.

3. Top Commentators Rewards

The next step I took was to install top commentators plugin. But instead of just leaving it at that I decided to add it as one of the reward package. The plugin was set to reset every month while the top commentator for that month is rewarded with a link back in a post dedicated to the top commentator’s blog. This, working with commentluv increased both the traffic, comments and RSS signups. For the past few months we have been rewarding our readers who care to add comments through a link love in the sidebar and also a dedicated post every month.

So far the results have been encouraging. We have made new friends through this. And I have been more motivated to write content now than before. Since starting this whole thing I now do 3 – 4 posts some weeks instead of just one as I was doing before. And now because of the encouragement I’ve received so far I’ve added yet another one to the reward package.

4. One Month Free 125×125 Banner Ad

The newest addition to our top commentators’ reward package is to reward our top commentator with a free month 125 x 125 banner ad. This addition which starts from this month of July is aimed at ensuring that our top commentator’s blog stays visible throughout the month. I decided to do this because the post reviewing the commentator’s blog stays only a few days on the home page and then it is pushed down by newer posts. So the banner ad is to create more visibility for our top commentator while still having the linklove in the post.

The lesson

Putting these tactics to use has increased the volume of traffic to my blog. Instead of intermittent traffic from search engines and a few from blog commenting, the number of return visitors, mostly from RSS subscriptions, has increased. I’m more motivated to write posts knowing that there are people who love what I’m writing. I believe anyone can also use them to improve their RSS signups, increase their blog traffic and also add more comments to their blogs. Of course they are nothing new. But a little twist here and there can produce outstanding results.

I mustn’t hesitate to add that to produce maximal results your content must be top notch. Just clamping some crumpy articles together and expecting readers to visit and add comments will not work. If you want them to return you must give them what is beneficial to them.

So what do you think of these tactics? Is there something you think I can add in the months ahead to improve on things?

Your suggestions will be appreciated.

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