Is Blog Commenting a Lost Art?
Do You Have a Blog Commenting Strategy?
‘Say what?’ Yes I ask you; do you have a blog commenting strategy? Do you have ‘comment goals’ for your own blog? Have you ever analyzed your articles to find out why some articles get commented on a lot and other (great) articles get no response at all? Are you curious as to how and why some bloggers just get comment after comment after comment?
Have you ever thought about how, why and when you yourself leave comments?
How Often Do You Comment On Blogs?
If you are a blogging business owner, let me give you a high five! Good for you. If you are active on social media, have a blog on your website and you are an active participant in online communities like LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups and G+communities, kudos to you! How much effort does it take you to keep your blog original, fresh and active, posting new articles on a regular basis? You might have some help; maybe a social media manager, a VA or an in-house marketing department. I can tell you that if you do all of that, you are the cream of the crop, in the top 5%-10% of blogging business owners.
It should feel good to be part of this elite group of business owners who ‘get it’. But… yes, there’s a ‘but’. Are you doing enough? Is there anything else you can or should do to do ‘spice up’ your blog? Can you think of anything you might be forgetting to do?
I am here to tell you that many bloggers forget to do one important thing. That one important thing is blog commenting. They forget to ask for comments and they forget to leave comments.
To my own clients who want to get more eyeballs on their articles, I recommend seeking out blogs of other bloggers and experts in their industry and to start leaving intelligent, well thought-out blog comments.
What To Do If You Don’t Know What To Say In a Comment
Not sure you’d know what to say and what to comment on? First things first: Learn! Go read some 
comments! Seriously! The best way to learn the art of blog commenting is to go to (larger) publications and to see first hand what types of articles generate what types of comments. According to Jeremy Meyers on the ‘Goins, Writer’ blog, there are 7 types of commenters. They include
- The Spammer
- The Long-Winded
- The Nonsensical
- The Non-Reader
- The Self-Promoter
- The Generic
- The Truly Interested
Read the full article here and decide which type of commenter you are, or want to be!
Who Should You Give Your Blog Comments To?
There is no ‘right or wrong way’ to leave blog comment, because in essence any blog that accepts your comment should be grateful you are taking the time to give them any sort of feedback.
However, if you’d like to target and leave blog comments for the purpose of getting blog comments back, I suggest starting here.
Some suggestions I have are to leave comments for
- Writers who write blogs for your industry
- Thought leaders
- Local (business) blogs
- Your colleagues
- Those in your blogging community
- Those in your social media communities
Why Should You Take Your Own Valuable Time To Leave Blog Comments on Someone Else’s Blog?
There are many good reasons behind blog commenting. Today, I want you to start you thinking about a few reasons on how leaving blog comments could be beneficial to you as a business blogger and how it can benefit your business, your blog and your overall writing skills.
Take time to comment on other people’s blogs to
- Show Expertise – Leave a comment that adds value to the article
- Make Connections – Leave a comment
- Find Collaborators – Leave a comment and connect with like-minded people
- Start Conversations – Leave a comment and get noticed
- Give Feedback – Leave a comment for a specific reason
- Get Backlinks – Once your comment is approved, you’ll most often get a link to your own site
- Get Noticed – Leave a comment and show off your writing skills; guest blogging opportunity
- Encourage Bloggers – Leave a comment and share how the article helped you move forward in your business
- Say Thank You – Leave a comment to thank the blogger for valuable information
What Should You NOT Do When You Leave a Blog Comment?
For starters, don’t make these five blog commenting mistakes!
This includes giving comments that are
- Short, generic and aren’t specific to the post
- Controversial for the sake of being controversial
- Disrespectful
- Filled with links
- Riddled with typos
These all might seem like common sense to you, but I still get some of these types of comments on my blog, do you? When I see this happening on my own blog, I am always happy I’ve set my blog commenting system up so that I have to approve any and all comments before they go live.
Now that you know the importance of commenting on blogs, are you interested in learning how to get some/more comments for yourself? Do you know how to attract the right audience to your blog? Do you know how to entice them to interact with you and leave a comment?
Why Do You Want Blog Comments On Your Blog?
There are multiple reasons to want to have an active commenting community on your blog. These reasons are very similar to the reasons for leaving comments on other people’s blogs. Further more, ROI for blog commenting is real and can be huge!
Blog comments on your articles can help you
- Build your online community
- Get potential customers to notice you
- Develop strong relationships with your readers
- Your economic growth (get new customers!)
- Promote your give-aways and contests
- Promote your sponsored content
- Get feedback on your writing
- Become an authority in your field/industry
- Drive even more traffic to your blog
- Get more eyeballs on your content
- Increase your SEO efforts
Heads Up. Caution!
Caution, indeed! Here are a three things to watch for once you start encouraging your readers to leave you feedback with blog comments.
- Install a good spam filter; watch out for spammers.
- Take time to moderate any and all comments.
- Deal with, and process, negative comments
Asking for, and encouraging readers to leave comments without a system in place can be a dangerous practice. Make sure to have a plan.
9 Ideas on How To Get More Comments on Your Blog
An active community of commenters is a sign of a great blog. Comments inspire new comments and the 
cycle continues. To insure this commenting to go on and on, here are some ideas to get, and keep generating, good quality comments!
- Ask for comments
- Include a call-to-action at the end of each article
- Ask a specific question of your readers to be answered
- Give comments to get comments back
- Write provocatively (or ‘shake things up a bit’)
- Make commenting easy for the public, hard for spammers. Check your settings!
- Create a blog comment policy outlining what is expected of your community
- Respond to comments! You will get more comments that way.
- Create a blog commenting community group on LinkedIn, Google+ or Facebook and comment and share each other’s articles.
Whether commenting has been on the back burner or not, increased blog commenting can make a huge difference in the quality and quantity of your own blog and, ultimately, can have a huge impact on your blog, your web traffic and your business.
How often do you comment on blogs?
Additional images: Copyright: ‘http://www.123rf.com/profile_alexmillos‘ / 123RF Stock Photo
http://www.blogmarketingbook.com/how-to-comment-on-blogs-to-get-referral-traffic/
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/the-dos-and-don%E2%80%99ts-of-blog-commenting-040773
http://www.socialmediaforlawfirms.com/2013/09/5-effortless-ways-to-get-maximum-blog-commenting-love/
Dorien Morin
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