Blog commenting, part II: Techniques of blog commenting

This is a continuation of the article Blog commenting, part I: Benefits of blog commenting. If you haven’t read it, I recommend to read that first.

In this part of the article on Blog Commenting I shall consider commenting strategies that make sure your comments are welcome and accepted. I will also touch on some Blog commenting ‘don’ts’ and tell you about some useful plugins that can make your blog more popular.

Commenting strategies

Commenting on other people blogs

Comment on high traffic blogs. Commenting on high traffic blogs may bring you valuable targeted traffic. If you leave smart and insightful comments - you may get a lot of traffic, especially if you comment early (discussed later). To estimate traffic to a blog, use one of the following services:

• Compete
• Quantcast
• Semrush
  

Comment on blogs you like. Give preference to those blogs that you enjoy reading and have something valuable to add to. This will help you to write authentic comments and increase your chances for being accepted. Link to those blogs in your own blog’s entries and the chances are you may be linked back, but even if not, it’s still worth linking out to high ranking topical blogs in your niche as this is good for your own rankings.

Comment on posts for which you have a value to add. Do not comment for the sake of getting a backlink only. Your comment will unlikely be interesting and authentic, and experienced bloggers will sense the insincerity and are likely to disregard  your comment. Instead, try to comment on the posts that really interest you and for which you have something valuable to add. You can add an expert opinion, share personal experience, pose a question for other commenters or just ask the poster to clarify his point. Whatever the form is, making a noticeable contribution to a discussion will help you to get attention of the readers and benevolent disposition of the blog owner.

Comment early. If you count on traffic, try to comment on posts that have 5 or less comments at the time. People rarely read long chain of comments even if the post is great, therefore you only have chances to get noticed if you are at the top of the comment chain. Blogs wit high traffic usually have a regular posting schedule which is pretty easy to figure out and, once done, make it a habit visiting those blogs shortly after an update and leave a comment  comments to posts for which you can make a sensible contribution.

Comment on recent and/or active posts. Popular blogs often have separate categories for recent and the most active posts. Try to comment mostly on those, as this will bring you more traffic and make your contribution more visible both to the readers and the blog owners.

Leave many comments on the same blogs. It is better to comment a lot on the same blogs, rather then just leaving a single comment on as many blogs as possible.  Leaving many quality comments on the same blogs makes you conspicuous  and tells the readers and the blog owners that are genuinely interested in the discussion, which in turn will earn you a good reputation and bring highly targeted traffic to your site.

It also saves you time and lift a headache of needing to  remember where you haven’t commented for a while, so that not to leave people questions and remarks unanswered. It’s quality, not quantity that matters in the blog numbers. It’s both quality and quantity that matters on the same blogs.

Submit your posts to social  bookmarks. When you find an interesting blog post,  submit it to your favourite social bookmarking sites (such as del.icio.us, e.g.). By doing so you will increase your authority at those sites and build your relationships with the blog owners, both of which will help you to promote your own blog and make a name in the blogosphere.

Dealing with comments on your own blog

Surprising or not, but encouraging people to comment on your blog can be even more rewarding than commenting yourself at other blogs.  This can bring you traffic,  permanent audience and, if your blog is really interesting and rich of useful information,  will make you a name recognizable by popular bloggers in your niche.

But how can you encourage visitors to comment?
Well, there are a number of ways to achieve that, and a simple one is to make your blog Dofollow. But I’ll get back to this a bit later, and for now I will discuss other ways to make your blog more popular, and the first one is blog content.

Blog content

Use simple language. Write your posts in a simple language, as if you are talking to the audience. I don’t mean writing oversimplified texts with all essential technical side washed out - in no case should you do that! But try keep a conversational tone. Even complex things can be explained in a plain language.

Balance between  intricacy and controversy. Make your posts intelligent, thought-provoking, but, at the same time, somewhat controversial. Leave room for your readers to come up with their own view of the situation and divulge the “error” . Throw in some uncertainty and let the readers figure out the missing bits by themselves! There is nothing that makes a man so proud of himself as realisation of his own wit! Posts like that will encourage great comments, and great comments will make your blog even better and bring even more readers - the whole process is just like an avalanche!

Post regularly. Regularity in posting is tremendously important to keep your audience interested and wanting to visit your blog again. Work out a posting schedule that is both realistic and convenient for you, and stick to it. This will tell your audience  when to expect next update and help you to build your permanent readership.

Dealing with comments

Invite readers to comment. Do not just assume that if an article is interesting and useful, readers will want to comment. Instead, at the end of every post express readers your appreciation of their feedback and invite them to leave a comment.

Quick approval. Ideally,  readers love to see their comments appear instantly in the thread to keep the conversation live. So don’t deprive them of that opportunity, moderate and approve good comments as as soon as possible.

Reply to comments. If the comment is more than just plain “Thanks for the great post!”, especially if it addresses issues raised in your post or asks you a question - reply to it as quickly as possible.

Reward best commenters. You can either do the best comments review and publish it as a regular entry on the home page linking out to the original post or, alternatively, just edit the post itself and include quotes from best commenters at the bottom. Either way, express your appreciation of the smartest and most prolific contributers.

Useful Plugins

CommentLuv is a WordPress plugin, which fetches the title of the commenter’s latest post and displays it just below the comment he/she made on your blog. It’s a great way to show appreciation for the commenters contribution to your blog and stimulate them to leave further comments.

Dofollow plugin

I strongly recommend installing this plugin and then  submitting your blog to a dofollow blog search engines and networks.  This may notably improve your blog’s popularity and bring a lot of new visitors to your site, some of which will become your permanent readership and thus a potential source of your income.

BT Active Discussions plugin

This is another great pluing to show your readers which posts on your blog receive most comments and thus get more people involved into the most interesting discussions.

Blog commenting DON’Ts

• Do no comment just to get a link. Leave a comment only if you have something valuable to add.
  
• Don’t leave approving comments like “Great post, thanks for sharing!”. Those are often treated as spam and have no chance of being published.
  
• Don’t place a link to your site within a comment, unless the link is an essential part of a long and informative comment. And even then I would recommend that, as the normal practise is to let your name (or name + keyword) be the link.
  

Your Feedback

Let me know your thoughts about blog commenting techniques and  strategies.
All valuable comments contributing to the discussion will be published.
Your feedback is welcome!

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