If you want to get more interested visitors to your blog, blog comment marketing is something you should invest a little time in doing.
What is blog comment marketing? It’s just a fancy way of saying “leave comments on other people’s blogs”—taking something you’re probably doing already, and just making it intentional.
Up till now, you may not have given any thought to the comments you leave on other blogs. Or maybe you have, but you aren’t great about getting around to it. Let me give you three good reasons why you should kick up your commenting.
- Comments are the first step in forming a relationship with another blogger. Think about how you feel when you receive a comment. You read it, and if it’s thoughtful, you appreciate that someone took the time to write it. Good comments improve the quality of a blog, so you notice the folks who are helping your blog be better. As you leave comments over time, you’ll start to be recognized, and you might find yourself able to help the bloggers you interact with in the future… and vice versa.
- You’ll get “pre-qualified” visitors. If you’re smart about where you comment, and you leave a good comment, you’ll attract not only the attention of the blogger but also the other readers. If you clearly know what you’re talking about and they’re interested in the topic, many of them will click through to your blog to find out more.
- You’ll learn something in the process. If you read other blogs on your topic or blogs that are geared towards your ideal reader, you’ll pick up some useful knowledge in the process. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been able to answer a client’s question with something I recently read in a blog post.
But before you go crashing into comment marketing, leaving a wake of annoyed bloggers behind you, make sure you’re being a considerate commenter.
- Only leave a comment if you can add something to the post. The point of blog comment marketing is to establish good will and useful links. If you’re not contributing something helpful, guess what: you’re not establishing good will, and the links you’re making aren’t useful. This isn’t about trying to beat the system; it’s about intentionally forming relationships. Besides, if you leave useless comments, you risk getting marked as a spammer; get marked too many times and you won’t be able to post on almost any blog (thanks to Akismet, a central database of spammers).
- Put your blog URL in the “Website” or “URI” box and nowhere else. There’s a reason you’re asked for your website; most blogs will link your name to your site automatically when you leave a comment. To add your link anywhere else is just rude. The only exception is when you are linking to something that’s extremely relevant and specific (pretty much never your homepage), and will be considered genuinely helpful by other readers.
- Don’t cram a bunch of marketing hype into your name. One of the current trends is to use the “Name” field as an extra place to stick your marketing message. Resist. Be consistent in what you put here (see this free PDF ebook for why it matters) but err on the side of not looking like a spammer.
My next post will talk about how to find good blog posts for your comment marketing. Until then, remember to be considerate!
Great post Sarah. I’ve made several contacts in the blogosphere by commenting on people’s posts. It’s interesting to see even some of the more popular blogs that don’t get comments. I wonder what makes the difference in blogs that receive a lot of comments and those that don’t.
Nice article Sarah, I’ve written a post which might be of some interest to you.
It describes top blogging tips.
Thanks for the comments, guys.
@David: the “standard advice” always seems to be 1) ask for comments or 2) be controversial. Being controversial does seem to work but may not be the best strategy for long-term success. Asking for comments when there aren’t any seems a little desperate. I think it’s a “social proof” thing; when other people do it, I want to do it.
Here’s my observation about comment driven traffic.
It is effective in getting visitors to your blog. If your blog is interesting enough these visitors will become subscribers or regular readers. What they don’t do is buy anything through your blog because they’re already advertising the same offers as you or simply don’t click offers on other, competing, blogs. In the end, it’s a social exercise, not a moneymaking exercise.
Good point, Frank, and I agree with you. It’s definitely most effective when your blog exists to spread an idea, brand yourself, or when you’re offering something totally unique.
That said, even without necessarily bringing in buyers, I find the social aspect to be worth the time put into it. I just never know when some contact today will lead to something bigger.
I totally agree with you when you said that when you are doing blog commenting, you also learn something in the process. I certainly do learn something new everytime I read blogs.
Ok, so I totally resisted putting Eric the Survey Beggar or something along those lines…your right…it looks totaly cheesy and spamesque.
My question is though, do you think the average blog reader knows to click on my name to access my website for further information. Is it really non kosher to put the site in the context of my message?
How about signature lines? I feel if I want to be a resource to the blog owner and their readers, I would be more than willing to offer my site in the verbage in some format.
What’s your take? Thanks
~E
@Eric:
It really depends on the specific blog, blogger, and audience. Generally speaking, I think most people figure out the link thing pretty quickly, but if it’s a very non-techy audience, they might not.
Similarly, some bloggers don’t mind signatures in comments, but many will just delete your comment (or worse, mark it as spam, which can get you blacklisted from thousands of blogs if it happens enough) rather than take the time to edit out a link they feel is overly self-promotional. Unless you have reason to believe a blogger is signature-friendly, I wouldn’t chance it. Too little return for too much risk.
A very informative article. Its good marketing technique.
When I was a new blogger, I used to get many comments on it. It was nice, but there were some somments that just included 5-10 links. There was no conversation or discussion or else. It was just Links…. later I found that such links were spam. I then didnt allow (delete) such comments when ever they arrive.