How to Make Your Comments Stand Out
Interaction has always been one of the strongest points of blogs. Every blogger sharing advice will tell you how important it is to interact with bloggers in your niche, through comments. Some of them will tell you that comments even generate a great deal of traffic, which is true, but not in the way most people understand it.
Traffic generation through comments is a thing to look for in the long run. Don’t expect to receive 1000 visits only by posting a comment on a famous blog; that is not going to happen (with some very rare exceptions). Instead, focus on leaving meaningful comments on every post that you read and enjoy, focus on leaving comments that stand out.
How can an outstanding comment help you?
First of all, I’ll say that in my opinion, leaving a comment is not a thing you should do to get or expect something in return. Still, constantly posting interesting comments will help build up your reputation with certain communities in your niche. Reputation generates interest. Member of those communities will want to find out more about you and will come to your blog, where, if they find great content there’s a good chance they’ll visit again and again, becoming loyal readers.
Further more, not only community members could find interest in your comments, but also blog owners. This can help your networking efforts and also generate a good amount of backlinks to your articles if the blog owners find your content relevant to a post they’re going to write or simply add in those “link round-up” posts.
As I said, the effects of focusing on leaving outstanding comments are not instantly visible, but rather show themselves in the long run, by generating a constant or increasing amount of “secured traffic” based on loyal, returning visitors, by growing your own blog’s community and by building up a better reputation for yourself (creating awareness).
6 ways to make outstanding comments
Whenever I decide to leave a comment on a blog post I ask my self three questions:
- Was that post useful or interesting to me?
- Can I express a valid opinion on the topic?
- Will my comment be useful to someone?
If the answer is “Yes” to at least two of these questions, I then proceed to leaving the actual comment following a few personal guidelines:
1. Never leave short and meaningless comments.
I’m sure that everyone has seen those “Great post, X!” comments floating around in the blogosphere. I’m sure that some people really feel that way about a blog post, while others leave that kind of comments only to get listed between the commentators. Showing appreciation that way it’s nice, but unfortunately it will rarely get you noticed.
2. Extend the topic
If the topic happens to meet your field of expertise, try to leave a comment that will extend the blog post. Explore other possibilities and ideas. Think of it as writing a small follow up.
3. Provide personal insight
If you are familiar with the topic and have personal experience with similar situations, don’t hesitate to share. Different tips apply and have different effects to different readers. Talking about your personal experience will help comment readers identify with your situation and estimate future effects.
4. Be communicative
After all, comments are a form of interaction. Whether you’re going to engage in a discussion with the post author or the community, it will prove to be a good strategy of getting you noticed. Blog owners appreciate community members that contribute to starting and developing interesting and intense discussions.
5. Identify yourself
Comments are not trackbacks. Trackbacks are automatically left by blogs and blog posts, comments are left by humans (spam bots not included). Start using a real name or at least a nick name in the “name” field of the comment form. Personally, while in most cases I approve almost every comment, even if it’s signed with a keyword phrase (as long as it is on topic), I tend to show less interest in comments not signed with a name. Imagine a real life conversation going like this:
“Hi Alex, these are good tips! I’m looking forward to implementing them.”
“Thank you, ‘internet marketing‘. I’m glad that you’ve enjoyed them.”
Sounds a bit weird doesn’t it? It’s not a pleasant situation.
6. Be a critic, not a hater
No blogger should think that he holds the absolute truth and must be ready to be criticized. If you’re going to leave a negative comment, try to use common sense and arguments. If your critique and arguments are valid, it’s likely that the author will give you credit for them and even be thankful and so will the community.
Things to avoid when commenting
Just like some things are sure to get you noticed and give you a good reputation, other things could have a negative effect on you and your blog. Avoiding the following should keep you safe in most cases:
- Do not over-promote yourself or your blog /services;
- Do not include irrelevant or too many links in your comments;
- Do not link again to the same URL provided with the comment form;
- Do not harass the author or members of his community;
- Do not use caps excessively;
- Do not use excessive text formatting (bold, italic, underline);
- Do not make excessive use of emoticons.
Over to you
These are my personal guidelines, guidelines I follow when posting or reading comments.
Now, tell me, what do you consider a good commenting strategy? What do you do in order to leave outstanding comments?
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I have to admit, I’ve not held back from posting the odd “great article” comment.
I did it earlier today on a really popular blog because the article had no comments yet and I got over-excited at getting that first one!
However, I do more often than not make more effort with what I’m saying, usually giving my opinions on the subject and trying to take the discussion a little further.
I never read the pointless comments and I’m sure there’s many more who do the same, so making an effort and offering readers something more is definitely a better way to comment.
I do think good comments can be as important as writing your own blog posts sometimes. Thank you for reminding me about this as I do let myself forget sometimes.
Perhaps people should be more consistently when moderating comments.
I really enjoy reading comments, as long as the discussion has some content. But on many blogs, especially popular ones, most of the comments give me the feeling that the author just wanted to point out he was there. Like school kids tagging their name on walls and toilets.
If bloggers would be more strict when moderating comments, this could improve the content and perhaps even encourage people to join the discussion.
Perhaps defining some comment rules (as seen on other blogs) might help.
“Hi Alex, these are good tips! I’m looking forward to implementing them.”
“Thank you, ‘internet marketing‘. I’m glad that you’ve enjoyed them.”
haha…….
Commenting gives you the best kind of traffic. You may not get many hits from the comment, but the ones you do get are more likely to be converted into readers of your blog, or at the very least, they may leave a comment!
In contrast, you can get an immense number of hits from StumbleUpon and have a very low percentage of conversions (if any).
Another tip… If the particular blog has avatars - a really catchy avatar can lure more people to click on your url.
Lastly, being a regular commentators on a blog will probably bare more fruit than commenting on many blogs but infrequently.
Always love a post with a little bit of humor in them. Loved the internet marketing thing.
I think you’re okay as long as the overall balance tips towards insightful, thoughtful comments.
For instance, I’ll leave a short compliment at some of my favorite blogs because I want to support the writer.
If it’s a blog I’m a regular at, I don’t worry that the author will see it as spamming, but I think you’ve got to raise the standards if it’s a blog you comment on infrequently.
I also think the number of comments on a post can determine what’s appropriate. A newer blogger with few comments may greatly appreciate a nod, even if it’s not super in-depth. If there are already 50 “awesome!” comments, though, adding one more isn’t as meaningful.
I have to agree with Bamboo Forest here, if you get traffic from a comment you’ve posted, that is indeed quality traffic most of the time. To be honest, while reading and commenting here and on other blogs, I’ve discovered wonderful bloggers and enriched my Bloglines list.
I try to stay away of meaningless comments. Sometimes, thought, I post short ones. But that seems to happen less and less as I have this natural tendency to rant
I can’t find a reason why people would like to brand their keyword instead of their name in a blog where nofollow is the default.
Agree with Bamboo Forest, avatar is also great branding opportunity. People recognize it more than names.
I think the main thing you hit on is that commenting is about building your reputation. If you provide enough insightful comments, people will begin to take notice of you. Your authority will start to slowly go up, and you can start to build off that.
Commenting is one of the easiest way to generate interest in your own blog. I don’t understand why more people don’t do it. Sure lots of people leave comments, but very few leave comments which really add to the conversation going on. Nice post.
[...] count as being a regular. As readers of Blogsessive discovered in a recent post, you need to make your comments stand out. Doing this will get the attention of the author, and you can create a relationship this way. It [...]
Good Advice
Great discussion and I wholehearty agree.
One question, though, do search engines put any less weight on comments vs. posts themsenves?
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