Most people in the Internet Marketing world are interested in getting more traffic. Some of the ways they do it are by writing articles, placing e-zine ads, writing blogs, and so on. Another popular way in the past was to post blog comments. Now, this may not seem important, but it worked for a couple of reasons.
Commenting on blogs used to be a very good way to get one-way links back to your site. One-way links mean a lot to search engines. The more you have, the higher you rank, the higher your site is in the results pages, and the more traffic you get. But, as with many good things, people came along and ruined it. How did that happen? They used spam bots to spew out thousands of comments on random blogs about everything from casinos to viagra. Actually, that still happens, but now, people who do this are just wasting their time.
One reason is because of Akismet, which is a spam catching script that comes with all WordPress blogs. Any time Akismet sees a post that looks spammy (whether it actually is or not), it sends it to a special spam folder, where the blog administrator can either “de-spam” it or nuke it. Get rid of it! So, no matter how much spam comes flying in toward your blog, you don’t have to worry about it; you just delete it.
Another reason spammers are wasting their time is because WordPress now uses the “no follow” tag for all comments. What that means is that any URLs in posted comments lead spiders nowhere. When spiders see rel=”nofollow” in the hyperlink, they stop. They just don’t go any farther. That means it doesn’t travel to the site that the link points to, and so that means that the days of people manufacturing crappy blog comments for the one-way links is over.
But blog comments are still great! And as a matter of fact, they’re an awesome way to be list building!
Just because search engines don’t follow the comments back to your website, that doesn’t mean that real people won’t click on the links. If they see something you wrote that’s relevant, and they’re really into the niche, they’ll appreciate your thoughtful response and just might check out your squeeze page and sign up for your list, too. It’s actually a great way to get subscribers.
So, what’s a relevant comment?
First, let me tell you what they’re not:
“Nice job.”
“I agree.”
“Awesome advice!”
Though I’m sure that some people who comment this way have good intentions, comments like that are just a waste of time. A relevant comment furthers a discussion. It brings up a point in the blog article that’s important, for instance, and gives the commenter’s views on that topic. Sometimes, they may ask the blog author a question. That’s OK, if it’s not taken to the extreme. I mean, if someone asks a question and it’s answered, isn’t it polite to move on, unless there’s no clarity in the answer or unless it’s a point of discussion? It’s polite. Blog ethics, and all. Nobody should be out there driving blog masters crazy.
But another important thing to remember about blog comments is that blog owners love them. Getting someone involved with what’s being written is the ultimate goal, right? When someone takes the time to write a relevant comment that can be answered by discussion, it helps the reputation of the blog, too.
Here’s what I mean by a relevant comment:
Let’s say that the post was all about list building, OK? And the blogger just wrote about using forums as a list builidng tool. A reader might write:
I have to add my two cents here. I’ve been a member of XYZ forum for three years. The camaraderie there is incredible, and I’ve learned a lot, just by hanging out. Putting the URL of your squeeze page in your signature helps a lot. I really enjoy participating. The list building advantage is just a side perk, but I must admit that I’ve had lots of people sign up for my list from there, just because they like what I have to say when I’m posting.
It’s almost like a testimonial to what the blogger wrote. A comment like that would be awesome for the blog owner and for the person who wrote it.
So, go to Google BlogSearch: http://blogsearch.google.com/ or Technorati, which is a blog search engine, too, and find some blogs in your niche. Read through them, comment on the ones you like, and bookmark them or subscribe through your RSS feed. Then, when you find a post you like and can relate to, comment! You’ll be surprised at the traffic you’ll get.
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