How to attract readers to comment on old entries

truelyana

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It seems as though our blogs are platforms for all sorts of content, and noticeably the old content gets left behind. It is nice to put our blogs to their full usage, and make best use of all the material we share. So, how do you attract readers to your old blog entries, and entice a comment to be left?

Aside from having the related posts plugin, I make best use of the SEO, and Meta function. This does get readers in, but doesn't seem to have the same effect as bringing in new comments, on the old posts.

One of the ways in which readers can be directed to old entries comes from connection in relation to that of your own posts. Latetly have been reading a lot of blogs that associate with my own, and within that have commented on entries which have been similiar to past experiences I have had. What I have done, is left the full url at the end of the comment I have left. This also is a form of attraction, though still doesn't prone the reader to leave a comment naturally.

What are your tips on directing readers to past entries, and having them comment?
 
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Parametric

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Few thoughts:

* Links in your new posts to relevant old posts.
* A "best of the blog" sidebar.
* Tags/labels to group together posts on the same topic so a reader doesn't need to trawl through the whole archive to find them.
 

truelyana

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Few thoughts:

* Links in your new posts to relevant old posts.
* A "best of the blog" sidebar.
* Tags/labels to group together posts on the same topic so a reader doesn't need to trawl through the whole archive to find them.

Thanks.

Have just re-added the new Wordpress version of Popular Posts, on my blog. The last version, didn't function very well.

Do these help you to attract readers to comment on your old posts?
 

Laurie PK

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Hey -- Last week I started writing a blog post on this very topic, for Quips & Tips for Successful Writers! I'll round up at least 5 ways to do this, and post the link to the article here.

One of my favorite ways is to add current news or research in the comment section. For instance, I write about health, diet, lifestyle, money -- lots of things on Quips & Tips For Achieving Your Goals posts. On one of my "sleep tips" articles, I added brand new science research in the comments section (lack of sleep has worse health affects for women than men). And, a reader commented on it!

Wait a minute, I think the reader commented on the relationship article on which I added new research....not the sleep one........

This doesn't work as well for my writing blog, since scientists aren't exactly researching literary techniques! But, I could search in Google news for related topics and post current info as comments.

I'll round up several more ideas, write them up, and post here. In the meantime, you might want to read "5 Tips for Repurposing Old Blog Content" -- it's all about highlighting the your old stuff.

http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogwriting/blogs-websites/tips-for-repurposing-old-blog-content/

Laurie
 

truelyana

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Hey -- Last week I started writing a blog post on this very topic, for Quips & Tips for Successful Writers! I'll round up at least 5 ways to do this, and post the link to the article here.

One of my favorite ways is to add current news or research in the comment section. For instance, I write about health, diet, lifestyle, money -- lots of things on Quips & Tips For Achieving Your Goals posts. On one of my "sleep tips" articles, I added brand new science research in the comments section (lack of sleep has worse health affects for women than men). And, a reader commented on it!

Wait a minute, I think the reader commented on the relationship article on which I added new research....not the sleep one........

This doesn't work as well for my writing blog, since scientists aren't exactly researching literary techniques! But, I could search in Google news for related topics and post current info as comments.

I'll round up several more ideas, write them up, and post here. In the meantime, you might want to read "5 Tips for Repurposing Old Blog Content" -- it's all about highlighting the your old stuff.

http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogwriting/blogs-websites/tips-for-repurposing-old-blog-content/

Laurie

Okay, I've rounded up a few ideas -- here's the link to "Making Old Blog Posts Popular - Without Rewriting Them":
http://theadventurouswriter.com/blo...ld-blog-posts-popular-without-rewriting-them/

Hope it helps!

Laurie

Thanks so much for sharing. You have an insightful blog, with a lot of helpful suggestions. I like it a lot, and shall be returning to it. From the list on Making old blog posts popular I act on 1, 3 and 4 from time to time.
 

s_aileronbois

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I don't think it's just a matter of drawing readers to older posts. A lot of blogs disable commenting on older posts as a way to deter spam. As a reader, I'm hesitant to comment on older posts, even when comments are still enabled, because I'm always wondering about how the blog's owner will feel about rehashing the old stuff, instead of commenting on what's current.
 

jwallace

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Getting Attention to older blog posts

One trick I like to use to draw attention to older blog posts is to write a new post cross-referencing the old post and linking back to it. This might have already come up but one twist you can try putting on this is to do a reader poll based on info in the older post--that way you're generating fresh talk about the older post without simply referencing it.
 

Marilyn Braun

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One trick I like to use to draw attention to older blog posts is to write a new post cross-referencing the old post and linking back to it. This might have already come up but one twist you can try putting on this is to do a reader poll based on info in the older post--that way you're generating fresh talk about the older post without simply referencing it.

I do something fairly similar. When I do a royal profile I reference other royal profiles relevant to that one. Say I do a profile on siblings, there will be links in both articles.

I find that most of my traffic comes from old posts. Certain topics are very popular, like royal weddings, and people are always searching for information about them.