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Blogging Guide > Specials > Quick Tips > Quick Tips: Building a discussions section
To start a discussion, you have to post something that makes people want to comment on it. There are a few things you can do to encourage feedback on your posts, but if you really want comments, it's worth writing a post where the primary goal is to get feedback.
Here are some recent examples from my blog:
When you post a discussion, ensure you give it a category or tag that will help to identify it in future. Be consistent with all of the posts you write as discussions.
How to organise them depends on the system you use. What I've been doing is waiting for a few days, then moving them into my Blog Discussions section. In WordPress, you could create a page and link to the best discussions, or just use the category link to show people the full history of discussions on your site.
As you can see from the number of comments in Blog Discussions, most of the topics have had a healthy number of replies - something that might not have happened if I'd set up a separate forum. I visit a few great blogging forums, but I'd advise against starting a new one - even if it's just for your own site - as most of the ones I have seen are totally dead. It takes a lot of effort to get a forum off the ground. This method requires a lot less effort and I think it's more likely to work out for you.
By using this method, you drive comments to your posts, you avoid having a totally separate forum that hardly anyone uses, and you give your readers a quick and easy way to find all of the discussions on your site. All you have to do is link to the discussion page whenever you post a new discussion. The end result is a content-rich, community-driven site that people are much more likely to come back to.
Quick Tips: Building a discussions section
< Quick Tips: Provide a full feed | Quick Tips | Quick Tips: Use an email signature >
If you like this post, there are plenty more in the Quick Tips section.To start a discussion, you have to post something that makes people want to comment on it. There are a few things you can do to encourage feedback on your posts, but if you really want comments, it's worth writing a post where the primary goal is to get feedback.
Here are some recent examples from my blog:
- To republish or not to republish?
- Would you publish a bad post?
- When finding a new site, do you visit the archives?
- Do you practise what you preach?
- When should you display your subscriber count - if ever?
When you post a discussion, ensure you give it a category or tag that will help to identify it in future. Be consistent with all of the posts you write as discussions.
How to organise them depends on the system you use. What I've been doing is waiting for a few days, then moving them into my Blog Discussions section. In WordPress, you could create a page and link to the best discussions, or just use the category link to show people the full history of discussions on your site.
As you can see from the number of comments in Blog Discussions, most of the topics have had a healthy number of replies - something that might not have happened if I'd set up a separate forum. I visit a few great blogging forums, but I'd advise against starting a new one - even if it's just for your own site - as most of the ones I have seen are totally dead. It takes a lot of effort to get a forum off the ground. This method requires a lot less effort and I think it's more likely to work out for you.
By using this method, you drive comments to your posts, you avoid having a totally separate forum that hardly anyone uses, and you give your readers a quick and easy way to find all of the discussions on your site. All you have to do is link to the discussion page whenever you post a new discussion. The end result is a content-rich, community-driven site that people are much more likely to come back to.
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Comments on Quick Tips: Building a discussions section
Thanks for commenting, Jamie. :) Glad you liked the post. I've only recently started to experiment with encouraging comments on posts, and so far I have been pleased with the results.
Hey Ben,
That's certainly an interesting concept you have going on there. Thanks for the insight.
I have to say that asking a question in the title is certainly a sure way to gain more comments than usual. I've used that method on several occasions and it always works.
Thanks for the interesting post. It's certainly nice to see a slightly different take on the topic.
Jamie