I watch my blog traffic stats closely. How many people are visiting, what are they reading and how long are they hanging around? But most of us, me included, want comments, too. I know. I just wrote a post on the value of both kinds of visitors: the spectators (your readers)  and the players (your readers who comment). And both kinds of readers are appreciated.

Still, most of us want more comments. We crave the learning and interactions that happen in the conversations. And we want the kind of feedback that will make our content sharper, richer, more useful.

Livefyre, the most social commenting system I know, has just made all of that easier.

Why I returned to Livefyre

I removed Livefyre last December, after surveying you, my readers. But with their new version, the folks at Livefyre have made changes to address many of your biggest concerns with the system. Among other things, you can now sign in as a guest so you don’t have to link to your social media accounts or even register with Livefyre if you don’t want to.

(But if you do the one-time registration or social platform linking thing, you will have more options—to share comments with other people, to pull more people into the conversation, to stay signed in so you don’t have to do that each time you leave a new comment.) Read on to learn more about Livefyre’s cool new features.

Get your Livefyre walk-through here

Jeremy Hicks, Livefyre’s smart, friendly Head of Community consented to an interview and walk-through to help you sort it all out. In the video below, my very own  @bobwp talks to Jeremy about the new Livefyre features, so you can learn the ins and outs of commenting on a Livefyre blog—and even decide if it’s the right choice for your own blog:

What about you?

How do you use blog comments to build community and improve your content?

Are you a Livefyre user?

Considering switching?

A few months ago, I decided to give Livefyre a spin on this blog. Technically, according to livefyre CEO Jordan Kretchmer, livefyre is a “community platform,” not a commenting system.

“It’s about building new ways for people to interact in real time,” he said, “and connecting all the chatter around the web about each piece of content to one place.”

After spending some time with livefyre, I’m beginning to understand this definition a little better.

It’s built on chat technology so every interaction happens now—in real time. Readers are more engaged because they are not only heard immediately, they can be notified when someone responds to their comment. And your content takes center stage as readers share it with their social networks, with one click.

But I will admit. I had my misgivings at the beginning of this ride.

I was worried that readers who didn’t want to sign in through their Twitter or Facebook accounts would stop commenting. (Actually, I think that did happen with some—but not many.)

I was afraid that I would lose the readers who had strong feelings about their Comment Luv (live link to their latest post) being taken away.

So much that they would not join the discussions anymore.

Your concerns were spot on—and ones I took very seriously.

My goal today is to revisit your concerns and bring you up to date on what livefyre has done to address them. Here are some of the changes:

1. You Get More Visibility for Your Blog with a Link to Your Latest Post

The only difference between Comment Luv and Livefyre’s feature is that you must have a (free) Livefyre account for it to work. If you have installed livefyre, you now have the option of checking the box to enable the title of your most recent blog post to show after every comment you make.

To enable this feature:

• Make sure livefyre is active on your blog. To do that:

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard and scroll down (left side) to Plugins.

2. Click on “Add New.”

3. In the search box, type in “livefyre,” and follow the instructions.

• Click on the livefyre logo at the bottom of one of your posts (right above the comment box).

1. Select “Site admin.”

2. Click on “Site settings” at the top.

3. Click on “Extras” on the new page.

4. Check the box under Link Back” so the link to your latest post will be displayed when you make a comment.

2. You Can Synch Up Your Blog Conversations from Around the Web

The problem has always been that many discussions on a post have been lost because they happened somewhere else and not on your blog. How many times have you wished that the comments left on Twitter or Facebook could be part of the conversation?

I know I have.

Well, no more. With livefyre’s new SocialSynch feature, you can now choose to include all the Twitter and Facebook mentions of your post in the comments section of your blog. What this means is that if people are talking about your post elsewhere, it’s always happening on your home base, too—on your blog.

To see how to enable this feature, go here.

And one more reason I continue to use livefyre:

3. You Have More Sign-in Options as a Commenter

Livefyre has added Google and LinkedIn to the options for sign-in. Still, some of you told me that you have privacy concerns with giving livefyre password info from another social media account for signing in as a commenter.

The good news: the option to comment as a guest is coming soon, so all you’ll need to do is leave your name and email address when you comment.

Plus: You Get Help When You Need It

I can’t begin to explain what this one means to me.

I’m not exactly the sharpest tack when it comes to technology. I conveniently blame it on having been  a special programs teacher (English as a Second Language) when computers were formally introduced in the schools. That meant that I missed all the training the regular classroom teachers got. I feel like I never recovered from that.

The folks at livefyre don’t fall down, holding their sides, laughing hysterically, when I ask my lame questions.

(Well, actually they may be doing that and I just can’t see them.)

They are especially responsive on Twitter, where one of them will get back to me, often within minutes. I’ve tried Disqus, too, and nothing compares to livefyre’s astounding customer service.

There you go. If you still have concerns, fire away. I’m here to listen. If I can’t answer your question, I’ll send it along to the livefyre folks.

Have you had any experience—good or bad— with the livefyre system on your blog?

Have you considered trying it?

What other questions do you have?

You’ve heard about the 90-9-1 rule. 1 percent of your readers will regularly leave comments on your posts. 9 percent will leave one now and then.

And a whopping 90 percent will never leave a comment.

Does it matter to you that most people don’t leave a comment on your blog? Maybe. Maybe not. We all have our own feelings about that.

Some bloggers, like the one who emailed me last week, are very concerned that their page views are up but the comments are few and far between.

Others, like a guy on a blog I was reading last week, think that bloggers who want a lively discussion in the comments section are “needy,” that they are ego-driven.

That they need to be validated.

Whichever side of the fence you are on (I love comments because they build community and help me see if I’m on the right track with my content), you might be noticing a trend of fewer comments on blogs.

Why fewer comments?

Could be many reasons.

For one, there are just way too many blogs to compete with these days.

And blogs are not the only social platform around any more. Micro-blogging (Twitter, etc.) has grown.

Readers are more time-challenged than ever. More of them opt for reading the headline and short post overview on Facebook. And instead of taking the extra step to visit your site, they just leave a quick comment on the Face.

Or answer your blog post teaser question on Twitter rather than click on the link to the full post.

My livefyre experiment

A few weeks ago, I decided to see if a commenting system would help get live discussions going on the CatsEyeWriter blog and making it easier for my readers to connect with each other. This is what I learned from your feedback—both through blog comments and private emails you sent me.

I sent some of your concerns to Jordan Kretchmer, CEO of Livefyre, and his responses are included here. I didn’t have time to list every comment you made, but these were the most commonly expressed:

What you like

1. Real-time discussions.

You see immediately what you’ve posted and who you’ve replied to. One reader said, “Livefyre sounds great for networking.”

I saw this happen on my recent about page post. One reader read my comment about another reader’s amazing blog. She made an @ comment to that person asking for the blog’s URL. So, one reader responded to another reader and she  probably picked up a new reader—and fan. Very cool!

2. Your content, specifically,  your comments, gets more eyeballs.

The blog is a hub that connects with all your other social networks, so you get more visibility. One reader said, “I like the hub of interconnected spokes—a spider web. We can travel up, down, sideways and always come back to the centre.”

3. The points you get when you comment.

I will have to say that I don’t totally understand points yet, but it seems to be a way to reward frequent contributors. One reader said, “Nice little perk and people for some reason like seeing their numbers grow.

What you don’t like

1. You are being overwhelmed with e-mails every time a new comment is posted.

This one is an easy fix. Go to the spot right above the box where you leave your comment. It says, “Following,” with a check in front of it. Just click on it in order to stop email notification when a new comment comes in.

2. You are worried about privacy issues.

Some of you were concerned that you have to link to and use your password to get connected with the social media sites. One reader said, “I really try to limit my exposure to security risk by not linking a lot of apps like this to my social media sites.” Another said, ” I don’t like signing on to anything with Facebook or Twitter. I worry that by granting permission, the app will automatically post something to my profile.”

Jordan’s response: Livefyre will never automatically post anything to a user’s wall. We take privacy extremely seriously. We have the social sign-in options for 2 reasons: 1) Makes it simple to create a livefyre username without having to manually enter and details. 2) If the user chooses, she can share comments to her Facebook page or tag Facebook friends in comments to get them into the conversation. We only require a password so that each user becomes the owner of that username and can sign in without having to use Facebook, Twitter, etc., the next time they come back.

3. You miss your Comment Luv.

You are rightfully concerned that you aren’t getting that link to your last blog post when you make a comment. One reader even said that, in addition to the visibility for her own blog,  it’s one of the ways she finds great new blogs to read.

Jordan’s response: This is almost done and we will be pushing it live in our next development cycle—within two weeks. The functionality will be that if you have Livefyre on your site, when you comment anywhere it will display your last post on your comment, just like Comment Luv.

Okay, there you go.

What about you?

Do you see the benefits of Livefyre?

Would you ever consider using it on your own blog?

Will it make a difference to you when the Livefyre folks add their own version of Comment Luv?