Content Marketing: 10 Reasons People Don’t Comment on Blog Posts

0 Comments: Second to “read more”, you would be hard pressed to find a more frequent combination of characters on the Internet, or a more perplexing content marketing issue to overcome. If we could generate $1 for every article published online that people don’t comment on, we could eliminate the national debt overnight. OK, maybe not the U.S. national debt, but maybe Ireland's!

Why are there so many lonely blog posts? The obvious and most simplistic answer is that people aren’t reading the articles. The websites that contain the articles aren’t generating traffic. Thousands of articles and books have been published to address this concern.

However, there are at least ten other reasons for the absence of comments that may not be so obvious. Those with a passion for content marketing may find some encouragement to refine their blogging and other online marketing efforts by carefully considering the 10 points below, and the recommendations that follow.

1) Agreement
People agreed in entirety with what you wrote. If you said it all and said it well, you might leave virtually nothing meaningful for anyone to add. People submit comments to articles when they think they can add insight the author didn’t share.

2) Reluctiance
People are reluctant to share their opinion socially. The vast majority of people are not very confident when it comes to sharing their opinions publicly. They may fear their opinion may not be meaningful or may not be communicated eloquently.

3) Time
People are too busy. While it might take a minute or two to read an article, it might take someone 10-15 minutes to write a comment they think is good enough for others to read.

4) Attitude
People are cynical. They don’t believe their comments will make a difference. Things won’t be changed for the better regardless of what comments they share.

5) Emotion
Your post didn’t strike an emotional chord. One million people might read an article about how to change a light bulb without one person leaving a comment.

6) Reach
People with opinions to share want an audience. If your website doesn’t have millions of followers, those who are inclined to comment on websites may believe your website isn’t worth their time.

7) Repurcussions
People fear repercussions. “What if I say something that comes back to hurt me?” People who have friends, family, neighbors, and employers may believe it is safer not to express their opinions publicly.

8) Vulnerability
People are intimidated by nastiness. It is common knowledge that people often use the ability to comment on articles as an opportunity to belittle, criticize, and insult others who comment. Who wants that?

9) Failure to Ask
You didn’t ask for comments within the article itself. If you forget to ask for comments, then don’t be surprised if none appear.

10) Poor Follow Up
You didn’t ask for comments after the article was published. You didn’t ask family, friends, customers, and colleagues to share their comments on the article.

How can you increase the number of comments on your articles? In addition to addressing the above issues, here are some online marketing tips to consider when composing blog posts and other content:

• Don’t share every last insight you can think of in the article
• Publicly thank or reward those who do comment
• Write in such a manner as to encourage the reader to take sides in an argument
• Allow people to comment anonymously
• Police your website and remove or block inappropriate comments that may intimidate potential contributors

Again, remember to ask for comments, both in the article and after the article was published.

If you need help with blogging, writing press releases, or any other part of your content marketing strategy, you can contact us at PMI . We'll be glad to provide a free consultation to qualified businesses.