As a blogger, you know that comments are an exciting part of the process. However, you can’t sit idly by waiting for people to comment on your content if you aren’t willing to seek out other bloggers in your niche and leave your own valuable comments behind. There are many reasons comments are important, but here are five reasons why commenting on other blogs truly matters.
1. You Build Community
There’s a reason that commenting on other blogs within your niche is an important building block for gaining a following – because it’s true! When you comment on another blog, you are able to share a link to your blog, which can draw new readers to your site to check out what you have to offer.
The more people who know about your blog, the better its success – and the more you can build a community around your topic. Once you’ve built a strong community, you open doors to other opportunities you may never have known existed, as well as gain a following of fans who support and share your work within their communities.
As long as you leave valuable feedback on a blog post, you are working towards building a community of like-minded individuals that can share in each others success.
2. You Gain Guest Blogging Opportunities
One of the ways a blogger can attract guest blogging opportunities on other blogs is through commenting. When you are a regular commenter on another’s blog, you are able to get to know that person on a personal level, and they get to know you as well.
While guest blogging opportunities are able to be found in a variety of ways, one of the best ways to find guest blogging opportunities is by commenting on other blogs and getting to know those blog authors. After you’ve built up a rapport with another blogger, you can exchange guest posts and strengthen your community even more.
3. You Gain Traffic
By commenting on other blogs, you are leaving a link back to your blog each time you comment. Other people who visit those blogs frequently will eventually trickle to yours, especially if you prove to be a regular, valuable commenter with insights or information that are relevant to them.
While a huge traffic spike may not happen right away, you are leaving your digital footprint every time you leave a comment on another blog. As long as you are leaving good comments that add value to the discussion, people will eventually decide to visit your site and see what you have to say.
More traffic = more readers, so it’s important to get your name out there in a non-spammy way. Just make sure that every comment you leave contributes something to the conversation. If it’s obvious you’re only commenting to get your link out there, you will not be welcomed with open arms in the blogging community.
4. You Increase Engagement
We’ve talked about the importance of increasing engagement on your blog and social media platforms before, but did you know that by leaving comments on other blogs you can also increase engagement for yours?
For example, let’s say you visit another blog in your niche and leave a comment for them. In the blogging world, most people will respond in kind by visiting your site and leaving a comment for you.
If you are commenting on several blogs per day on a regular basis, this give and take method will help to increase engagement on your own blog – people will feel compelled to respond to you and visit your site since you took the time to visit theirs.
5. You Keep Up to Date
When you comment on other blogs within your niche, you are able to keep up to date on what’s happening in your industry. For example, let’s say you are a professional photographer who blogs about photography tips, new products, etc.
By commenting on other photography blogs, you may learn something you didn’t already know. You can then use that knowledge to your advantage by putting your own unique spin on the topic.
While there are plenty of ways to stay up to date on the things happening within your industry, commenting is one of the easiest and most effective ways to stay informed.
Keeping informed, driving traffic to your site, increasing reader engagement and building a community are all important reasons why commenting on other blogs really matter. Provided you leave valuable feedback each and every time, commenting can be an effective way to grow your blog.
In my opinion, the last reason why you should comment on blogs is for “getting more traffic.” That mentality is why there’s a slew of people who go around to every major blog and leave a comment like “hey, that’s a nice post. I’ll bookmark it.”
Do they really mean those words of praise? Probably not. They just want their comment to appear first, with hopes of getting more traffic back to their site.
But commenting on other sites is not a complete waste of time. You should comment on articles because it a) solidifies what you just learned or b) because you want to share your opinion with the person who wrote the article.
I suppose this comment is a case in point
Good stuff Derek, and thanks for dropping by to comment.
It’s our responsibility as blog owners to weed out the “clearly made to get traffic” comments. In fact, when I see stuff like “Nice post, thanks for sharing”, the first thing I do is delete the comment. If it doesn’t add value, instigate conversation or do something beneficial, it has no place on my blog.
Not once have I had one of those people ask why their comment was deleted. They knew.
You’re right. What I actually do is this:
When people leave a comment like Nice post, thanks for sharing. If they look like a real person, I often delete their comment and send them a personal email “while I love compliments, on Social Triggers I want my comments to spark smart intelligent discussion where people both share their ideas and comment on others ideas. So, I had to delete your comment, but I’d love for you to come back and share your opinion on the article.”
You’ll be surprised at how many people return and leave a real comment… and continue to return to leave real comments… after a short email like that
Also, even if your purpose *is* to gain traffic to your site, probably the worst way to do it is to post a generic “nice post” comment.
If you post comments that add value to the conversation, people are more likely to pay attention to you. I don’t think I’ve ever clicked through to a site from a commenter that said “Nice post!” I have, however, clicked through on comments that add insight and value, so in either case you’re always better off leaving comments that are valuable and applicable to the conversation, no matter what your intentions might be.
Completely agree, which is why there’s so much activity and individual validation going on over at Copyblogger.
If you prove you care about the content and engaging in conversation, folks are more likely to take you seriously and check out your site.
Being new to blogging, I’m scared of giving users any reason to not enjoy reading my posts.
Derek, have you had any people writing you nasty e-mail responses because you were blunt with them about leaving good comments?
I agree with you Derek. Some bloggers, just for the sake of leaving a one-liner comment which really doesn’t make sense at all is becoming contagious. They know what commenting can do to their own website but they do’t really pay attention or didn’t really went through to the whole article – that is why they always end up commenting “Great stuff” – like messages.
I just hope other bloggers can be more responsible on leaving messages on someone’s work.
I should append the post to include “adding value” with commenting on other blogs. For me, worthless comments are like advertisements… I’m blind to them and have no plans to click the link to see who that person is.
Thats a great post Brian, but after Derek’s comment I feel that I’ll less likely comment to just show my appreciation. Hiding back in my lurker cave now..
Don’t let Derek scare you. I think the point he’s trying to make is that non-value adding comments are worthless. (or close to it.)
Thanking someone for a good post, with a little bit of personal touch is completely ok in my book.
Whoops…
Don’t get me wrong, comments that leave appreciation are always welcomed. Who doesn’t love compliments?
.
What I mean is that there are people who run around saying “Hey, nice post” on 500 articles, and they sometimes use services to alert them when new articles go live so they can be the first to comment.
These same people will never leave a comment unless they appear first on a comment stream. It’s obvious, and I remember a commenter who was actually banned from Copyblogger for doing this about 2 years ago
I can’t imagine taking the time to personally email people who’s comment I’ve deleted due to it’s terse complimentary nature, nor would I take the time to delete someone who adds to the social proofs of the post (comment count), as mundane as their contribution may be. I wouldn’t hid
I think we have to remember that not everyone is as eloquent as they would like to be, and that deleting comments may deter commentary from people who have yet to ‘find their voice’.
I can understand clipping trollish or link spammy non sequiturs, but a something from a serial comment schemer would be filtered by Akismet, no?
P.S. – Big fan’s of Copyblogger && Brian’s blogs && Social Triggers.
P.S.S. Hey, nice post.
P.S.S.S *”I wouldn’t hid” was an aborted and half-deleted tangent about deleting other social proofs such as social share count or pageviews, that was abandoned after I realized it was a faulty metaphor.
*’ …but a something from a serial comment schemer… ‘ -the a derived from the change from ‘a comment’ to ‘something from a serial commenter’ to ‘something from a serial comment schemer’…
* I don’t know why I felt compelled to address these gaffes…
Akismet catches about 95-98% of all trollish comments, but I do get some from time to time. The ones that make it through are probably humans trying to leave comments, but “nice post” and “good stuff” don’t add value so I still don’t allow them.
And super glad that you’re a fan of what we’re doing at Copyblogger and what Derek’s doing at Social Triggers. He’s definitely doing the right thing, and a pretty cool guy.
Hi, guys, I’m really enjoying this discussion. Thanks Brian for this article, I’m definitely going to share it at my Facebook! Sometimes, people who speak with other language than English, might having problems to express their thoughts as comments. So they usually drop a one liner comment. But then again it’s just my 50 cents
Thanks Roy, appreciate your comment. While this is true, it’s a matter of the site/blog owner really paying attention to the URL’s that are being used in the comments. Usually it’s pretty obvious which ones are/aren’t fishing for spam links. If it’s a short comment, and I see the URL is legit, I normall approve it.
Hi Brian and Derek ,
I am very new to the blogging world and this article has surely helped me understand the actual motives of the small comments people just leaving short emails…
well my reason to get comments is because I have finally given my best hobby a big frame to get feedback an guidance … I love writing and mostly it turns out to be my personal thoughts…
So I didnt know how to get people to notice what I write as I dont use facebook or any other social networking sites to tell people about my work…
Thanks again on this conversation and I am glad I read it….
I guess that I’m surprised when I see people leaving a “great post” comment. Giving a little thought to your comment is the key since of some the best comments are only a few sentences.
I like to leave comments especially when I have picked up on a tip or learned a strategy that will help my blog or my business.
Most of the people who leave “great post” comments on my blog are clearly in it for the link, etc. When I see it come through, I’ll check the URL and in most cases it’s “Discount Shoes Minneapolis” or “Premium WP Themes”.
Instant delete.
Honestly, it takes maybe a minute to place value on a “thanks for this post” type of comment. Simply adding a reason to this can go miles, since it’s form of validation that the post was read.
“Thanks for writing this, as I encountered the same thing the other day with my client. Now I know that digital sharecropping is a bad thing and will recommend they host their own content.”
I agree with Doug, some of the best comments are short. An article can spark a conversation, and it’s often the comments that have more value, but some long winded comments can be more ego than info. Cheers
True enough on the ego thing. I think you’re saying that some folks do it for the “lookie me” effect?
Thanks, you got the gist of my comment.
I really like the point that you have to “prove to be a regular, valuable commenter with insights or information that are relevant”. It’s not just turning up with a “good job!” each day, it’s really building a relationship with the blogger and their other readers.
The nice thing with comments, as opposed to Tweets, Shares, +1 etc, is that you feel like your reaching out to the blogger when you comment, as you say it’s much more personal, and the conversation remains with that post for others to see.
I also find that reading a post that I’m intending to comment on means I read it much more carefully so I ensure my comment is useful, and in the process often learn more from taking my time.
Thanks Brian, great post and really useful points.
One of the best examples of a good commenting community is on Copyblogger. Many of the comments there are multiple paragraphs, which tells me a few things. First off the person read the post, and it inspired them to leave a long comment. The length instantly validates them as someone who wants to engage or begin conversation about an element of the post.
It’s great to see the same faces there on Copyblogger to. Talk about wanting to establish yourself and getting traffic by consistently being a valued member of a community. That’s one way to do it.
Brian, thanks for sharing this post, it’s provided a few more solid reasons to encourage and connect with other bloggers.
You’re welcome Greg, appreciate that and good to know you’ll use it to connect with others!
Wow, definitely realized I was leaving more “nice post” comments than anything else. Guess I’ll have to step it up now. I really think that a critical reason you highlighted is staying up to date. I frequently read your blog because the information is fabulous. But it also gives me ideas for related posts I can offer and keeps me educated in my industry.
All that being said, nice post Brian
Here’s another strategy for the blogs you follow. If you read a post that sparks one of your own, write something and link to the original article. Assuming that post (like Copyblogger) publishes trackbacks, it’s another way to validate yourself and get some additional traffic.
I want to underscore point #4, as it was the main reason to make a comment after giving more value to the post itself. Visiting a blog in regular basis, then get the author come to ours doing the same is great to build relationship. But we need warn ourself one day we comment to many but blog less.
Want to say more. But typing here using my phone is a pain. First time opening this blog using my phone, great design Brian, but the paragraph on the post trimmed by 2 or 3 letters.
Great read Brian. Commenting is something I’ve never been good at to be honest. I’m so quick to read something and get back to what I was doing without leaving any thoughts. Maybe you’ve inspired me to change a bad habit
It all depends on what you’re goals are. If you’re looking to gain knowledge, then commenting isn’t a necessity. However, if you’re looking to build your brand, increase exposure and whatnot, then yes – it’s a must.
I think I’ve gotten used to RT’ing or hitting the “Like” button more rather than stopping by to comment. It’s nice to share other people’s work of course, but you’re also missing out on a better conversation. That said, thanks for the reminder
Anytime, Ricardo.
Wow, I knew that commenting was important to help drive traffic to a blog or website. I didn’t realize the other great points that were mention in the post and the comments. From now on I will need to remember to write a quality, informative, and meaningful comment showing my appreciation adding value from what I learned.
Hey, nice article, thanks for the share
Nah, only joking, I hate it when people do simple little comments like that. Who are they kidding, right?
Nice round up of tips, though. I think leaving a comment is a great way to engage and the community pointer you mention is the main one for me. The more engaged you can become with people of interest the better. Can it result in more traffic? Sure, and it’s great. Can it lead to Guest Posts? Sure, also great
But the main one is networking and sharing with like minded folk. The benefits of those seeds being sewn can be HUGE!
Matt (Turndog Millionaire)
Great comment Matt, love the reference to like minded folks. I think too many people try to engage in audiences that aren’t relevant to their niche by commenting on popular or well-trafficked blogs.
Agreed, high traffic sites are good, but only if they’re relevant to what you do.
one of the most important things in marketing is targeting, but it’s something many push to one side
Matt (Turndog Millionaire)
Yeah, sometimes even I get caught up in seeing traffic spikes on my site, but when I realize the bounce rate has climbed all is moot.
I’ve got two good reasons to leave quality comments:
- readers may click through to perceptive commentators (I do!)
- it somehow combats the isolation of freelance work!
I had thought that nofollows would invalidate the (SEO) trail we leave behind when commenting, but a more knowledgeable colleague was suggesting to me that dofollows have been devalued, thereby levelling the playing field…
Have you got an opinion on that, Brian?
I’m not a technical SEO guru, so I really can’t say. I do know that even though links are nofollowed, they still somehow impact SEO which is why spammers and the like continue to do that.
The sad thing is that there are so many people starving for comments on their blog, that they approve (inadvertently or not) comments that are clearly spam. Maybe they don’t know better or what to look for.
Hmm.. I’ll add it to my infinite research list
I can’t help but approve (edited) some of the more entertaining spam comments that crop up.. like crazy auto generated beat poetry!
I can really relate to your second point. I’ve guest posted a couple times for a fatherhood blog (www.fatherapprentice.com) and it all came about after I was part of the community for a bit.
Also, your last point is spot on. Even if you don’t gain traffic through comments, the things you learn from the comments are invaluable.
Completely true Chris. Like others have pointed out here, sometimes there’s more value in the comments of a post than the post itself.
I comment on others’ blogs to remind them that I am one of their competition. I usually comment for guest blogging though.
Great tips on commenting. I like Derek’s suggestion about emailing the “Nice Post” commenters and giving them another chance to come back and leave a good comment.
I’ve sent commenters the link to Google Translator when their comment was all garbled up as if their native tongue was not English or if the comment looked like it was auto-generated from a system. Reminds me of listening to Boomhauer on King of The Hill.
I also like when people leave real names in the “Name” field of the comment instead of a company name or something spammer.
On guest blogging: I’m noticing people sending me guest posts that seem like they’re sales landing pages turned into blog posts. After reading one of them, it was pretty obvious. But some are more difficult to determine what’s good and what’s not so good.
That might be a good blog post: “The Tall-Tale Signs of a Bad Guest Blog Post. What’s Acceptable and What’s Not”.
I know there’s a lot of blog posts out there on how to be a great guest blogger but I don’t know if there are any out there talking about what’s acceptable and what’s not.
Obviously it’s subjective, but it’s kind of like getting your first bad comments on your blog, you want to approve them because you finally have comments, on the other hand, they can also NOT be worth approving.
{Hmm, my first attempt disappeared so I’m trying again but apologies if both show up!}
Bill, I wrote that exact blog post (how to spot an ineffective guest post) back in march, and followed it with posts on how to deal with poor guest posts. I hoped to help guest bloggers learn hwo to do it better and also help blog owners provide quality posts for us to read.
I don’t understand why you would work hard on your blog then allow low quality guest posts to go live on it. Just like I don’t understand blogs that allow low quality (ie spammy) comments – I stop reading comemnts if a lot of spam has got through, and I lose respect for the entire blog.
A good chunk of the stuff I learned has been through reading post comments! Not sure if commenters realize this, but a lot of their feedback is highly valuable. For example, Derek’s feedback here (thank you sir).
My general rule is this: if I don’t have anything valuable to add to the conversation, but I liked the post, then I’ll use social sharing buttons and share it with other folks.
“My general rule is this: if I don’t have anything valuable to add to the conversation, but I liked the post, then I’ll use social sharing buttons and share it with other folks.”
Those are words of wisdom that I wish everybody would use.
Thanks Brian great post! Just kidding…well no I’m not…it is!
Now instead of me trying to explain to people that not all comments they will get on their website are from ‘real’ people, (wow, I just spelled ‘real’ as ‘feral’ by mistake…it suits though…) anyway, I will just point them to this article.
As for my clients reading this, I couldn’t have explained it as well as everyone here.
I’m ok if you point people here to this article. The more conversation (and eyes opened) the better, right?
These 5 reasons above are great for leaving a comment on a blog, in my option, we should leave a comment for some others reasons such as:
1. To Blog Better: When we leaving a comment on a blog post, we must think about the topic, then we must write, that why our writing skill could be improved through blog commenting.
2. To Build Relationship: If our comment can help someone solve their problem, we could start a new talking, that’s why our relationship with others could be built.
3. To Build Back-links: Blog commenting is a way to build backlinks for our blog, and backlinks is one of most important things for doing SEO. Is it worthy to do, isn’t it? This is easiest way for link building.
What you’ve written is the best practices wish list for both newbie (like me) and veteran commenters (like the rest of you.) If only the real blogging world was filled with people with good intentions instead of the crap holes that use commenting to trick other people (e.g. the use of something other than your real name when you leave a comment – what’s up with that?)
I admit, in the beginning, I didn’t have a clue about what I was supposed to do and I should act when commenting on a blog. I admit I had “Facebook comment hangover” and could only muster the old standbys like “Great post” or “Awesome tips” language. Just the thought of writing more than that was downright intimidating. I never read the blog tutorial that said you shouldn’t should include a link back to your own website. I thought it was free marketing. So what if I disagreed with the author. I was right and they were wrong. It was my duty to inform them of that fact. And what’s the deal with an avatar. I saw the movie. What does that have to do with blogging? Looking back, I was so, so wrong and uninformed.
Now that I’ve started blogging, I’ve been striving to connecting with my peers on a more personal level. I’m forming a brand new circle of friends and networking with people in my industry. I live in a rural community in Mississippi and in-person interactions with people in my industry is slim to none. I work from home now as we just got DSL last July.
I know, we all had to start from somewhere and weed through the right and wrong way to share our thoughts and ideas. I’m still learning how to genuinely leave a well thought out comment (using more than 2 words) and perfecting the technique of adding to the conversation without becoming part of the noise.
You did well, Colleeen – your comment is more than two words and it is a valuable remidner that newbies make mistakes (ie not all poor comemnts are from spammers!)
Thanks for the kind words Tash.
Yeah I am agree with your all points. Its really help us to gain visitor with backlink too.
Commenting is the best for interacting with other webmaster. We can say commenting is all in one package.
But now a days every one doing commenting and they are in hurry to build backlink by commenting so they are used spammy or unrelevent comments.
So we should alert the time of approving comment.
Great Post and I am totally agree with all the points here and certainly if you do blog commenting as for sharing your experience or your opinion in that particular topic that automatically gives you the chance to get the authority and people will consider your point.
That should be the main point of doing blog commenting and that’s will do the backlink target at the back end.
Thanks for sharing great post!
Fantastic article! I couldn’t agree further about the reasons.
Really helpful! Thanks!
Yup, that is very true. But commenting must be done professionally and as accordance to the blog’s entry. Otherwise blog owner might think that you’re a spammer and accordingly delete your comment.
Hello
Commenting in various blogs has become the need of the hour if we go with the new Google algorithm. But that does not mean comments like “hey Nice article, thanks for sharing” should be approved. Well if there is quality comments in a site, it will help your blog grow and it will make your blog valuable. So if you delete these kind of comments ( as you have mentioned you do) then people will spend more time in you blog and write a good comment to get a back link. Good comments not only bring visitors to the blog but also on the other hand creates a good bond with the readers. Comments should be made in such a way that the reader gets benefited and learn something.
Thanks for the encouragement to continue commenting Brian. Whenever I leave comments I always try to leave my thoughts and ideas, preferably as succinctly as possible. If I’m not sure how to comment on a blog, I generally feel that it is better to share it via Twitter or the like, rather than leaving a “nice post” comment. I’m sure the blog author would prefer the Twitter share than the “nice post” comments, I know that I certainly would.
It’s also just a sign of respect and thanks.
If I’ve learnt something valuable that someone has taken the time to write the least I can do is leave a comment.
Thank you for your post!
This post may not be the niche that I blog about, but it is certainly helping me improve my blogging experience. Without your valuable information, my time here would be useless.
As a new Blogger I am learning how important it is to join the community and interact. It is so much more than just creating the blog traffic. What is lacking is communication and feedback on posts. As long as we can actively engage with one another then we are building a very strong bond together. I believe that this social networking is far deeper and more intellectual than what Facebook has become. There are so many element that Facebook has stripped down, but not we are just facing the jury of our peers. I love blogging and hearing feedback from real people who don’t know me at all. It is so very tiring to hear the same pessimistic junk from family and friends.
“I don’t want to be wealthy, I want to be wonderful.”
I am so glad I click on the link to this post! I am writing an article about the value of blog commenting, why it’s important to do it right, how it should be done and how it should not be done, amongst all the other benefits.
The one thing I emphasized in my article was any comment you leave must be informative and of value to anyone who reads it. One thing not to do is leave a “you rock dude” or “great post” type comment without any explanation as to why “you rock” or why it was a “great post” in your opinion.
It also seems that comments like the above on blog posts will get you penalized by the Google Penguin update. Penguin now looks for quality over quantity. How true that is, I don’t know.
I am a newbie at blogging and writing articles, so reading a really informative post and really informative blog comments has helped me shape my article.
As Andre stated, it’s important to join a community and interact, and that’s how you build relationships.
As Trung stated too – you build relationships and it helps you to be a better blogger. I know this for a fact as my article has been updated several times now just on the basis of reading blog comments alone. And, it will be updated again now.
I am going to put a link in my article back to this post as a great example of how to comment on blogs.
To everyone who has left a comment – thanks for the education! Great post too!!
From a readers point of view comments can turn out be a total waste of time. While it takes about 5 minutes to go through a brilliant post, it is often the case that you can end up losing another 15 minutes going through comments and spending 5 more minutes adding yet another comment to an over commented post!
It really depends on the post content and what kind of conversation it sparks in the comments. You’re right, some comment threads aren’t as valuable as others.
But there are some where you’ll find the real gold.
I must be reading your mind Brian, last 2 posts about long tails and comments I recently did on my site.
Lets call it “Gardnering”….haha
Thanks for the great posts and info, as always!
Thank you Tonyk518. I am very interested to talk about gardening. Gardening is the earning sources of money and hobby to few man. I am also interested to the hobby. But I want to know that how my gardening activities would be profitable?
As Mike said above, it’s open to debate as to just how much link-love search engines give to comments these days. Everyone knows that people spam comments for easy links and I’m sure Google got wise to that game a long time ago.
As far as I know the “dofollow” is still used by Google as an indicator for untrusted content.
I’m not a hardcore SEO expert, but I do know that the “nofollow” tag is automatically applied to each link in a comment. I’ve heard from some folks who are smarter than me that in some fashion, the links still help. Which is sad, because it only encourages more spam and (in my opinion) worthless comments.
I noticed that each comment here was accompanied by at least an avatar if not a real photo of the person. It’s good to see when so many other blogs have comments with no picture at all. Part of the value of networking is being recognizable, whether it’s yourself or your brand. Is this another standard for acceptable comments or a happy coincidence? I think it should be (standard.)
I agree fully with the value of reading blog comments. It’s somewhat disappointing to read through those that lack real content.
Since my blog is geared towards techy/blogger types, most of the people who comment here have a Gravatar. I do enjoy seeing who people are, and it’s definitely a way to draw interest from other readers to possibly clicking on a commenters site link as well.
I enjoyed both this article and the comments (well all but the spammy one at the end of the page anyway).
Another reason to leave a comment is to encourage the blogger. Not so important on an established site where lots of people comment, but if you read a good post on a quite blog leaving a comment can mean a lot to the blogger. It could help them get a community going but it could even keep them blogging (it can be demoralising to write and write and never hear back from readers).
For all these reasons, I try to always leave a comment on good posts – even if it is ‘great post and my favourite bit was…’ or ‘great post because…’ Sharing on social media is good but doesn’t replace a comment to my mind. And if you want to focus on marketing yourself, leaving a comment AND sharing it helps you more than just sharing it
The spammy comment was actually a trackback from someone who posted and linked to my post. I do see it’s not completely related to what I was writing, but I approved it nonetheless.
And thanks for taking the time Tash to leave a comment. Appreciate that!
Nice Post . . . . I think I’ll bookmark this one. . .
I couldn’t resist. . .
I agree with your 5 reasons, but how do you encourage commenting? Or, better yet, what is your “conversion rate” for commenting? What is your comment-to-visitor ratio.
I’m not uber-geeky with stats, so I don’t know for sure. Usually at the end of the post I’ll say something like “How’s this going for you? Discuss in the comments below…” or something like that.
So true! I was in fact invited to write a guest post once I started commenting on one of my favorite blogs. I’ve also commented on people’s blogs who are “newbies” in the industry and have contacted me personally for advice…it really brightens their day to see my comments on their blogs, and keeps them reading and engaging on my blog. Win-win!
Good stuff Ali, you seem to have a good understanding of the value that leaving blog comments has. It can work in all kinds of ways, as you’ve seen!
And hey, thanks for commenting for the first time on my blog!
After Reading the comments on this article, I have decided is best I wipe out all my readers comments because they are mostly “Nice post, thanks for sharing, I will definitely bookmark your webpage” and stuffs like that…. Seriously, I don’t know if adding a ‘rel=’nofollow’ tag will help me reduce the numbers of spammers in my blog???
I agree with Derek’s opinion.
I agree with Derek’s opinion
Thanks very much for this post (and for your blog!). I’m an Information Literacy specialist at a primary school in Australia-new to the role and learning as I go. I’m sharing this post with my Year 6 classes. We just started blogging, so have written blogging guidelines and will look at how to write quality comments next. Your post will help them to understand the role that comments play. Thank you!
this is a really good straight forward article and even better with all the posts with valuable insite and information – thanks!
I was looking for some information on commenting on blogs and this is a very well written post. You actually pointed out some things that I had not considered. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Great article & great blog.
Great article – I definitely go through spurts where I’m so busy with my own blog that I don’t take time to read and comment on others and your article is great for emphasizing the importance of making comments a priority!
Guess that every new blogger run into this question (Im new and I have). After reading your post I feel a bit better equipped although it will take some time to read through all the insightful comments. But I believe it will be worth it.
I started to look for blog etiquette when I received a kind comment but it ended with a link to the persons own blog post. I dont mind to give hints to posts I like but this seemed more like an attempt to advertise the persons own blog on my space. Since I dont want to be rude I tried to find some relevant reading on how to behave in such a situation. Still dont really know how to handle that one.