No.
And yes.
It depends on how you do it.
Some people do it horrendously wrong.
Let’s take a look.
Curiosity-Click Traffic is Crap
If one of your primary traffic strategies is to leave fast comments on the posts of larger blogs in your niche just to get a few clicks from the passing traffic, stop. You could get more traffic from one piece of stellar content than months of that type of comment strategy.
And without good content, there’s no reason to attract a few “curiosity clicks” anyway. What’s going to make them stick around after the click if your content sucks?
Nothing.
Plus, the root motivation for those curiosity clicks is often bad to begin with. The nature of the game makes it that way.
Many new bloggers take the misguided approach of trying to be the first or second comment on every post of a larger blog. They do this because those positions in the comment stream get the most click-throughs, all other things being equal.
The problem is, in the rush for “first,” the resulting comments are often incoherent and banal. Sometimes it’s quite clear the commenter didn’t read the post, or missed the entire point in the hurry for top position.
So any curiosity clicks are usually motivated by “I wonder just how bad this bozo’s blog is going to be?” It’s true… lame blogs are entertainment for the rest of us.
So, is commenting on blogs worthless?
Nope. In fact, you can actually attract that traffic you want via a smart commenting strategy.
How Comments Can Lead to Real Traffic
So, we’ve established that great content is rule number one. Without it, all traffic to your blog is pretty much a waste.
Beyond that, the secret to blog comments that ultimately lead to traffic establish…
…relationships.
Shocking, I know.
Think about it. It’s no secret that many of the people who comment on blogs are also bloggers. They simply have more motivation to take the time to comment.
So when you meaningfully participate in the community aspect of a blog, you’re creating meaningful relationships with people who can send you significant traffic—bloggers and other active social media users.
Getting links (have you done a backlink analysis recently?), re-tweets, social media votes and bookmarks… this is the way that content spreads. This is the way you get real traffic that actually matters.
This doesn’t entail kissing up to the blog owner (most of us hate strategic-sounding praise). What it means is creating a network that provides the payoff for all the effort you’ve put into your content.
It takes time, but at least it actually works.
Can’t I be First and Fabulous?
I have seen some people who manage to leave exquisite, meaningful comments who also routinely score the first or second position. But I don’t recommend it.
Watching your feed reader or tweet stream that closely throughout the day has got to be distracting. Maybe I’m not as good a multi-tasker, but I find that the higher level of singular focus I place on content development, the better the content turns out.
But that’s just my opinion.
So, what do you think? Am I right, wrong, or middling?
It’s also no secret that Copyblogger readers are a cut above the rest of the crowd. So please leave an exquisite, meaningful comment. 🙂
About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter.
Reader Comments (500)
first!
First!!! 😉
So predictable. Seriously, I had not one doubt. 😉
Great points. What about the spammy comments where the person (or bot) says something totally unrelated to the post in an attempt to drive traffic? Like in response to this post I might write “I stumbled on this blog and I love your content, especially the article about how to roast a turkey. I will definately be back!”
In all seriousness, this makes me feel less bad about the bad job I do of commenting on other folks blogs. It’s nothing personal, just time constraints and pure laziness.
Sometimes (not often) it is possible to be “First and Fabulous?”. What you have to remember is the people this is going to work best for are A) those with something to offer and B) small current audiences.
You might not be impressed with a hundred new visitors, but there are tons of blogs out there who get fewer than that on a daily basis, so there is an obvious payoff there.
Plus, sometimes getting in early is fun 🙂
Now would I use it as my main method? Of course not, but there are other benefits. Networking and relationships, you mentioned. Then there is “name awareness” for the community.
Writing a comment gets you writing – getting your wheels turning, and sometimes a long comment can be copied and pasted over to your own blog to become a great post.
So just commenting is good, commenting early is good, and sometimes there are additional benefits.
I think all bloggers should comment. It’s just a good thing to do.
Fourth! Does that make my comment less banal?
Wise words from Chris G as expected.
David, no… but only because you’re actually 6th. 😉
Great — I love it when the “get rich quick” method is unwrapped, revealing a very ordinary one that’s not quick, but works.
I think you’re very right. Commenting on blogs isn’t worthless; I’ve found a lot of fun, new blogs by reading the comments sections on the blogs I already read. If somebody is consistently making good, funny, and/or insightful comments, I’ll probably start checking out their blog as well. The comments that bring down the comments section are the short, brainless ones, like: “Ooh, great post, LOL,” “U sound stupid,” or, even worse, “First!”
Really, how are you supposed to have a conversation with that?
I think that blog commenting many not be a super sophisticated way of building traffic, but it does work and it’s very easy to get started with… and it costs nothing but time and a few brain cells. It can work better than social media traffic in some cases. (Example: I got a story on the top banner of the home page of Mixx where it got 46 votes but only sent 35 unique visitors… but I have gotten over 200 visitors from a TechCrunch comment before.
Therefore I recommend blog commenting to beginners and people who have boring topics that may not be able to get more than a handful of visits from social media sites and viral efforts.
@Chris, that’s a great point, that writing comments gets our writing gears going.
Some blogs have great comment communities, almost like mini forums. I’ve definitely created some great relationships with commenters in that context, and gone on to read their blogs, comment there, and send a little business back and forth as appropriate.
Right now when I’m writing this I see no other comments but I think, considering my speed, there will be some by the time I click the submit button :-).
I totally agree…many comments have spam written all over them even when they are being submitted manually, and even when they seem to be commenting on the current blog post. Personally, I don’t think there is anything wrong in leaving one or two liners as long as they push the ongoing conversation forward, but hurriedly-left comments just to attract a few clicks hardly works. Commenting should also be considered an important brand-building activity and hence, it is better to be a silent reader if you don’t have anything specific to say.
And again, I agree that the standard of commenting is really good here 🙂
Well, this is very late in the game but being first was never my claim to fame at just about anything. But I do like your comment that “it is better to be a silent reader if you don’t have anything specific to say.” Although I probably just blew it by saying that.
haha.. That’s predictable Brian.
I’m not always trying to be a first commenter but that’s how I work.
Whenever I see there is a new post in my feed reader, I will always try to go and read that post first not to be the first commenter but merely to see if that post warrant a retweet.
If I think I should leave a comment than I will 🙂
Good post… this warrant an RT
the term ‘relationship’ is really2 useful. money doesn’t come at a split second, traffic won’t increase immediately but by making friends it leads us to the success
What Chris said is appropriate about writing a comment – “getting your wheels turning”. As a blogger, I’ll get good ideas for an article by writing comments on another blog.
While some people will write comments just to get clicks, I have the opposite problem. I have a hard time writing a comment unless I truly feel that it adds some value to the conversation… like now for instance.
But I’m reminded by the times I’ve written a “meaningless” comment (in my opinion) and learn later that what I said made a huge difference in someone’s life. You never know, I guess.
It really comes down to connecting and offering up whatever you’ve got available, however profound or not. To paraphrase Freud, “Sometimes a comment is just a comment.”
I think this relates to a lot of areas in social media in general:
Make posts, comments, tweets because you have something to say, and you are providing meaningful content of some sort. The desire for traffic should be a secondary motivation.
I try to look at my blog comments the same way I look at my blog content: strong content drives traffic to your blog and keeps it there, good comments will do likewise.
I usually ask myself “does the post I am writing or the comment I am leaving add value?”
If the answer is yes I click submit. If the answer is no I click cancel.
16th
Check out this hilarious video, appropriately titled – “First”
I comment frequently among a certain community of bloggers. It feels like an extension of conversations we are having in other places, too.
I also comment because, well, even crusty old bloggers need love, too :-*
Good short post. A good solid comment on a blog post can lead to traffic if it ADDS something to the content of the original blog post. It also helps if it is in your area of expertise (commenting on a well-know blog that has nothing to do with what YOU do – gets you a few ‘curiosity clicks,’ it does not build relationships).
One thing I suggest my clients do, but only on bog posts that fit the above criteria, is to comment on selected blog posts – in a way that adds value – THEN post it to their favorite social media platform.
I suggest using this sparingly, so it does not become SPAM, but an intelligent blog comment is another way to show your friends (on Facebook), followers (on Twitter) or connections (on LinkedIn), i.e. your potential customers, clients & peers that you know your stuff. Done too frequently, it reflects on you poorly, done frequently and without adding value equals SPAM.
I never considered my placement with comments as much as my content. Honestly, I would feel awkward leaving the standard “Great Article!” comment on millions of blogs every day. If I don’t have something constructive or useful to comment, best not comment at all.
Asking questions that invite further discussion of the post topic is a great way to comment.
With a blog like CopyBlogger, your comment will end up being one of hundreds very quickly. When I scroll through CB’s comments, I usually stop on the longest ones. This indicates to me the commenter took their time to write something potentially useful. Chris Garrett’s comment was the first one that caught my eye on this post today.
I have a rule of thumb that I like to follow: if I have something to say that will further the conversation, I say it. If I can’t come up with anything that will in some way continue the discussion (or, I suppose, start a relevant new one), then no one’s going to bother seeing what else I have to say on my blog.
19th! Sweet – totally not trying to get some traffic by leaving a lame comment.
In all seriousness, this was a helpful article because I’ve wondered about the effectiveness of commenting on other sites. Thanks for the write up.
Okay – so maybe I was 23rd – sorry about that 🙂
The shocking truth isn’t really that shocking. Your statement on relationships being the secret reminds me of the things that first got me interested in blogging and more specifically video blogging. I enjoyed “meeting” people and having genuine conversations with humans from all over the world.
It was great learning about them, their families and the things that they were interested in. It was even cool to see their interest in my day to day life. Success wasn’t measured in dollars as a personal blogger. And comments weren’t and still aren’t made just to improve my standings among search engines or fellow bloggers. Comments were relevant responses to content and genuine reactions to shared information. Comments show gratitude, encouragement, ask questions, seek clarification and more.
In some ways this remains truth for me as I look to grow my blog, website and social networks for my business. Success isn’t just about numbers or a very detailed measure of ROI. Success is still connecting with people, providing value, serving them in some way, producing something that others can be interested in and something I too am proud of.
On the other side, our business lives are important. numbers, SEO and ROI are important to us. I can understand how some might want to use methods like this to improve their standings, get some extra hits, and maybe generate some more income.
But I’m in agreement with you. Commenting first for the sake of commenting first and being noticed by others isn’t a recommended method. We need to be genuine. Real relationships and good, true, and genuine content are what social media is about and what make it successful.
(Seemingly) I’m one of the few that not only enjoys commenting on substantive content, but also commenting on substantive comments. I feel bloggers miss an opportunity to develop meaningful relationships when they just comment and run, never to be seen again.
I’d say typing one’s website name(if you have one) in the name field of blog comments is more important than placement, yet I notice repeatedly people failing to do so.
Leave a memorable comment, but also make sure to include your name AND website name. Study the comments to this post and you’ll see some taking advantage of this and some not.
@Shane – I am one of the people who gets irritated when people use “branding” rather than their names, or go over the top with adding “branding” into their names.
That is, I tend to dismiss what Billy “Portland SEO Truck Body Repair Bug Control” Smith has to say, over the exact same comment made by simply Billy Smith.
I have a comment policy over on my blog that clearly states those that abuse the name field get nuked.
@Brian, do you have a comments policy?
I loved those first couple of comments. They made me smile. Thanks for that.
I’d echo the content/relationships angle. Even more so than going for the social media traffic (which may or may not just be passing fad traffic), if you leave a quality comment, you’re creating quality content as well.
It’s the quality content seekers that you really want as visitors to your site. They’ll stick around and hopefully even buy. If they see the quality content, it won’t matter as much when they noticed the conversation.
@ Chris G, I just saw your comment regarding the name field. I totally agree. On my blog, I use KeywordLuv so people use their real name AND still get the quality of link they really wanted.
If they don’t even pay attention to that notice, that’s when I consider nuking them.
@Chris,
Never thought of it that way. I was concentrating on the “meaningful comment” aspect of this post and thought if you leave a meaningful comment, that wouldn’t matter. But, I see your point.
Focus on what you want to do, and what matters most to you.
Content matters because content informs, teaches, and communicates.
All I do is Tweet a blog entry and share with Facebook.
Could I do more? Sure! I just don’t have the time or incentive.
I agree with this conclusion, “I find that the higher level of singular focus I place on content development, the better the content turns out.”
I am never the first to comment, because I like to see what others have to say that I might agree or disagree with. Often other readers will have a different viewpoint on the topic and I can learn something new.
I have two blogs, the one for my press (Medusa’s Muse) and one about parenting. I find it interesting that the one for my press that relates to writing and book publishing gets far fewer comments and when people do comment, they are usually from people who want me to check out their own blogs. My parenting blog gets many comments and those comments are from people who obviously read the content and aren’t just looking for traffic. I find that mom bloggers are more into it for the relationship building and sharing of ideas, while writer bloggers are more interested in getting people to visit them.
Not only do you have well informed and educated women blogging, mothers have their finger on the pulse of some many topics that affect their families. Do you want to know what the best children’s books are? Ask a mom. The best remedies for colic and other baby issues, a mom will be your best source for information.
I agree that it comes back to the quality of the content. Whether it is a comment or an actual blog post, the content that will help to build your blog is the content that you take the time and effort to create so that it is meaningful and valuable to your target audience.
As with most things, hard work pays off. If your goal is to build and sustain traffic overtime, there aren’t any “quick fixes” that will help you to achieve that.
I’ve been a reader of Copyblogger for several months, and have never commented because… to tell the truth I don’t know why. Today something about this post compelled me to participate in the discourse.
Relationships are everything in the online community. I like to comment on people’s blogs only when, like today, I get that feeling in my gut that says, “I want to talk to this person, respond, tell them what I thought about this post, thank them for inspiring me…” and so on. One of the reasons I have not felt the urgency to comment so far is that for the most part I agree just about 100% with everything that is said here, so commenting to say, “nice job, I couldn’t agree more, yet another great post by Cobyblogger,” and such just doesn’t feel like a great contribution.
I echo what others here have said, if you have something to say that will add to the conversation, great. If you disagree constructively, great. If not, less is definitely better than more.
Love the blog, btw, and now feel justified in saying it. 🙂
Shane, I hate it when people put keywords or the name of their company/blog in the name field. That is exactly the wrong way to build relationships with other human beings.
Chris G, my comment policy is “Don’t be an idiot.”
I’m sorry, I have to comment again, Brian, just to tell you that the first youtube video is really hysterically funny! I love that guy!
Brian,
Point taken, but I was coming at this discussion from an average Joe perspective, not some type of SEO-pimp-looking-for-cheap-mentions angle. Kind of like me meeting someone in person and saying, “Hi, I’m Shane. I’m from Maryland.” that type of mention. Just a little bit more detail that gives me a hint as to what this person is about.
ust a little bit more detail that gives me a hint as to what this person is about…without having to click and leave the site before I’ve read the rest of the comments, I mean.
Time zones have a role to play, too. Sometimes people arrive first in a comment box because of where they live and when the feed goes out. To be in the first 70 commenters at Zen Habits, for example, I’d have to stay up all night. (I’m in the UK.)
I comment for connection and a sense of community. If the blogger never interacts with the people who leave comments, I don’t comment there.
I also regularly build posts around comments as a way to thank my commenters or to send visitors to blogs I like.
It isn’t all that difficult to determine how effective your commenting strategy is. You can easily measure traffic as I did writing about commenting in Blog Traffic Up 54.87% in the Last 30 Days; Our Proven Traffic Improvement Strategy .
You can tell whether your visitors were really interested in what you write by looking at the bounce rate (how many only viewed that one page) and the average time on site.
I would like your opinion on names used in comments. You may have noticed that I have used Internet Strategist as my “name” wherever I write in connection with my blog. I know that annoys some people who expect a “regular” name.
I consider it unwise to use your real name or image for reasons I explain in the privacy posts in my blog that are too long to go into here. IYO should I provide you (and them) with a pen name that is more like a “regular” name to make others more comfortable?
In certain circles I am well established as Internet Strategist and/or GrowMap and most bloggers accept that. I make adjustments for the others.
Thanks for the great reminders! Have caught myself skimming an article just to leave a “poignant” comment… thinking to myself… Am I “really” understanding what the writer is trying to get across?
You reminded me to not miss the entire point of a post just to get a comment in I think will attract readers.
Solution for me, is to really decide on what blogs in my niche I think are really adding value to the topics I’m covering on my blog. And spend more time adding value to the community there.
I am in it for the long hall and really enjoy writing and helping others, I need to remind myself of that when I get in a hurry to just leave a comment… hmmm am I doing that now?
Hi Brian,
This is my first comment on your blog I’ve been reading for round about 3 months. This by the way 😉 … Clicking through all the blogs I’ve ever read I’ve noticed the same phenomenon you’re describing. It’s really funny. – I am a blogger, too. My dealing with commenting other blog is that I don’t comment each post, because I all to often have nothing to say. But, when I have something to say I often comment a post later than the others, because I usually think about this interesting post for a longer time (sometimes several days). But, when I have the right words, I hope (I am from Germany and my english isn’t fast …), I go back and comment – anyway the post was published 5 or 14 days ago. So, if this post impressed me, first I think about – and then I comment it – maybe 😉
… and like this post 🙂
Best wishes, you do a great job! Really!
Nadine
Hi Brian, great post. It reminds me of a family member that likes to post multiple videos and blog posts a day about anything from social media to how to make a soda and Mentos bottle rocket. He does this to gain popularity on the web, but personally I think it makes him look like a person with no credibility.
p.s. In my opinion, you’re right.
Nadine
Ha ha, I haven’t a hope of being first. I totally agree that I’m not going to be tempted to read someone’s blog if I’m not impressed with their comments. And I’ll also agree that I’m not going read every single comment on a blog if the list gets too big.
The solution, it seems to me, is always to post quality comments, that come from a place of wishing to share knowledge or expertise.
I believe that people read my blog because I’m real person who has struggled against some real issues to live her dream, and I share my journey openly.
Seems to me that if I comment on blogs to comment on blogs and get traffic, I would be doing something that feels uncomfortably false.
If I’m commenting on blogs that say something that matters to me, because it matters to me, I’m being real, honest and authentic.
All true for certain (SMART) tipe of visitors. But in your online sales more often than not your decision maker isa not going to grasp any of that. For him, you quite often need that first comment. Short, crisp, confirming, offering solution – like you Google AdWords ad. Or a Tweet. Just to grab him, capture, and convert on your page.
Than again, I would find it to distructive to work the feeds like tha tas well! 🙂 And here I am leaving the comment No 44 or something… So I practice what you preach! 🙂
PS – I think I’ll read the last comments on everyone’s blog from now on ;D
Actually I’ve found that I’ve gotten good traffic no matter where I am in the “comment queue”.
Before I started actively commenting on other blogs, I got literally NO traffic.
However, if I read a post that has no personal meaning for me I don’t write a comment because it would surely be a lame one!
Jared raised a great point about adding value. I think at the end of the day, it’s about adding value to the conversation.
My best traffic generating comment expanded on a highly technical post on a popular blog.
Many commenters were asking for the same modifications, so I wrote a detailed post explaining how to modify the original post to meet their needs.
It feels a little selfish to me, I’m not wholly comfortable with pushy self-promotion, but I commented a brief solution and linked to my more detailed solution.
Even though my comment was buried, like this one, I launched my blog (did I mention it was one of my first posts) with hundreds of daily visitors over the 1st week.
Commenting intelligently or, better still, regularly commenting intelligently generates more traffic than “great post” comments. But if you really want to generate traffic off comments, find your fellow commenters’ pain and provide a solution.
You are right on (and that’s not sucking up). Commenting on other people’s blogs can’t build traffic enough to make it worth it alone. The true value to commenting on another blog is to choose one in your niche and establish a relationship with other readers or the blog owner for added tweeting, linking, etc. If all I did was comment to get 3/30/300 clicks and hope some of them are targeted and will stay, I’d waste a lot of time. My business would be much better served writing quality articles for my readers, writing content for e-Books, writing guest posts, etc.
Ask yourself if hiring a V.A. would be worth adding a generic comment simply to be the first to comment and you probably would not think it’s worth your money. So, why is it worth your time? My time is precious.
These days you would hardly find comments that make sense. Most of the comments are of the “Nice post” types with the commentator expecting someone to click on his link and come to his post.
When it comes to commenting, I am a curious internet surfer. I click a few such links once in a while to see if the commentator has some quality posts on his blog or, not. And at times to my surprise I have found that there indeed were some quality posts.
From all this my inference is as follows:
Commenting can be a good traffic builder if you add value to the post. You can expect people to follow your comments and come to your website. Then it is solely upto the content on your website to keep these readers engrossed.
At the same time, when good posts like these see so many comments, what is the possibility that your comment will be read out of the so many comments that are there? Next to zilch.
A one line comment if catchy can also induce a reader to click on it and come to your blog. Then your posts should be able to keep them there.
All in all this means that commenting – good and valuable comments or, useless comments; inducing people to click on your link and come to your blog, all depends upon how lucky you are to be picked out of the numerous comments to a post.
Haha, after reading this post, it almost makes me hesitant to post a comment for fear that it isn’t a good one! However, I will still try 🙂
I agree with you that comments must be written and placed carefully. I’m actually in process of writing a case study on this very topic. It should be up within a day or two. Additionally though, people need to proof read their comments. Comments with typos or spelling errors reflect a rushed or careless attitude–so be careful!
This one really made me think. So, I looked back at the past few years to see what the dynamic has been for me.
1. Since I usually ask a probing question at the end, responses that address the question usually get more attention from me. That ultimately translates into link-sharing, subscribing to another blog, etc.
2. If someone comments for the first time and leaves a one-liner, I usually ignore it.
3. If the response is long…but somehow relates to the post if not the question, I definitely read it and respond. Anyone who is thoughtful enough to craft a profound response deserves some attention, a comment, and perhaps will be a new relationship.
4. If someone includes a link to their own post in every single comment, I start ignoring them. I don’t delete the comment, but I figure they aren’t there for the conversation but to be self-serving.
5. My own regret: as subscriptions grew and the related comments as well, I don’t have enough time to thoughtfully comment on the breadth of blogs that I used to. I still subscribe and read, but don’t comment as often. Am trying to come up with a way to rectify that.
I don’t hesitate to comment on blogs that somehow get me thinking. If it’s something I can help expand on, like Damon said, then that adds even more popularity to the original post while helping generate some interest in my blog as well — a win-win.
Of course, getting people to click your website link from your comment is only half the battle! Making sure your posts are as good as your comments is what keeps people coming back.
You should have closed comments for this post — just kidding.
Thanks for the compliment Brian. I like to consider us Copyblogger readers more informed, engaging and cutting edge than the majority.
The unofficial commenting policy is to add an original thought or idea to the conversation. I’d say about 1/2 of commenters do this. The other half are seeking cheap click-thrus.
Nice post, now visit my blog and subscribe.
Ok, I admit that was not funny. You didn’t mention it but a lot of people leave comments on blogs for links as well.
Blogs that are do follow or have top commentator or comment luv plug-ins are all targets of these types of comments.
I know this because I have used this strategy myself for certain reasons. I do try to leave meaningful comments though.
I made my personal blog do-follow in hope that it would attract more conversation but so far it has only attracted link seekers.
Building relationships is key. I have regular commenters who leave thoughtful (or funny) comments on most articles I post. I in turn do the same but only because we are from the same sort of niche, find value in each other’s content and have built a relationship.
It’s now at the stage where we’re interviewing each other and guest posting. The pay off is that we’re helping each other get our content out there and also build traffic.
jaja!
my laugh is because the two “first” that dissapear!
I read the article, as always, excellent advices for copywriters!
Great post. Is there also a SEO factor in commenting relevant content?
On my blog I sometimes feel like the only people that are commenting are other bloggers in order to build backlinks. It’s fairly obvious when this is the case. The comments they make are thinly veiled backlink builders and, in my mind, only tend to discourage other real subscribers who would make meaningful comments if there wasn’t so much comment clutter that borders on spam.
The question is: is it sustainable? Sure, your initial comment SPAM strategy might yield high short-term results, but in the end people catch on and leave the relationship. If you can consistently add value to comments, and engaging in conversation is the primary motive, then all else will follow. It may take longer, but your brand will last longer as well.
Some time ago I realized that I could draw a clear line between the two camps my own comments fell into. It was not about the *con*tent, but the *in*tent.
If it’s about them, I comment. If I’m commenting because, deep inside, I know it’s really about me and I’m just yelling “look at me look at me” then I don’t.
This means that sometimes, I leave the comment “dead bang on target!” because I feel it’s about you. And sometimes, I write a lengthy tome, realize it’s just me talking about my favorite subject again (me) and trash it.
(Side note: if you don’t like comments someone has left on your blog, delete them. Cut them out with scissors, shred them, burn the shreddings and then bury the ashes in the yard. They don’t own your blog, you do. If *you* say it’s spam, it’s spam. Kill it. An owner who keeps his property clean will gain respect from those who’ve evicted bums.)
There are so many spammers and bloggers out there just trying to generate traffic to their blog with no genuine interest in community and relationships. On my own blog, I tend to get comments from some regulars that I know only online and I really enjoy the ongoing dialogues around common topics at my blog, their blog and twitter. It’s meaningful to me and readers.
As always, your finger is on the pulse.
Sadly, it is has often been glaringly obvious that “readers” have left commentary in a race to service their own agendas and it is hard not to feel a little violated by this.
Obviously, being this far down the list of pertinent comments will leave me well off that list of offenders for today!
Dare I say “great post!”
I don’t think enough people click thru on commenter’s links to actually call it a strategy or make it worth anything except the relationship it furthers.
For that matter, I don’t actually think enough people click thru on links in the post to matter.
I’ve been linked to, as a featured link in a post, by people with over 50K RSS subscribers and only found 35 visits in my server logs.
I’ve also had posts retweeted by people with over 50K Followers and saw no appreciable gain in page views.
So, for my limited amount of time, neither seems to be worth the effort.
Creating content in some form, that can be used strategically, in 2-3 different modalities, is a far better use of anyone’s time.
@Ari — good point. A sound comment policy enables fair editorial moderation. I see no problem with not publishing comments that don’t meet the blog’s standards.
Cutting down on the classic/crappy “Great post!” and linkbait comments is a grass-roots way to start cleaning up the crap on web.
@Brian — another glitch in your comment script: when you go to “previous comments” there’s no link to get to “next comments.” All you see is the 1st page of 50 comments, but no way to continue reading the rest of them.
No comment. 🙂
One way that’s worked for me is to become regular commenters on blogs in my niches, horror writing and politics.
They often reciprocate and it’s a way of building a genuine relationship.
Benjamin –
Horror writing and politics? Sounds like a match made in heaven!
Chris
Here’s my assessment of the subject:
Commenting is wise. Indeed, it can drive traffic to your site. But… the time used to comment should be kept to a minimum as you’re not going to get all that bang for the buck, though the traffic you do get is very high quality.
So what do I do?
Actually, for the sake of traffic, there is only one blog I strive to comment on every post. Because you get significant amounts of traffic and I believe a few invaluable conversions too.
But beyond that one blog (trade secret ;-), I really only regularly comment on a few I’m in good relationships with who comment on mine. I also enjoy their blogs by the way.
So yeah… Commenting is a really bad strategy. Hey I got an idea: Instead of spending hours commenting, why not invest those same hours into a killer guest post to be published on a major blog?
The above would be time well spent. And the returns far greater.
By the way… Congratulations on hitting the 60,000 mark.
I’m not far behind…
With the volume of columns/blogs that come across my computer each day, the ones that resonate with a ‘tuning-fork truth’ are the ones I am most apt to comment on … such as yours, this being the first since I recently discovered CopyBlogger.
98% of the time it is to thank the writer for their insights or POVs on a topic of interest, since they are willing to share their knowledge and sources to educate me and the rest of their readers. The other 2% is my two cents worth 🙂
So, Brian, please accept this humble note of appreciation. As a writer, I look forward to learning more each day, and you are one of a select few that I now read on a regular basis.
Thank you Cat, that was much appreciated.
I’ve never had performance anxiety before commenting a blog post before. Thanks for that.
Definitely agree. I’d rather get a hit from one person who thinks that I have something intelligent to say and wants to hear more than 100 people who just click the first link in front of their face.
The second comment achieve its purpose – I think I become a long term reader to its content.
The person behind can use the strategy of being the first to comment since the topic of its blog is what every human likes to read about regardless of what they are interested at the moment.
Just read some SEO article about leaving large amount of comments each day (seems exhausted) and now read yours about leaving few but meaningful comments. Totally opposite idea and strategies but yours is less time-consuming and depressed. How can one humanly leave hundreds of comments per day unless comments are automated. Too much junk out there. Need a better knowledge filter before become overloaded. By the way, I like your theme so I use it for my blog. I have been trying to find simple theme but with no success. Yours is simple and clear. Thanks.
I actually only read six blogs and the comments to the posts. I feel it is very beneficial to comment on blogs. It really helps get a new blog started.
I guess it would depend Brian,
If we focus on how early or late we comment, well, I’m your 83rd comment and I know you are a pretty busy guy, my chances aren’t good regardless of how witty my response is.
But I also noticed your last response to a comment was #78 and it was to thank someone. Shows dedication to your readers and that you are reachable. So in this particular instance it would be sensible and smart for me to comment for two reasons:
First because it was an excellent topic worth commenting on and second because as you mentioned, I hope to attract attention from you and other commenters to further invest more of their already limited time in taking a peak at my blog.
So I guess I too would try to manage my time as best I could when commenting on my fave blogs 🙂
Good piece!
Exchanging blog comments is how I met the wacky and fabulous Naomi Dunford, with whom I’ve gone on to do business and have near-illegal amounts of fun. I 100% agree that the most important thing comments do for you is to open the potential of a relationship with the blogger.
84th!! Seriously, you make some good points. A token comment is very transparent indeed. Anything that smacks of ego stroking is also transparent. My mother often said: if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.
I would add: if you have nothing “real” to say, then say nothing at all.
did I expect something like this, when I saw the video on youtube (via ur tweet ) ? not really 😀
I had tried this method, but I stopped it very soon after that. It won’t work, I mean, it gives you clicks, but no quality traffic 🙂
Indeed, alot of people who comment (and now re-tweet) are bloggers …. and I would be lying if I wasn’t doing it to leech off some of that amazing traffic big blogs tend to get. Like Chris G said, a couple of hundreds of visits a day is probably all we bottomfeeder blogs get. Besides, we’re only taking the advice of fellow bloggers, especially the huge blogs who blog about blogging, and commenting is a good way of increasing online presence, and indeed to build a kind of communication with the author.
As a blogger of a very, very niche area (hence smaller following), I am alot closer to the readers (since I have so few of them, compared to you) and I still view comments as interaction between me and the readership (ie, I am still able to reply to every single comment)
Would I like to see 100 comments for every post? Who wouldn’tr ight? If they were 100 comments which are critical, thought provoking and ones which challenge my writing, that would be more than grand, but even if they were the self-promoting (hey, great post, now visit me) sort of comment, I’d still take it. At the end, deep down inside, everybody is self-serving to a certain extent and we are all attention seeking bloggers who want people to just pay attention.
There are some blogs that I read and comment on regularly. Sometimes I will land there and see there are no comments. I will come back later to leave mine just so that I am not first all the time. I don’t use the strategy of “trying” to be first, but I also don’t want it to look like I AM trying to be first. Ah, the numbers game. I have to say that I prefer commenting after there have been a few comments. There’s more life to absorb.
I’d like to pick up on a comment from Chris (#5) about turning a comment into a post…
I’m not a major commenter on blogs – I know I should do more – but I do keep a close eye on 2 or 3 forums, and I often get my butt kicked into writing a detailed reply to something someone’s written on one of them.
I regularly turn those detailed replies into posts on my own blog, and those are often more popular, more quickly than posts over which I’ve laboured for hours.
For bloggers who struggle to find things to write about, participating in a community, whether it’s a blog or a forum, can be a great inspiration for posts of your own.
Cheers,
Martin.
It’s a bit funny that you write this. I took upon myself the pleasant wrath of following the comments of your post about The Golden Rule of Online Marketing. I was surprised how many comments still appear after a few days the post was written, and how many do not have that much to do with the post.
I am not sure that commenting is a good strategy for traffic boosting, but accidents may happen.
I think it’s more fun to engage with the other commenters down there, though. Like I totally dig Michelle’s idea of the word ninja:) And I salute Daniel the First.
And it gets back to what Nelia is saying, that bloggers “hit and run, never to be seen again”. And it is not very efficient following up comments and waiting to see if other people will say something to you. 🙂
And after three days, even if you do have something to say to someone “down there”, the time is due.
I just had to say Wow! Oh, and this comment is not really about the post I just read regarding being the first, its about how much I’ve enjoyed reading your posts. I enjoy your humor and the enlightening point of views. In fact your blog is probably the first I’ve spend any time really reading! Thanks!!
NOT FIRST!!
Ha!
Im a loser, but seriously, I think the comment traffic is great. Just my opinion, but I do have a really cool blog!! 😉
I was just perusing my feeds looking for appropriate blogs to comment on.
How appropriate that I came across this post that spelled things out for me.
As a relatively new blogger, its great to be told in black and white what does and doesn’t work and how to use a tool like commenting appropriately.
John
*Where’d My Time Go Copyblogger ?*
As bloggers we spend our time creating content about something that is meaningful to us and hopefully others. It’s a great feeling when other people appreciate your hard work and knowing that makes it doubling satisfying acknowledging other peoples work.
I used to read copyblogger often and then for some reason I stopped using my Google reader and so it’s been ages since I’ve been here. So today I started looking through it and this post caught my eye. Before I read this post I downloaded the ‘Outsourcing Conspiracy’…
…outstanding and then I circled back to read this post, a cracker (not to mention the great comments).
Well there goes an hour up in smoke thanks very much Mr. Clark! Well spent though. I’ll be back more often, almost forgot how good it is over here.
Cheers,
Steve Anderson
P.S. That first video was a crack up 🙂
First!!!
Oh no if I scroll up the page, I can now see people b4 me, dohh.
This is a very useful article though, I comment occasionally but don’t believe that it has ever resulted in more traffic to my site. Perhaps I am not doing enough or not doing it right. Could it also be that I have a service offering outside of the blogging / social media industry itself – in which case that could mean that only social media relates to social media, introspection with no added value?
Most curious.
But still, a very readable article, thanks for letting me in
I don’t often comment on your blog because when you are through, there is nothing much to add. You have covered it.
One of the most important things I have learned from you is to write Cosmo – type titles. But there is always something new from you.
But I never miss an article and often stumble it instead.
Well, guess I have no chance of being first! Not that that was my intention, LOL. 🙂
Excellent post today, and very true. You want thoughtful comments, you have to leave thoughtful comments; it’s just that simple. Not quick and not always easy, but simple.
It is fascinating how these relationships build through commenting. Someone faithfully comments you and then all of a sudden they disappear for a few posts, and it’s kind of unsettling. Then they come back and apologize for being gone, sometimes even explain where they’ve been, and start commenting again. That always confirms to me that I’ve built a successful “relationship” — they know that I know they usually comment, they know that I’ll notice if they’re not there. (Especially if they’re always “first”!)
Thanks for a great post!
I believe in karma. If you comment on a blog purely from the perspective of hoping to extract something of value that is very transactional and self-focused. If on the other hand you post a comment that adds to the discussion, provides some additional insight or just makes someone smile with no direct plan for any material gain, then I think you rack up a few karma points that will get redeemed somewhere along the line.
This question goes to the heart of why many people struggle with social media. The question is me-centric. Is commenting a good way for ME to grow MY traffic?
When you phrase/ask the question in that way, you focus your efforts on how YOU benefit. Social media works best when you see it as a way to CREATE value, not to EXTRACT it. Using comments as a way to drive traffic back to your blog is value EXTRACTION.
The best way to drive traffic back to your blog? Write a damned interesting comment that makes me think ‘who in the hell is this smartie pants? I better check out her blog right now!’
Social media makes things happen INdirectly. Want more traffic back to your blog? Then write comments that other people will find VALUE in, and that will result in traffic back to your blog.
Create the value FIRST, then you can see the results.
This is funny…really, relationships that last are the best thing-who wants tons of traffic if no one engages, if no one gives back, if no one stops to consider that they are losing the community?
Good stuff!
Well said by Mack Collier.
It’s a bit hard to comment and keep a straight face 😉 Why do we blog? I think a lot of it has to do with wanting to talk and share with others. That’s what building a community and building relationships is all about. That’s what makes it fun. When I comment on other peoples blogs, it’s because I feel that I have something to share. Traffic is nice, but it’s not the main reason.
This is the first time I’ve read SO MANY comments on a blog, and I’ve actually clicked on some of the names to learn more. I didn’t THIS time, but often, I do leave an identifier with my name. I realize many consider this too over-the-top, but I find it really helpful when others identify themselves before I even click.
And thanks to whoever (I forget now) wrote “My business would be much better served writing quality articles for my readers, writing content for e-Books, writing guest posts..” – a good reminder. There are so many ways to share.
Do comments on someone else’s blog lead to traffic on your blog or website? Sure a comment will get you traffic. Whether it’s the best way to get traffic is highly debatable. Ok, let’s just call it crap. I’ve never ever seen more than a handful of people come from any post I’ve made on a blog.
The best reaction to a blog is the ongoing relationship for sure. Bloggers will notice who’s posting. They will notice who’s making sense. And bloggers will get busy. And that’s the point they’ll do the following:
1) They’ll turn to you to either work on a joint venture project with them
2) Or they’ll ask you for a guest post on their blog
Or 3) You in turn, will earn the right to do both of the above.
Without comments the blog is a dead place. The blogging media itself demands that there be a comment to the post. A blog post without a comment (or several comments) is like a restaurant with no people. The food may be great, buy you don’t feel like going inside.
Smart bloggers know that intelligent comments not only add to the conversation, but prevent the embarrassment of a blog with no action. And so they pay notice.
You don’t have to be the first.
You just have to be relevant.
Witty and intelligence helps.
-s 🙂
P.S. I use blogs as a great way to clear my mind, and get me all charged up to write an article. In fact, I wrote an article on Copyblogger about this very phenomenon.
I think the majority of people who comment on blogs are genuinely interested in the article and contribute to the debate.
Spammers must have a pretty boring life…….
Content has always been the King but it is the marketing aspect that is drowning the quality out of things. Ironically, for bloggers, it is a one man show and they have to look up to everything from writing good stuff and then spreading it out there. Since the later requires more time and energies hence comes a slap down on quality.
Same goes for the commenting fad, I believe! Readers are more on the look out for trafficked blogs with just content rather than inspirational stuff that would really drive out comments.
Amy Dyslex
Ok, call me crazy, but I tend to comment on blogs because I’m compelled to respond to something I read, rather than the notion that it’s going to drive heavy traffic to my site. I’m fairly new to all of this activity, but can someone tell me how driving meaningless traffic to your site or blog is beneficial? Might make your charts look impressive (at first glance), but if no one ever comes back, or cares what you have to say or sell, what’s the point? Kind of like those people who like to brag about the thousands and thousands of twitter followers they have, but if you take a look at who their followers are, most are completely irrelevant. Empty comments, empty traffic, empty followers will get you nowhere…
Accepting that a commenter needs to read all the post before leaving a comment when they have something meaningful to say or ask, should we/they also read all the previous comments before commenting? (I made it maybe half way.)
Also, are screen names always a bad thing? I blog and tweet and do many things online as Sophmom. I’ve come to know many folks in “real life” that first knew me as Sophmom. I’m fond of it.
Finally, isn’t it much like all of life? If it’s genuine and sincere and real, it works. If it’s contrived or forced or fake, it doesn’t. I’ve been blogging since 2004. Without question, the best thing that’s come from that has been the community, the relationships that have developed, and that happens in comments. Interactivity is creative.
Another interesting post. Thanks.
@ Momblebee ..exactly my feelings… i have alwasy appreciated people with a relatively low no. of followers but sound updates that are “from the heart”
…yet marketing is marketing 😉
Regards,
Amy Dyslex
Thank you for your excellent insights. As with most of the commenters, I am seeking to build my blogging skills and community.
I will continue to focus on quality over quantity. You ultimately end up with authenticity, which is always a goal in successful professional services.
I think i’m #107 … nothing to write home about.
I guess i’d love to be 1st on some of the big blogs, but as you point out that takes work and it’s not the type of work that I want to do daily. Payoff is crappy and i think it would mess with your head after doing it for a while.
http://twitter.com/franswaa
Hello Brian. Thanks for not using my blog as an example of one of the bad ones. But all seriousness aside, I’m thinking “hey, he could be right – a great first post would work” so now I’m thinking I can write a sucky post, then be the first one to make a comment (well thought out and very insightful) linking back to the blog so that when people click on my name they return to the same page??? That could work. Ok, maybe not.
Truthfully though, getting “clicks” to my site and blog is total and absolute bullshit unless what I have to say on my site and blog is informative, entertaining or has some way of satisfying people’s needs. To do that I need to know who I’m talking to – and define my audience. When I reply to posts on SEO blogs my audience is my peers (for lack of a better word – because some of the blog posts I’m commenting on belong to SEO industry giants). I’m writing to those having written the posts and those like myself who are also replying.
My own blog is supposed to be winning over potential clients, so I’m writing there to persuade them in simpler terms – to convince them for their own good that I can do a better job than the guy who finally winds up getting the job of building them a web site so that it ranks a 4 on something like Guy Kawasaki’s Website Grader. Meanwhile, the reality is that I’ve been trying to write for both audiences on the same blog – and doing a miserable job of it. Maybe the answer is to have two blogs – a “professional to professional” blog and a “client / professional” blog. More work, but less confusing because it will help me to clearly divide and clarify each.
Your post may have hit the nail right on the head. That may be the only way I can truly hope develop more satisfying and meaningful relationships with people belonging to each group.
Is this article most-commented or what? I had a hard time scrolling here to the bottom… 🙂
I have read different articles about “comments on blogs”, but these are the few that really made an impression to me. Nicely-put, I might add.
Oh, and by the way, I just found out that Brian Clark was co-founder of DIY Themes… how ignorant of me.
More power to copyblogger!
I don’t spend much time commenting on other blogs, but maybe I should. Thanks for the tips!
Wanted to read all the comments but seriously way to many of them(yes you are popular:). Great article though.
The thing that’s of more interest to me is how to go about promoting your product on blogs with use of comments.
If they write about our competitor would you encourage people to try your product as well or is it more of a spam or bagging for attention? I mean it’s relevant but it’s still kind of comments people might disregard??
Okay, so I’m not first.
Early on I was tempted to hire someone in a forum to post blatant comments about my site in the hopes that it would drive traffic to my blog. Luckily for me, this is one of the “internet marketing tactics” I didn’t fall for.
I’ve setup Google alerts for various keywords and phrases specific to my market. Whenever I see one of them in my email I follow the link and see if there’s something worthwhile for me to post on. If so, I do. Then I’ll watch for the Google alert again to see how quickly Google indexed that.
On some blogs and forums, I’ve seen it picked up by Google in a matter of a few minutes. Then I watch the traffic logs. My traffic goes up as well shortly after it’s picked up by Google.
Right now I’ve got about 40 Google alerts and this gives me enough “reputation” in the website security niche – for now.
Thank you for sharing this and reconfirming my thoughts.
“If one of your primary traffic strategies is to leave fast comments on the posts of larger blogs in your niche just to get a few clicks from the passing traffic, stop. You could get more traffic from one piece of stellar content than months of that type of comment strategy.
And without good content, there’s no reason to attract a few “curiosity clicks” anyway. What’s going to make them stick around after the click if your content sucks?”
Although, I can say that it is quite effective to comment in ‘big’ websites, you should make sure that you put in sensible, and helpful comments since you can put in a sense of mutualism between you and the author. And of course, maybe catch the interest of other readers.
Brian, I remember reading your comments at Prince’s blog, so fucking hilarious. Showed you, really you. That’s how I reintroduced myself to you on Twitter, “hey I remember your comments @chartreuseb” or something like that.
Too often I see comments on blogs like this that are just about getting attention, calculated. It’s like people following others on Twitter because they’re interested in… themselves.
For some reason, while in person I’m a clam, online I spew out the contents of my brain without hesitation. Pukes out all over, from major newspapers to new blogs’ first posts. I love commenting. Some comments have brought me more traffic than others’ posts about me ( not yours 😉 ) and my own posts.
But only when they’re genuine. And have a good link.
Peace.
@vinylart
I agree with Sid. Unless the comment is relevant and adds value, then what’s the point? Length is less important as long as it meets the relevant and value-adding criteria.
Has anyone just said “Yes”?
@Sophmom — you almost did!
Truly though, meaning comments that build relationships is the way to go. That is what communications/promotion (and marketing) is really all about… not just casting a net and sell, sell, selling but actually establishing a relationship (and trust) that results in a qualified customer.
The continuation of that relationship? Long-term and repeat customer that can become Lead generators through referrals.
Thanks for the article Brian, as always informative and entertaining. “A cut above the rest” as you baited us loyal readers with… 🙂
As a new blogger, and as someone who doesn’t speak the lingo like the rest of you, just want to say that this resource will be very valuable, and appreciated. Keep up the good work.
Larry (the storyfixer)
Hey Brian…you’ve hit a pet peeve of mine on this one. I may not be a long time blogger, but just from common sense and courtesy I know that any comments left on a blog should show the author that you took the time to read what they put their heart into. I can remember getting my FIRST comment on my blog, being so stoked about it, then realizing the commenter never read a thing and was just using my blog for shameless self promotion.
Some new bloggers I’ve talked to say they appreciate all comments because it’s still traffic…even the ones that are one liners spammed all over the place. But, is that the traffic you want to attract? Seriously, if your content doesn’t offer any value then that person will never be back. Any business owner will tell you that repeat business and referrals are the heart of their company. Your blog should be the same.
I look at comments I leave behind as content. They say something about me and are an extension of my own blog and my writing style (although I promise not to say anything too smart a** on someone else’s blog). If the comment looks lame, chances are the blog will too. 😉
Haha, loved the first comments. I’ve seen it happen time and again on many popular blogs – the first few comments are definitely people who are rushing to leave the first comment to generate traffic. Typically I don’t click on comment links, unless I’m that intrigued by the type of comment left…not the order it was given. Although, for me to read all the comments, the post/article itself must be quite interesting – who doesn’t like a good debate?
This series of comments has pointed out the problem with commenting on Blogs.
1. Lots of me-two me-three comments.
2. Lots of “great post Brian” comments.
3. Lots of WIIFM content rather than WIIFY. (see my blog for a def. –grin– )
4. What commenter with a clue still has generic icons? If you don’t understand how to get your avatar going, then work on that first.
5. Commenters with dumb or scamy names.
6. Commenters who are commenting repeatedly to hear themselves comment.
7. So many dang comments it’s hard to keep a thread alive and read through the bulk of 1 – 6 type comments.
Mack C does a good job of defining Value creation rather than Value extraction.
And you yourself, say “I find that the higher level of singular focus I place on content development, the better the content turns out.”
One thing that was missed was the use of “trackbacks.” And how funny that there are 125 comments (at this moment) and 4 trackbacks. And guess what? The track backs are showing up at the top of the list, ABOVE the comments. And there’s even a duplicate trackback in Italian. Sweet!
A.) Write to create value. B.) If you comment on a blog do it with the same attention to detail you write with. (Heck maybe the nOObs are doing that.) C.) If a post really triggers your creative juices, write a post and use a trackback to get the link love from the post.
I’d say, “well done,” but I’m not gonna.
@jmacofearth
Ryland, I tried. “Yes” just seemed so naked sitting there by itself. I guess Brian said it first with “No. And yes.”
Coree, you’re right to suggest that “common sense and courtesy” should govern interactivity. I’d rather have no comments than spam comments, and comments really are “content”. In my legal line I note that “comments and quoted content are the property of the authors.” I can’t count how many blog posts I’ve had spring from interesting discussion that happened in comments on other peoples’ blogs.
People’s.
I made a beginners mistake recently by making a good comment to a blog with a very different audience and purpose than the blog I write. Some folks clicked through hoping I had more to say to them about prayer and found a blog dedicated to promoting the small town where I live.
129th!!!
I do it all the time. I like contributing to other’s blogs and getting a few visitors at the same time.
Commenting is a good strategy for traffic. It is all about building relationships. You have do your best to respect everyone’s time on putting together a blog and keeping up with the various posts. People are such a hurry and leave comments that make no sense. You made an interesting point about being the first few to make a comments. I will keep an eye on placement in the future when I make a comment back.
Would it be stupid to leave a thoughtful comment on a blog post simply because you’re passionate about the subject, and like to be a part of the conversation? I guess I’ll have to work harder on my ulterior motive strategy.
…or sometimes when you’re in a hurry, and you liked a post and want to remember to come back to the discussion? I’ve left comments just to make sure I got the follow up email notifications because I was interested in the interaction.
Bryan, Its a great piece of advice really! Commenting without reading the whole post is really non-sense!
The wise ones have always said, “Save the best for last.”
I hope nobody posts after me. ;]
Just incase Brandon returns to Brians Blog, He commented “save the best for last. I hope nobody posts after me” That was June 5th 2009. today is sept 9th. 2010. I’m presently at the bottom of this page which is a long long scroll down.
Just thought that might interest you?
Great initial post, with several good comments arguing both sides of the debate. As a general proponent of “less is more,” I net out on Brian’s side, particularly because less comment clutter will make it easier for the truly interesting ones to get noticed.
Ha! Maybe less is more for Brian Clark, but wouldn’t most blogers kill to get 140 comments on their posts?
Comments are just one way of attracting traffic, yes if you do it right. I made comments in blogs I find useful and interesting. It’s easy to spot spammers if the comments are out of topic and with promotional links. @Jon on getting more comments on blog. Google is giving more weigh on blogs with more useful comments, not spam comments. It’s what I learned. 🙂
I think the only thing more over done these days than the “Breaking News” is the RT. I hardly even notice them anymore, so I’m beginning to think a lot of other people skip over them as well.
As mentioned if you can be first and fabulous that’s great but if you are watching your feed all day to do that that would be a terrible waste of time. When your commenting your mostly trying to build a relationship with the blogger , readers are an added benefit
At 141, You can tell I’m not rushing to be #1. I’m not sure when this article was first published, could you indicate at the top the date of the blog? Hopefully I’m not totally out of date. This was a great article, some gurus encourage fast responses, calling it blog love. But they’re of little value if all they say are “Wow Great article”. Sometimes, long responses can be almost as helpful as the blogs, because useful, thoughtful comments are made. Even disagreements can be useful, because they too give pause for reflection. But comments can be very useful in building meaningful relationships, especially with helping newbies get the ball a-rolling. Copyblogger never fail to provide stimulating articles. Especially those on the left column. I have a full evening of reading these blogs ahead of me.
I’ve obviously been doing this all wrong! I have been posting on blogs in my niche, but I thought the only real reason for doing that was to get the backlink ( you don’t even mention that, so I guess that’s useless?). I never really thought that other visitors would click on my link and check out my site.
I always try to leave a meaningful comment, if only because most blogs seem to have comments moderated, and I want my comment to get through moderation.
I think there is some kind of software out there that can watch RSS feeds and notify you the instant it is published…
It’s unfortunate that there are people “educating” other who likely are looking for a way to build their business and they haven’t quite gotten that social networking…is connecting.
But…we’ve got super cool peeps like you that keep kickin’ down the goods about on the best way to comment.
Tim
I certainly comment on blogs in part to get traffic, in part to build links, in part to build relationships, and in part to get some visibility for my own work. Sometimes I post just because I plain like something and I know how nice it feels to get positive feedback. And occasionally, I have an opinion that I think others might find interesting and that I’d like to share.
I’m rarely first (and even less often fantastic!) but I do admit it’s discouraging to spend time crafting a thoughtful comment when you’re number… hmm, lets see… 140++ 😉 the idea being that no one is expected to read that far – are they??
What I wouldn’t do is post for the sake of it – along the lines of ‘loved your turkey recipe’. That’s thoughtless and wastes everyone’s time. So – I do think it’s a smart strategy to comment on blogs, but I would not waste my time glued to my screen hoping to be first… although in the top 20 once in a while might be nice!
The funny thing about this is…a buddy of mine sent me an article that splogging was black hat SEO techniques. In which I agree, but there is always a fine line between white hat and black hat SEO.
Commenting is a great way to increase your traffic and boost your traffic. But this will be achieve by following the two rules: 1.) Comment relevantly, 2.) comment on relevant blogs.
If I had the time I don’t know that I would bother commenting on anyone’s blog – just for traffic. I’m not made that way. I comment on blogs because I have something to say to the blogger. Being new to the blogging community, I hope to one day have commenting happening on my own blog – though I certainly don’t expect it anytime soon. I’m still developing the posts and gist of the blog so others might gain value from it.
148th!
So does that mean there is no point in me now commenting? maybe not. BUt there is something about commenting for your own sake, to express yourself with the belief that the article writer will probably read your comment (to check for any gratuitous advertising) which I thought was the original reason in the first place. Perhaps we have all forgotten that now we are all cynical and focused on links and traffic.
Having said all this, I agree with your thoughts Brian, and what a better world we would live in if all comments were engaging and full of opinion as opposed to links to date Romanian or Malaysian women.
ALl the best,
Bit of a newbie here, which means I’ve been at the tail of pretty much every thread I’ve commented upon. But they almost always get some responses. I actually read the posts just prior to where mine will appear more closely than the early ones.
My question here is — and excuse me if the newbie isn’t playing by the rules — but if everyone here is trying to drive traffic to their own sites, what’s the point? Is anyone concerned with delivering value here and now, and thus contributing to the community? If that’s true, and I hope it is, then this is a pretty special place — the agenda isn’t hidden, and yet it runs on value and goodwill. Pretty cool.
I totally agree with Larry. Its like being at a party where everyone is talking but no one is listening. Everyone shouting to get heard whilst everyone else is just trying to be the loudest. You are right Larry, there is no point. Perhaps the best approach is to offer comments with no ability to link. Therefore you are guaranteed that every contributor really wants to contribute.
However I don’t see any problem myself in contributing whilst representing your brand. So, a link from your name is un-intrusive and is available if readers want to find out more about what you are about, and if the blog is set up to ‘no follow’ so that search engines don’t see the link as a credit towards page rank, then the commenters will all be a bit more genuine, and we would all have to focus on more authentic ways of building our online businesses up. I wonder whether the top search engines already think this way and dont give much credit for stuffing links into sites in this way.
Building communities and content that people genuinely want to link to shows far more value than the website owner running around the web all day stuffing their URL into any site that will take it .
Most experienced bloggers and webmasters know crap comments when they see them.
If you want to leave a comment on my blog it’s fine. If you’re doing it to drive traffic to your blog or website, that’s fine.
Just leave a good comment.
Your post enlightens me about the effectiveness of posting comments on other websites. Thanks for those advice.
Commenting on blogs is a great way to keep up on fresh and new ideas. It also serves as a great tool for linking to others in social media.
Thank you very much for the information! I will use and apply it now.
Interesting. I’ve been running a series on my blog called 10 Commandments for aspiring writers, and number 9 was “Networking is about what you can do FOR someone, not what you can get FROM them.”
I’d have to apply that here. I agree 100% with your use of the word relationship. As an indie author and writers collective member (Year Zero Writers), to me the relationships you can build through commenting on each others’ blogs are THE thing that matter. Not because you can get something from someone, but in themselves. It’s like people on twitter who offer you hundreds of followers. I don’t want hundreds of followers. I want people to follow me if they find what I say intersting, funny, helpful.
It’s the same in the blogosphere. I’ve met some wonderful people. I don’t care what I do or don’t “get” from them, because I’ve already “got” their friendship and respect. And in the world of culture, that’s what matters.
What Don said. This continues to be a wonderful discussion.
You know, someone ought to come up with a blog plug-in where the best comments rise to the top of the viewing tree.
How that would work is anyone’s guess – maybe a Digg popularity system? (Except that would probably attract different kinds of comment “spammers”).
Maybe it would be completely in the hands of the blog owner, i.e. he or she can make the cream of the comments rise to the top, like a “sticky”.
That would encourage *quality* comments first, rather than “First!” comments 😉
Just remember, folks – when every popular blog is using some kind of system like this in a year’s time – you heard it here first! 🙂
Absolutely agree with what you said in this post. I think the concept of “quality” applies to many other facets of traffic generation as well — articles, videos, social media links, etc.
Paul’s idea sounded illogical to me initially but maybe there is a way to ‘vote’ on people’s comments. I can imagine that if we were all in a room together giving each other space to say something, the person who said something meaningful on the subject would get a lot of ‘nods’ (better trademark that now!). Interesting……
So, personally I dont think its a case of raising the ‘best’ but more highlighting the comments that either the blog owner, or the community the blog owner has created that are the most influential in the discussion.
And on it goes… So what are peoples experience who have commented on this blog? Do you have analytics configured so you can see if your post here has generated ANY links?
And again, it’s not the “Great post” comments that are going to get any link love from visiting readers. I think that’s the point. A thoughtful post on the other hand, MIGHT get a looksee from the huge volume of passing users on copyblogger. And might not.
@jmacofearth
Nope, no analysis, too busy with crunching a new product collection and talking to suppliers and customers (its nearly 1am here). My site has no link value with the context of this blog anyway. Im here for the debate.
Personally, I think I would only be interested in checking out someone if I felt they had written something that connected with me in some way… but I guess that then draws us back into the cynical mode of what a commenter’s motivations are in the first place.
I keep on going back to the parallels within a natural environment, how would these different issues relate to a group of passionate people gathered together to talk about an interesting point.
My vote is with the bloke at the top of the page for this discussion in the first place, Brian.
Now no one is stupid and they can understand if someone put stupid and short comments to get the first position of comments on every new post.
This is something like kid stuff. I always did this kind of stuff when I was kid … but now I am mature and I think I should spread my image as mature person so that people can take me seriously as a mature person … not like as kid 😉
SW, how do you aim to do that?
Blogging is about dialogue and interaction. Comments are an integral part of that.
This is something I always wondered. I love blogs that allow me to subscribe via email. But, when I triage my email I attend first to those messages where my reply is expected. Blog posts take second priority.
Of course, that means I am never first. In fact, today I am 164th, but I no longer feel bad about it. Thanks for answering this question for me. (Hopefully, saying “thank you” is still meaningful in this strange world.)
Hey Brian!
You’re absolutely right. You have covered one of the most controversial facts for many bloggers.
Commenting is one of the best ways for getting high quality traffic from a related website to ours. Also, branding is another benefit of this powerful strategy.
However, as you mentioned, it could only be useful if we have something to offer. In fact, what’s the point of attracting prospects to a website or blog lacking good content?!
Commenting is one of the hundreds of generating traffic techniques. But, converting that traffic to a desired action is also important. If we provide a valuable content on our blogs, we don’t need to worry about leaving fast comments on other larger blogs.
On the other hand, a unique content would always attract traffic. Just leave a comment here and there and let your audience spread the word. Trust me! Everybody would start recommending, sharing and talking about your blog.
Thank you again Brian for this article that makes us think more about what we are doing on the web.
Peace!
Hooshmand
I have never had someone leave a comment that said “First” on my blog, but oh how I long for that day 😉
I think blogs and commenting on them–thoughtful, meaningful comments–are a good way to network. However, blogs can be VERY time consuming too. It’s best to set aside a certain time period each week to blog read and comment.
I wrote a guide to blog commenting many moons ago that agrees with your points quite closely, Brian (see link in my name attached to this comment). Thanks for posting this.
Trust, not traffic, should be the main reason for doing this.
I have never left a comment that said “First” , might give it a go ! 🙂
Last hopefully … hehe its not a s p a m
i just saw people competing for first so thought last one is reserved for me
plesssss let me be last post holder here 😀
Last!!
Just kidding 😀
Commenting is actually neutral, what makes it good or bad is the content on your site (which clickers will find out later on). But it’s not easy to build good contents, that’s why we have to keep learning and improving, including from mistakes. All of us, including you, Brian 😀
I totally agree with you. If you don’t have real unique content, then what is the point in really driving traffic to your site. This goes back to having the right product or the content to retain the visitors who visits your site. So you make a good point – first create unique consistent content, then build the relationship.
I really hate the “drop by” connections that some make on my site. Occaisionally, I will be curious enough to click on their link but usually I just delete them.
On the other side of the comment-coin, I never do it to others -leave the one word, opportunistic comments just to get someone to go to my site. I figure if I can’t build a relationship with another blogger by sharing legitimate feedback, I don’t deserve their “click”.
I’m glad that you tell us like it is; we’re all better bloggers/writers because of it. Thanks.
Kellie
You know, having millions of bloggers running around trying to figure out how to get traffic to their blogs is going to lead to all kinds of crazy strategies. I’ve thought about whether or not being the first post would be beneficial. I decided it wasn’t, and that it would be WAY too much stress to try to be that guy. I’m just starting out blogging because I want to simplify my life, not make it more complicated.
PS Do you think the “strong silent type” strategy would work? 😉
In a blogger’s life, time constraints are a big problem. Dedicating time to writing quality content is key, while still leaving yourself enough time to promote your blog authentically in the right places. For me, commenting on other people’s blogs does triple duty. I get to learn a lot from thought leaders in online marketing, I get to share some thoughts noodling around in my brain, and I also get to do some cross-promotion while I’m at it. I do feel online marketers should comment on other people’s blogs because it is a great way to participate in a community, raise awareness about certain issues (like the right way to do things online), and learn, learn, learn!
Interaction leads to creative thinking. Discourse increases the possibility of new ideas. It’s when we talk to each other that the good stuff happens, in comments.
I think this is the first time I’ve spent this much time reading this many comments on a single blog post (just found copyblogger today, and I may not get anything else done for the rest of the day). So many interesting perspectives to take in. I’ve only been blogging for a little over a month, so I’m still trying to fathom the huge realm of strategies for driving traffic. As someone who only posts a comment when I read something that really moves me, it’s disheartening to realize that people are throwing around vague, meaningless comments for the sole purpose of being first or generating clickbacks (ooh, it’s a cold, vile world out there). As someone who also has a full-time office job and a 2-year-old to entertain when I get home from said job, I’ve got little time to worry about new post alerts so I can be first to comment. Really? Are these the kinds of things people are obsessing over? Man, I’ve got a lot to learn.
Brian, spot on you are about first-commenters wanting the opportunity for the most traffic via their sometime inane comments.
Here is a video I made on how I think blog commenting should be done ( http://danielmcgonagle.name/videos/BlogCommenting/ )
There are several criteria you need to consider prior to doing blog commenting:
#1 is obviously investigation and research into what sites you want to comment on, which is based on >
#2 – what your goal is for your blog commenting campaign (link building, interested, targeted traffic)
#3 – is sometimes a largely misunderstood concept and that’s finding DoFollow blogs to comment on. I say this is a misunderstood (and mis-used) concept and tactic because people doing commenting for higher ranking via commenter names like
Singapore SEO,
or tractor repair indiana
are most likely going to leave keywords as names as you so rightly pointed out.
and like you ALSO pointed out, leaving KWs instead of names not only tells blog owner the purpose behind the comment (using YOU) but also tends to get those commenters banned from making future comments.
I’m not saying I’m a know-it-all, but I did add value to your conversation and blog post by posting a content video about blog ocmmenting that will help people, and that’s how part of the intention behind allowing comments in the first place: to enrich the conversation, exchange ideas, add value etc…
I can tell you that blog commenting is NOT one of main sources for traffic or backlinks, however if you are picky about the sites you comment on, that most likely means you’re leaving longwinded (in my case 🙂 ) comments that hopefully add to the convo and gets appreciated in some form or another whether it be traffic to link behind name, or just to let you the blog owner know that I DIGG yer stuff.
Good post here,
Thanks,
Dan
sinaporeseo dot com (j/k ! )
I agree,
If you’re not offering anything of value to your visitors, why waste their time and yours to invite them over to your blog. What good is traffic for the sake of traffic? It just creates a bottleneck.
Rasheed
No idea if my words will add something after 180 comments, is there also value in being the LAST instead of the FIRST or SECOND with a comment? 🙂
Nowadays blogs do tend to look more like forums
I enjoy commenting, I also enjoy getting more traffic. I´ve built some “relationships” most a lot of bloggers are too lazy to comment back to their commenters. Myself included….
Hi Brian
I found your blog is full of great information about blogging, I remember when I first started, thinking I was going to make lots of money, Imade a little got one check from Google Adsnse, this year, but I want to make it realy go, Time is what it will take for my pages to get traffic, Well take care Brian and thanks for the great blog you run. Edward Clements.
I think that adding comments is useful when you add your opinions to the piece. Better yet add value. If it is just about backlinks, then off course, it would be a waste of time.
It reflects badly to you (the one leaving the comment) too
Great Post brian, makes sense.. well i just thought i would say Thank u for this post!:)
You are absolutely right about this theme and It takes time to get traffic from commenting other blogs, I have learned from this that we have to be friendly blogger to each other and is this way we can get traffic.
Thanks Again
Alam
twitter.com/alamest
I used to leave comment using the keyword that my blog optimized, I realized that it didn’t help in building my brand. So, I’ve changed this few days and I used to leave comment using my own name in all the blogs. My blog traffic is actually increasing and the number of comments in my post is definitely increasing a lot. Leaving comment in the right way can actually improves our blog, so we need to do it wisely. 🙂
Regards,
Lee
I’m new to the blogging world so this is a great read. Very informative. Content is definitely more important, I think, but when you are first getting started I think you gotta get your name out there anyway you can.
An excellent post, again. I have a different perspective on commenting on blogs and forums. Personally I find it almost impossible to write a junk, one line post. I’m way too verbose for that 😉
I also cannot write a meaningless comment. Sometimes I comment on the comments but mostly it’s the content of the post which gets the nod, as it should be.
In this instance the post and the comments are quite fascinating. I have never found commenting to bring direct click-through traffic, perhaps my posts are just too boring or I don’t seek out high traffic blogs to comment on.
No, for me the benefit is in the backlinking and the traffic which the search engines bring. For that reason I may, sometimes, use keywords in my name but not always.
I agree that online security should be of concern and so rarely provide more than general information about myself or location to anyone online.
The thing I am struggling with is not whether to comment but where to comment?
It seems to me that most of us smaller newer bloggers (and BTW looking at Copyblogger’s subscriber numbers I guess it’s in the A list…) would perhaps benefit more from interacting with other smaller blog simply because these people are more likely to notice. As well as this issue smaller bloggers are sometimes configured for DoFollow i.e. you can gain some PageRank benefits for writing a decent comment.
One thing you will NEVER catch me doing is writing a comment on someone else’s blog. I mean, what a complete waste of time. Otherwise, how would I get stuff like this done?
I will be honest the only reason why I comment on blogs related to my niche is for the purpose of backlinking and driving traffic to my blog, but im not going to be an a-hole and write 3 words and expect to get people to my site. Im not going to disrespect the blogger and spam his blog, I will read the post and give an honest comment about what I think.
I enjoy commenting and leaving valuable comments. Voicing out your own ideas or opinions on other people’s work or sharing tips and expertise is in itself rewarding.
Interacting with the blog owner or other contributors also build relationships and networking. I believe contributing something of value each time you comment on blogs can generate some interesting traffic in the long run. Some people would want to learn more about you. And the more blogs you comment on, the more traffic you can potentially get. It’s also a numbers game.
I’ve been wanting to start commenting on blogs for a while now, but haven’t found the right post to motivate me. This seemed like the perfect one to help me jump into the comment pool. I’m going to give the commenting strategy a try for a while. I figure that if it doesn’t drive traffic to my blog, then at least it should inspire my thinking.
This definitely sheds some new light into my traffic strategy. I usually leave comments if the information was truly helpful. But one thing i definitely need to do is improve my content. Thanks for the tips.
Commenting on blogs with the hope of a reader clicking on your own site is a bit like hanging up a poster or business card on a supermarket bulletin board. Maybe someone will pick it up, maybe they’ll be interested enough to call or maybe they’ll toss it when they get home. Certainly a onesy-twosey approach, not great for reaching large-scale traffic.
That said, there’s something delightful about being able to write something and see it “published” so quickly for others to read. There’s an actual sense of “belonging” that goes along with it. A sense of being connected to the blogger and the other commenters. While the connection may not endure beyond the moment, it is nonetheless a real experience at that moment. Of course it may be, and is usually, entirely one-sided, unless someone specfically comments back or contacts you. Often the blogger will comment back, which creats a nice, fuzzy feeling.
Musing on it right now, it could even be called an “intimate” experience. I recently wrote about this in my own blog (linked via my name).
This has been a fun blog post to follow, whether or not anyone has any interest in my business. It’s somewhat of a community, even. Like an ongoing party you can drop into now and then because it keeps going on and on and …
It’s funny I came across this article because I was thinking about commenting on a popular blog related to my niche but still haven’t found much blogs yet. I then remembered ‘copyblogger.com’ mentioned in my Blog master mind, A weekly email lesson on building a blog, lesson # 6. I admit I too tried the tried and almost true method of first place commenting but you put it in retrospect, What’s the purpose when they simply click, view the page for a sec or two and leave? I now no longer even use programs to update me of new posts on popular blogs to leave first comments because I then haphazardly skim through an article and try to leave a comment that seems genuine but lacking substance. Nice article and good wake up call, I’d recommend this to starting bloggers.
Focus focus focus if ypou don’t focus your comment in business related to you you make a wrong comment, yes or not? i hope to be the last comment .
Not a comment for the sake of comment, but I was wondering if there is any strategy for not mentioning the dates of posts at Copyblogger! If there is, may we know what that is?
Hello, I am new to blogging and the new internet thing. I have been blogging for three months and I have been visiting other sites out of curiosity and to compare content etc. I have received a request for a guest posting and someone else featured me on their blog. Your information is so valuable because I was doing this blindly and now I have a strategy.
I thank you,
I agree. Laving comments on someone else’s blog just to generate traffic to your own blog is Lame.
But if you disagree you can click my name above and visit my log and leave comments about my articles.
Is there a way to put anchor text in blog comments and if yes how and is that considered ok?
I made it this far.
And I read the majority of comments too.
Perhaps a mathematician could come up with a formula. The age of a blog article – and add to that – how large the number of comments has become – which will give a total of a count of the readers who have made it down this far to this comment. Surely a tiny amount – compared to when the post was fresh and the comments were few?
You all seem to be writers. I’m a drawer. I communicate more with visuals than with words.
Today I decided to look on the web to see if there was any advice on strategies on how to using commenting to get traffic. This was the first site I came to and confirmed what I think about the issue.
I don’t think I blog. I make an illustration a week for a word. I don’t have comment fields. And I don’t write much.
The good practices outlined above are the same for us visual people except we have sites that we also contribute to with images – rather than written comments. Such as Illustration Friday, Doodlers Anonymous – even twitter has a doodle fest.
Why I got this far is because I’m a bit lazy and this is me trying to get some information about how to up my game and get relevant visitors to my site.
You guys probably don’t fit – could this be reverse psychology?
Alan/Stooryduster, have you ever thought about enabling comments on your site? There’s no reason why a visual “blogger” couldn’t be supported by verbal commentary. Hugh Macleod’s work at GapingVoid.com comes to mind.
Spammy comments or its-about-me comments, while literally killing the discussion, can take you into some really humorous turns. Kinda digressing from a discussion that is becoming too serious. A quick, humorous, off-topic comment really brings a smile to any new lurker (like me) of any blog.
My blogs are so new I’d be glad of ANY visitors, ‘spammy’ or not.
Seriously though, the advise is useful, and I’m glad of it.
How does one find blogs to comment on? It isn’t easy to google new blogs. It would be helpful to list a way if there is an easy way!
It continues to become apparent that “pure” motives while engaging in social media activities are simply more sustainable.
Like a previous commenter alluded to the fact that the “get rich quick” approach seems to always be short lived, and those who have the right intentions, win in the end. I guess patience is truly a virtue!
I like the approach you’ve taken on this topic.
Firstly, Alan/Stooryduster you really do need to add the comments section, it works gangbusters for YouTube and perhaps there is a graphic plugin you can get for your site so people can leave a doodle or some such as a response similar to the YouTube video responses.
Imran, it’s easy to find blogs to comment on, do a search on your keywords like this + blog and you’ll find hundreds. I just did that for my keywords and found 906,000 results most of which will be ones I can comment on. Leave valid comments on all of them, even the no-follow ones because you still get a PR0 link from them.
There is no substitute for actually visiting the blog and leaving a valid comment, you can use software to speed up the visiting and filtering the sites to visit but you still have to write a comment yourself. Automation of that part will get your comment dumped and rightly so.
Sometimes or shall I say most of the time comments may be proved worthless but hey a comment is still a comment, positive or negative, 1st or last, these comments means traffic and traffic means your blog is worth checking for.
Great — I love it when the “get rich quick” method is unwrapped, revealing a very ordinary one that’s not quick, but works.
My blogs are so new I’d be glad of ANY visitors, ’spammy’ or not.
Seriously though, the advise is useful, and I’m glad of it.
Great article…I’ve read about so many of these “tactics” for getting more traffic to my blog and they all seem like crap to just really building relationships and adding to the community, just like you said. It was great to read what I was thinking, especially starting out.
Aaron
Great article.
Spot on about leaving a short comment like thank for great post or nice article isnt going to help you. Infact if your comment adds value and is interesting your more likely to get some visiters. Especially when your starting a new blog this is proberly the best method the get traffic as it will take you a bit of time to rank high in search engines for your keywords.
Building relations is also very importent as you can help each other.
I hope I was “first” to get more website traffic but I am too late. Too bad for comment-traffic-strategists like me.
Just wanted to add that comments are meant to be this way – i.e. with a link to the site of the “commenter” because the slot is there. I saw some blogs that the “Website” slot is not showing or disabled.
Blog-to-blog promotions is nothing if this is not working so… here’s my spam?…
Great tips and I think many people who try to use blog commenting as their sole promotion medium are fooling themselves if they think this is the cure all. I think it is something that is overlooked if you do it right and concentrate on a few blogs daily in your niche as you can grab some of their traffic but for those who just go all over and comment I think it is more of a time waster than anything.
The do-follow thing is the make or break for this ‘strategy’ isn’t it? Unless I misunderstand how it works, one kind doesn’t allow backlinks and the other does. Shoot – I can’t remember which is which….
Hey Brian,
A great comment is like an unsolicited great guest post.
In fact, it ceases to be a comment. It jumps into the telephone booth, takes off the suit, and becomes a mini-article.
It is related to the original article: expanding on the topic, adding a different viewpoint, or challenging with a thought-out question.
It offers a link back to your own great content on a high-traffic and relevant blog. This is assuming you write great content as a comment. Otherwise, no one will care to read more.
I strive to write great mini-articles on Copyblogger and other high-traffic and relevant blogs, with the desire to add value to those reading through the comments section – and hopefully get some of those readers interested enough to check out more of what I have to say.
Great article on whether commenting on blogs is a smart strategy. Like with anything I suppose, it’s only smart if you only do great stuff.
Thanks,
Oleg
thanks a million for this post Brian, you’ve hit the nail on the head when you said its all about building relationships, be it on blogposts, twitter whatever. The quick click will come and go, but if you bring something of value in your comments then you will see the rewards, thanks again.
I completely agree that focused commenting is the best way. It is confusing to me when I see ‘social media strategists’ sending out garbage all over the web instead of focusing in on relevant subjects.
Thanks for the good word!
I’m 221’st… does that still count as a ‘first’ 😉
no real content to aadd here, just saw a 1st opening and took it! 😉
generally speaking, I do try to add relevant content or opinions, and commenting really is something I should do far more often than I do.
This page is absolutely great!…I have added it to my preferred blog lists on my page, I think it will be very helpful to my readers. Thanks for sharing a lot of blog wisodm.
Aureliano
I agree with what you’re saying here, and not all bloggers know this, or even care, so thanks for putting it out there.
It’s rather unlikely that I would benefit from spamming big international blogs in my niche, even IF I get a lot of curiousity traffic. Besides, I write in Norwegian, so the likelyhood of me getting actual traffic is really low.
Its a great point you got there. Yes I think it is important to comment on other blogs and it does not necessarily have to be gor getting traffic. I think that your initial reason for leaving a comment on a certain blog is becuase you actually enjoyed the post and have got something out of it for yourself and secondly you are interacting with the writer. Comments have to be thoroughly thought through (phew) and meaningful and helpful to the reader and not just there to take up space and show that you were there with comment like “wow” or “good”. Not much insight in that comment. That’s all I wanted to share. Thank you
Ha, how bizarre, I was just in the process of finding blogs to comment on to build my traffic (if I must be so honest). Brian you’re absolutely right. Did you employ this strategy yourself at all to help get copyblogger off the ground in the initial phases???? I’d love to know your thoughts. I’ve just released a new book & am keen to build the traffic to the site… Any comments would be great. Cheers Ben 😉
I stumbled on CopyBlogger by accident and would have to spend the next few weeks soaking-in your rich content. This is the second blog post I am reading here and I must confess I am very impressed by your posts. They are insightful.
Being a blogger myself, I would implement some of the ideas offered – the ones relevant to me.
1. You are right that most blog commenters are bloggers themselves. That has been my experience.
2. You are right that leaving a few meaningful comments is more impressive than several incoherent comments.
Keep up the good work.
I agree most comments are from other bloggers but how many comments actually get read? Sometimes it is only the original blogger that reads the comment. If I have read the article I give myself a little bump and get a link to the latest website I am working on.
Interesting. I don’t even have a reader feed! lol.
There are definitely folks who comment on my blog who don’t read the content.
Great post-
I noticed on FB the folks who post a thread when it is a good one, meaning it is on the topic I pick up one to three new friends. In essence your advice is spot on.
Glendon
I found this analysis helpful. I’m very new to this relationship with unknown, unseen folks challenging. I want to train myself to ‘see’ the person I’m responding to. I shall try to think more and write more slowly in the future. I don’t yet understand the intricate spider web of multiple-linked interaction that I read so much about. Thanks for your review of this topic.
I am betting this wont be post number 1 *grins*
I am fairly new to blogging and even newer to the concept of commenting on blogs, so I am glad that one of the first posts I read on the topic promoted good content and intelligent, useful comments.
Content is about integrity – how can you hold your head up and proudly put your name to content that is poor, or worse still spun from PLR articles? (I learned about PLR articles and content spinning the other day and it shocked me. I Guess as a writer, I fail to see the value of taking something that is poorly written, and spinning it to create the same content that is even more poorly written). Of course taking something that is written and adding to it, putting a new unique spin on it or improving it is something else – it is done in academia and the news media all the time.
If you are posting so that you become visible, build relationships and drive some traffic to your own blog or site, then the content of your comments is as important as the content of your site. I know I would not bother to look at a site if the comment was poorly written or had glaring grammatical and spelling errors.
I read somewhere that comments should not be me focused – and reading back I see that this one is, but hopefully it contributes something to the general discussion, that is the aim anyway.
LOL to the first two comments.
I used to think that leaving comments will create backlinks. But here in copyblogger, I just enjoy reading posts so much that I have to leave something to say. 🙂
Thank you. I have heard that commenting on blogs is helpful but as you stated I have been getting a lot of unqualified traffic. I will look for more related blogs to comment on.
I like leaving little notes to acknowledge my participation in reading. Some blogs have 0 comments…those I like commenting on partly to encourage the authors.
This one has so many comments that it’s a lot to read, and it must lessen the impact of my little comment at the end, hmm?!
Here’s my question…assuming impeccable content…is it better to make my “website” bring folks to a landing page or to the front page?
I am new to this and I just learned the importance of networking and supporting other bloggers. I think depending on your niche yes it is a great strategy.
It’s hard for me to believe some bloggers are making $20-40K/month merely blogging. But in almost every case their strategy involves meaningful, thought provoking content that gains followers. The viral marketing concept seems labor intensive and almost a waste of time in the beginning. But in the end it’s a leverage tool that can move mountains.
Clever insights … no wonder it took me a day to read all the comments here 🙂
As for me, I appreciate the quality of the post while commenting and sometimes, even that becomes a matter of banality.
Hmmm I’m afraid that I could be guilty of the “first comment” syndrome… can it be classified as a syndrome, or should we just leave it as nOOb mistake? Either way, I throw myself at the mercy of the court.
I’m number 239! Great post. This was exactly what I was looking for. FYI, this is top ranked in “SEO techniques ‘commenting on blogs'”. I was thinking it would be effective because the site themes are similar. Now I’m not so sure; I always have to make it “thought provoking” apparently. Eek…how much brain cells to do that.
This particular post is also amazing for being able to generate 200+ comments. I will write before I search, but I wish there was an article that focuses on making people comment. That’d be a good skill to have.
I have to admit, after comment 40+ I already jumped down to the bottom, but the sheer number still amazes me.
I had this all planed. I was just sitting back waiting for the right time. I’m 240th, thank you. 100 characters over 140 characters, which is the limit of characters in a twitter tweet. There’s something there. 🙂 DOH!!
Commenting is good whether it’s your niche or not. If the conversation motivates you, good enough.
I suppose the majority of “successful” bloggers grew their blog by being first to comment. 😉
However, it does work for some to be first and meaningful or just first. I think the meaningful ones have the longevity though.
Curiosity clicks will always be there and some might become sticky.
Whether it’s being first, a goofy looking Gravatar or interesting name, some people just gotta click. Kind of like the folks who click on pop-up ads, spyware, and “How to Become a Millionaire with Curiosity Clicks” claims. Sounds like a good eBook anyway. 😉
Now, hopefully I’m really 240th after clicking on the submit button or you haven’t closed the comments.
Does it really have a huge impact if you leave the first comment in a specific blog? Sometimes, I find it unfair that people actually leave comments just for the sake of getting backlinks. The author will definitely appreciate it if you say something nice or relevant to the subject of the post.
Hi,
a totally diferent strategy, being the last to write a comment to a popular post 😉
Of course, it only works providing the post author is not closing comments; there can always be a next one; and the number of readers will reduce exponentially as the blog entry ages.
But, at least when there are many comments, some people just scroll down to the end, and just read the last comments. And surely if there are many comments, you know the post has been quite succesful and is attracting readers, links, backlinks, etc.
It is interesting that you generated a meaningful discussion about something that, before I read your article, seemed so trivial to me.
I see it has generated so many comments about commenting. As I am very new and green to this, I am not sure if commenting should be viewed as a strategy.
i.e. I see nothing wrong in leaving a genuine word or two comments, that I liked someone’s post. In fact, I really thought I was going to do just that.
However, what I got from the article almost suggested to me that the author would prefer me to refrain from “I like your post” sort of comment, if I didn’t have to say anything else? Maybe I am wrong, even naive to think of a comment as anything else but the comment. I don’t see anything wrong in one liners as long as they are genuine.
As the author says, it is a commentator’s blog content that counts whether the commentator is going to generate any traffic to his/her own site in the future.
Surely, commenting on someone else’s post should be only about the content of the article we are commenting about. Nothing else, nothing more.
If you ask me, I’d much rather see those one liners or tick(s) in my boxes “interesting”, “funny” or even “rubbish”, then nothing at all.
In saying all this lets not forget the original intention of my comment was to say only: I really like this post(Very interesting, educational even) 🙂
I’m wondering if anyone has knowledge as to whether Google still values inbound links from blog posts like this one.
Everyone gets so caught up in posting to do follow blogs and how to do it correctly, and the quality of the content…etc. As important as all that is, the question remains as to whether the backlink itself is valued by Google still?
Wow…I’m the 245th commenter, just like a simple drop in the ocean! But my (first here!) comment is only another appreciation for your excellent blog and your top posts. I started since just a few days to read you on a semi-regular basis and Copyblogger is now an undeleteble new entry in my bookmarks.
P.S. Merry Christmas from Italy and pardon my English 🙂
Comments do lead to traffic.
People will read what you wrote,
and feel the need to findout more about you.
That simple.
Since I started doing this my traffic has increased 30%. So it is well worth the time and energy to post thoughtful comments in forums. This has been my experience. I think you are missing out, if you do not comment you are missing out on very valuable traffic.
There are 247 people who have commented on this article before me. I scanned through the comments and read the few that caught my eye.
Some comments lengthy, others short. None, however, had cramped formatting (i.e. insufficient line spacing), had overly long paragraphs or contained smileys.
Call me a cynic, call me a snob, but don’t call me a liar.
What we need to realize is good content trumps all when doing any kind of writing whether its articles, blog posts or comments. Having the frame of mind of helping one another will steer you away from rushing to create backlinks for your blogs. The new bloggers are told to comment and create backlinks to get traffic to their blogs, yet they’re not coached properly on building themselves up for the long term by offering quality advice for others first. This post hit the nail right on the head and it all starts with people trying to get something without giving first.
This goes against what I have been told, but makes a lot of sense.
I think it’s great to hear back from users who are interested in the topic and have something to say. My problem is having enough time to comment on all the great posts i read!
I think a good way to predict the linkability / likeability of a comment lies in observation. How do you feel after commenting? Do you like it yourself?
If you can be positive about this, what else matters?
What are your thoughts about Dofollow and Nowfollow comments?
I got my blog in to technorati (starting out with 114 authority in one of my niches, somehow) and put an article up on EZA, and decided I didn’t care much about pagerank.
I get more backlinks (and traffic) connecting with other bloggers than worrying about how big my green bar is.
Nofollow? Dofollow? Idon’tfollow
(iDontfollow?)
I was scrolling down to say precisely what Michelle – Word Ninja said! I have found some of the most fascinating blogs and cyber-met some of the most interesting people from comments.
I’ve never once sought out someone who simply announce their position (although I’m certain the ones in this post did it to be funny – they made me laugh, anyway). I seek out people who have something worthwhile to say. It makes me want to hear more!
And with that said, I’m off to learn more about Michelle – Word Ninja. Coffee Ninja meets Word Ninja – we’ll get along splendidly.
Your tips are a breath of fresh air- content is still king and inanity will sink as much as it stinks!
It is common sense (which is no where near common enough) that quality will beat quantity in the long run, the growth of spam means that it is hated ever more as a bandwidth hugging disease that needs killing with the disinfectant of quality content.
I have a doubt in posting comments on blogs. Suppose I need to post a comment on blog having PR 2. I found it. But when I opened the blog. I found several posts. I posted comment on a post, but the PR is 0. This means, the home page of the blog has PR 2 and the post page has PR 0. Does google counts the home page PR or the post page PR?
I think commenting can help SEO, but probably direct traffic is not the way to go.
Brian,
Thank you for writing this post!
I am new to blogging and this was very useful in helping me know when to and when not to leave comments for people.
Thanks again for expressing your ideas and passing on your knowledge!
interesting article Brian.
I’ve been trying this. I make it a point that the link back to my site is to a post that is similar to the post I’m commenting on. So far, the results have been promising. So maybe there is something to blog commenting.
Yup! Commenting can be a media for creating real readr- relationship and retained friendship that is impossible by the other medium. So I admit the great commenting too.
ya always comment to something relevant…
great content, this is so true, first when i started bloging i use to comment everywhere and expected to to increase the traffic to my blog, there is no point because the traffic only increases clicks on those days when u actually comment on other blogs, when you stop you get no clicks..:)
very great content, very helpful to me, I struggle a lot in getting traffic to my site, I just start blogging because a friend of mine start blogging also, and he showed me the earnings that he made for 15 days since he start his blog, he already got $300, he showed me also the blog that he created and i see that it is simple i can also do that. he also showed me the his daily visitors in his blog, and he got around 2k every night, so immediately I start blogging, I just followed what he told me. But since i start my blog I didn’t get any cents yet. I am very disappointed, I thought it was easy, and I realize there is no easy way to make money. I just want to have some extra to pay my electricity and internet bills. I hope someone can help me, to achieve that kind of blog, even around $5 every day, i will be happy to have that kind of income for my blog. Hope someone can help me out. feel free to email me guys, victorladra122186@yahoo.com I will be very much delighted.
Thanks for the insights and I appreciate the thought you put into it. Every blessing in your endeavors. Good to see the website.
Here’s a cool thing. I’ve been trying my best to leave relevant comments in blogs I like. Guess what? In some search engines, they’re being counted as backlinks already. So I have to say I’m pro-commenting. Not to mention it keeps blogging interesting.
Blog comments are a great way to get backlinks to your website, heck I even sell them. But, they aren’t too powerful and you need a lot of them to make much of a difference. But if you just need like 200 backlinks to rank for a keyword than they are great way to get there. You should never rely completely on blog comments to help build backlinks, they tend to get less powerful over time.
Blog comments are a great way to get backlinks to your website, heck I even sell them. But, they aren’t too powerful and you need a lot of them to make much of a difference. But if you just need like 200 backlinks to rank for a keyword than they are great way to get there. You should never rely completely on blog comments to help build backlinks, they tend to get less powerful over time.
P.S. For admin: Please delete the previous post and retain this post in place, it’s what you want of course.
Thanks in advance
Why do they become less powerful? Because the comment ages? Well, at least it also builds relationships with other sites owners.
I never cared about being the first to comment – that’s just waste of time. Period.
What I do care about are articles which help me in some way – and that sometimes leads to kind of spammy comments like “Great article, thanks for that.”. But if an article is really great and there is nothing to contradict or add, that’s all I have to say 😉
LAST!
What about the guy that is 272nd on the liat of comments. What kinda click through traffic can he expect?
As I’m still a newby at this and trying to learn things along the way, it was interesting to read so many opinions on the subject of commenting.
Having not a huge amount of traffic to my blog ( I think upto 1000 a month) for me an extra couple of visitors is excellent.
Sometimes this traffic can come from having left comments on other blogs, but then it is very important to keep in mind that if you don’t have a proper anchor tag then your comment is not really worth ( unless you are commenting because you love the subject and want to share what you know with the rest and have no intentions about any backlinks) 🙂
Do I get any points for being last? lol
If this isn’t an exquisite, meaningful comment, do I still get points for it being a comment? 🙂
@Dino – HA! lol
I couldn’t agree more, Brian. I’ve had to tell a couple people (names removed to protect them) that posting comments just to get a link isn’t the way to go. If for no other reason than because 1) there’s no link love (most blogs aren’t dofollow), 2) the number of visitors from a half-hearted comment are less than you can get from a great blog you write yourself and 3) b.s. comments are irritating.
– But then, I also think that we’ve forgotten how to really build relationships. Any more, the Internet seems to be about who can get the most traffic, which is a HUGE soap box for me, even as an SEO. Just once, for one day, I’d like to see people writing, reading, comment, sharing and all that without thinking about the traffic they can get.
Finally, and off topic – I’ve loved Copyblogger since the first time I came across it four years ago, am a major Thesis enthusiast, and just found Scribe – Ya’ll rock!
I often wonder just how many people are readers of blogs, that are NOT bloggers themselves? I think I’m one of the few. Or at least one of the few that comment on blogs, without the desire of getting additional readers my way.
Just wanted to say thanks for this and the other articles that I have read today. I signed up for your emails. I have much research to do because I have no idea what a news feeder is, guess i will have to google that one. I keep imagining a bird feeder. ,:) Just call me a newbie or maybe clueless. Although I do imagine myself understanding all this some day before my grandaughter graduates high school. She is 4!!
Wish me luck!!
I have translated your article into Russian. Thank you for the useful information so needed by newbies like myself.
I don’t think it’s just about being first, but rather about the contribution you are brining to that particular topic through your comment. Although you are right when it comes to the power of commenting on blogs, since it is a powerful tool to drive traffic, I am not sure this is a good way to get business as well. Let’s consider the case of a social media company: you get involved and comment on articles in your line of interest. But then again, all others commenting there are working in the same industry, and if they visit your site is only for information…NOT for hiring your services. But for the sake of traffic..maybe it is worth it 🙂
Seriously commenting is one of the best tools. But one thing I have noticed is that even if you write a great comment that is extremely relevant to the info and can actually benefit the users of the site, it is not approved by the admin. Why is that so?
Funny thing, i just found this post while looking for commenting tools and the first one I found was JS-Kit ECHO which costs money 🙁 the second one was Getingate’s social web commenting tool, which was free and does everything i wanted it to do.
So thanks a lot for your post!
Right, this is where I post something clever or….um…don’t be banal…errr…nice post?!
I can’t say I’m bothered about being the first in a comment stream. If I have something to add I’ll add it.
Being first is not always preferable. I think it is important to allow a comment stream to “mature” to get a feel for how community members are feeling.
I Think being the 1st and last person to comment is always good as it gets you the most exposure.
I try to add to the conversation and blog post. Commenting on blogs in your niche is a good way to get targeted traffic back to your blogs.
Some people do it wrong because they say things like ‘Great Post’ instead of adding value to the post and conversation.
I was taught by Gary V to leave at least 2 to 3 paragraphs of quality stuff then to end with a question, so what do you think?
@Aaron Darko, every one of your paragraphs made me chuckle…good on you. 🙂 However, I find the most value in posting comments on Fridays in April. 😉
I don’t usually comment on other folks’ blogs with the expectation of traffic or SEO, but because I actually have something to say. (This comment is something of a rarity, actually.)
Last year, I replied to a comment on Bob Bly’s blog (say that 3 times fast). The other commentor was discussing how hard it was to break into Elance.com as a copywriter. Since I’ve had a lot of success on Elance, I parceled out a bit of advice for the other writer. And my comment caught Bob’s eye…and Bob ended up hiring me to do some copywriting for him. I never in a million years would have imagined an outcome like that, simply because someone found value in my blog comment.
So, if you really have value to add, I say go for it. If the extent of your contribution is “First!!!” or “LOLZ!”…uhm…then perhaps not. 🙂
@Brian,
Ran across your post today while researching the pros of blog commenting for a client. As your original post is almost a year old, do you find equal value in commenting on older blog posts, and, as a blogger, do you continue to follow comment streams indefinitely, or is there a moratorium on aging posts?
Oops is there a point to commenting on a blog post after 287 people have already had their say? Probably not. I think I’m still a little too shy to jump for first comment in bloggerland. At least I can claim that I’m responding (positively) to the content because I like it and not because it will bring me traffic. I’ll start a blog with high quality content before I chase people to buy from me 🙂 Maybe next time I’ll be comment 187. Small steps get you there eventually
Hi Brian,
Certainly a long way from first but the content and the comments (generally) are of a high order. There aren’t many comments left that I could add, that haven’t already been shared…but! I can’t resist having my ‘two peneth’. I really believe that you wrote this question and the excellent answer specifically for us.
My brother and I have started our very first blog on diy solar and wind guides only 6 weeks ago. We have written 32 posts and currently have 241 comments. Quite a few are the blatant spam stuff, but some are genuine heart felt and supportive ‘people’ comments. The sort that gives you that nice ‘warm n fuzzy’ feeling when you know someone enjoyed and got something out of your article.
Well I hope my comments give you that ‘warm n fuzzy’ feeling because this post was written for my brother and me. We were discussing this exact question not 24 hours ago and now we have the answer(s).
Thanks’ a million for the post and the attendant comments, many of which did make me smile. My favourite has to be Gina’s… how to roast a turkey comment very close to the #1 position 🙂
Alan B.
Frankly, it can be quite time consuming and brain-draining to write something meaningful in people’s blogs. But hey! It’s potentially traffic-attracting, right? So, no complains here.
Leaving comments that contribute to something of value to the topic are important to covering any given topic with as many points of view as possible. Too many people nowadays seem to accept only one answer to any given situation when in fact there are often many different and viable solutions to each situation.
Here’s a cool thing. I’ve been trying my best to leave relevant comments in blogs I like.
What? No Underdog Millionaire posting here? I’m utterly shocked. That dude is everywhere.
yes I agree I got my visitor just from blogwalking or comment in the others blog because my content is ordinary
yes, blog commenting can increase your traffic, i read your post and enjoyed it…………
Forming relationships with other bloggers with your interests is great. Plus you get extra traffic so its a win win.
Excelent blog. Congratulations.
Hi Brian,
Even though your post above has been aged one year but the topic is still very worth to be read.
I strongly believe that blog commenting is a smart strategy to bring traffic. As you say above that many of the people who comments on blogs are also bloggers. What I really want to know is do the traffic who are bloggers have ads click conversion or sales conversion as good as the conversion of traffic from search engines?
What I want to know above is absolutely not going to deny the importance of blog commenting for building the community.
I’ve always wondered about this. We here all the ‘pros’ speak of it as a great traffic strategy but what if the content of your blog has no relevance to the comment or where it was left. Will probably increase traffic and bounce rate.
Do comments build traffic? I sure hope so. I like Anthony’s comment on 6-2-10: I enjoyed “meeting” people and having genuine conversations with humans from all over the world. So do I. I love seeing comments on my blogs; RTs, Mentions, and #FFs in Twitter. Makes me feel good! At my age, I need all the “feel goods” I can get… traffic would be awesome! ^.^
Howdy Brian, you have made a great point about commenting. Although my blog isn’t nearly as popular… Yet, I really love bloggers or anyone that has something to say comment on my blog post.
I know you do to.
With that said, one of my strategies is to comment on other blogs frequently, just like I am doing here. I do not want to comment if there really isn’t anything to say.
Another strategy from commenting, if the commnetor has a good blog, I will email them to see if they would like me to to write content for there blog as a guest blogger.
Do you think this last strategy is good, bad or in the middle?
I was going to leave some banal comment here, or at least that was my fear. Let’s give it a go and see what happens.
I am a new blogger, trying to understand just how the blogosphere operates. I have assumed there is some etiquette to follow with comments, and this post hammers home a few points — illuminating a small corner of it all.
I’m drawn to blogging for the content delivery power the system provides. The platform makes it easy for most anyone to put up well ordered content — albeit in a sucky first in last out format — in a reasonably quick fashion. Comments to me then, are a secondary, yet important factor in blogging.
I have known that commenting provides an avenue for links and traffic to my blogs. But, if my content sucks then what’s the point? I’ll admit, my first blogging knee-jerk had been to “throw it up” and then plug the post. But I’ve not caved to my first reaction, and am going slower. Much slower.
My blogs are currently sparsely populated, and what post are there need work. I’m working hard on my content, hoping to improve it to the point of my being proud to have produced it. My goal, as any bloggers should be I guess, is to add value. The good stuff, the traffic, the money, the recognition will follow if I manage to do just that. I hope.
So I’m real glad I read this post, and I’m real glad I read the comments. I see that indeed, most people who leave comments are bloggers, and if you want to create a successful blog the last group of people you want to alienate are bloggers.
PS: This post has not been subject to the 24 hour rule! (maybe it should have been) How would that work Brian?
I wish you have a luxury time to consider using benefits articles can offer.
Thanks for sharing.
first I read this article title, very curious to the answer.
thanks to open my mind with the meaningful knowledge.
great!!
I do agree that blog commenting is a good traffic strategy but i do get really annoyed when people start commenting things like “good post.. “great post!” “well done writing such a fantastic post.. its as if that’s the only thing left in their vocab. Sometimes the people who comment put in their keywords as their name I mean please.. write your REAL name??
Personally, I do prefer comments that allow you to interact or constructive criticism when you can actually get feedback and learn from what your readers say.
Yes..I totally agree that content is the most important thing in a blog or website. Liked the way you clarify that. I am yr follower now due to yr content. Happy to come to know about u.
Yes..I totally agree that content is the most important thing in a blog or website. Liked the way you clarify that. I am yr follower now due to yr content. Happy to come to know about u.
Great article. I think you are dead on right. Blog commenting is a great way to build relationships and increase readership.
If done correctly blog commenting can be a very powerful tool. The goal should be to ad to the conversation first. If you get traffic from your comment great. If not at least you will have begun the process of building a relationship with the audience.
With further participation people will begin to recognize your name and become more interested in what you have to say and may eventually decide that your blog may be worth checking out..
I’ve just found some information about posting comments to authority sites and not just any ole blog. This is for an increase of PR. If I’m really interacting with the posts and adding value to the discussion – with the smart commenting strategy, is it OK to post just for backlinks and not worry about click-through?
Hi Brian,
A thought provoking article but I think the main point to focus on is that for long term success you have to build those relationships. There is no quick way to high rankings. In addition you always need people to come back to you both for traffic and custom and this only happens long term with those all important relationships.
Kind regards
Mark
I agree with you on this Brian. Commenting can be useful and beneficial as along as it has value. A lot of people would get on just to get traffic or backlinks which is the wrong way to go. If you just say “Great Post!” in your comment, how do you think that’s going to entice me to check out your posts? This is one I need to share with the rest. Thanks for sharing!
Sherman
Wow, your post is already a year old and is still receiving traffic!
Commenting on post is a good way to create relationships and bring some traffic, of course if your comment adds value or it is interesting.
But is really a shame when someone only comments “Great post”, “Thanks for the info”…
I agree that it is important to leave meaningful comments. There is nothing worse than ‘spammy’ comments that do not add value, such as ‘great post’ or ‘well written’.
Whether you are leaving comments in blogs or forums, the real value lies in having an opinion or answering questions RELATED to the post. Developing relationships with people is what truly holds more power as far as traffic in concerned.
Commenting on blogs is of course a great traffic strategy. Sometimes when you comment on a posting which has less replies, you get good advice. So what I am trying to say, is its not all about people clicking on your link , or the backlink. Joining a community and building relationships with other bloggers will help your traffic strategy in the long term.
Yes, there’s nothing that annoys me more than idiot comments on my blog (even though I encourage comments!)
This is one of the reasons I’ve strongly resisted the temptation to use one of the Backlinks agencies as I know that their comments – in my name – will be rubbish, generally speaking. I also don’t allow comments from people whose URL’s indicate that they are selling stuff I wouldn’t want to be associated with (or that might offend my readers).
So how do you generate comments that add value? Post information that adds value and do some keyword research to make sure you include high traffic phrases in your title, and first line of your blog post!
My sister, Heather Cairncross, who is a professional singer, just worked on the new Susan Boyle album, and blogged about it and the whole X-Factor / Britain’s Got Talent machine, on her new blog which is only a couple of weeks old now.
Her blog posting was picked up by the Susan Boyle fan club and has generated THOUSANDS of views over the last few days and over 30 comments to date – some nasty, most nice. She’s approved and replied to all and won most of the ruffled Subo fans over now.
It shook her up a bit, the power of the web, but now she’s getting used to it and it’s a great start to her blogging career!
So be aware of the kinds of comments you want to make and to encourage on your blog – equally important in my view.
Cheers, Nicola
It’s is interesting just how this subject works. There are many IM coaches out there that advocate leaving as many blog comments as possible, on any blog that will take them. But as you say, you can get much more results by concentrating on creating a content rich article. However, this does tend to scare a lot of new people. Writting an article Vs leaving a blog comment. The blog comment sounds much more achievable to them, and a lot less personal. Writting an article involves expressing your self, putting ‘YOU’ in print. A blog comment can be really impersonal and is within their sphere of comfort.
But as you poit out above, using social media is another area that really must be developed and understood.
I have opened a few months ago my blog and can use any good article that gives me good tips. Thank you for this post!
Hey Brian, some good info buddy. To get links back to your site that just stop by and then leave called bounces actually give you a worse rating than someone that wants to see what you actually have to say and stays around awhile. My thoughts on the subject anyway…and by the way, I am at the bottom of these comments with no place to go but up. Hahaha!
Virgil, you may be at the bottom of the comments now, but give it time. This is the thread that just keeps on giving. Subscribing to followup comments via email is an entertaining and informative adventure. 🙂
I agree that blog commenting is not a great way of traffic generation but there are other uses for it such as backlinking. I couldn’t agree more with you about my bad feelings about blog spam comments as I get plenty. Very annoying! Thanks for your insights.
You made a lot of valid points Brian. Especially the fact that it makes absolutely no sense to go on a comment posting frenzy if your content sucks. I personally get annoyed when people post meaningless comments that don’t even make any sense or relate to the post. People who do that obviously don’t understand attraction marketing ( the right way to market online) and will forever be struggling. On the other hand posting comments can be a good strategy to increase your ranks 😉 if you know what you are doing.
I agree that blog commenting can be good or bad, but the key for me has been to comment in niche related blogs, and make sure to leave helpful and insightful comments.
The traffic that you receive from blogs is at its utmost effect when you get the attention of the blogger, and he or she asks you to write a guest post.
When this happens, your blog commenting strategy can really pay off!
Last!
Anyway when I first started blogging, I tried the spammy random commenting everywhere. It was lame. Not to mention desperate.
I think they key is not being too self involved. Surf, comment on compelling content and keep doing your thing.
Rather than commenting on blogs in a random fashion, why not comment on blogs which are relevant to your own. That way other posters will at least find a continuation of subject if they click through, rather than being faced with a clickbank product offer.
A comment on a blog about dolls houses which then clicks through to a page about tattoo removal is a good example.
This article helped me to decide on my own blog commenting strategy. I have found that the best results come when limiting comments to higher page rank sites.
They are harder to find but much more rewarding search engine wise.
My answer, I hope so.
I’ve spent the last two day looking for quality blogs in my niches. It’s hard going as most of what I’m on about is anti-commercial and low tech ways of doing things yourself.
When I do find others interested in similar, it’s great to get contected.
My own blogs attract really great comments and questions, giving me ideas for future content or improvements to existing content.
I agree, I’am sick of deleting spam comments off my blog. However, if someone leaves a comment of value it can only help that persons blog, and therfore help your ranking and in turn lot’s of free traffic.
I always appreciate a good and honest comment. Traffic is good too but that’s how I feel.
Personally, I usually avoid being the first to comment. It can be just as interesting to read other commenters point of view as the actual blog post.
I laughed when I read the first comment and more when I read the second one. I am not sure commenting really accomplishes that much most of the time, which leads me to question why I find myself at the end of this comment line 😉
I think it can help you generate additional traffic to your website, especially if the blog you are posting allows backlink and a do follow. You can find a lot of spam comment but there should be a filter to be used not to allow those types of comments.
I think the main reason spammers are leaving comments is not for the traffic you get directly from that site or blog, but the backlinks. Google at the moment are looking for Traffic, content, and high quality one way backlinks to your site so you can get ranked, I also know when Google change Algorithms like they did a month ago it will only get worse.
Hi Brian, i agree with your post,it is so much information out their, i think people get confused on what to do and not to do.They read something or get told something,and they are off and running,not really sure what they are doing.But like David C mention, i think most of us wont the backlinks,but Google will change the Algoritms again.
I definitely think commenting on blogs is a smart traffic strategy. I started a blog a few weeks ago and I am convinced my contributions to other people’s blogs (via my comments) has brought more visitors to my own website.
I received a comment on my own blog for the first time yesterday. Yippee!
Comments have their space in our Blog World. And also, they do have some good Influence to the Traffic, that hits our Sites. Why?
Well, basically there are 2 Reasons for this. Number one is the “interesting or the social proof” part of it. People read and re-read posts of others and hop to their pages just because they are curios. They want to find out. They want to connect, find new things…
Number two is related to the search engines. As a matter of fact, the more comments a blog has, the more “human activity” is going on the specific blog page, which will be recognized by the search engines. But this is not all: the comments also create some sort of links (inbound and outbound). Obviously this is one of the reasons for these SPAM-Monsters, that literally smash their stupid comments onto the walls of the blogs, in hope something will stick on it, which has become a problem to blog owners.
However, since the last Change of Google that is a bit less important, then it was, which is good for the Blogs, because, what we want is: interesting, entertaining and funny content, which is simple to read.
Commenting is a good strategy, and adding valued content and honest comments is of course important. One question though: Does it matter which pagerank the sites have, i.e. for ranking higher on Google?
No doubt that commenting is a good strategy to creating traffic to your site. But this is only one mean. Content should be attractive as well otherwise bounce rate will be an inhibiting factor.
I’ve heard that you can still get some link juice even if it’s a no follow. would you agree or have you ever heard that? I heard that from ryan deiss.
@Andre Internet Marketing Apprentice
Yes, it is true and of course PageRank matters in a matter of fact also the quality of the site matters.
@rich janitor review journalist
I didn’t only heard that, I tried it myself and Yes, this is true. The way of the search engine look for all this stuff has changed slightly, since the last big shift in their algorithm (Google = caffein). This is why the so called “human activity” is already a big factor. Therefore, also Links with a NoFollow count, if the search engine “believes”, that it is/was an “interaction”
Brian, I agree with you that just leaving garbage comments on blogs is not a good strategy. It’s refreshing to hear a clear statement that this is just one method of getting traffic and rankings. Page rank does matter but to me the most value comes from interaction with real people.
What you have said is very true. Time must be taken to make meaningful and thoughtful comments. thanks for the good information
Blog comments are the lifeblood of a blog. Comments are what separates a blog from a static website. As the conversation builds, so will your relationship with your readers and so will your blog’s popularity. Encourage your readers to join in the discussion and leave comments and respond promptly to the comments left by your readers to make them feel valued. Just as you don’t like to be ignored when you address someone in person, you don’t want to ignore your readers when they address you through a blog
No doubt that commenting is a good strategy to creating traffic to your site, I always check back when someone write a good comment in my blog.
And also is a good way to create relationships.
Great — I love it when the “get rich quick” method is unwrapped, revealing a very ordinary one that’s not quick, but works.
Webdesign
SEO
Hi Brian,
I’ve never really even considered blog commenting as a viable traffic strategy, other than, as you said to:
a) build relationships with bloggers, (though most people are too lazy to do this)
and
b) build backlinks for keywords I’m targeting.
If people want cheap traffic, hit up niche forums because that’s where you can get some good traffic ROI for your time spent. Same rules apply, don’t be a spamming moron for obvious reasons.
Relationships are surely the key to just about every worthwhile human activity and blogs are no exception. I definitely think commenting on blogs is a smart traffic strategy. I started a blog a few months ago and I am convinced my contributions to other people’s blogs (via my comments) has brought more visitors to my own website. On the whole, I usually avoid being the first to comment. It can be just as interesting to read other commentators points of view as the actual blog post, and its always good to get involved in a dialogue. Thanks Pat
Without sounding too much like I’m trying to praise you 😉 Honestly this needed to be said. Having REAL posts on your blog also makes you look more credible, because it shows that you take an active interest in what people are posting on your blog. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve checked out someone’s blog, seen 1,482 comments, all of which make no sense because they’re obvious spam, and moved on without reading another thing. It’s sad that more bloggers dont’ realize this…thanks for the post.
Best,
Eric Henderson
I really appreciate this post. An on-line reputation is as important as an off-line reputation. Establishing trust and credibility with your prospects and customers is key. It’s like the age old advice, “if you don’t have anything good to say…don’t say it”.
I have to admit that I have never made comments with a view to garnering traffic – it has always been to offer an opinion on the subject post.
Neither have I really used commenting to build up relationships – I have tended to build many more relationships through online forums than blog commenting!
Comments left on Blogs to gain traffic is a great first strategy. However, placing quality content on the original Blog is more important.
If you place quality content on your Blog, and get the site verified, if you provide a sitemap, and if you focus your pages on selected keywords; you site will be relevant and it will rise in the search results rankings.
If you post refurbished PLR junk, and post comments around the Internet; your ranking will fall just as fast as they rose.
For long-term traffic…content first, comments second.
Joseph Chmielewski
I agree with you Joseph Chmielewski. Commenting can be and is a used Traffic Strategy for some reasons. But if done not properly, it will not help – it will hurt and of course: Good qualified content on the blog itself is very important.
Is Commenting on Blogs a smart Traffic Strategy?
If you write in a good way and the Site is truly something you are interested in and your site’s content, where you link to, fits the Blog you add the comment to – it’s fine.
But these Spammer Gernaration people that just does it for some visitors and only smash garbage to the wall in hopeness, somethings sticks… This is not, where ANYONE should go and I believe, Google and the otehr Search Engines will recognize this and not pay attention to such things anymore in the future.
There are already good tools out there, that can identify these spammy comments and articles ect – why would someone believe, a search engine can not do that. Of course they can and they will soon.
Cheers,
Volker
This really was a great article. I’m the office manager at a start up internet company and my boss and I are trying out best to find ways to bump up our traffic. I really appreciate your post, hopefully it will help us out!
It is stunning to me the amount of comment spam our blog attracts. It is a moderated blog, so if the comment spammers took the time to determine if we published comment spam, they would realize they are wasting their time. I wish these knuckleheads would read and comprehend your paragraph on “curiosity click traffic is crap”.
My personal opinion is that commenting on blogs it’s a good SEO technique. The “nofollow” attribute it has been discussed over and over, but from my experience it doesn’t matter as much as ones think.
Thanks Brian!
Commenting on blogs – Yes or No…Hummm – Yes !!!
I Love reading what others are sharing about, and learn more each time. Everyone has there way of seeing things, their angle, great way to expand my vision. Gives me ideas of what I would like to write about too.
Plus, have your link on High PR sites, drives up the PR and traffic for your blog.
Love that about building relationships too, by sharing quality info that adds to the conversation.
Have To Much FUN !!!
This is great advice for blog commenting. I actually find the process enjoyable. I stumble across all types of interesting blogs when looking for good content to post on. Not to mention, it’s entertaining, as you said, to find super-crappy, worthless blogs with even worse blog comments. Blog comments like “Good post. I like very much! Many ideas good.” are quite frequent and can be humorous too. Thanks for putting it out there.
By the way, I’m number 356 who things commenting on blogs is a smart strategy!
I agree that it is totally lame when you use the name field for your website or name of your business. It is cheesy and so obvious that you only have selfish reasons for leaving a comment. What’s wrong with commenting just to be sociable and engaging?
I guess you never really know how well any one link will help, but the overriding truth is that any marketing strategy absent value is a waste of time. I find commenting helpful though because it gives you insight into your competition and reminds you how important it is to present yourself as something other than a self serving idiot. With apologies to all the well intentioned idiots out there!
Thanks
Mark
In my point of view, commenting on blogs is a great method to drive traffic. We can get traffic, our site become more popular and as well social networking. But provide good content should be the first.
I think it’s a smart strategy if used sparingly. It’s incredibly time consuming, but, at the same time, it allows you to leave your mark on a particular niche. In my analytics I see probably four or five clicks to my site from places where I’ve left comments. Not like that’s blowing up my bank account, but I’m sure I’ve gotten customers that I might not have otherwise.
I have been using comments not to build traffic so much as to work on my PR ranking. I find that this leads to better rankings for seo and thus more traffic.
Hey Brian, I think commenting on blogs is not only a great way to build traffic but relationships with other people in same same niche as yourself.
“So when you meaningfully participate in the community aspect of a blog, you’re creating meaningful relationships with people who can send you significant traffic—bloggers and other active social media users.”
I agree with what you said here, many blog commenters seem to overlook this important aspect. The curiosity clicks are something to think about too.
I don’t think it’s cheesy or lame to have your keyword in the name section, so long as you’re not using cut and paste spammy comments.
Cheers, Joel
Hi Brian,
I have no time to comment if I have something to say, I think there are other faster ways to generate traffic to a blog. However, to generate traffic to your blog through the comments, think the answer very well and give some additional value to the reader, because if you read our comment and is attracted by our point of view, surely visit our blog .
Regards
Great — I love it when the “get rich quick” method is unwrapped, revealing a very ordinary one that’s not quick, but works.
Junge Mütter
Finally, someone who tells it like it is…I’m with you. I get so frustrated when I open my mail only to find 20 or 30 messages with “Please Moderate” in the subject line then I go to find out what was said and it’s a bunch of useless, ordinary and vague garbage that has nothing to do with the subject of the post.
Thanks for letting me vent,
Jackie
I think that the people that leave the terrible comments that look as if they didn’t read the post are not trying to drive traffic to their site through the blog readers, but in fact are trying to beef up their SEO by getting more links from someone with a high page rank. If this is not the case then you are correct in saying that they are truly wasting their time.
Thanks for writing this article..
I have been reading your blog for quite a bit and I want to thank you for the quality of the information, I consider myself a rookie copywriter and your advice has been priceless, specially in the topic of how to write copy for the web.
It is really a great site. And this is a great advice for all who are thinking about these.
Brian, you’ve really outdone yourself on this article.
I like that you’ve outlined both the gains and the big sins of blog commenting. It’s a hard line … even as I write this I’m wondering if it gives value :~)
Here’s my take … Blog commenting should be all about building relationships both with the blog owner and with your own blog visitors/readers. By commenting you can contribute and influence in multiple directions – add to the conversation going on that blog, give feedback to the author and offer even more value to the community via your own link back. Neat, huh!
It shouldn’t really matter if blog commenting is an effective traffic increasing strategy or not, fact is commenting on a blog is an effective way of contributing and staying in touch with the blogging community which should be the primary reason, especially if it’s a post related to your niche.
Lots of very thoughtful replies here, this was an interesting read, especially to someone like me who doesn’t blog often but does enjoy reading the commentary.
I’ve always thought the ability to comment was one of the fundamentally good things about blogging, despite the spammers and anger management drop-outs. I’ll go back to a blog that had a lively comment community, especially if the blog author was actively contributing to the talk back. Certainly blog content influences whether or not I return (or bookmark), but consider that Fark’s content is basically links with silly headlines, and the comments are the main attraction.
In fact, I was so amused, entertained, and informed by the comments to this blog that I’ve subscribed to Copyblogger in Google Reader and will be sharing this with my writing community… those who don’t already know about it, that is!
Brian, solid content from you and great comments here from the vast majority. I will add my 2 cents. First, I enjoy reading blog comments as much as I enjoy reading the post itself. Many of the comments on this post are insightful, educational, witty and add to the conversation. When people comment spam it detracts from the experience of the reader and I personally detest it.
I look at blog commenting like I look at most things in life, If you are genuinely looking to add value without expecting something in return doors will open for you. I am a believer in karma and I know those who participate in comment spamming will get their just desserts.
I have a quick question. I’m starting a blog right now based on internet marketing. I don’t really have any strong strategies around commenting. But most people seem to think that it’s important on some level. Aside from asking a genuine question (as I am doing right now), is it really important to the credibility/ranking of a website or blogger?
Thanks!
-Jeff
This is a great post and I completely agree. Mindlessly commenting on blogs just for the occasional hit they may receive is the wrong strategy. If they were to just spend that much time to write good content for their own blog and build quality backlinks to it without being seen as spam, they would perform much better in search engines. SEO can get you way more traffic than posting spam comments everywhere that nobody wants to read.
Phew! I thought I’d never get to the end. I’ve never seen as many comments. I had began reading through some but i’ve run out of time and cannot continue. I found lots of humour amongst these comments mixed in with some really good points. My problem is, now I’ll have to go all the way back to the top to reread your blog to remind me what I was going to say in the first place.
Hi Brian! Obviously, I agree with your viewpoint, otherwise there wouldn’t be 418 comments in front of mine! In addition, it’s just so annoying when people post comments that are totally unrelated to the initial blog post. Nothing quite says “spam” like irrelevancy.
Hey Brian, I guess I’m a little late to the party, too. I agree and disagree with your points. First, I agree wholeheartedly that your need to post relevant comments with the goal of creating the opportunity for further interaction. Most of the more important blogs are now moderated, so there are fewer opportunities to just spam the really high-end sites. I disagree in that I don’t think it’s every a top-tier traffic strategy. Blog and forum posting is great for back-links and supplemental traffic and the key to increased traffic still comes down to the basics or URL choice, keyword choice and on-site optimization. Your goal should be traffic from higher search engine rankings.
I agree it’s important to leave good comments that are relevant to what the author wrote about. And I agree it’s good to leave helpful comments and participate in the blog discussion as well. This way you can meet new people with the same interests and be part of a new community. Plus, by leaving good comments you may also attract a new visitor to your website.
Thanks for this great article on “Is Commenting on Blogs a
Smart Traffic Strategy?” It had a ton of great advice that helped me.
I knew I had been right. My friend and I placed a bet about which website was superior. I believed your webpage was much better produced, but she believed this post on trendy style suggestions was much better. We rounded up 5 loved ones memebers who had not observed either website earlier to to read them each more than. Majority chose your site. Many thanks for maintaing a great site.
I hope you at least had a beer or two riding on the outcome!
🙂
Personally, I usually avoid being the first to comment. It can be just as interesting to read other commenters point of view as the actual blog post.
Since I read almost the entire post I comment on, I am much more intelligent now, as a result.
My advice: post only on interesting blogs, it will be fun to read and your knowledge bank will grow.
Well then…….I guess my goal is to be one of the last to comment on your articles!
Actually, I just stumbled across your blog today while browsing around. I started my blog a few weeks ago and I really am quite clueless about how to promote it. It is a helpless feeling of having a voice that no one will hear! I will figure it out eventually. Thanks for your insightful and witty writing.
LAST! (Which works really well if comments are sorted by the latest one first)
I totally agree with you when I read some of the blogs, the comments sometimes says nothing about the point the author is trying to make but awhell I am also here for traffic and I totally read your blog, good piece, it should enhance how I comment in the future.
My opinion is that blog commenting will not always bring you targeted traffic. There are far better ways to get traffic like article marketing. If you just spend a little time to write an article, you could get much more traffic than with these blog commenting strategies.
@Hesus Fish: The internet is full of these spammers and I get tired of them putting stupid comments on my blog. You are right because they are never about what I wrote, but rather some gibrish. However, I still think blog comments are important because they provide good feedback. So if a person has something good to say, why not comment.
ditto! good points…social media and its viral effect are really taking over thr ROI on other form of marketing. Having a good twitter and facebook campaign is key to success. twitter allows for more followers…more potential customers. The hard part is getting followers, so my advice is use twitterdose to get followers and you just take care of tweeting about your blog or website.
Comments are good only when that actually run in harmony which the theme of the post written. Really great article!
Commenting on blogs is a good strategy but it’s bad if it’s your only strategy. Use of good keywords, Search engine optimization and effectively using social media should all be part of your plan.
As for commenting on blog per se, you have to build relationships, post worthwhile comments and criticisms. People aren’t stupid, they can tell when you’re posting for personal gain and promotion.
There’s really no quick and dirty promotion strategy, it takes time, effort and careful thought but if you’re genuine and think ‘give’ before you can ‘receive’ you’ll be farther ahead than most.
I agree, but it can’t be your only plan. You need to drive traffic from every means possible. If you only concentrate on driving traffic through blogs, it probably won’t get you that far.
Blog commenting needs to be just one aspect of driving traffic to your websites. If you master all of the different ways to drive traffic, you will never worry about money ever again.
This is exactly what I needed. And funny I just stumbled upon it. I am learning everyday and blogging, like all social media, takes some still and know how. I am ready to take my blog to the next level and get more followers because they are interested. Thank you for your insightful tips!
The vast, vast majority of my good blog commenting traffic is from meaningful comments I make months (or years) after a post is made.
Almost no one clicks through when I make a good comment at the top, and most bounce. If it’s somewhere in the middle or at the end, I get some clicks, and most stick around.
The best part about it, though, is that you give a great first impression with a good comment. The people who click through will be more tolerant of less-than-stellar but still interesting content if you make yourself look good at the door (comment).
The people who follow through a comment like that often look at 5-20 posts.
Now I’m no internet marketing guru, but I’m going to guess that such a visitor is more likely to subscribe, and maybe even share a post or two. The only problem is that such a comment takes me a while to write and proofread.
I can’t imagine the cost:benefit ratio on that being good for an already established blogger.
I think it is a great strategy, as every body should know that all links to a site helps with page position. The comments also help the blogger in his post ranks.
Wow for a post that only talks about comments it sure has a lot of them! 😉 I take the point about make worthwhile comments otherwise you do really look stupid and that reflects poorly on the whole blog. However I am not so sure about the 1st and 2nd spot theory. I reckon if the post ends up being popular itself in the long run it could pull a lot of traffic, as long as it isn’t a stupid comment. I also think that it is worth while interacting with the author and perhaps asking him a question. This could start a thread and draw people into your comment.
BTW I watched your presentation you gave with Sonja and Darren, was super impressed (no sucking up intended!) Cheers!
I am new to this strategy, but I think it is of mutual benefit to the page position of the commenter and to the blogger in general. I always read the comments as at times these are just as interesting and informative as the original article.
It’s evident that’s the reason spammers find their way across multiple blogs daily- the perceived value of link backs to their sites. Blog commenting is what makes, in my opinion, the real community online. (yay- web 2.0!) So we can’t just skim the information and not understand the post when REALLY involved in the conversation. That’s why I love this post so much. It just keeps right on …
It’s always a tightrope though isn’t it. Reading blogs takes time. Making meaningful comments on blogs takes time. And both tasks can take our eyes off our own particular goal, whatever that might be (such as serving our existing customer base for example). So how do you get the balance?
Although it is certainly a time consuming process, I believe both reading the comments and commenting on blog posts can be a useful activity. In some cases, I have learned more about a topic from educated and well thought out comments than I have from the original post.
I wish I had an answer for Denzil’s question about achieving balance. Personally, I have tried to block out a certain portion of the day to visit useful blogs but I have discovered that I often exceed my alloted time.
I’ll be interested to hear from those who have discovered a more effective method.
I agree with you about the importance of leaving insightful comments, not just quick responses. If you have a great signature line, I suppose being the first comment or two is important. However, I always thought the primary benefit of leaving comments on blogs (besides expressing your thoughts and communicating with the online community) is to create a backlink to your site; if that’s your purpose, it doesn’t really matter which number you are in line.
Just looking at my wordpress blogs says it all for the pesky spammers. Even though I have the Askimet plugin installed I still find a lot spammers getting through.
The popularity of blog syndication and tribes now in the blogging community is a great way to meet the interactive people that are daily producing and commenting with some great material. Many of my contacts have been through blogging and returning to pages which I find informative so apart from backlinks and traffic its a great way to network too.
Thanks for the post CB =)
This is a great article! I was reading this article just now Design By Pixel and it was going over SEO techniques such as content development, article submissions, and overall site optimizations. I am new to the whole ‘SEO’ thing and recently started my own website for my music. I was wondering how to get good back links and what the difference is between ‘white hat’ and ‘black hat’ SEO techniques?
I think commenting on blogs is worthwhile. Is it the most worthwhile way to spend one’s time? I am presently focusing on using facebook to gain attraction (visitors) to my site. In terms of building relationships (as covered in the article in the context of blog commenting), facebook offers that opportunity. As for backlinks, facebook may not get that for my site but the “loyal” facebook users mean something. In tandem with the facebook penetration (my social media networking foray), I am also seeking blogs which bear relationship to the content on my site (it is of mixed categories), and commenting on those blogs to get the backlink as well as visitor exposure.
An excellent post, again. I have a different perspective on commenting on blogs and forums. Personally I find it almost impossible to write a junk, one line post. I’m way too verbose for that 😉
I also cannot write a meaningless comment. Sometimes I comment on the comments but mostly it’s the content of the post which gets the nod, as it should be.
I think it is a great strategy, as every body should know that all links to a site helps with page position. But Back links are the way
Comment and build relationships, sure, but can you honestly say you don’t care about the link? Links are important too.
Comment meant to give appreciation to the author and blog owners as well as foster friendship and hospitality. And for me the most important thing is to learn from the best
I think when a blog is so big, building a relationship through comments is futile.
The fact that THIS post has over 400 comments just makes me smile. Please note that my comment is neither exquisite nor meaningful. Nor do I seek worthless click-throughs. Just paying my respects to a blog where I’ve happily spent the afternoon reading/skimming top-notch content.
I’ll be back, for sure. ~Jim
I am a big fan of adding value to blogs, like this one, there is an incredible amount of posts here. If you are commenting on blogs that offer great advise or content it is very worthwhile and adds great value to the blog, thus giving the blog a boost in the search engines, and of course providing readers with great content.
The SEO value of creating a link on a high ranking site and having it point to your site (your money site) has been proven to be quite effective. Making keywords as part of your link makes this even more effective. Many know this and some do not. For those who do not know now they do know. Sorry it has been a long day.
Posting on sites I read is also fun and I only post on sites I like this one. My post sends a message to the search engines that this information on this blog is valuable which it is. So this is a mutually beneficial situation as I see it. I get a link and you get a vote in your favor. Actually we both get a vote in both our favors. Cool.
What an informative post with great information!
WHOA! You thought I was a spammer, didn’t you? Not a spammie-wammie, but honestly… great article. It answered the questions I had when I googled this particular topic.
I’m new at this so I’m surfing and learning. A lot of “gurus” recommend commenting on a blog, but I am learning that it’s better to leave a comment on blogs that count, like this one.
Had no idea that there was a rush to “first” in order to get the most clicks. But I do agree with Hard Drive Guy that commenting on blogs is also a good SEO strategy, in addition to establishing relationships.
Currently last at 12:15
being the last post is beneficial.
This blog is awesome and I will be here all afternoon reading this treasure trove of information
I found this article very useful. I’ve been commenting in popular and relevant blogs and even though the links that I leave are “no-follow”, I don’t really care because every link is a link. The most important thing is you give value to your comments. I find most of these comments valuable — 450+ of them. That’s a lot. I am hoping that my blog will get close to that number of comments, adding value to my posts.
1 hour spent writing a meaningful, relevant comment on a blog which adds value to the post would benefit you much much more than posting 10 irrelevant comments on different posts! It’s a shame that even SEO companies use blog comment spamming as a tactic to acquire links.
I don’t really care if my comment is too short or too long as long as I add value to the discussion and whether it is no-follow or do-follow as long as I have a link embedded in the url section to start getting connection.
I’ve read a few comments under this post. I am impressed with all the comments written. I also try to comment on different blogs and add some value to the topic. I have a question and hope somebody will answer it. Is blog commenting worth as a link building strategy? The most of the comments I see here talk about blog commenting as getting traffic as visitors click on the link of the comment. What about blog comment link helping the website to get higher search engine traffic?
Thanks,
Ion
This is a very good strategy to get traffic. This post is very informative I actually learnt something from reading this blogpost thanks for sharing
Seems like common sense to experienced bloggers but rookies got a lot to learn. Take it from the experts, this blog is mad busy!
Speaking my mind, I liked you to blog or not to blog… you also hit the mark about content, why we blog and whether is helps traffic or not…
this social media is new for me and those of us looking to add some skill to our writing content are looking for just this type of one on one…straight to the point. Thanks for the tips and let’s hope that the favor is returned…
Come by: http//bit.ly/cHPF04
Thank you!
The community matters when folks return. If even 10% users are serious and have something to gain, a good blog is a good web site.
Seems like common sense to experienced bloggers but rookies got a lot to learn. Take it from the experts, this blog is mad busy!
is banner advertising a smart traffic strategy? your headline is kind of tricky. any strategy can generate traffic if used right. There’s no smart strategy in itself.
Someone can use a smart strategy in a dumb way, just look at how many commentators are either including links (affiliate urls) in their comments or using keywords in the “name” field.
The #1 I can’t stand though is this one… “Thank you for your post, it was a great read”, and that’s it. Dumb! And spam, just to get the traffic… which never comes, as I delete such posts… as 85% of fellow bloggers. 🙂
Hi Brian,
I’ve read a lot of your blog post, and I normally leave no comments…. It may sound SELFISH, but the info you guys provide is so useful and great that I have no time for comments. I just take it with me and start applying it right away.
Thank you so much though…
I really liked your ways of expressing thoughts. Comment on another blogs can invite more and more visitors and although there will be more seo freaks, there could be genuine visitors who are interested in what you right and at the same time need a quality backlink to their website.
I like being able to comment on blogs and being able to express myself. I really like blogs where oppinions vary and good debate gets going.
Amen! to your “secret”! So many do not understand relationships and reciprocation. I’ve always said, selling self sells products.
I’d planned to stop in to wish you a Happy Holiday season, but again, got lost in your archives. Thank you for such great posts, even if I don’t always put the info into practice, it’s there in my blog brain somewhere.
Very well written article. And yes it’s so true that some people leave a comment just go get a quick click to their site leaving the person to further on shut their browser because there was probably nothing worth reading there.
But then again the ones that wrote First here I am sure have something good to offer.. or? 😀
475 comments so far. wow! am I still too late in the game? some bloggers close their comments when they reach 50 or 100. I thank you Brian for not following the herd.
Hey guys, what do you say about this:
Should you comment after a post has already amassed 50 or more comments? I mean, what else should you add to the community that has not been already stated? I think you should really read the entire arsenal of comments, before you speak up, right. Or, do you have a different opinion?
So, as per your article we should track and comment on the article ASAP? How difficult it would be as every blog is in different timezone. But i do believe that meaningful comments which adds value to the particle article are better than wasting time spamming or bragging about your services.
This makes perfect sense for me as the commenter. I suck at commenting to begin with, so hopefully I’ve picked up a thing or two here.
A question that came up to me as I was reading was “What about the other side of the table?” “How can you influence people to comment on the blog without asking for it? It pains me to see my stats at 400+ views/2 comments. At times I feel like “people don’t like what I write, why do I bother?”. Is it a bad idea to use a facebook fan page as a blog? maybe that’s my issue. I use the “notes” as a place to write the blogs, is that wrong? Im just not used to wordpress or blogspot they’re just so complex. Any ideas?
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