I attended Chicks Who Chat on last Tuesday night at MOM TV (I think it was Tuesday, don’t quote me on the day) and the discussion was blogging, what made you want to start blogging and did you take a break and then come back, etc.  There were a few comments talking about the number of visitors not reflecting the number of comments, like there will be way more visitors than people who actually leave comments.

So let’s look at the obvious reasons why this might be:

1. Your post is not interesting, relevant or useful enough, and when I say this, I mean to your specific niche/audience, everyone has their own version of interesting.
2. They were directed to your site through a keyword, but your content was not what they were looking for. For this you can get an idea of what percentage to eliminate by looking at your bounce rate – those who are on and then off. I have heard that you do not want your bounce rate above 30%, but I am not in SEO, so not sure?
3. The title of the post was not interesting/captivating enough for them to click on the post to read it.

On the note of tips that can help your blog get shared see Chris Brogan’s post, it’s a really helpful post.

So, what if none of these fit you and you are still having people come to your blog and not leave comments, well I have good news for you! It’s most likely nothing you are doing wrong. I am not saying that there is not a strategic process that goes into place to figure out who your buyer persona is and how to reach them, how to engage with them, i.e. which technology to use, etc.  I am just addressing my observation of seeing bloggers who are good, they have good content for their niche and they will get anywhere from 7 to upwards in comments per post, but they still are focusing on the number of visitors and the percentage that is not commenting.

Some people just do not comment, or they do not comment unless they are extremely passionate about the particular topic.

I attended an Awareness/Forrester webinar not too long ago and I learned some interesting statistics:

• 18%  – publish a blog, write articles or stories and post them, upload video and music they created.
• 25% -  post ratings reviews, comment’s on blogs, contributes to online forums
• 12% -  uses RSS feeds (Really, I was shocked at this one), adds tags to web pages or photos, votes for websites online.
• 25% – maintain a profile on a social networking site.
• 48% – read blogs, watch video from other users, listen to podcasts, read online forums.
• 44% – do none of the above.

So there you have it, more than half of people in the online community are just reading, listening absorbing. After they do one of these, they are either coming back or they are not?  Comments, interaction is important, you want to engage with your readers, but engaging does not always mean your audience leaving comments.  If you are engaging them they will come back, and as far as looking at numbers – that is the one I would focus on, are my readers coming back? How many want to see more?

Although the ‘spectators‘ are not the ones that are commenting, this does not mean that they are not spreading the word some how, this does not mean that they are not creating buzz for you.

It’s also great practice to track your short URL to see how many clicks you are getting; it might give you an idea of how many are sharing your information.   Bit.ly is one you can use, there are also some other ranking/tracking tools you can gather from this Mashable article by Ben Parr.

Also to give you a little demographics on the spectators so you can see how they fit into who your audience: (Via Forrester)

• 70% – Under 25
• 67% – 25-34 (Single, no kids)
• 62% - 25 -34 (Married, no kids)
• 66% – 25-34 (with kids)

As long as you are blogging about what is relevant to your audience and they are coming back for more and passing on your posts, creating buzz, etc. then to me the comment part is not on the top of the priority list.  Everyone loves getting comments, it is what helps us grow and lets us know that what we are writing is something of use.  I just wouldn’t want some of the people that I have heard have concerns try to fix something that is not broken.

What do you think is more important, comments, others creating buzz, or readers that cannot get enough and come back again and again?