Asking questions that actually get comments

"Let me know what you think in the comments" produces almost nothing, and it is worth understanding why. It asks for an opinion, on an unspecified aspect, with no obvious starting point. It is a small piece of homework.

Questions that get answered share three properties: they are easy, they are specific, and the answer is not already decided.

Easy beats interesting

A question someone can answer in four words will be answered far more often than one that needs a paragraph — and once someone has commented once, they are more likely to do it again.

"Which one?" outperforms "What do you think about these?" every time. Low effort is not a low-quality interaction; it is the start of one.

Specific gives people a foothold

Broad questions produce silence because the responder has to choose what to talk about first, and choosing is the hard part.

Narrow the frame. Not "what do you think of this outfit" but "would you wear this in winter". The second question has an answer already sitting in the viewer's head.

Let it be genuinely open

If your video has clearly already decided the answer, the question is rhetorical and people treat it as such. Nobody wants to be the one disagreeing with a conclusion the video has spent sixty seconds proving.

Ask things you do not know the answer to. The difference in response rate is substantial, and the answers are actually useful to you.

Place it where attention still exists

A question at the very end reaches only those who stayed to the very end. Often that is a small fraction.

Asking mid-video, at a natural moment, reaches far more people — and since comments can be left while the video is still playing, you lose nothing by asking early.

Reply, especially at the start

A comment section where the creator replies looks like a conversation. One where they do not looks like a noticeboard.

Early on, reply to everything. It is the single clearest signal that answering you is worth the effort, and it is the behaviour that establishes whether your comments become a place people return to.

Do not manufacture arguments

Deliberately provocative questions do generate comments. They also attract an audience that came for the argument, and that audience is difficult to turn into anything else.

A smaller comment section full of people answering honestly is worth considerably more than a large one full of people fighting.