Blogs are there to be read by the public. Of course, if your blog is of a particular category, you’d want to attract a specific type of readership. The best way to know how your blog is doing is through the trail of comments that people leave you. Preferably, these people are the ones that you’re writing for in the first place.

There will definitely be a good mix of positive and negative comments. This is perfectly fine, as even award-winning writers get mixed reviews. The most important thing is you have some sort of feedback as opposed to none.

Below are 5 tips to help your blog encourage your readers to post comments. Positive or otherwise, remember to interact graciously so that people will see that there’s someone tangible and real behind the URL.

1. Have fantastic content
Like websites, content make up 90% of any blog. Search engine spiders also crawl over blogs and they pull up the ones most relevant to a particular user query. This is why blogs with focused content become the most profitable and the most popular because they easily establish credibility with people and search engines.

As you write each blog entry, you have to keep your readers in mind. How should you sound and what language should you use? The type of words that you use is also important—including keywords. The more niche-exclusive your keywords are, the better it is for your blog’s search engine rankings.

2. Don’t be boring: Writing is an art
You are writing for a set audience, and they better like it. Writing is an art, but the good news is, you don’t have to win a Pulitzer to do well in your blog.

Make sure that your content is organized, and that your grammar is at the very least acceptable if not perfect. Check for spelling errors, but leave uncorrected the words that your readers misspell all the time. This is for search engine purposes.

3. Visit other relevant blogs and leave them comments
Visit popular blogs in your category and learn a thing or two from them. However, do NOT copy—copying will get you into legal trouble and it will ruin your reputation. Check out other blogs’ writing style and the tone that they use. Also take a peek at people’s comments on these blogs to know what they like and what they don’t.

It’s a good idea to make yourself visible in other blogs via commenting, as long as your inputs are relevant and helpful. Put links of these popular blogs in yours as this can encourage higher-ranking blogs to include you on their blogroll.

4. Interact with the people who actually gave you comments
Reply accordingly when people leave you comments. Thank them for positive feedback and assure them that you will continue to do your best. Consider their suggestions. You don’t have to apply all of them, but promise to give them some thought.

5. Accept constructive criticism
Other people might have difficulty putting things nicely, so their comments end up negative and even hurtful. This is okay, as long as you train yourself to take these as constructive criticism. Thank them for their time and tell them that you’re always finding ways to improve.