Recently I’ve noted that people aren’t commenting on blogs much anymore. I still believe that a good post will not be ignored.

Today, rather than depend on the number of comments received for each post, there are a number of different ways to soothe your ego and measure a post’s popularity.

Install a stats program on your blog to measure traffic.  The degree to which you involve yourself in social media often plays a role in the amount of traffic you receive.  If you are interested in detailed traffic information, install Google Analytics.

Another method I highly recommend is to run RSS feeds through FeedBurner to keep track of subscribers.  If you click the RSS button in your URL window at the top of your browser, it will display your blog’s feed.

An excellent blog plug-in is TweetMeme.  This and other similar plug-ins allow readers to tweet your posts.  This application also keeps track of the number of retweets.  In my opinion, this is one of the new measures of topic and post popularity.

Another way outside of Twitter  to measure your post popularity is to track how many times readers use additional social media to share your work.  When people really like your offerings, they use StumbleUpon, Digg, or Delicious to share your work.  Consider it a compliment when a reader takes the time to link to your post.

Lastly, keeping track of who links to your blog and blog articles is also an honor.  I consider it the ultimate praise when I see a pingback to one of my posts. This lets me know that another blogger thought enough of my work to link to it.

If you are interested in receiving tweets, Diggs and links,  the two best pieces of advice I can offer are to create unique content and return the favor.

Of course, if you find a blog post interesting or engaging, make sure you take the time to comment and add your thoughts.