Drive Traffic with Comment Marketing
Posted on 16. Mar, 2010 by Matthew Toren in Blogging
There’s a well-known statistic that says you need to get your message in front of your target audience seven times before they’ll take action. In the old days (10-15 years ago) that took a lot of time and money. To get someone to see or hear your brand on TV, radio, and in print for instance, you would have had to spend thousands of dollars and have only moderate confidence that you were reaching your intended market. In these days of social media and wide-spread blogging, there’s still a certain amount of uncertainty about what is most effective, but the nice part is that you can try several methods without spending a dime. And one method of driving traffic and increasing recognition that works for many is comment marketing.
Put simply, comment marketing is just commenting on other people’s blogs, forums, and news posts. It’s a great way to get your name out there, establish yourself as an expert, and begin to build relationships with other site owners. Of course to be effective, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it, so here are some tips for maximizing your efforts:
- Be careful. If it looks like you’re self-promoting in your comments, you’ll turn off the readers of the comment as well as the site owner. On most blogs you’ll be asked for your URL when you sign up as a commenter, and this will be linked to your name. Therefore, it’s not necessary to put your site address in your comments. In forums, you’re often able to create a signature with your URL in it, so the same rules apply. The only exception might be if the post is about something that is extremely relevant to a specific page on your site. Which brings us to the next tip…
- Be relevant. Make sure that whatever you post is relevant to the topic you’re commenting on. If you have a blog about WordPress themes, and the article is a review of the iPhone, just stick to your opinion about the iPhone. If you have no opinion about the iPhone, just say, “Great post. I didn’t know that about the iPhone. Cool.” If you say, “The iPhone is almost as cool as my newest WP theme. Check it out at http://….” it will be quite clear you’re just fishing for traffic.
- Be polite. When commenting on someone else’s post, remember the Golden Rule. Don’t write anything you wouldn’t want someone to post on your site. Feel free to give your opinion, even if it differs from what’s in the post you’re commenting about. Just make sure that you’re not slamming the author, the site, or the content. Remember, your goal is to get people clicking through to your site and make a good name for yourself, and people don’t want to deal with jerks.
- Be useful. To establish yourself as an expert in a certain area, provide your expertise whenever possible. Again, it’s important to stay relevant to the post, but be sure to check other comments as well. If someone asks a question in a comment and you have a good answer, get it out there, even if their question is off topic. Just be sure to refer back to the original question so it’s clear you’re not putting irrelevant information out.
- Be consistent. Comment marketing takes work. Posting every now and then on random sites isn’t going to get you the results you’re looking for. Find sites that have the same target audience as you, and comment often and early. Figure out when they typically post their new articles and try to be among the first to comment, as comments are typically listed oldest to newest. Of course for many blogs their posting isn’t on a regular schedule, but if you get on a schedule of checking the same sites regularly, you’ll do ok. For forums, you really have an opportunity to show your expertise. Look for questions posted relating to your business and provide thorough, useful answers, and ask your own questions as well. Opinion questions do well, and when you state your opinion and ask others for theirs, it puts you in a position of authority. Also, consider welcoming new forum members regularly, which helps to establish your status as well.
So there you have it – a few rules to help you become a comment-marketing pro. Some of our regular commenters are great at this stuff. What other tips do you have? Let us know in the comments below!
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36 Responses to “Drive Traffic with Comment Marketing”
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Patrick Curl : Blogging & Social Media Consultant
16. Mar, 2010
Great Article, I find one of the things that really distracts me is deciding which blogs are worth the time and effort to comment on. I generally use a few factors – one is my trusty seobar to show alexa / PR ranks (seoquake plugin for firefox), and the other is that I have a folder of blogs related to my niche(social media) in google reader, when I’m in a commenting kick I’ll hit these up religiously to build up my bcredibility and name recognition. These are the best blogs I can find on the subject, and these are the blogs that I focus on posting on.
I find that the more I comment on their blogs, the more comments find their way back to my blog, making my blog more relevant.
Free Classifieds Blog
16. Mar, 2010
Let me add one more tips:
Use a call to action in your signature file anchor text.
Laptop Briefcases
16. Mar, 2010
When commenting on blogs, avoid leaving short irrelevant comments. These kinds of comments show that you haven’t even read the blogpost and you are only interested in self promotion. Comments like this can get you banned from commenting on that blog. Try to add some value with the comment you leave.
Keith
16. Mar, 2010
I can say this with certainty, if done properly comment marketing can be better than most any paid marketing. I have used this technique on several sites. Not only is it great to promote your name/site to other readers, but also to the authors of other sites who may like your content.
Commonly, people think the benefit is in the comment link for SEO purposes, I find that to be false, the benefit is in the promotion.
Be consistent, be helpful, ask questions, and even challenge the author (in a respectful way), but NEVER leave a “great article” comment!
Andrew@BloggingGuide
17. Mar, 2010
Read and understand the blog post and comment from what you have read or understood. The quality of comments is more important than the quantity of comments that you post on other blogs. Comment to build relationships and value. Don’t comment based on selfish values and surely your commenting will go a long, long way.
bluehost
17. Mar, 2010
And dont forget to add “tremendous value” in your comment. That too me is probably the most important piece of criteria….
Legitimate Work From Home Jobs
17. Mar, 2010
I often check out the link left by a commenter, either the link within the actual comment – when allowed – , or the link associated with their name. Well, I do this with those comments that add value to the overall post.
Agent Deepak
17. Mar, 2010
If you want to use Comment for Marketing your blog, then just go and comment, speak you mind.
Do not think much. It is better to comment on 50 blogs (small comments) then to comment large comments on 10 blogs. If any one disagree then well and good. I fully understand what there point is.
real estate in australia
18. Mar, 2010
I’ve never liked the idea of doing contests and giveaways. I want people to come solely because they want to see my contents. I don’t want people to come just because they want to win something.
Cash Genie
18. Mar, 2010
I agree though I would say that it does not help in bringing traffic to lot of extent. Especially for my site, commenting does not help in bringing traffic.
Casie
18. Mar, 2010
Those are definitely good tips but the key really is, to provide good information (or “tremendous value” as bluehost put it) and put actual thought into your comment. Sometimes the most valuable thing in a post, is the comments people leave.
Credit Girl
18. Mar, 2010
This is a very important blog post. I really enjoy your tips! When doing this, you are able to establish your credibility not to mention you are also building personal relationships with those who are interested in your area of expertise. Take advantage of that opportunity.
CameraBags
18. Mar, 2010
I am fine with just about any real person posting on my blogs, its the bots I don’t like. I couldn’t tell you how many comments I have in the spam folder with 20 links in it.
Traffic Ultimatum
19. Mar, 2010
Whether you have a blog or website, everyone needs to attract visitors. Twitter is a social media networking referred to as micro-blogging.
handmade holiday gift ideas
19. Mar, 2010
i have one of great idea for this…
The Rich Blog
19. Mar, 2010
I have been reading a lot of blogs and forums about how to attract traffic, increase backlinks etc. and tired of seeing the same tips and advices over and over again. However, this is the first time seeing an article on “comment marketing”! This is a great post!!
Jarrod@ Optimistic Journey
19. Mar, 2010
Great post! This is food for thought. I’m starting to realize the importance and benefit of commenting when it comes to marketing. It’s a lot of hard work but it is very much worth it in the long run!!
Dress Sandals
22. Mar, 2010
The comment above by ‘handmade holiday gift ideas’ is the perfect example of how not to do comment marketing. First of all, his comment clearly shows that he has not even read this blogpost. So it is actually degrading his credibility. Secondly, using 3+ words as the commenting name is fairly spammy. Many blogs will allow keywords in your commenting name, but a longer name is overdoing it.
Ballet Moves
22. Mar, 2010
I’ve found blog commenting to be incredibly usefull for both SEO advantages, and establishing myself as an expert in a given field.
Usefulness and relevancy has been the key to my game. If I’m going to be borrowing some link juice from a blog (like this one for example :P) then I’ll be making sure I’m doing my due diligence and returning the favour by providing decent content.
With the versatility and sheer number of blogs these days, relevancy of your subject matter vs the subject matter of the blog may not be so important in terms of climbing the search engines. But when it comes to message to market match, a low pr’ing blog that is well-trafficked and full of potential buyers is a gold-mine.
Socialmedialogue
23. Feb, 2011
Thanks for your insights!
Imho commenting is next to writing guest posts and linking to other sites one of the most important ways to attract attention from other blogs. But do it right: Don’t just spam around and don’t neglect quality. Just share your valuable insights and add your personal opinion (or question) to the discussion.
SEO Tricks
26. Mar, 2010
I have been using blog commenting to raise my PR from a long time and it seems to be working great for me.It is a lot of hard work but its worth giving in the efforts i requires.
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28. Mar, 2010
One of the great things about commenting on other peoples blogs is that you actually learn a lot while reading their posts!
Ian Thomas
31. Mar, 2010
I like the way most people here try to use the tips from the above article! Very nice everyone!
Social Media marketing has many facets and yes this is a very useful one but there are a myriad of other ways as well!
Does anyone else use questions in their blog posts as a way of stimulating interest or are we all only about adding value to the reader?
Jarrod@ Optimistic Journey
02. Apr, 2010
In reply to @Ian – I definitely try to use questions to spark the interest of the reader. And I value the importance of the interaction between the reader and myself.
So I try to encourage them to answer a question that I’ve asked of them in the article to create more of a reader vs article interaction. Whereas, they’re providing value to me and I’m providing value to them.
I find that in order to be a successful blogger you have to have a business mindset in that: 1) I’m putting the wants of your readers first and 2) I’m taking into consideration their voice as a learning experience for me to learn from.
I find when I listen to the responses of the readers that tells me what the “people” in general are looking for and gives me fuel and pushes me in the right direction next time I post.
Jane @ Limoges Boxes
09. Apr, 2010
The utmost rule I learned from effective commenting is to leave “value” in every post or comments you make. Be a human being, give some genuine thoughts and opinion related to the topic.If you don’t have anything like that, better shut up.
On my stand point, I love to read the opinions of people and their comments definitely drives to visit their site.
Rajesh S
16. Apr, 2010
Valuable insights!
For someone beginning to learn the ropes of inbound marketing, after having spent several years in the ‘physical’ world of sales meetings, face to face negotiations, this is a fantastic piece of advice.
The challenge that I am seeing is to figuring out how many blogs to follow. There seems to be innumerable blogs – each one of them offering value to the reader!
What do you think?
Thanks.
rannie
16. Apr, 2010
Of course blog comment marketing is just fabulous, commenting on other people’s blogs, and forums are really a great push up assistance. It’s a genuine and apparent technique to get handsome traffic by establishing the brand in the market as done by corporate blogging firms for dollops of website monetization. It not only brings quality web visitors but also makes your unique identity and multiplying points at the same time.
chalikovas
20. Apr, 2010
This is really awesome post. Thanks for sharing this information..
Best Blogger Templates
05. May, 2010
This is not an easy job. You find blogs with the same audience as yours and then come back now and then and still continue finding new blogs. Sometimes I wish i was friends with high traffic blog owners.
Brandon Connell
20. May, 2010
I often find that commentators on my blog are the result of either a bot, or someone clearly spamming unrelated blogs with their e-commerce or MFA sites. On top of that, most of them don’t write English very well and it’s as if they threw words together. I guess what I am saying is that if you are going to spam, at least make it look like it’s not spam. That kind of doesn’t make sense though because in order for it to not look like spam, you actually have to say something worth while and on topic.
SEO NYC
27. May, 2010
People trust what they read on the internet, that’s the general tendency, human mind trust words than speech, several marketing gurus are taking advantage of Blog comment which is “marketing” in other words, they talk about competitors brands and products to influence customers decision making process.
Jen
09. Aug, 2010
Very true! My biggest roadblock to comment marketing is finding places to actually place a comment. One of my blogs is related to the medical field and I am having a really hard time finding places where the comments are open on the article. I thought I remembered hearing that there is a way to search the internet to specifically find places with open comments – do you know how to do that?
StressAttacker
20. Sep, 2010
I just wonder how long before some of the more popular sites to leave a comment will be full of spam. Perhaps it takes time to leave a comment and one must have some intelligence to leave meaningful comment so hopefully never.
Jignesh
13. Oct, 2010
Very good article..
Your advice will increase my links for sure..
Michael Rupp
24. Jun, 2011
Link building seems to be an endless process however if someone had the right tools and software, it can help automate and speed up the process.
Dave Fux
04. Aug, 2011
I agree with Michael, right tools make your link building speedy and worthy.