Well, it was close, but the Reader’s Choice Award goes to …
A Day In The Life was only one vote behind her, and HomeschoolWAHM, Homeschool Hangout Zone and Gardening For My Family were next in line.
While all the blogs were great, rounding up comments was what was needed to win this round. For those of you that are new to blogging, you are not alone in wondering how to get your readers to comment. Hopefully, we can cover that in the next few weeks and there’s a few of you out there that I would love to talk to about how you get so many comments!
If you have ideas or things you have done in your blogs that have helped you receive more comments on your blog, please share them with us! Leave a comment here and I’ll return the favor. (be sure you leave your blog address in your comment)
Benjamin drew the name out of his favorite hat….
AND! The winner of the drawing from all the comments voting for our Reader’s Choice was won by: Chrystal Gilliam. (please email us, I don’t have a link for you)
Congratulations to everyone that entered. I’ve learned so much from running this contest and look forward to trying this again next summer!
(Remember to leave a comment telling me what you do to get comments on your blog – and I’ll stop by your blog to comment!)
[...] – but I wanted to be sure to thank all of you who took the time and made the effort to go to http://homeschoolent.com/2009/09/the-readers-choice-award-2009/ to make a comment about my blog. Because of you and your gracious comments, I won the [...]
There are two things that seem to draw lots of comments, though several factors play a part.
I get the most comments for posting on “hot topics”. Controversy sparks debate, and debate brings in the comments! Usually, that’s by accident due to the nature of my blog, but some posts receive close to or over 100 comments!
Secondly, ask for them. When you can work a question into the post, asking for “advice” or input, it can get your readers more involved.
It has been my experience that only about 1% of readers actually comment, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get many. You probably still have far more readers than you realize. Some days I may only have 7 or 8 comments, but my stats for the day showed over 1000 readers.
Sharing your posts on Facebook and Twitter can help to increase readership as well as comments.
The best tip, though, is to blog GOOD CONTENT. That will spread your readership faster than anything.
Thanks Kelly! Great advice!
wow, thanks for the readers’ choice award! this was the first contest i ever entered my blog in!
Christine
Homeschool Hangout Zone
Hi, I wrote a comment before, but for some reason it appears it did not go through. Anyway, I wanted to thank you for holding this contest and allowing me to participate. It was exciting!
(not sure what I’m supposed to do now?)
Also, I had previously shared about comments on blogs – I encourage my visitors to sign up for my newsletter so they can receive updates about my latest post. I also send them a quick newsletter once in awhile if I have something to share with them – this contest was one of them!
I also try to post practical information and ideas that I have found fun and successful in our home and hope that others may benefit from them – including any valuable links with free resources others can use in their homeschools.
Lastly, I will ask for comments or suggestions that others might want to share to try to start and exchange thread within my comments about a specific post on my blog.
Hope those ideas are helpful to other bloggers!
Thanks again!
Katie
Katie’s Homeschool Cottage
Thanks, Katie for your comments on getting comments! Pooling all our blog tips and suggestions would be a great new contest that could help us all! …or maybe we’ll stick to comments!
I like your tip on asking for signups for the rss (or likewise) feed. It keeps your readers posted on what’s going on in real time.
I look forward to reading your ideas on getting more comments on our blogs.