There are many ways to build traffic to your blog, but none better than commenting on other blogs in your niche. By commenting on other blogs, you are showing them that they are important enough for you to take precious time out of your day to stop by and read what they’ve got to say.
Not only does this get the blog owner’s attention, but it gets the attention of the blog’s readers as well.
By commenting, you are helping to build a community on another’s blog, but you’re also becoming a part of that community. And anyone else interested in being a part of that community, will want to have something to do with all of it’s members. Even if that’s by simply visiting your blog as well.
Here are some important things to consider when commenting to build traffic.
Be The First To Comment
It is a proven fact that the majority of readers only read the first 10 comments on any particular blog post. So in order for your comment to be seen, you need to be one of the first (if not the first) commentator on as many blog new blog posts in your niche as possible.
This doesn’t guarantee you visitors, especially if you leave an unthougtful comment. (i.e. Great Post!!)
If you’re going to comment, at least make sure you have something important to add to the conversation, otherwise you are better off not commenting at all.
Target Big Name Bloggers
By targeting the top bloggers in your niche, you have the potential to increase your visitors by at least 20 times the amount you’d get if you commented on small, lesser known blogs.
I’m not telling you to ignore the little guys, they need comments too. Remember, even the biggest blogger was that little guy at one point. If you don’t leave them comments, ever, they’ll remember you when they make it to the top. Or not remember you in this case!
Technorati has a list of the top 100 blogs on the internet. This is a good place to start when looking for blogs that will give you the most traffic from a single comment.
Alltop (the magazine rack for blogs) is also a great place to find top blogs. Simply go to Alltop, select the category that best fits your niche, and starting at blog number one down through the very last blog listed, make a meaningful comment for every new post. If you do this, I guarantee you will see a major spike in traffic.
Because bigger blogs have a wider variety of readers, there is a bigger chance you’ll get the attention of others interested in what you have to say.
Find The Top Commentators Lists
More and more blogs are starting to add a plugin called Top Commentators. This plugin list the readers who have left the most comments within a specific time period. Sometimes 30 days, sometimes 1 year.
Your goal is to be on that list. By commenting on every post, including making reply comments to other commentators, you are almost guaranteeing yourself a place on that list.
Think of the top commentators list as a Free text link ad. Normally you’d have to pay anywhere between $20 & $100 per month for a text link ad on a blog. But by harnessing the power of the top commentators plugin, you have the opportunity to get that text link ad for free. And we all know, there is nothing better than free!
Share Your Technique & Win
Do you have a creative technique you use to build traffic through commenting? If so, share it with the rest of us by leaving a comment.
The person with the most creative method of building traffic through commenting will get a Free one-month ad on this blog at any of the ad locations you choose.
Past Articles in the “Building A More Successful Blog In 30 Days” series
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My name is Steven Sanders and I'm a Professional Blogger, Izea Insider, Web Designer, Social Media Enthusiast, Dad, Husband, and Friend.
All these ideas look good and tempting to proceed. In fact I had tested this for an article of mine. I saw traffic but it stopped after few days. I expected that by commenting on the latest posts of a highly popular blog I should get traffic daily for atleast a month. This was not true.
So how much exactly do you expect from these blog comments? We cannot comment on new posts that are posted very often in the highly popular blogs. That will be a huge work. We may better be able to do other work.
How long do we have to keep doing like that before building a steady traffic to our blog? Your insights would be appreciated.
Another great tip! Are you planning on doing any competitions lately?
@Keg of Wisdom It’s funny you ask… I have a couple coming up shortly.
Big hint – The might be a topic I cover in this series.
Commenting on blogs is one of my shortfalls. I have been working on it, and trying to expand my commenting volume. Of course time is always the issue. There never seems to be enough time in a day. I never leave a comment unless I think I have something worth others time to read. This will probably be one of the very few times.
I have a group of blogs I am “comfortable” with that I comment on regularly. I dare say they are not the top blogs, but rather the personal journal types. I feel like I relate better to them. There are a few writers blogs I comment on also, but have wondered just how much traffic is generated.
I guess I really need to set some goals for my blogs, like you suggested in another post. Figure out where I want my blogs to take me, or better yet take my readers.
I have really experimented with article marketing on my other niche website and it has worked really well because I see traction of traffic from this article sites so I can really stand to say that Article marketing works great but the post is that you just have to know how to do it right or else it will be a wasted effort but the rule of thumb is that your title carries the most important seo benefit. I hope that helps? Great post!
Comments are a great way of building traffic. Top commentators plugin only further devloped the possibilities. I didn’t know however that being first helps. Thanks for that
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@Eric S.
I used to have the same problem and have recently found a way to help with that. I have a few favorite blogs that I read regularly, but don’t feel that I can leave a quality reply to. They cover personal interests or topics that I am learning about.
In order to increase my comment count, I went to AllTop and searched for related keywords for my site. (ie: my keyword is adventure, so I searched for travel, motorcycle, etc.) The blogs that came up were all new to me, and I since I am knowledgeable in these areas, I was able to comment on the new blogs.
I also kept a list of the blogs I commented on, so now I can quickly check for new posts every couple of days.
Commenting is a great way to get people to come back to your blog. Unfortunately half of the “big name” bloggers in my niche don’t really comment back unless they already know you. I figured that out pretty quickly. I do love the community I’ve helped build though, by focusing on those more on my “level” – which also might explain why you get way more visitors than I do. That, and people get tired of reading about donuts on lawn mowers and my mullet-haired toddler.
I’ve found that when I say something really humorous or off the wall, I get more people to my website just from leaving a comment.
That, and you can also ask someone a question in a comment, or write something that makes them want to comment back – sometimes they will comment on their own site or just email a response, but by creating a conversation here and there, they begin to remember you…which, in the long run may be a lot better than them visiting your site here and there.
There’s always the potential in leaving really random and odd comments. I once received a pretty dirty comment from someone, and let me tell you – I remembered them. I guess you should be more specific in your goals – like, what sort of people do you want to return the comments? Police?
I know I just wrote a novel and all in my previous comment but just so you know, I read EVERY comment. Except the obvious spam ones…although, sometimes when I’m bored…I might read those too.
I recommend commenting as a great approach to both building relationships with other bloggers and improving the SEO of your own blog, especially by commenting on blogs that are dofollow or have top commentator installed.
One little trick I use is what I call “long tail commenting”. You look at the who’s commenting at the big name blogger’s blogs and then go to the blogs of people who’re commenting there. For example, that’s how I found this blog. This allows you to build more connections with other bloggers which is always good.
commenting helped me build traffic and as a result build readers as well that frequent my page.
as with Frank Carr (above) i went to big name bloggers and check out who’s commenting — if someone’s comment catches my attention I’d go to their site or blog and leave my 2 cents there as well. I’d do this when I first started blogging and it generated a lot of traffic my way as well from other bloggers who probably did the same as me.
I couldn’t agree more with you!
Thanks for this posting.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Miriam