Being a newbie is one of the worst fears every blogger can face. I began blogging almost a year back and I remember with shudders the idea of writing blog posts. But, the worst fear was whether the target audience actually got to read my blog. I am sure this is what every blogger fears. It is not the financial impact that worries most of us bloggers during those initial days. During this period, I realized that placing well-targeted comments on relevant blogs was one of the best ways to draw traffic to one’s blog. Blog commenting is an art, if not science, and knowing how to comment is just as important as knowing how to blog.
Remember these 5 golden rules about blog commenting, and I am sure you will find success with your blog..
5 Golden Rules about Blog Commenting
- Niche Commenting: The old saying “Birds of a feather, flock together” holds true when it comes to blog commenting. So, find blogs in your area of expertise or niche and start reading them, contributing some guest posts if applicable, and of course start adding some zest to the article or post with some useful comments. This will help you target visitors in the blog to check out for more information in your blog. This is one easy way to get targeted traffic to your blog. In my early days, I commented in blogs that had no relevance to medical profession, and I ended up with numerous visitors from other niches. This added only numbers, not relevant customers/audience.
- Binge Commenting: “Binge” commenting, like binge drinking, only gives you a bad headache. I mean it! Posting hundreds, if not thousands of comments in a day and relaxing the rest of the month could only cause the search engines to ignore your comments. They believe that good comments come in a steady and regular fashion. So, comment regularly, and steadily.
- Spam Commenting: If not for ethical reasons, stop spamming in your comments for your own sake. It only hurts your blog, your pesona, and you. Posting numerous comments in a single blog in a single day with no intent of adding quality to the post or article amounts to spamming. Also, sending extremely short comments irrelevant to the topic of discussion could get you labeled as “spammer”. Would you want someone else do the same to your blog? Sure, no. Numerous softwares use this tactic but I am not sure how effective they are.
- Forum Commenting: Anyone familiar with forums will agree that they are one of the most useful sources of traffic to their blogs. Participation in forums in one’s area of expertise or niche will surely benefit your blog in a big way. So, sign up and keep sharing and you will reap the benefits.
- Commenting Contests: Is it something new? It isn’t, but it sure is making waves across the blogosphere. This contest itself is witness to it. Numerous blogs conduct various contests to draw comments and of course visitors that soon become interested in the blog. I am sure the winners remember this blog for a long time to come. I am not surprised with the number of comments many of these contests draw. These contests draw a wider audience than your own niche, but they sure can be refined to narrow the audience.
Finally, comments placed anywhere in the blogosphere is sure to retain the mark of the commenter. Newer ways are being utilized to make the links more tempting – ComLuv, @Twitter, and more. Who knows what comments would entail in the days to come.
I am sure there must be some queries about my experience, my journey into blogging, and more. Be sure to leave a comment. I will respect the same with an appropriate answer. Remember, the link love you get!
This post is part of our amazing Blogging Contest, plz add a comment and tweet it to support the author.
Twitter: TheJohnSoares
says:
I’ve had mixed results with forum comments. I’m active in a couple of different forums, but I get relatively little traffic from them, even though they have a lot of readers.
John Soares´s recent blog post ..Why You Should Spend More Time Outdoors
Twitter: medicalmcqs
says:
The trick about forum commenting is providing ready and easily available ready solutions to problems faced by other members of the community. Think of it as long-term investment – a forum user who found a good answer to his problem is most likely going to remember your blog and many of the other members might have similar problems. Remember to put a signature that attracts others in the community as well to other areas of your blog by focusing on keywords that are relevant to your site.
And of course, join forums that have a similar audience to your blog or website. I can think of a number of blogs that I have found on forums with ready solutions to my blogging requirements.
All the best! I hope it does better in the future.
Great post! I’m interested in a couple things you mentioned that I don’t know much about. First of all, where do you find forums, or what do you mean by that?
Also, I tried to enter my site at comluv but it looks like you have to pay to do that. Is that true? I noticed that my last blog post showed up when I commented on a site and was interested in making the most of that.
Sorry for all the questions. I really like your advice in the post and am happy I am doing most of those things correctly!! Thanks.
Twitter: medicalmcqs
says:
Hi Jen, Thanks for your participation. You are free to ask questions, as that was the motive of my post – to draw some questions from the audience.
Regarding your first query, “An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site. People participating in an Internet forum may cultivate social bonds and interest groups for a topic made from the discussions.” Check this out as an example http://www.medicalschoolforum.com/forums/.
To find forums, you could just google your preferred keyword such as “medical forums” for medical-related forums, and so on. There are thousands of forums out there, some open, while others are membership based. Join and participate in those belonging to your niche. You could use it to find solutions to your problems or solve other members’ problems. Be sure to put unique signatures with links to your blogs.
Regarding the second question regarding comluv. It is free to register for basic services as shown below from an excerpt in the comluv terms of service:
Registering a username is free on this site. With it, you can register their blog url on the member page at http://comluv.com/member/ and receive 10 posts from your site when you comment on CommentLuv enabled sites. Relevant details for the site such as feed URL, description, keywords and site name can also be changed without charge.
Additional URLs and extra features such as static links added to the returned list of posts are available in exchange for credits which can be purchased in the dashboard area for $1 USD per credit.
Regsitering to have a blog hosted here will cost $5 USD per year and allows you to have complete administration control of their own WordPress blog using a subdomain of your choice. You will have immediate access to plugins like CommentLuv, SEO tools, sitemaps, and others.
Premium features like switching off advertising, enabling domain mapping, advanced CMS themes, the comicpress theme and manager plugins can be purchased using credits or all themes and plugins can be enabled by becoming a supporter for $5 USD per month. Supporters are able to access premium support and get a say in what plugins and themes get added to the site.
I hope I have answered your questions appropriately. Glad to help out.
Dr. Lawrence´s recent blog post ..Prescribing Linezolid- Watch Out for Thrombocytopenia and Neutropenia
Thanks so much for your help and your explanations. I have registered my URL. I love learning new things, which is fortunate as there are about 100 new things to learn in social media every day!! Thanks again for helping me!
Twitter: medicalmcqs
says:
You are welcome Jen. Am glad I was able to help out. Indeed, there are countless ways social media changes everyday and we ought to keep running on our toes to catch up. Blogs like this one and famousbloggers.net are a real help in this scenario.
Keep sharing luv all the way!
Dr. Lawrence´s recent blog post ..Why I Decided to Enter a Blogging Contest
Twitter: samuraiwriting
says:
I like your post. Do you find that you get more traffic if you are the first to comment? I have only had a few visitors from forums but they were not completely in my niche. Thanks for the tips!
samuraig´s recent blog post ..28 “Write for Us” Jobs & Online Sites
Twitter: medicalmcqs
says:
Am glad you found my post interesting. There is some truth in commenting first, but the most value is from the fact that you supplement the article or the author’s primary idea with some enterprising suggestions. That is sure to tickle the author to reply to your comments – which in turn will highlight your comment and possibly draw some of its readers to your blog hoping for a treat.
Like I have said to John in my response, focusing on your niche during forum comments is important. And, my feeling is the few visitors you get from forums are loyal ones. Just a hunch I guess, but it works for me.
All the best in your blogging and writing adventure!
Twitter: refinehere
says:
I agree, whilst i have not tried it myself. Digging further from someone’s post would be a good thing as well as long as we respect each other.
I like this post! I am new and I know it takes time to be recognized within the community.
ty all for sharing.
Twitter: medicalmcqs
says:
Good to see you here. Definitely considering taking ideas from other people’s writing is not a bad thing as long as you respect copyright laws. I believe in respecting others property. Ideas are there to be shared but not exploited.
All the best in your internet adventure.
Dr. Lawrence´s recent blog post ..Why I Decided to Enter a Blogging Contest
What do you think is the safe number of comments you should leave in a day to the blogs/sites that you visit? 30 to 80 a day?
blue2x´s recent blog post ..Text Kerning in Adobe Fireworks
Twitter: medicalmcqs
says:
If you are considering comments to different blogs, then yes, 30 to 50 would be a decent number, but the most important thing is to be consistent. Inconsistency would flag your comments as spam. Remember, to maximize your blog comments acceptability, do not post more than 2 comments on the same blog, and more so on the same post. That could land you in big trouble.
Dr. Lawrence Kindo´s recent blog post ..Why I Decided to Enter a Blogging Contest
Thanks, I’ll try to keep that in mind. I’ve posted like 5 or more comments here in comluv alone lol.
blue2x´s recent blog post ..Social Media Icon Pack – Adobe Fireworks Download Of The Week
Twitter: jh3riz24
says:
I am a newbie myself and I there are lots of ins and outs about blogging I need to learn but I could right away see those people that just comment there way into a post and not even readingt the whole thought. I think some people just get lost into the greed of web traffic and popularity. I would still like to go on my own pace. I could not comment 30 in a day but I know my post are by heart. ;P Nice post I can eally relate to the tpic.
jh3riz24´s recent blog post ..What to do if commentluv is not showing the latest post
Twitter: medicalmcqs
says:
Am glad you liked my article. I sure do agree that many people get lost in greed of web traffic and popularity, and many SEO companies misuse it for profiteering. You really don’t need 30 comments in a day, but good comments that supplement the author. That would earn you brownie points in terms of relevance.
I believe in reading an entire post before commenting as it gives me ample opportunity to deal with every aspect of the writer’s point of view.
Dr. Lawrence´s recent blog post ..Why I Decided to Enter a Blogging Contest?
Twitter: mychums
says:
I am obviously “off niche” at the moment as I am looking into using comluv on our new blog. However I do agree that following a niche when commenting makes life easy and interesting. My own niche is dog care. When commenting I always have a word document open saving carefully constructed comments as I go.
The advantage is that each comment may be reusable several times with very little editing without being spam.
Twitter: medicalmcqs
says:
“On-niche” or “Off-niche”, I sure didn’t know you existed until I read your comment here. That’s the magic of commenting. Of course, it could be that I am a dog lover and might end up using your services, or maybe not. The end result is that you might end up harvesting new customers.
By the way, I am totally “Off-niche” writing this article. I am a medical practitioner with an interest in blogging. And what do I get guest-blogging off-niche – a couple of new followers and some link-love. Winners all the way!
The idea of saving carefully crafted comments for future use is a good one. Of course, I couldn’t respond spontaneously to an article which could dampen my enthusiasm.
Have fun with your new comluv enabled blog!
Dr. Lawrence´s recent blog post ..Why I Decided to Enter a Blogging Contest?
I haven’t had any experience posting on forums. I would fear that I would spend too much time on the forum and not enough time on my own site!
Joseph Condron´s recent blog post ..Harry Houdini- The First Celebrity
Twitter: yourmarketingfriend
says:
“They believe that good comments come in a steady and regular fashion. So, comment regularly, and steadily. ”
I agree with this statement 100%. I just got through explaining this to my business partner. We were trying to SEO optimize our newest website blog about Affiliate Marketing Training. We want to build backlinks through commenting on relevant blogs, but I think sending traffic to our site at a steady pace and when we have no content to offer is the best thing.
Any opinions about this? I think this is what this blog is explaining.
yourmarketingfriend´s recent blog post ..How to Make Big Money Blogging