Blogs by their very nature are a part of social media and need active participation to become successful.
A blog can be beautifully designed and be on a subject that should invite active participation, but it doesn't.
It sits out in the vast internet universe alone.
How do you get readers to comment on posts? Without an active community of regular posts and comments, a blog is useless.
Here are five simple ways to encourage your readers to participate and leave comments: 1.
Write to Your Readers! Treat your readers like a family and each comment like a phone call, don't ignore it.
Steer conversations to subjects that interest people and respond quickly to any comments.
Learn to write in short, sharp and relevant bites, just like lines in a telephone conversation.
People attract more people.
Have you ever been to a market where people are crowded around one particular stand? People see the crowd and wonder what's happening and join in.
  A blog is just the same, once you start attracting people you end up with a snowball effect.
That's how Facebook started.
2.
Ask your readers questions - If you write an article, ask questions.
  For example, you have a blog about a movie.
Writing "George Clooney is a fantastic actor" may elicit a couple of comments, but if you say something like "Don't you think George Clooney is the sexiest man alive?" you are going to get a lot more comments.
3.
Make sure the comment link is large and easy to click on.
I have been to blogs where I wanted to leave a comment but I have to register first, figure out a login and password and answer a bunch of questions etc.
, and then wait for an autoresponder to come, then I have to go to my email, click on a link etc.
I have moved on! I am probably reading emails and that spontaneous spark is gone.
I have also been to sites where the link is not obvious, and if I can't find a link in a nanosecond, I am gone! 4.
Write interesting headlines! Be controversial and word your headline so people can't resist clicking on it.
Treat a headline like advertising copy; make it short and snappy - grab people's attention.
5.
Limit your posts to an appropriate length...
 On the internet nobody reads past a couple of lines unless their attention is grabbed.
If a movie doesn't grab our attention in the first 10 minutes, we lose interest.
If a book doesn't entice us to read past the first ten pages, it is tossed aside.
Learn to write concise posts of just a couple of paragraphs.
Just like a phone conversation, it bounces back and forth, nobody wants to hear a lecture on the phone, or read a dissertation on a blog.
By following these five simple steps you will be able to get a lively blog community going.