Back in July I was busy working on trying to increase my page views by whatever means. A month ago today, I introduced the comment notify check box to this site using the Subscribe to Comments plugin developed by Mark Jaquith. I figured I could get a few more return page views that way, and I new it worked well on another blog I have.
You will find many top blogs have this plugin or a similar one. It basically notifies a commenter that another comment was made to the post. A simple plugin to do a very basic feature.
I also added a new link just below the posts to the bookmark where visitors can comment. I added this because comments fell far below the fold on many posts. I also customized this link to encourage comments with little things like: Be the first to comment, or One comment so far, you are next.
The Results?
I am always working on this site, so their could be other influences, but here are the result since I added it.
- Visits – up 2.83%
- Page views – up 6.10% This is what I was after
- Pages/Visit – up 3.18%
- Bounce rate – down 1.57%
- Avg. time on site – up 8.93%
Basically, all positive. Trying to pin down the positive effects of adding the notifier I looked at the returning visitors. I had a 15% increase in return visitors, and if it wasn’t for them, these past thirty days may have been worse then the previous for total visits.
What About Comments?
This site has experienced a greater than 100% increase in total comments per month since I added that notifier. Obviously having a comment notifier will encourage some back and forth conversation, but it also has another effect. Besides creating a discussion, it gets those that like to comment, to comment on other new posts. Basically, it’s a screaming success, and you really shouldn’t dare starting a blog without it.
Blogging is not a one way read, and we typically think of them as an author writing to the readers. This may be the case for a not so popular blog, but if you look at some of the big guns like RWW or Chris Brogan’s you will see every post has tons of comments. Who’s really talking now? The blogger or the audience?
ariel (1)
Chris (1)
Curtis (1)
Great headline. If your cookie has a bite-sized action and your reader completes the action, I think two things happen. Their self-confidence goes up (which feels good) and their trust in you increases.