In this section on writing headlines that wow, I want to dive into how to encourage people to leave feedback. Too often we use social media to share our content, and people interact on the platform where we shared the content. I don’t know the actual statistics, but if you have a catchy headline, such as the one above, people will leave a comment on Facebook or Twitter, and they will never even bother reading the content that you have laid out for them.
Using Cheap and Dirty Tricks to Get People to Leave a Comment
Ok, so this trick may not be so cheap. In fact, if your blog or website is not making you money, then you might want to skip over this idea all together.
Instead of just relying on people to leave comments and interact, you need to inspire them to do so. Unfortunately most people will read and not leave their opinion, so you have to bribe them with the chance to win something. This can be training, a product, or cash. It’s simple to do, you write your content, and ask people their opinion. Everyone who comments is entered to win a $25 gift card. Of course you might need to specify that comments like “right on” aren’t going to be entered.
This panders to people in a couple of different ways. First, people like winning stuff. An extra $25 for just leaving a comment? I’m in! It also encourages them to come back. In your post specify when you will be doing the drawing, and then write a follow up post on that day which talks about the topic at hand and announces the winner.
This is not to say that all contests are rubbish. If you need to do research that requires the feedback of your readers, it is a great way to encourage those who read to respond; in the end $25 for research is a pretty small price to pay.
My Contest for Leaving a Comment
If you have read this far and you are hoping to leave a comment and win 25 big ones, I have bad news. That was a cheap and dirty trick, and there is no $25 available. However, I will offer something that is more valuable than that. As a writer and SEO expert in Billings, Montana, I will offer a free website analysis to anyone that comments. I will check out your site, review it, see how well you are doing, and offer tips on how to get you to rank better in Google, attract more views, and ultimately land more clients. If you want to hire me to do the work, excellent, if you want to do it yourself, then go for it!
What do you think? Leave a comment with your best tip on encouraging feedback and earn a free website analysis.