Commenting your way to “riches”

I suppose I should explain exactly what I mean by “riches” since that’s what you’re wondering, right? By riches I mean exposure and audience not money. One of the great things about blogging is that it allows someone to float a theory, opinion, or idea out in front of a potentially huge audience and receive reader feedback about it. The problem is attracting others to take a look at your article. After all they aren’t going to have much to say if they don’t read it. That’s where commenting comes in.

What is commenting?

I’m assuming you know absolutely nothing about blogging when I answer this question. Commenting is a process of leaving a written response to an article a blogger has published. Your comment becomes associated with the article, but isn’t actually part of the written content of the article.

How do I comment?

Just look for a link somewhere around the article that mentions something like comment, or leave a comment. Then you fill out the required information which is usally the name and email address and you write your comment and submit it. Really it is that easy.

How can commenting help me?

Comments are read by the people who read the blog articles. By commenting you are exposing your brand to more people. That’s why it is important to write comments that truly reflect your writing abilities and style as a blogger. It is one of the first impression things we hear so much about.

Assuming you’ve done it right people will have a good impression and are more likely to click through to your site. When I first started blogging I relied strictly on comments for building traffic over the course of the initial two weeks. Commenting alone got me about 75 regular readers a day and 25 RSS subscribers.

Where should I comment

If you’re a niche blogger try to comment on blogs in your same niche. If you’re a general blogger like I am try commenting on articles that are reflective of whatever your 3 or 4 most recent articles are. For example if you’re talking about celebrity gossip comment on celebrity gossip blog stories. When you start talking about something else comment on other blogs.

What should I say in my comments

Whatever you like relating to the topic of the article you are commenting on. Also try to avoid leaving links within the body of the comment as this tends to annoy most bloggers. When you fill out your name and email you can generally also fill out a website address. When you fill out the website address try a direct link to one of your better articles instead of just linking to the blog in general.

It is a slow process, but over time you will build up readers by commenting. I certainly don’t recommend it as the only way to drive traffic to your site, but it has the advantage of having already begun the process of building a relationship with the reader before they ever get to your blog.