Do get lots of comments on your blog?

If you do, then that’s fantastic!

 [jealous!]

But wouldn’t it be nice to

• know who they are
• acknowledge them accordingly
• encourage others to do the same

One thing about Commenters, apart from leaving their gravatar if they have one, there isn’t really any way of showing which loyal commenters regularly visit your blog and leave suitable feedback.

Until now.

Enter commenter badges from Thrive Comments

Every blogger is overjoyed to receive a comment on their post. It is a sign that not only has someone read it, they are compelled enough to leave a reply.

But wouldn’t it be nice to let that commenter know how much you value them?

Wouldn’t it be a good thing for them to receive a ‘acknowledgement badge’ from you for their loyalty?

And the more they comment, they could progress up the scale of super-commenters, and focus on obtaining more prominent badges for their trouble.

Encourage more contributions with rewards

Incentive is a very simple thing to encourage more action. And it needn’t be complicated or overpowering.

Giving rewards to your commenters for regularly contributing is a great way of not only increasing the amount of feedback you get, but also creates a sense of community on your blog.

Each of your Loyal Commenters could be suitably identified by a discrete badge, which subtly draws attention to them. Other readers will see this, and may want one for themselves.

And you could create a series of levels commenters could strive for, to gain the next badge at a higher stage. Each badge could be carefully labelled to reflect these readers’ achievement for sticking around and leaving feedback.

Communicate better with your loyal commenters

Using badges will help you see who your loyal commenters are. And this means your attitude will change towards them.

Your replies to their comments will become more conversational, making them more readable for other readers. This in turn could encourage others to jump in due to the friendly atmosphere.

Providing a welcoming commenting area that contains plenty of affable answers will easily encourage others to join in. Your moderation system will keep spammers and trolls at bay, and accept only relevant responses that are suitable for the post.

However, it’s best not to avoid disagreements or negative comments, as long as they are constructive. These provide a more balanced approach to your comments, which may in turn stimulate more exciting discussions.

Create a commenting community

This is so important for a thriving blog. After all, it would be nothing without its readers. So it’s worth encouraging their loyalty, including their commenting prowess.

If you make your commenting readers feel wanted, needed, loved and secure, they will return for more. Offering commenting badges will increase that sense of being part of a family. They will look out for each other, and even comment on each others contributions.

All this community activity creates a sense of popularity with your blog. This be more attractive to other readers, who will want to join in the party. And it will also gain the attention of the search engines, whose algorithms are programmed to search out popular posts with lots of comments.

So would you like to attract more loyal commenters?

All this is possible via the new Thrive Comments plugin. As you know, I use Thrive Themes for this blog, and all the other blogs and websites that I create.

But this plugin has got me really excited. It is perfect to accompany my 40 Days to Commenting Mastery Challenge. There is nothing better than to incentivise your commenters to return to do it again and again.

And with the added bonus of recognising your loyal commenters, this will in turn encourage you to maintain your connections with them, and write more of the kind of posts they want to read.

You can find out more about the Thrive Comments plugin here, and start building your family of loyal commenters now.

The post Are you lucky enough to know who your loyal commenters are? appeared first on Fairy Blog Mother.