Blog commenting is something that many of us do, but would you consider it a strong point of your online marketing and branding? There are many different ways that blog commenting can work for building traffic to your site and building your brand in the process, but too many comments are looking for a quick link and using short cut methods that end up hurting their brand rather than helping it.
I run a decent amount of large blogs, which means I get to manage a lot of blog comments. This isn’t something I enjoy doing, as I get to deal with a lot of spam and waste time weeding out the good ones from the bad… however it has taught me a lot along the way. On one of my larger sites, BloggingTips.com, I created a set of blog commenting guidelines for my readers to follow. These rules are made up of the following:
- All comments must have a “real name” associated with the comment
- Your avatar picture should be of a real person and not blank/placeholder
- Comments need to provide value and not be a simple “nice post” message.
By setting guidelines you can expect better quality from the people who are already commenting on your site, while also potentially eliminating the ones that are wasting your time and doing drive-by spam comments as well.
The Benefits of Blog Commenting
When it comes to commenting on other blogs, there are many reasons why you should be doing this. Getting backlinks to your site, gaining exposure through your name and gravatar image, and also providing quality content are just three of the major benefits.
As beneficial as blog commenting might be, it is rare that you will find many top bloggers commenting on smaller blog posts. This usually isn’t because they don’t care, but instead of other obligations that take up most of their time.
One way that I have been able to relate with bloggers of all sizes is to make sure I take the time to comment on any blogs that mention my name or sites, in addition to responding to any interview requests that come my way as well. Yes, this does take up a lot of time, but it’s something I’ve always said that I would appreciate and act on.
This is especially appreciated by any new bloggers who are on the up and coming. It’s a thrill to see a big name commenting on your new baby, and it will be remembered for a long time coming.
Important note: I would definitely look at blog commenting from more of a “branding” concept versus trying to get new links and traffic to your sites. But if you are going to be focusing on blog commenting for traffic and links, be sure to follow those same guidelines I mentioned above and also provide unique, thoughtful comments that people will find value in. This will increase the chances of readers noticing your comment and possibly clicking over to your site.
How to Find Great Blogs to Comment On
The next part of the process to exploding your traffic and branding through blog commenting is finding the right blogs to comment on. Obviously you are going to want to comment on blogs that are in your same niche, since this is the type of traffic you are going to want to bring back to your site.
The Technorati 100 is a great place to start and you can search through their site for blogs over a wide range of topics. I also recommend you take a look at my company’s list Brand 150, which is made up of over 500 different blogs and uses a unique algorithm that ranks sites based on their social following and various site rankings.
No matter what reason you are leaving comments on blogs for, make sure you end up improving your online reputation versus destroying it.
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