1. 3 WAYS
THE PROS GET
BLOG COMMENTS
(And When You Don’t Want Them)

2. NO BLOG COMMENTS?

3. IT MAY BE YOUR FAULT.

4. I MIGHT CONVINCE YOU
THAT YOU DON’T WANT
BLOG COMMENTS.

5. The vast majority of visitors are “lurking”. They don’t
comment, they share.
This doesn’t mean that these “lurkers” aren’t getting
value from your content.
What it could mean is that you don’t have a critical
Russ Henneberry mass of traffic.
Editorial Director,
DigitalMarketer

6. Some Blogs get 100 visits per
post and manage to regularly
receive thoughtful
comments.

7. Crack open your analytics
program and take a look at
the amount of traffic you
are getting to your posts
on the first day you
publish them.

8. IF YOUR POSTS ARE
REGULARLY GETTING LESS
THAN 300 VISITS IN THEIR
FIRST DAY OF PUBLICATIONS,
YOU HAVE A TRAFFIC PROBLEM.

9. Why only look at the first day of traffic?
The vast majority of comments will take place in the first
24 hours your blog post is live.

10. Traffic
Read about our take on traffic in this
post about building an unstoppable
business.

11. How does one blog with a small amount of traffic get more
thoughtful comments than another blog with tons of traffic?
It boils down to this. Don’t be a know-it-all. At least not
all the time.

12. When do you not want thoughtful blog comments? Or rather:
when you shouldn’t expect thoughtful blog comments.
Don’t expect thoughtful comments when you publish an
authority post like these:
• The Ultimate Guide to Buying Penny Stocks
• A Step-by-Step Guide to Setting up Google Analytics
• Everything you need to know about the iPhone 6

13. When you don’t want thoughtful Blog comments.
When you write the end-all-be-all article on a subject--
you’ve left no room for discussion, and that’s ok.

14. Make no mistake, blog comments ARE NOT sales.
The end goal is NOT blog comments—at least not if
you want to be in business for long.
All that said, if you have enough traffic visiting on your
authority post, you will get “applause comments”.
You’ve seen them before:
• “WOW! Fantastic post”
Russ Henneberry • “Thanks for Writing this!”
Editorial Director,
DigitalMarketer

15. Now…Try adding these 3 Elements in your Blog Posts.
1 Humility
2 Incomplete Thoughts
3 Speculation

16. But first… need some blog post ideas? We have 212 that
apply to any niche.
1

17. HUMILITY
1

18. Humility
Check out Marcus Sheridan’s blog post 8 People That
Dramatically Impacted My Life in 2013 (notice the humility in the
title itself?) Marcus, part owner of a pool company, praises people
that made a difference in his life and business in 2013.

19. Humility
Here’s the stats on Marcus’ post just 4 hours after it was posted:
• 1267 words written by Marcus in the blog post
• 27 comments
• 3062 words in the comments
But here’s the thing, the success of business blogging for his pool
company is the basis of what he teaches about marketing.

20. Humility
In this post on the company blog, Which is Best: Fiberglass,
Concrete, or Vinyl Liner? Marcus offers his expert analysis of the
best pool liner to buy based on your circumstances.
This is an authority piece.
His pool blog is full of authority pieces like this and he doesn’t
allow comments on these post. Direct sales and leads are the
goal, and these authority pieces leave little room for discussion.

21. INCOMPLETE THOUGHTS
2

22. Incomplete Thoughts
Write short posts and let your readers fill in the blanks---in the
comment section. Seth Godin is a great example. He doesn’t
allow comments on his blog posts but his writing style is perfect
for studying this style of blogging. Here’s an example. (Yep, this is
the entire post!)

23. Incomplete Thoughts
Seth’s posts are vehemently debated on social sites like Twitter
and spark rebuttal blog posts across the web. Here’s why Seth
doesn’t allow comments.
Source: http://boingboing.net/images/sethgodin2011.jpg

24. SPECULATION
3

25. Speculation
Mark Schaeffer wrote a post titled, What will be the next big thing
in social media? Here are 7 clues. Notice Mark isn’t trying to be a
know-it-all. He wants to lead an intelligent discussion about it.

26. Speculation
Here’s the stats on this post,
• 665 words written by Mark Schaeffer
• 40 thoughtful comments
• 3834 words in comments

27. MIX AND MATCH

28. Mix and Match
You need to understand the purpose of each post you write.
Is it an authority piece intended to establish me as an authority?
Or is it an engagement piece intended to build a community and
discussion? Both can be lucrative for your business.

29. THANK YOU!
Russ Henneberry
Editorial Director,
DigitalMarketer

30. QUESTIONS?
Feel free to reach out to us …
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Twitter: @digitalmktr