How to get more comments

What I've learning about starting conversations with my readers

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

How do I get more comments on my Substack posts?

I ask myself this question a lot, and I’ll bet you do too!

I’d love to give you a simple, can’t-miss answer here, but I don’t think one exists. Sorry.

The reason comments aren’t so simple is that they’re part of a conversation and conversations involve people, and people are… complicated.

So, rather than rattling off a few can’t-miss tips for getting more comments, I thought it might be helpful to share some of the things I’ve learned over the past year writing a humor newsletter on Substack.

Comments are conversation starters

Sometimes I find myself saying, I’d be thrilled if I can just get X number of comments on a post. But that isn’t a very good goal. Why? Because comments aren’t the ultimate goal. What you’re trying to do with comments is inspire a conversation.

Maybe it sounds like a cliche, but this really is one of those instances where quality is more important than quantity. As you think about your comment strategy, try to look at it through a conversational lens. Or, put another way, despite the title of this post, instead of asking yourself how to increase the number of comments, ask yourself, how do I start a conversation with my readers?

Start by asking readers to comment

If you don’t ask, you don’t get. So, if you’re not already asking your readers to comment, you should start! And the easiest place to start is with a simple call-to-action (CTA). At the end of every post, I ask readers to comment. Here’s a screenshot of my current CTA.

There are dozens of tweaks I can make to improve my CTA (more on that next), but the thing I want to highlight here is the emotional appeal. By saying I love hearing from readers, I’m telling readers what their comments mean to me.

An emotional appeal is important because writers and readers are just people, but sometimes people on the internet lose sight of the human element. My advice: remind them! I know it may be hard to believe, but your readers like your work (that’s why they read it), and if you remind them that a human being wrote something they liked, some of those people might just jump in and say something, kind, or thoughtful, or amusing.

But you have to ask, or you don’t get.

Experiment with your CTA

Your Substack isn’t set in stone, and your CTA for comments shouldn’t be either. The way I look at it, every post is an opportunity to try something new. Sure, you’ll fail sometimes, but so what? When you fail, you learn what doesn’t work. But when an experiment works, you can replicate that success and build on it.

So, don’t be precious with the way you solicit comments start conversations. Tinker, tweak, be bold—you will learn something!

My failed experiment

At first, I tried asking readers if they liked my stories. I’d literally write something like, did you like this story?

Just writing those words felt awkward, like I was standing in front of an audience and asking them to clap. Guess what? It was awkward and ineffective. Why? Because questions like that aren’t good conversation starters.

Most readers just ignored those questions. But what was most revealing, to me anyway, were the readers who responded. They’d write comments along the lines of, LOL. As a humor writer, it was nice to know some people were laughing, but comments like that aren’t exactly conversation starters.

If I wanted to start a conversation, I realized, I needed to ask open-ended questions, and equally important, my questions needed to be about things my readers cared about.

Good conversationalists borrow, great conversationalists steal

After a few more failures, I decided to get serious about my comments strategy. And by serious, I mean I decided to steal from writers who have a knack for starting conversations. I decided to steal from two of my favorite Substacks: Ask E. Jean by E. Jean Carroll and Adventure Snack by Geoffrey Golden.

Here’s what I learned:

1. Readers may not be keen to talk about your story, but they LOVE talking about themselves.

2. Conversation starters come in many flavors, and it’s best to give your readers multiple ways into the conversation.

An experiment that worked!

Armed with some stolen knowledge, I tried a different experiment. At the end of each post, I began adding multiple questions that were loosely connected to the story. By way of example, here are the questions I asked at the end of a post about my addiction to coffee and silly encounter I had at a local coffee shop. (Note: it’ll help to read the story to see the connection to the questions).

This post made the comments rain. But like I said earlier, it’s not the number of comments that matters, it’s the quality of the conversation. What pleased me most was that I actually heard from a reader who had worked as a barista. That was comment gold, people!

Let’s talk about those questions for a moment🍏🍇🥝🍓🫐🍍

As a said before, you should learn from your failures, but you can also learn from your wins. One thing I realized is that some of my questions are what I call low-hanging fruit, while others are high-hanging fruit. What does that mean?

Low-hanging fruit is a question anyone can answer with minimal effort. To me, question #4 is the lowest-hanging fruit. Why? Because the only thing you need to answer that question is an opinion. Technically, question #1 is also low-hanging fruit, but only if you’re a coffee drinker. If not, the question requires the reader to rewrite the question before sharing: I drink tea and I take it with honey.

Question #2 is higher-hanging fruit because it’s an invitation to discuss Philip K. Dick novels (not something every reader is prepared to do). But question #3 is the highest-hanging fruit of all. Why? First, it asks readers to share a personal experience. Second, it’s an opportunity that functions like a creative writing prompt, giving readers who are keen to do so the chance to show off their skills and make the community laugh.

But how do you write good questions?

If you’ve gotten this far, I think you know what I’m going to say. But I’ll say it anyway. You’ve got to experiment. What works for my audience, might not work for your audience.

That being said, one thing that may be helpful to share is my process. Initially, I’d write my story and my questions in the same writing session. There’s nothing wrong with that approach, but it just didn’t work for me. What I discovered was that I needed to bring the same care and creativity to my questions that I bring to my stories. In practical terms, that means carving out an additional writing session for questions. I try to do four things in those writing sessions.

1. Read my story a few times to look for conversational elements.

2. Brainstorm as many questions as I can. For me, 20-30 questions is a good amount.

3. Select the five questions that are most likely to inspire conversation, making sure that I have both low-hanging and high-hanging fruit.

4. Polish those five questions until I’m satisfied that they’re clear, entertaining, and provocative.

Be ready to talk with your readers!

In a perfect world, this should go without saying. But it’s not a perfect world. So, here it goes. When you start a conversation with your readers, you need to be prepared to have a conversation with your readers.

I post new stories every Sunday, so I make it a point to be available on Sundays so that I can respond to my readers. I try my best to acknowledge every comment (even if I don’t agree with the content of the comment) because I want readers to know that I appreciate the time and effort they put into sharing. If there’s an opportunity to ask a follow-up question, I take it. Why? Because that’s how you start a conversation.

Thank you for listening, let’s talk!

1. How do you feel when a reader takes the time to comment on one of your stories?

2. What are some tactics you’ve used to start conversations on your Substack? Were they successful, or were they failures that taught you something?

3. What inspires you to comment on another writer’s Substack?

4. Can you share a Substack writer who does a great job of starting conversations with their readers? (Drop a link!) What do you think makes those writers such great conversationalists?

5. Starting conversations with your readers is a big topic. Is there a question I didn’t cover here that you’d like me to talk about in a future post?

---

Michael Estrin writes slice-of-life humor at Situation Normal. Some readers compare his humor to Larry David, Dave Barry, and David Sedaris. Michael isn’t so sure about all that, but he appreciates the consensus that his stories are “funny” and David-related.