Another strategy? Asking people to give their advice and opinion on something you struggle with. They’re thrilled to be the expert telling the pro what to do!

3 Months: How Are We Doing? (And, How You Can Help)

It has gotten a few lurkers to come out of the woodwork.

I realized my mistake and started to change the style and apply the techniques. And it works!

Thanks for the tips!

Do something different.
Create a post using only pictures. Hold a contest. Give something away to the “nth” person who comments. Invite your readers to ask you a question. Participate in a blog meme. Write a pros and cons list on a topic that is relevant for your audience. Write a post in your “alter ego” voice, contradicting a stance you would usually take. Create a poll. Write about a blog post that you had a strong reaction to…

Check out my latest post about BlackBerry smartphone cases and feel free to show me where I went wrong, http://bit.ly/Fwb9L. :-|

Thanks,

LaKeela
http://HerTechKnowledgy.com

I went back to the comments section to see which posts recieved the most comments.

The most successful were:
http://blog.kitchentherapy.us/2009/06/gluten-free-fathers-day-dinner/
and
http://blog.kitchentherapy.us/2009/07/quinoa-cocoa-waffles/

What was working here?
I like to think all my posts are written in a conversational and personal style, with questions.

Half of the comments are from me, responding to others comments.

Looking back I notice that both posts were submitted to blogging events, ensuring more targeted readership.

Both posts had pictures accepted by the food photo sites.

Also, I sometimes post to professional listserves, including notification of a few blog posts. Often collleagues will comment.

In the beginning of my blog, I got more emails than blog comments. I responded to their questions by email. And asked if they felt comfortbale, would they please also leave a comment on the blog for all to benefit.

Some just had never read a blog before, or left a comment and needed to be shown how.

And people love chocolate (and cocoa) .

Only problem being that a few of the people who have read it have missed the point and taken it seriously! (Or possibly I didn’t make the satirical element clear enough…)

http://www.saladsticks.com/2009/07/what-kind-of-milk-do-you-drink.html

Anyone from ProBlogger is welcome to give it a look, vote, and comment as to why you prefer this type of milk. Feel free to say anything else about the subject in your comments.

I’m going to take quotes from readers who’ve commented for my next week’s post on the benefits and disadvantages of each type of milk. Each quote will link back to the author’s blog page.

I look forward to hearing some of your opinions!

I’m going to try to make a question post later on today to get reader interaction. I’ll post a link once I’ve finished!

Here’s what I tried earlier in the year on my blog, asking people to contribute their ideas for healthy meals. Not a lot of takers, as you’ll see….
http://healthyeatingforhealthylivingtips.com/meal-ideas-breakfast

This is a different blog post that attracted more comments – so a bit of a controversial post seemed to work
http://stopthemigrainemadness.com/blog/2009/01/migraine_and_salt/

Unfortunately what I seem to attract a lot of is a competitor site adding a spurious comment which can take readers away from my site to theirs. Never quite sure how to handle these… what I tend to do is allow one – like this one below:
http://stopthemigrainemadness.com/blog/2009/06/can-detox-cure-migraines/

But there is one competitor site that adds a “this is interesting” type comment to almost every post I make. I’d appreciate advice on how to moderate these. I’m tending to delete them, because in one sense they’re NOT spam, but in another they are, because it’s not genuine content.

Thanks, Joy