By Michael Bennett Cohn

In online publishing, one of the most commonly discussed metrics is “engagement,” which usually means “quantity and quality of user comments.” So, if you write a blog post, nobody comments on it, then that’s low engagement. If a hundred people comment on it, then that’s high engagement (assuming they are substantive comments).

Engagement is not necessarily the most important metric in determining the success of a piece of content; just the most obvious one. A brilliant essay may be read by a thousand people, only five of whom leave a comment. Those five people might just happen to have the right combination of characteristics: Interest in the subject, desire to have a personal connection to the author, agitation that their own point of view wasn’t considered, or a sense of responsibility to give public praise, or criticism.

And yet, engagement is the metric most likely to have a real effect on the author. Its presence demonstrates beyond all doubt that another human being, and not just a browser, has processed what was written. Putting something you’ve written online, and then watching the pageview count increase while nobody leaves comments is frustrating and daunting. Sure, people are loading the page, but are they even bothering to read the whole thing? Did they love it so much that they didn’t want to sully the conversation with their banal praise? Did they not understand it? Did they get bored after the first few words, or did they read the entire thing? Did they catch the references? Was the piece even read by the type of people for whom it was written?

There is a time-tested and true way of getting quality comments on one’s own posts:

• Write comments on other people’s posts on the same site. Your fellow writers will appreciate the attention, and repay it by paying more attention to your own stuff. This also creates a snowball effect, wherein the engagement rate on the site as a whole goes up. This is a good thing, even if the majority of the comments on the site were written by other contributors to the same site. That’s because, when a new user, who has no personal ties to the site, sees it for the first time, they are much more likely to get involved and start commenting if they perceive that a lot of other people are already doing so.
• Write comments on other people’s posts on other sites. More and more, comment systems allow the commenter to attach a URL of their choice to their comment. Usually, this URL is where a user will go if they read your comment, want to know more about you, and click on your name. Nobody is more likely to do this than the person who wrote the post on which you’ve just commented. The identities of the people who leave comments may seem random and diverse, but the truth is that many of them are returning the favor I did to them by commenting on their own blog. It happens quite frequently… I leave a comment on a new blog that interests me, and then, less than 24 hours later, ping! There’s a comment on miconian, by that same blogger, thoughtful and respectful, even though the two posts in question are usually on completely different subjects. It’s as if they’re saying: Thank you for validating my existence. I will now repay the favor by validating yours.
• When you do get comments, respond to them, giving the readers the sense that what they have to say matters and is being taken seriously.
• When you comment on others’ posts, say something of substance. This can be difficult. Your time is valuable, and as you struggle to formulate your thoughts, you are simultaneously doing a cost/benefit analysis. Is there really a point to leaving this comment? Will anyone actually read it? Won’t someone else come along and say the same thing that you were planning to say, but better, if you just leave well enough alone? An hour from now, will you even remember this website? And yet, the truth is that, when you bother to go through the trouble of demonstrating that you take another person’s work seriously, you quite often create a fan of your own work. Suddenly, to the person on whose work you have commented, you are no longer just one of a million authors in the abstract. You are an author with a personal connection to the reader. When that person reads your comment, they’re going to wonder who you are, what your story is, how you find your way to their work, and what else you like. They’ll click on your name, go to your blog, and check out your own stuff. Maybe they’ll subscribe to your RSS feed, or start following you on Twitter. And so, when you write something else, and you promote it, they’ll be back to read it again.
• Actively seek out sites that are already popular with your intended audience, and leave comments there. Not only may the popular author bless you with a return comment, but their readership may be intrigued by what you have to say, and follow you back to your own blog.
• Add to the conversation in a genuine way. Saying “I agree with this” or “This really resonated with me” is actually the weakest, least helpful kind of comment, if that’s as far as you get. (Similarly, saying “This sucks” is a waste of everybody’s time, including yours.) Some of the best comment threads I’ve ever seen grew and grew because a few commenters used the original post as a jumping-off point for telling related stories of their own, linking to other work that they’ve been reminded of, etc. And then, best case scenario, commenters start responding to each other. When this happens on a regular basis, the site comes alive in a whole new way. Users start leaving comments on new posts, and those comments are directed at other readers as much as, or more than, they’re directed at the author. A great example of this can be found on every single post on Making Light, where commenters are so eager to engage in a positive and intelligent way with each other that they will do so, by the hundreds, in response to absolutely anything that’s posted.

Engagement has a bit of the prisoner’s dilemma to it: Most relationships start out with both parties feeling cynical, and one person has to actually rise above immediate self-interest. But the biggest fans you get will be the ones who feel like you’re paying attention to them too.

Guest Blogger Michael Bennett Cohn is the Publisher of Revolving Floor, a interactive online literary magazine.