The effect of blog post characteristics on the number of comments. A secondary data Analysis.

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of different blog post characteristics on the number of comments. The different blog post characteristics were positivity, message length, vividness, interactivity and sponsorship disclosure. A secondary data analysis is used to analyze 162 different blog posts of different bloggers on the Dutch bloggers forum called Blog Society. The blog posts were all about fashion and beauty. The analysis shows that the status of the blogger (the number of followers) and the language of the blog post significantly affects the number of comments (both control variables). Additional analysis shows that high status bloggers (>500 followers) should leave out interactive elements and they should explicit disclose a sponsorship to receive the most comments. In the category of low status bloggers (≤500 followers), male bloggers are better off. In addition, it has been found that implied sponsorship disclosure is difficult to observe by the audience. Lastly, in the case of Dutch blog posts, positive blog posts are the most successful.