Interaction has always been one of the strongest points of blogs. Every blogger sharing advice will tell you how important it is to interact with bloggers in your niche, through comments. Some of them will tell you that comments even generate a great deal of traffic, which is true, but not in the way most people understand it.
Traffic generation through comments is a thing to look for in the long run. Don’t expect to receive 1000 visits only by posting a comment on a famous blog; that is not going to happen (with some very rare exceptions). Instead, focus on leaving meaningful comments on every post that you read and enjoy, focus on leaving comments that stand out.
How can an outstanding comment help you?
First of all, I’ll say that in my opinion, leaving a comment is not a thing you should do to get or expect something in return. Still, constantly posting interesting comments will help build up your reputation with certain communities in your niche. Reputation generates interest. Member of those communities will want to find out more about you and will come to your blog, where, if they find great content there’s a good chance they’ll visit again and again, becoming loyal readers.
Further more, not only community members could find interest in your comments, but also blog owners. This can help your networking efforts and also generate a good amount of backlinks to your articles if the blog owners find your content relevant to a post they’re going to write or simply add in those “link round-up” posts.
As I said, the effects of focusing on leaving outstanding comments are not instantly visible, but rather show themselves in the long run, by generating a constant or increasing amount of “secured traffic” based on loyal, returning visitors, by growing your own blog’s community and by building up a better reputation for yourself (creating awareness).
6 ways to make outstanding comments
Whenever I decide to leave a comment on a blog post I ask my self three questions:
- Was that post useful or interesting to me?
- Can I express a valid opinion on the topic?
- Will my comment be useful to someone?
If the answer is “Yes” to at least two of these questions, I then proceed to leaving the actual comment following a few personal guidelines:
1. Never leave short and meaningless comments.
I’m sure that everyone has seen those “Great post, X!” comments floating around in the blogosphere. I’m sure that some people really feel that way about a blog post, while others leave that kind of comments only to get listed between the commentators. Showing appreciation that way it’s nice, but unfortunately it will rarely get you noticed.
2. Extend the topic
If the topic happens to meet your field of expertise, try to leave a comment that will extend the blog post. Explore other possibilities and ideas. Think of it as writing a small follow up.
3. Provide personal insight
If you are familiar with the topic and have personal experience with similar situations, don’t hesitate to share. Different tips apply and have different effects to different readers. Talking about your personal experience will help comment readers identify with your situation and estimate future effects.
4. Be communicative
After all, comments are a form of interaction. Whether you’re going to engage in a discussion with the post author or the community, it will prove to be a good strategy of getting you noticed. Blog owners appreciate community members that contribute to starting and developing interesting and intense discussions.
5. Identify yourself
Comments are not trackbacks. Trackbacks are automatically left by blogs and blog posts, comments are left by humans (spam bots not included). Start using a real name or at least a nick name in the “name” field of the comment form. Personally, while in most cases I approve almost every comment, even if it’s signed with a keyword phrase (as long as it is on topic), I tend to show less interest in comments not signed with a name. Imagine a real life conversation going like this:
“Hi Alex, these are good tips! I’m looking forward to implementing them.”
“Thank you, ‘internet marketing‘. I’m glad that you’ve enjoyed them.”
Sounds a bit weird doesn’t it? It’s not a pleasant situation.
6. Be a critic, not a hater
No blogger should think that he holds the absolute truth and must be ready to be criticized. If you’re going to leave a negative comment, try to use common sense and arguments. If your critique and arguments are valid, it’s likely that the author will give you credit for them and even be thankful and so will the community.
Things to avoid when commenting
Just like some things are sure to get you noticed and give you a good reputation, other things could have a negative effect on you and your blog. Avoiding the following should keep you safe in most cases:
- Do not over-promote yourself or your blog /services;
- Do not include irrelevant or too many links in your comments;
- Do not link again to the same URL provided with the comment form;
- Do not harass the author or members of his community;
- Do not use caps excessively;
- Do not use excessive text formatting (bold, italic, underline);
- Do not make excessive use of emoticons.
Over to you
These are my personal guidelines, guidelines I follow when posting or reading comments.
Now, tell me, what do you consider a good commenting strategy? What do you do in order to leave outstanding comments?