Contest Post by Stephanie
Freelance writer and photographer
Stephanie normally writes at Information Central and tweets at @lambdakennels1
Help Stephanie win the Famousbloggers ComLuv contest by clicking these buttons and retweet it to your followers!
Can you comment in the wrong manner even if you do not spam? Maybe not wrong, but unproductive. Most people visit blogs here and there and comment one day, then visit off somewhere else another day. This is the drive-by approach to commenting. There is a better way, though. The community way.
Focus your energy on building a community with yourself as the hub and all the other blogs in your niche as the spokes. This way takes longer, but ultimately delivers a much better result. There are five phases to this approach. First, identify the other blogs in your niche. Second, become a familiar face around them. Third, attempt to get as many of them as possible to install the CommentLuv plugin . Fourth, visit these blogs on a frequent basis and leave pertinent comments. Five, reap the benefits of community versus drive-by commenting.
Find your Niche
The first part is as simple as running a Google search on your niche term. For example, my niche is vegetable gardening. That returns a huge number of responses, and the top ones are not blogs but publishers like eHow.com, Suite101.com, and the such. However, I can specify blogs by clicking that term on the side of the Google results page. That is much better. Real blogs I can comment on. Now, specify 50 results per page. At the bottom of the page, you can funnel this search feed into Google Reader or whatever you use to read RSS or Atom files. This is your data source for the next phase of building your community.
Pick the right blogs
Now, each day pick ten blogs to explore. Some are easily discarded as little more than one page billboards. The others, however, have good content and are interesting to read. Do not be concerned if traffic is low. Quality is the key. Visit the quality sites daily. Read their posts. Comment, but only if you can add quality to the conversation. Whatever you do, no advertising! This is crucial. The goal is to become a familiar face that people accept as someone who comments only when they are adding something. If the site is CommentLuv enabled, it is okay to leave a link to a pertinent post, but if they do not have ComLuv, do not leave one in your comment. It makes you sound like you are just interested in traffic, not community.
Work towards advertising
Finally, in the third phase, you can work towards advertising. By now, you should be a familiar face and the blog writer is probably visiting your blog. If they do not have ComLuv installed on their blog, approach them and tell them you think they would be able to deliver better information to your readers when they comment if they had ComLuv installed, so they could pick which of their most recent posts was most germane to the topic. Your readers would then have an easy way to find a relevant post by following the link. This would also increase that blog’s traffic, so everyone wins. Offer to assist them in getting set up with the ComLuv Network and figuring out how to use it.
Why you should have a group of blogs?
By now, you should have a group of blogs that you read every day containing good quality content in your niche. You may have added new ones you discovered during the first few phases. That is fine, and you can add new ones as you come across emerging stars in your niche. When you can add something to the conversation taking place at each blog, leave a comment with a ComLuv link to your most pertinent post on the subject. If you do not have anything useful to add, do not leave a comment that day. Avoid “always” saying something, even when you have something to say. The goal is conversation, not monologue.
Leave targeted links without seeming spammy
A funny thing will start to happen as you make comments, leave links, and receive comments with links. All of the core blogs involved will start to rise in the rankings, gain more authority in the area, and get more traffic from searches. As you continue your efforts, for you can never really rest on your laurels unless you want stickers in your backside, you will continue to add a few blogs, a few blogs will fade away, and you will still be the hub of your community. ComLuv is critical to this effort as it allows you to leave targeted links without seeming spammy. So, get commenting!
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This post was submitted by stephaniesuesansmith.
Oh – great advice. I’d never thought of just adding a bunch of interesting looking blogs to google reader and then weeding them down slowly.
Heather´s last blog ..A fun store in LA’s Chinatown
Twitter: lambdakennels1
21. Jul, 2010 at 12:43 pm #
Yes, and you can repeat the process until you get a solid core of about 20 blogs that are good, then work on them to form a community.
stephaniesuesansmith´s last blog ..ComLuv-FamousBloggers Contest Benefits Garden Bloggers
Hi Stephanie,
hopefully I found this one, this is very usseful thanks for sharing
did you have another advice about how to post blog comment without being deleted.. I’m only new for this industry.. hope you can help me thanks a lot ^^,
Twitter: lambdakennels1
29. Jul, 2010 at 9:22 pm #
If you have a gravatar, you are less likely to be deleted. Go to http://www.gravatar.com and get you one.
stephaniesuesansmith´s last blog ..Understanding the USDA Plant Zone Map
Twitter: profitmc
23. Jul, 2010 at 11:46 am #
Must say this is one of the most on-topic post about building a community with your blog comments I’ve ever read. Thanks for this information. I’ll definitely be putting this info into use.
Chadrack´s last blog ..Internet Marketers and Mailing List- You can truly learn a Lot!
Twitter: lambdakennels1
23. Jul, 2010 at 12:09 pm #
Glad it helped. What niche do you blog in?
stephaniesuesansmith´s last blog ..ComLuv-FamousBloggers Contest Benefits Garden Bloggers
Twitter: HollyJahangiri
23. Jul, 2010 at 8:15 pm #
I keep seeing this advice about leaving comments without seeming spammy – and it occurs to me, are we just training spammers how to simulate actual human beings?
Great post, Stephanie. For me, the important part is building the community and letting the chips fall where they may. But your advice about not just sort of flitting from one blog to the next also is something I can relate to (and need to work on – oooh, shiny things!)
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Guest Blogging: 8 Ways to Get More Blog Comments
Twitter: lambdakennels1
23. Jul, 2010 at 10:30 pm #
but if we train spammers to emulate humans, we will have to train the spam catchers to catch something else. it just never ends, does it?
It is harder to do this in a disciplined way but the dividends in the end are greater. You just have to put in more work up front.
stephaniesuesansmith´s last blog ..ComLuv/FamousBloggers Contest Benefits Garden Bloggers
Twitter: Moondanncer
29. Jul, 2010 at 11:48 pm #
I tend to come back to the blogs I’ve commented on, simply because I really enjoy reading what they have to say. I’m always looking for more too, that way I expand my circle and am not constantly linking to the same folks on my website.
Using a RSS feed aggregator is extremely helpful here, since I can do all my blog visits (even comment) from NetNewsWire for Mac.
Currently this is my newest website; I forgot how much I missed starting a new site (crazy I know.)
I’ll definitely have to check out your niche website, since I do a lot of vegetable gardening here at my home.
moondancer´s last blog ..Getting motivated What’s your inspiration
Twitter: lambdakennels1
30. Jul, 2010 at 1:09 pm #
I can’t imagine enjoying putting together new websites, but then most people do not see the enjoyment in taking portraits of plants.
Using the RSS aggregater has really helped me. I can unsubscribe from blogs that do not make the cut, hit a portion of the remaining blogs each day, and continue to build my network.
Stephanie Suesan Smith´s last blog ..What is an Heirloom Plant?
Twitter: tecrux
01. Aug, 2010 at 11:33 am #
Thanks for the awesome tips. I’ll surely look forward to adopt these Tips.
Technology Blog´s last blog ..Coolest Windows 7 Tips and Tricks – Shortcut Keys
Twitter: lambdakennels1
01. Aug, 2010 at 12:40 pm #
Thanks for stopping by. Hope the tips help.
Stephanie Suesan Smith´s last blog ..Gardening in Hungary
Twitter: lavenderuses
03. Aug, 2010 at 7:48 am #
What a helpful post. I’m new to blogging and learning heaps. I have been visiting other blogs and commenting and get really excited when others comment on my site too. But now I see a very organised way to go about it that I will begin to emulate.
I have very small niche in all things lavender but my other passion is organic vegetables so once I have mastered this blogging biz then I will set up my second blog.
Thanks again for such generous information
Twitter: lambdakennels1
03. Aug, 2010 at 12:56 pm #
If your niche is made of things made with lavender, it is larger than you think. All those craft people that make their own soap, that dried stuff that smells good and which I cannot smell, cooks that use spices and flowers, and other gardening people that like to grow a challenging plant are in that niche. So it may be bigger than you think.
Organizing things makes it easier. I am using an excel spreadsheet to keep track of the blogs I visit and comment on as well as using the Google reader to read them. It helps. Good luck with your blog.
stephaniesuesansmith´s last blog ..Gardening in Hungary
thanks for the tip suesan
Twitter: loanmarketplace
04. Aug, 2010 at 9:56 pm #
I like your method of finding blogs to comment on in your niche using Google. I personally prefer CommentLuv blogs! I really do; it’s almost become a thing where, if the blog doesn’t have CommentLuv, sometimes I just won’t comment (sounds bad, but it’s just personal preference).
Tia´s last blog ..Want an iPad for College Enter for Your Chance to Win!
Twitter: lambdakennels1
05. Aug, 2010 at 3:01 pm #
Thank you. The thing about this method is that once you become familiar to them, you can suggest they install the ComLuv plugin. Then you both win.
stephaniesuesansmith´s last blog ..ComLuv/FamousBloggers Contest Benefits Garden Bloggers
Twitter: z3olyte
05. Aug, 2010 at 3:22 am #
Hi Stephanie, great post
I do love to blog hop and collect blogs to comment on, and I agree… adding them to an rss reader makes the job easier on finding new posts to comment on and leave backlinks.
Cindy´s last blog ..Lord Havalon- An Ultra Fractal graphic novel
Twitter: lambdakennels1
05. Aug, 2010 at 3:03 pm #
I have also started a spreadsheet to record when I leave a comment, so I do not forget. That makes blog hopping a lot easier because you do not have to wonder if you are commenting too many days in a row on the same blog.
Twitter: WillTaft
06. Aug, 2010 at 3:22 am #
Good post Stephanie. I like the Commentluv plugin but lately have been having trouble with it. I ofter get the “Response cached” error message when posting. I have had it installed on my site for a couple of years and it works fine there.
Will´s last blog ..A WW Puzzle in Need of Solving
Good idea, from now on, ill visit comluv and visit at least 10 sites a day, read the articles and leave good non spammy comments =)
Don’t you wish that people would stop spamming? Many blogs have nofollow rules but I guess it won’t stop them.
I just got excited to get comments on my blog but later discovered there were spam …
When you’re leaving a CommentLuv comment, do you usually choose which post you’re promoting based on the content of the article or do you always let it fall to the most recent post?
TJ McDowell´s last blog ..Adobe Lightroom – Getting Serious About Photography
Twitter: apichea
10. Aug, 2010 at 9:22 pm #
I just wrote a similar post on Creating Connections and Conversations with Comments this week. Commenting is SO important in building community and becoming known in your niche. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
apichea´s last blog ..Creating Conversations and Connections through Comments
Twitter: noaspa
16. Aug, 2010 at 5:50 pm #
Hallo Stephanie,
I’ve just been visiting your vegetable garden site and left a message for you there
Best wishes
Will
P.S: Moondancer, another of your site visitors, is already supporting what is happening at Noaspa – and I’m really hoping you’ll join us there too ( together with a few other familiar “Famous Bloggers”)
Will´s last blog ..An Invitation To Join Noaspa 20