Why Aren’t You Blog Commenting Right Now?
Regularly making comments on blogs can be a great marketing strategy for almost any website. There are millions of users who read and comment on blogs every day. Smart marketers are able to attract these readers to their website or blog by commenting on blogs related to their topic.
Starting is easy. The only tools required are a computer, a wireless Internet service provider and solid people-relation skills. Having some marketing background to help boost conversations and comments to the next level is good to have as well.
Benefits of Blog Commenting
Commenting on popular blogs allow website owners to attract readers of that blog to follow a link to their website. These comments should be informative and add to the existing conversation, rather than detract from what’s being said. Commenting on a blog will also give site owners a backlink with the correct keywords to increase the Google ranking of the site they are promoting.
Building a relationship with the readers of other blogs will often attract readers to visit a new website or blog for more information. Getting involved early in the conversation is best because the first comments are generally shown directly under the current post. It is natural for a reader to read the first comments, but they may lose interest if those comments don’t contribute anything to the conversation.
Blogs Outside Your Niche Don’t Count
Readers will often discredit comments that are not related to the blog post, so it’s important for marketers to only comment on blog posts that are related to their own website or blog. Readers of a finance blog are likely to be interested in other sites about money, but may not be interested in visiting a site that is about woodworking. Posting a link to a woodworking site on a finance blog causes the readers to see the link as spam and not click on it.
Writing Blog Comments That Get Noticed
Blog comments that are written for marketing purposes need to get noticed, otherwise they are a waste of time. It’s important that the comments are relevant to the conversation and are written on the most popular blogs dealing with a particular topic. Blogs that nobody reads are not going to bring more attention to your website.
It is also important that any comments that you write are short. Many people don’t read comments that are almost as long as the post they are commenting on, especially if they are unfamiliar with the person who posted the comment. It is also important that any comments that are posted are grammatically correct and don’t contain spelling errors. Commenters can quickly lose credibility with readers because of a simple error. When trying to attract readers to a different website, the comments need to establish the commenter as an authority on the subject, and errors are distracting and damage credibility. Comments shouldn’t directly invite readers to your website, but they must establish that more information and thoughts about the topic may be found there.
Maximize Exposure
Posters should make sure that their comments include a link or two that takes readers to their website, but should not just fill the comment space with links. This is considered spam and will likely get deleted. Popular blogs often generate hundreds of comments, so the comments that are listed first may be the only comments that readers see without clicking on a link that shows more. Having your comments included in the first three comments is great, ensuring that people will likely read them and won’t get lost in the shuffle.
Commenting on a follow blog is better than a no follow blog. Follow blogs are included in Google’s algorithms, while no follow blogs are not. It’s a good idea to search and use the most popular keywords in your comment to help your site move up the ranks in search engines, such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing. According to Chitika, an online advertising network, more than 30% of users click on the first result listed on a search engine results page, making search engine optimization is so important.
Choose the topics you comment on carefully. Being active in posts that are shared on social networking sites often draws more traffic to your site. It’s fine to be active in posts on controversial subjects, but don’t purposely start fights. Being aggressive in posts is likely to draw readers away from your comments and links, rather than attracting them.
Don’t Forget Your Own Guests
Make sure to answer all blog comments promptly so that the people who post on your blog don’t feel ignored or unappreciated. Spending an extensive amount of time and energy commenting on other blogs may make you neglect your own blog, which is counterproductive. It is important to provide relevant resources because they add credibility to any statements that you make. Linking to other websites won’t hurt your sales and it may cause the owners of those sites to send traffic your way. It is imperative that blog owners are kind when making and replying to comments.
Blog owners must be confident in the information they are sharing and not be afraid to say they don’t know something. It’s okay to research a question and return later with an answer. Giving out false information ruins the credibility of a blog owner and will cause readers to leave your blog.
Perseus Development Corporation conducted a random survey and discovered that about 66% of all blogs hadn’t been updated in two months or more. Blogs that are not updated at least once per week often lose readers who are looking for the newest information. Many readers want to build a relationship with each blog owner and it’s very difficult to maintain that relationship unless the blog is an ongoing conversation and is updated frequently.
A Few Things to Keep in Mind
Nobody likes having targeted keywords as a username. Using a real name contributes credibility to your posts. It’s not appropriate to post links in every comment you write, only do so if you’re sure that your link adds value to the topic that is being discussed. Putting a link in your username is usually enough to drive appropriate traffic to your website or your blog.
Don’t make comments just to make comments. If you don’t have anything to add to the conversation, it is better to not make any comment on that particular blog post.