Sometimes I read comments from Active Rain members who wish they knew how to get more comments on their posts. 
Before I found Active Rain I was on Blogger. It was very lonely there. I had one comment during that time and I felt like I was in some deep dark cave and no one was ever going to find me! But I also knew that Google analytics would tell me if anyone was even reading and they were.
Writing for your local markets and posting your articles about your area to Localism is a great way to build upon your consumer readership. Localism posts don't garner a ton of Active Rain member comments. But that does not matter if you have readers who are reading your blog.
One time I read a post written by an Active Rain member who titled her post something like, Why is no one commenting on my blog? Just because no one comments does not mean that no one is reading. There is a big difference. Now if you don't have anyone reading your blog- well, that is a problem. You will have to figure out why no one is reading. But let's assume for the sake of this post that is not the case.
There are many more people reading your blog than are commenting on your blog. Typically I read many more blogs here on Active Rain and outside of Active Rain than I ever would have time to comment on. I try to make about 20 comments per day. Sometimes I can only get my 10 comments in on very busy days and often on Sundays I make no comments.
So I told this member to go and look at her statistics to see how many people came to each particular post she had written.
While we all love to have recognition and comments from fellow Active Rain members and that is great to build a referral business in this manner we must remember that the public, the consumers, the readers outside of Active Rain very rarely comment on any blog. So while you may feel lost in this community called Active Rain you may well be surprised to find out how many people are actually visiting your blog and profile.
How do you find this out?
On the left side towards the bottom of your home page on Active Rain you will see a set up links that looks like this:
Click on the link that is called, 'STATISTICS'. What a wealth of information you will find on your statistics page.
At the top of your Statistics page you can see how many times your profile has been visited. That is the page on your Active Rain blog that you place information on about your services, your experience, links to home searches, market information, email, phone number, etc.
Underneath that you will see two tabs. One of those tabs is Subscribers. This is where you can see who has subscribed to your blog.
There is the Blog Entries tab. At this tab you can see the title of your post, how many comments you received on that post, how many views of that post and how many click throughs on that post.
What I would like to call your attention to is that the posts with very few comments are my posts to Localism and our outside Activeblog. But the amazing thing is that these same posts have a huge draw to them by the readers that will never leave a comment. These are for my posts about short sales. There usually are over 1000 views on my posts about short sale information and help and only a few comments. Most of the click throughs are to our website since I do not link out to many outside sources. You can see the one below that has only 8 comments but 1527 views and 176 click throughs. We also just got another short sale listing over the phone from a person who found our Active Rain blog and clicked through to our Short Sale information page on our website.
The best way to build a large readership of those who comment and those who don't is to provide value. Pay it forward attitudes really create a great energy around your blog that will attract others to you. Don't just post your listings. People can go a million places online to see listings. Don't just post to Members only. Actually, I can probably count on one hand how many members only posts I have written. You do not get the Google Juice that you are here to get by writing members only posts.
And if you want comments from members on Active Rain then go out and make comments first on their blogs. This is the fastest and best way to get comments.
Your Blog May Not Be As Lonely As You Think! No Comments? by Katerina Gasset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Realtors®, CIPS, ABR, SFR, GRI, REOS
Katerina, this is very useful information for new members. It is amazing to me how many clicks and views some posts have had.
Sharon
I think it easy to be concerned if you are not getting comments becuase of the nature of what we expect out of interactions - some sort of response. On-line just is not always that way, especially with blogs, at least in my experience.Plus many folks are busy and time is limited - rading is one thing, taking time to comment is another, and many just don't or can't.
As you point out so well, comments and readership are very different, and quite frankly a ton of comments from AR agents may be far less valuable than no comments from consumers but lots of readers according to the statistics. I find that market reports average 1500-2000 click throughs, and community profiles are almost always 6000+ (I have one of almost 12,000 click throughs). I think that's pretty statisfying,all the more so when folks call and say they see you all over the Internet.
Jeff
Very good points, it can be discouraging to spend a lot of time on a blog and get few to no comments. Some of my blogs that have had the most clicks have had the least comments.
All I know is when I get contacted they will immediately tell me where they found me...either here on AR or my website (which leads them back to here as well :) In any event, the comments are dwindling anyway. The amount of members and the amount of business that's picking up just tells me business is getting better....which is what we wanted to see. Not everyone has all day to spend blogging and commenting when they have other priorities. In any event...commenting has always been a part of gaining readership if you're looking for AR comments.
Thanks for the info - as a new bloggerr this is great stuff to help me understand the tracking and positioning of bloggs - Thanks!
I know we've talked about this in the past. I completely agree with the statement, No comments do not mean that no one is reading.
One thing for me on AR - as I have mentioned on one of my post - is to fill up my love tank with words of affirmation. So, naturally I love to hear the Atta girl and Kudos comments. So, when I dont get enough comments, I think people dont think it's good enough.
I've grown up and moved on since then. In the end, business is what counts and I get business on my blogs from clients and more than likely readers that never comment.
I checked my statistics very often just to know if anybody is actually reading my posts. It's really nice when you talked to people and they told you they were reading your blogs. Getting comments from AR members is good but getting comments from consumer readers is even better.
I'm with you and I love looking at those stats--I've found that my market reports and local information get FAR more clicks--but, my 'personal' or AR posts receive more comments (and fewer clicks). I think that's what makes AR so 'fun'--you do your business posts, then you have fun with the comments on the 'other' posts!
Congrats on that little gold star!
I just looked at my statistics today! It is a great way to find out what titles get the most clicks!
Katrina: The stastics page is wonderful... The number of view and click do differ most of the time.. Great to see how many we actually get each way... of course the click are what counts.
I read many blog posts yet I don't always leave a comment unless I feel compelled to do so. Like this latest post of yours. For me it rings true that sometimes I just do not leave a comment but I do read. Of course at my WP blogs I hardly if ever get a comment but I can see that some people are reading and some people are contacting me via email so all is not lost :-)
Hi Katerina -- Ah...thanks for sharing. I've never looked, too busy writing posts, commenting and that thing called life! I'm going to go look and hope I get some viewers.
I was very glad to learn about these analytics which allowed me a good idea of what was actually being read.
A/R has really thought of everything on this blog site! I ran into the stats by accident. Hey folks . . . EXPERIMENT . . . you can't break it!! Click on EVERYTHING and figure out what it does!
Thanks for putting this out there for all! The largest number of views to one of my blog post is 6,306! The other high-ranking blogs are about particular neighborhoods in my local market. Over 1,000 views each! I've got to go back and check if I posted them to Localism!
Again, THANKS for this post!
And I disagree with Glenn. Consumers CAN read what comments other agents say with their comments AND they can read what our fellow "Associates" say about us too!
Getting comments on A/R blogs is easy. A significant part of the appeal of A/R is the Ego gratification relating to getting massive points and ranking higher then other agents in the marketplace. The one challenge is that the comments almost come entirely from other agents rather then those who pay our bills, our consumers. IMHO even though you're getting Comments, Views, and Click Throughs most of them are from the wrong audience.
Glenn
Katarina, Reading is a whole lot easier than commenting! Reading is passive and anonymous. Commenting is active and makes you public. It is a great service of Active Rain to provide the statistics feedback.
Nice post. I am personally addicted to my statistics page. My husband has threatened to smack me if I ever again during dinner suddenly spurt out "Guess how many people looked at my Activerain Profile today?"
I too, love my statistics page. I enjoy letting my clients know that 1200 people have looked at the blog about their listing this week, etc. Thanks for reminding us that just because people aren't commenting, they are still reading!
Hi Katerina, just to let you I came here, read your post this great intel for the new here at AR. And now I am LOL at Dee's comment!
I think that is just what I needed... THANK YOU! I was wondering why one day 20 comments and then nothing. I just checked my stats and there certainly more reading than commenting, so I guess I should just write more posts with a call to action if I want them to leave a comment.
Katerina it is more important to have the readership from the consumer and even when I get few comments on AR I know I have a lot more readers because I get told so and I see the stats. Sometimes I can hardly believe who is reading. Even the 2 year old postings are still getting read and I am being found that way.
Comments are nice to get, but you are right, what matters is the number of people who are actually clicking through and reading. And as we have seen, you never know who is reading your blog. :)
Katerina, thanks for informing us about the comments. I have gone to the statistics and have been amazed at the number of views I get on my posts.
Thanks for all your comments. Got to get these offers processed today so I will be back later on this evening to address any questions. I love your comments. Like Loreena- they fill my love tank:) I do read all of them and sometimes I will come back and reread them over and over again! :)
Katerina,
I've never been real clear on the difference between Views and Click Throughs. From the ? definitions, I THINK Views means the number of folks who looked at the list under Groups - exposure to potential readers. Clicks mean someone - AR members or non, actually opened my post.
From your helpful post, I wonder now if the Clicks mean someone looked at it on my Outside Blog or Localism. That would be wonderful - especially as readers cannot comment on Localism...
Glad you have lots of business to attend!
Good information to share with some readers that are not aware of the 'Statistics' on AR. I've checked them out a few times when I get very little comments. Sometimes I feel 'hey, they have at least checked it out' and other times I think 'what, I wasnt good enough to read all the way and comment'. LOL I'll have to check out Google Analytics though. You mentioned it before and I have yet to check it out. Thanks for the tips and congrats on the feature.
Katerina - I focus most of my blogging on Localism. I don't expect many comments. I have notice that I usually get a lot of views when I look at my statistics.
Very valid points that you've made Katerina. However, what I've always been curious about is exactly how many of those profile views are from other AR members vs. consumers? And more importantly, how do you differentiate between AR member click-throughs and consumer click-throughs on blog posts?
Katerina, thanks for bring out the value of understanding the stats included with our Active Rain site.
Thanks for the info Katerina, Your posts about Active Rain and Blogging in general are always informative. I look forward to reading them.
Nestor & Katerina - Great post. You're right...it doesn't matter as much whether or not you're getting tons of comments (although those are nice), it's more important that you're posting good quality content.
Best, Dan
Katerina, thanks for your article, it does help to look at it from the standpoint of views and click throughs, not just comments
William- You can not differentiate that using the statistics on our AR home pages and using analytics for something like this would not be time condusive.
However, You can see from my world globe from Clustrmaps on the right side of my blog how many people are reading my blog from all over the world. You can see the larger the red dot, the more people are reading:
2 Dec 2008 to 1 Jun 2009: 55,139 visits shown above Statistics updated 25 Jun 2009@05:33GMT: 60,600 visits [?] Count is updated every 24 hours, but map updates are deliberately different, as explained in Notes and FAQ. Total since 1 Dec 2007: 149,881. Previous 24hrs: 264.
I get a lot of referrals from the agents who read our profile so I don't mind, keep on reading and keep on sending the referrals!
You also need to keep in mind that for me, I also have a coaching business and my niche is coaching agents so the agents reading me is just as important. I am killing two birds with one stone so to speak:)
How true Katerina! Thanks for the reminder - but I really agree with your statement "if you want comments from members on Active Rain then go out and make comments first on their blogs"
I am getting a lot of hits on my web site through Active Rain and I suspect from my outside blog. I would rather have a transaction than a comment.
Nestor and Katerina, your post is very valuable in the sense that it encourages those who think they don't get read because of the lack of comments, if you put out good information you will get more comments, but you must get better at it and keep on trying. The part of all is understanding that if you do not comment... nobody will comment on your post either! Make a contribution, give us your thoughts and participate, then we'll get to know your name.
Antonio
I write a weekly softball recap because I know my team members like to read it. They never comment. I rarely get an active rain comment on it but it brings people to my blog.
Nester, I have looked at the Statistic for a while. I do not know if I am like most or the odd bird. I only comment when I have something to add to the post or wish to support the content of the post. I wish ActiveRain gave the option to give Thumbs UP or Thumbs Down on the posts themself as well as the comments made. I am not here for points, however do to the nature of competetion, I do believe some people make posts or comments purely for the points value. Possibly if a post were to recieve too many Thumbs down, the points awarded would be reviewed.
Just my .02
A well deserved feature. Even two spam comments made it onto your post. You are loved lol. I've received the fishing one before also.
Katerina, I rarely go to those pages to see how many people have clickec....and clicked through. And when I went to subscribers I didn't know some of them which means I have some homework to do. Thank you for pointing out these features, although I know people are reading, I really should see who has subscribed.
Very informative. I didn not know how to get these details earlier.
I llked the graphics you used to explain and make it easy for us. What software did you use to capture the page and and redo the graphics? I would love to use similar graphics for my presentations.
Good post and very instructive as usual. You never know who's out there reading! Be on your best behavior with comments too!
Katerina, thank you for this very informative blog! great info. i do not look at my stats often enough. will have to start doing this, because my blogs are lonely:) will have to do more blogs. thanks again.
Very informative and useful. Thank you for the heads up.
TY TY TY......once again I learn about another valuable tool in the AR bag or tricks. Thanks for giving as I continue to glean from our great network. I look forward to returning the favors from so many when I figure out what I am doing....one step at a time!!!
Excellent...I have never looked at that statistics page before! I don't get a huge amount of comments, but I also read a lot and don't comment either. Sometimes I just don't feel like it not because I don't like someone!!!! Hope you're doing great down there in FL...
Katrina,
Thanks for sharing this piece of info! I feel much better knowing that my Blogs are getting read by someone, somewhere!!!
Kathy Opatka
Wow! I had no idea that this info was available. Thanks so much for a very informative post
Katerina,
Your post was just what I needed. I am relatively new to ActiveRain. I have just recently started blogging and a couple of my blogs don't have any comments. After reading your post, I looked at statistics and wow -I am no longer as lonely as I thought. Thank you.
Nestor and Katrina, congrats on the feature. Yes, I have gone to my statistice before and there are a lot more views than I would have thought. I do agree with the "Pay it Forward" as well.
Great Post, very useful information, Thank you.
Katerina,
I know it took you some time to put this post together - especially with the great graphics - and I just want you to know how much it is appreciated. It's too easy to forget that reading and commenting are two entirely different things.
Thanks again,
Michael
Gary- I am SO glad then that I wrote this post. You are not alone:) Just keep on blogging and don't stop!
Rajeev- I use SNAGIT. It is a one time purchase of $49.99. It is by far my favorite blogging tool. Just go to snagit.com and they give you a 30 day free trial. You can use it all you want, you download it to your computer. You get free updates. You will get hooked! It does a lot more than just what you see me use it for.
This is fantastic information Katerina for those that are new to AR and don't understand the nuances.
Nestor & Katerina:
Great post! I wrote a post a little while ago on being a lonely blogger. Although I only received a handful of comments, the post has received over three thousand views to date. Needless to say that after that the traffic did increase quite a bit on my blog. However, content and blogging often are probably the real culprits. LoL!
Greg- That is correct. If you do not blog consistantly you are likely to lose some of your readership. If you do not add value, people will stop reading also. Keep on blogging, regularly is best:)
Thanks for reminding me to check the stats. I was feeling so neglected because of no comments, but the # of views are great! I feel vindicated.
Very Good Information!! Thank you
Katerina: Yep, that's a fact... Blogging is no immediate gratification machine... much of conversation on line is asynchronis in nature. But, if you keep going, the ripples come back. Nice walk through. Thanks.
Katerina, we all want to be loved, don't we? It's human nature and no comments can equate to the lack of love. But no you're right, no comments isn't necessarily a bad thing when we check our statistics. Good post!
Katerina - It's only human nature that we would enjoy the recognition when we get comments on our posts. That being said there are going to be posts that while they may not receive comments from members or consumers are definitely being viewed and read. I love checking my statistics on a regular basis and it has helped me determine what subjects and topics are getting the most views.
YES...localism blogs do NOT get very many comments...BUT they ARE read...by a LOT of people......
I check my stats weekly.......
You are so right about that!!!
Thanks for reminding others about this......
=-)
Katerina,
Most people don't comment on blogs, even though they do frequent your postings several times a week. That's what counts, not the amount of comments, although it'd be nice to get them.
I love it when you write such a beautiful post that is also chock full of information. You are quite the talented blogger.
Thank yo for the great explanations...I will say it again...I have learned a lot from activerrain. As an independent broker, it is great to learn from everyone since I have no one in house to learn from.
I'm with Mike above it gets very lonely as an independent broker but since I found AR 2 1/2 years ago I don't have to feel lonely any more. I've typically written more for localism than anything else but I like to throw some other things in to the mix in hopes that I am giving as much as I am receiving.
I love looking at the stats! Thank you so much for encouraging others to do so, as well. luv ya girl
Margaret- I could not retire to bed tonight without first telling you how much I appreciate your compliment to me. You just made me cheer up from the sad news of Michael Jackson dying tonight. Thank you so much:)
The blogging gurus say that if you want comments you need to say something controversial...
Localism posts get very few comments, but can also be some of my most popular posts! Funny how that works...
Morning Katerina, Your blog was so popular it was featured twice in my Active Rain newsletter.
true that, I read much more than post comments, I usually won't post a comment unless I read through the entire blog
Thanks so much for this blog post! I have to put myself into that category, and I was kind of worried I wasn't getting any readers. Still, my numbers are low, but now I have something to work toward. It's all hard work and the attitude you put into it!
This helped a lot! Thanks again!
This is such an encouraging post and as always written with sensitivity to others. I can not tell you how many times I have wanted to throw In the towel and call it quits,....
after I calculated the time, research, finding the photo to match the topic, writing and re-writing..all this against what the draw of the reading members and comments show
It can be so unbalanced and at times unproductive .Quality precious time wasted, hours spent that could have been put to better use.
Once the blog is off the blog roll...chances of falling off the cliff into the unknown is obvious. It takes longer to write the blog than it's lasting presence on the blog roll. All that said...the love of the creative outlet and members who are there to inspire and encourage balance out the scales. Thanks I am sure this post has help many who want to give it up. I commend you for you focus on helping others not only feel good about themselves but also to inspire and encourage. Thank you
I find that the market reports, and sales stats get a lot of views, and like you say, the non-members hardly ever comment.
I've had non-members email me with their response because they couldn't figure out how to leave a response via a blog. So yes, more folks are reading than responding.
Katerina, as always you are extremely helpful-- especially to us AR "newbies" who are just starting to blog. Thanks again!
June- Thank you for your heart felt comment. It really touched me. I want you to know that all the time you spend on a post is worth the time and effort. It may not seem that way, but it is. Never throw in the towel. Only 7% of all realtors blog so you are way ahead of the pack. As more agents start blogging you are that much at the advantage. DOn't give up your position:)
Good information. I had seen this once before but had forgotten to continue to check. Nice to see you have at least been read.
Cynthia- WOW! How about that! What a popular post! Thanks for the heads up! But I am sure that this was an oversight:)
Thanks for the info Nestor. I will no longer feel ignored. lol
Thanks for the great post, Katerina. It should be required reading for all Newbies.
Yes sirree...I was wondering the same thing. I have written a couple of blogs lately and very little response....hmmmm.....This is why I like Active Rain. We non-techies, get to learn from you, techies. Thanks for sharing, Katerina.
Hey Nestor and Katrina, thanks for the information. I'll have to check my statistics.