Written on November 4th, 2007 at 02:11 pm by Darren Rowse
The Power of Commenting on Blogs
I just came across a nice post by Caroline Middlebrook who did some analysis of her blog’s stats for the month of October.
Her blog increased it’s traffic from 3,000 readers in September to 11,000 in October - that’s pretty good growth. That’s partly due to some great StumbleUpon traffic (which accounted for 8000+ visitors) - but Caroline also worked a number of other sources over the month.
What struck me about her analysis was a section on traffic from other blogs (including ProBlogger). ProBlogger sent Caroline 94 visitors. When I checked to see when I linked to her I wasn’t able to find a link. The traffic came completely from comments that Caroline left on my posts.
In fact Caroline had just under 700 visitors to her blog this month from leaving comments on other people’s blogs.
The key to her success with this is that Caroline doesn’t spam blogs with meaningless comments - but she contributes to the conversations already happening, stays on topic and adds value to the blogs that she visits (or at least she has here at ProBlogger. Caroline doesn’t leave links in her comments - the traffic comes from people clicking her name to find out who is behind the insightful comments that she leaves.
Of course some will argue that 700 visitors isn’t a lot of traffic per month from the activity of commenting on blogs - however I think it’s actually fairly decent for a blog that is only a few months old - particularly when you consider that she’s managing to convert readers into subscribers. Add 4 or 5 new loyal readers to your blog every day (like Caroline has done by the looks of her RSS feed stats) and you end up with thousands of readers a day over a year.
So while it is perhaps the most overused ‘blog tip’ on finding readers for a blog - I guess commenting on other people’s blogs continues to be an activity that pays off.
found via my Vanity Folder
98 Responses to “The Power of Commenting on Blogs”
worknplay
November 4th, 2007 3:05 pm
700 visitors just via comments is a pretty good number. Also I get quite a number of visitors by leaving comments on popular blogs as well, one of them being problogger.
I should analyze my monthly traffic and see how many visits I get from comments alone. thank you for posting this article darren, it just gave me one more reason to keep visiting and reading and commenting other blogs.
But like you said, comments have to add value to the post and meaningful. It is amazing how many people will visit a blog and simply leave their URL and write ” visit so and so to get this free ” and all that.
If used and written properly comments can be a pretty good source of visitors, as we can all see from Caroline’s analysis
Lin
November 4th, 2007 3:12 pm
Congratulations Caroline! That’s fabulous! Perhaps the seasoned bloggers might think those numbers to be low, but bloggers who haven’t quite reach those numbers will be happy to learn this great news.
I’m not sure where my increase of traffic is coming from either, whether by commenting on other blogs inside and outside my niche, but something is working well.
Getting some nice thumbs up on Stumbling is always helpful too. :) I think I’m addicted to Stumble now.
Todd Morris
November 4th, 2007 3:15 pm
I just read that article on Caroline’s blog earlier today … and became one of those new RSS subscribers. She’s also got a good series on twitter (something I want to learn more about). She’s got a nice blog.
Chris Jacobson
November 4th, 2007 3:18 pm
I saw a similar post about this on Digg today. About 30% of my traffic comes from commenting on other blogs. I don’t see this trend slowing down anytime soon, especially with sites that remove the nofollow tag and encourage commenters.
Sly from Slyvisions.com
November 4th, 2007 3:25 pm
I have also seen the power of commenting on other blogs when I actually started implementing it. Most people think that it’s a waste of time or something, but the rewards are wonderful. It’s marketing/networking/discussing/etc. all rolled into one simple comment.
Mike
November 4th, 2007 3:28 pm
Yeah I think comments are a great way of getting new traffic. If you use a picture for your profile on blogger, more people will click on your name also.
Thomas Sinfield
November 4th, 2007 3:32 pm
I read Yaro post a similar post about her yesterday, which shows that her commenting on blogs like yours isn’t going unnoticed and she has gotten a fair bit of good publicity. So I would say that it definitely hasn’t been in vain.
Robin
November 4th, 2007 4:05 pm
I do agree with it.. But never been able to find the reason for happening so..
Anyway.. I am also trying to check whether is is true by this post.. :)
Artur Kim
November 4th, 2007 4:08 pm
I agree that this is a great way of getting more traffic to your blog since I just started a blog last month and have been getting a decent amount of traffic from the activity of commenting on blogs. In some blogs, what also helps is that they have a list of top commentators in the sidebar, which can provide another link to your blog. For blogs that are just getting started like mine, 700 visitors is way more than decent. Last month, I wasn’t even able to get 500 unique visitors. Maybe I need to make my comments more insightful? I think that what also helps is putting your blog’s name instead of your own name because the name itself might grab the interest of some people. The negative part of this strategy is that it might make it look like you are commenting just to get traffic and not to add value to the blog.
turtie
November 4th, 2007 4:18 pm
Commenting can bring more people to your site, but sometimes I feel like I spend more time commenting on other blogs than preparing material for my own blog. Does anyone have any rules of thumb on the amount of time you should spend commenting as opposed to writing up new material on your own blog?
Emon
November 4th, 2007 4:19 pm
So obvious yet so few take advantage of that. Commenting on the big blogs, such as yours, is a sure thing for some quality traffic - provided one leaves a smart comment. Which, by the way, this particular comment is exempt from because these past 4 lines have already lost me some traffic. Ay!
JMorris
November 4th, 2007 4:20 pm
I brought this very point up not too long ago over at Aaron Wall’s blog.
Blog commenting on blogs and forum participation (with signature link) are two of the most cost effective ways to get highly targeted traffic to your site. At least, that’s how I’ve done it in the past and I have had very good success with this model.
The following is the whole secret of using this method of traffic generation:
The point you raise about the number of visitors is also a key point here. No, 700 visitors is not a large “raw” number, but like you said, she’s converting these users and that’s what adds up.
I’ll gladly take 10 targeted users who keep coming back over 100 random visitors who will click off within 30 seconds of landing on my site.
Abdul Rahman
November 4th, 2007 4:31 pm
Even if most know the advantages of commenting on other blogs, few take advantage of it. They remain passive and consume everything. Don’t they know that what makes a blog powerful is the power to interact with others.
Just my 1 cent thought.
Abdul Rahman,
Fly Copy
Frank C
November 4th, 2007 4:33 pm
I’ve also found it an effective way to build traffic and build relationships with other blogs. I also make an effort to visit the blogs people link to in their comments on big sites like this one since they often have interesting things to say beyond just their comment.
JDJ
November 4th, 2007 4:42 pm
From my limited experience it seems that one of the real tricks to getting comments on other blogs to pay off is leaving comments that will give the reader a good impression of who you are as a writer, and what your area of expertise is. I’ve left some comments on blogs related in subject matter to mine but added some quality input from a perspective that nobody else had. In the end, those comments have been both consistent traffic grabbers and introductions to my blog for what are now repeat visitors. There is no doubt in my mind that commenting is important for the benefit of your own blog, and besides that its fun. You can make new friends and have some great discussions!
A Blog about Nothing
November 4th, 2007 4:47 pm
I can attest to her success with commenting because I’ve experienced the same thing. Over the past month you’ve sent me 49 visitors, shoemoney sent me 129, etc. Well worth the effort to comment on other blogs if you have something relevant to say
kat
November 4th, 2007 5:00 pm
I, too, find that reading and contributing comments to other people’s blogs, especially those on similar topic of my own, helps increase my stats. But it’s not just about stats and raising the numbers. It’s really, as pointed out in this article, about contributing something positive to other blogs by way of your comments. Anyone can go in, leave a few remarks and dart out. It’s the meaningful comments that count.
Max Powers at http://ConsumerFight.com
November 4th, 2007 5:51 pm
Darren, I learned this from one of your posts when I first visited. I post comments on only 3 sites at this time that interest me, 2 being related in content to my site.
I think this would be a good time to say “thanks” for allowing me the opportunity to learn about blogging and being able to leave a link to my site.
Has it helped? Absolutely. I didn’t know about the vast types of statistics available until recently but now I see that about 70% of the visitors are coming from you and the other 2 sites.
I have recently provided a link back to you and the other 2 sites on my home page. Is this proper without letting the sites know about it? You might have mentioned this topic but I’m still reading all your past posts.
I would hope that irrelevant comments posted for self promotion would become obvious and if I was the moderator, I would ban them.
Blog Opinion
November 4th, 2007 6:14 pm
Great work Caroline ! Good comments on blogs will take attention of blogger and visitors. It creates high possibility to increase your subscribers. But, this requires time. I am a student, doing my PG. So not able to read and comment much on lots of blogs. Any blogging tip for me (student) Darren .
nomad-one
November 4th, 2007 6:15 pm
Commenting is like the new conversation, though I agree many are not quite there yet in terms of how to add value but there’ll always be good conversation and bad. It’s what the guys who wrote the cluetrain manifesto were on about all those years ago. Markets are conversations.
I have recently won a premium wordpress theme and an iPod nano by giving the most valuable feedback in a commenting competition, and that’s another great way to get people involved is to incentivize getting involved.
There’s this great plugin which rewards commenters through a commenters tag cloud and those with the most comments have their names larger in proportion. Check it out at http://www.webaddict.co.za/other-addicts/, I haven’t used it yet because I don’t have enough commenters on my blog yet, still a newbie.
Last month I received 196 visitors on 1 day, much more than i had ever received before because someone mentioned me on a post about their logo design. Conversation is the name of the game now.
Fresh Blogger Templates
November 4th, 2007 6:29 pm
I too can attest to the power of commenting on other blogs. I comment on a wide variety of the blogs I read, without once shamelessly promoting my site, but rather to just simply comment on posts that I find interesting. So whether it is a blog about House M.D. , The Green Bay Packers, or Lifehacker, I comment because I like to share my opinion. The traffic follows as a result of curiosity from others. F.Y.I, Problogger sends me about 50 readers a month from Darren’sFree Blogger Templates post alone.
Jirel
November 4th, 2007 6:45 pm
This is a good techniqe which I also have been testing for the last one month and getting progress day by day.
It is true that this technique not big source of traffic for a blog. But, I am getting some blog owner as regular reader to my blog and in some cases they also add a post from my blog to their blog and sending some good unexpected traffic to my blog.
RidhzuanHarun
November 4th, 2007 6:52 pm
Yup, i agree with that. In terms of traffic attraction, good post will lead a definitely a point of change to readers and whenever it has anything to do to a reader including something for further reading or remind the reader of something, it will somehow attracts the readers to quickly wants to discover about the poster. Well, you know in our life we will always found “chemistry” with one of the reason is when we find something similar between us??.. :)
Caroline Middlebrook
November 4th, 2007 6:56 pm
You know what is also great about being an active commenter on other people’s blogs? Sometimes two big blogs will pick up on it in one week, write about you and send a ton more visitors :D
Thanks very much for this post Darren! As I said to Yaro, I often have an advantage with yours and Yaro’s blogs as you guys are in Australia and I am in the UK so I get a lot of your posts come through my feeder during the day when the US is asleep so I am often one of the first to comment. (Though oddly, this post didn’t come though my feed reader at all - I picked it up from an alert)
With regards to time, it can take a lot of time - it’s not so much the time to comment itself, but reading all the posts, on many different blogs. I’ve only recently started to analyze it so of course I have also spent a lot of time on blogs that aren’t that great and don’t send traffic. It’s a learning process :)
Thanks again for the mention Darren!
Michael Woo
November 4th, 2007 7:01 pm
I think tht leaving comments helps you to build branding on other people’s blog, same like when they buy a 125×125 ad spot. When other people who are going around visiting top blogs leaving comments - you’ll see the same person doing the same thing..
when you got a brand like problogger, everybody wants to go to your site!
Maki Eduardo
November 4th, 2007 7:24 pm
I really love commenting and participating in other blog topics which I visit. I just hate it when people comment something that is off the topic in my blog posts. It’s like spamming and ruining the content of my blog.
It’s really good to see a concrete example like Caroline who had a huge benefit from commenting in other blogs the right way.
Robert Kingston
November 4th, 2007 7:28 pm
Congrats to Caroline! That’s huge…
Speaking of Readers, I noticed your RSS count is down to 19000 subscribers today, Darren - any clue as to the drop?
Etienne Teo
November 4th, 2007 7:39 pm
Commenting with relevant answers to the topic was what Caroline did and it did pull in a number of referral traffic from Problogger to Her blog. I was one of those who happen to stumble her name and blog through problogger and she did a great job on her blog.
Robert - This problem is helping across the blogosphere, it is not something new though, you see the widget feedbar as xxxx number but over at your own account you see another figure which is the true number of subscribers you have, i guess a day or two and it will be solved.
Wayne Liew
November 4th, 2007 8:01 pm
I know that a comment must add value to a blog post and in fact a long comment might attract other commentators to look at your comment and if your luck is better, they will click on your link that will bring them to your site.
Although I have heard traffic building tips like submitting URLs to directories and register for those free traffic programmes, I still think that commenting on other blogs and continue to write great contents is what that bring a blog quality visitors (visitors that read, subscribe, comment, bookmark or submit your article to social media).
I see Caroline Middlebrook very often in other comments section of a blog but what I didn’t know until the buzz is happening now that her link is being clicked so many times! I guess the simple way still rocks.
William Profet :: OneJobTwoSalaries.com
November 4th, 2007 8:07 pm
Commenting on blogs has effect only if you are writing interesting comments and you really add value to the host blog. If you write shitty comments with stupid advertising sentences you have two choices:
1. To be banned by the blog moderator.
2. Nobody will click on your name.
The result: total waste of time!
My story: I have started my blog in June 2007 and using only commenting as a marketing strategy I succeeded to make 200 unique visitors per day and more than 50 RSS subscribers till the end of the same month.
I don’t know if this is a good or bad result, but I was very happy to have an audience that reads my blog daily and thinks that what I am writing is valuable.
Emmett Jones
November 4th, 2007 8:23 pm
Nice post as usual Darren, thanks for the helpful tip.
Congrats to you as well Caroline. My blog is very new as well, and I know that if I had the increase that you had I would be very excited, so I’m sure you are as well.
to Robert Kingston: It looks like Feedburner is messing up, because my count dropped suddenly as well. I doubt that Darren just lost 12,000 subscribers
Matt Jones
November 4th, 2007 8:31 pm
I always stop to read a comment from Caroline, they are always meaningful.
Commenting on Problogger sends Blogging Fingers about 120 visitors per month ;)
carl
November 4th, 2007 9:19 pm
lol - had to laugh at this entry. I get about 50-70 uniques a day from ProBlogger, some from your link to my site, and some from comments I’ve made, and you know the funny thing, despite my high PR, nobody ever comments, bizarre!
steven wilson
November 4th, 2007 9:33 pm
I will agree that 700 visitors a month from leaving comments is very good traffic for a newer blog like Carolines.This goes to show the power of commenting you see so many preach about here in the blog world.Job well done Caroline.
Steven
SpiKe
November 4th, 2007 10:06 pm
I’ve found comments to be very effective long term, providing the site is big enough. Get your comment in early, make it worth reading and if you can add a link to a relevant post on your site all the better. Do it on enough posts and it provides a very steady stream of visitors. In some cases I get more visitors this way than I would get from them linking directly to me.
Lernen
November 4th, 2007 10:10 pm
Thats right, I have increased my traffic since i spend more time to write comments instead of writing my new posts.
But maybe for a long term it is better to write a lot of content and just wait for the Visitior who came frome google and co.
Shawn Farner
November 4th, 2007 10:22 pm
Note to self: do not put a link in this comment.
I’ve had a few people pop over from comments as well, definitely not 94 though. If she thought that was a lot, wait until she sees how many visitors this post sends her!
CompuWorld
November 4th, 2007 11:11 pm
and ironically caroline didn’t comment on this post (if I am not mistaken)
I recently discovered her blog when she visited my blog probably via my comment here in Problogger. Hers is an awesome blog with great information.
I have been following this style of leaving good comments on different blogs and it is of real help.
One they give you extra visitors and second most of the visitors go on to subscribe to your feeds which is truly an added treat!
Joel Libava
November 4th, 2007 11:49 pm
Thanx, Darren!
I was taught early on how to do things right. even though I am not where I want to be,yet,numbers wise, If I keep reading informative blogs like yours, things just will happen!
I leave about 3-4 comments a day on other blogs, but will start focusing on getting that number to 10.
keep on Keeping on.
Joel Libava
Brenda Carter
November 5th, 2007 12:05 am
I think I found Caroline’s blog through one of her comments here. She was able to convert me to a subscriber, so I’d have to say that commenting does work.
Another think I have noticed is Caroline is often the first to comment on one of Darren’s posts. I’m sure this is because she’s as quick as lighting, but the early bird does get the worm.
Jennifer
November 5th, 2007 12:19 am
I get a lot of visitors via my commenting as well. I don’t comment for visitors though. I truly enjoy reading out around here and being able to contribute to a conversation while reading something you really enjoy is wonderful. I have virtually quit reading things that I can’t contribute to the conversation. Yes, newspapers don’t bother coming to my house.
Juggling Frogs
November 5th, 2007 12:24 am
LOL! I hope Caroline publishes an article at the end of November, showing how much traffic this post (and Yaro’s) have affected her traffic and subscriber levels!
Feedburner glitches notwithstanding, I bet it’ll be impressive.
(I’m subscribing to her blog, so because of this. Does that count as observer error in this experiment?)
Dan Schawbel
November 5th, 2007 12:51 am
I think she has the right strategy down. If you comment on blogs that have substantial traffic, you will reap the rewards.
Scott328
November 5th, 2007 2:24 am
my blog is only 3 weeks old, but I’ve seen similar results (on a much smaller scale), so I do believe this works, esp over time.
Steve
November 5th, 2007 2:30 am
I guess it is all about community building. An insightful comment adds to the value of the original post and encourages more comments. The quid pro quo is that readers may continue the conversation on either the commentators’ blog or the host blog. It makes sense and like most good ideas seems simple after thinking it through. Cheers, Steve
Sangesh
November 5th, 2007 2:30 am
It is indeed true that commenting on blogs is a one of the powerful ways of getting traffic on one’s blog. It will certainly help to build traffic. It certainly does in my case.
Debo Hobo
November 5th, 2007 2:31 am
Congrats Caroline! I have seen and read several of your comments and as Dareen says they are quality on topic comments.
As usual Darren you have produced another very useful post, now I am off to view my current visitors and use this tip as Caroline did to increase my visitors and RSS subscribers. Thanks again.
Latinbombshell
November 5th, 2007 3:47 am
When I first started blogging two years ago, I also became engaged with many local blogs as we were all building what would become a spontaneous local community of independent blogs. I left comments frequently as part of a greater dialogue. But a turn of bad health over the summer left me focused on just writing. I had to go on hiatus from reading and it still feels quite strange to not be an active part of the greater community. It was never a matter of driving traffic. But it’s absolutely true … I still get visitors from comments I left MONTHS ago on some of these blogs. The effect is not only cumulative over the short-term, but also over the long-term. I agree you have to go into it with a genuine interest and not just for the sake of driving traffic. You gain respectability that way. Plus, it adds value to one’s blogging life.
Pierre Cutler
November 5th, 2007 4:31 am
Darren, you’re spot on once again. I think I will apply the virtual assistanct concept that Tim Ferriss preaches. Imagine if I hired a VA to work through the night on my behalf leaving comments and driving traffic to my sites. Come to think of it, I will hire several VAs…and scale even faster.
Dossy Shiobara
November 5th, 2007 5:09 am
Darren, the problem with measuring in terms of visitors and/or visits is that “drive through traffic” from comments, StumbleUpon, etc. don’t really give you a feel for how “valuable” that traffic is/was.
I’d be curious to see the ratio of increase in visitors compared to the increase in feed subscriber count: how many of those visitors decided to subscribe to your feed? That’s an interesting metric: it’s a way to indirectly measure people’s “vote” for whether they think your content is interesting enough to want to see more of it in their aggregator.
For those who are trying to monetize on their traffic, it’s also useful to compare increase in visitors to increase in ad clicks and/or CTR. Again, drive-through visitors may not yield much benefit here.
Then again, what do I know–my blog only sees ~300 visitors a day. Heh.
caesar
November 5th, 2007 5:20 am
Commenting on other blogs is a powerful way to get visits. I know many bloggers that are doing this and the results are overwhelming. Although i do not agree with this kind of promotion, i have to admit that it works. And it’s a money generator.
Genesis
November 5th, 2007 6:27 am
I´ve found that ProBlogger is a very good place to comment, not only because of the active blog community here, but a lot of people check out other commentors´ blogs.
You can also learn just about as much from the comments as the post, which is why I often read them even if I don´t leave a note myself. :D
Jeremy Steele
November 5th, 2007 8:07 am
So true.
Lately I’ve been really busy (launching 3 websites, managing nusuni dot com, and writing a content management system), so I haven’t been commenting as much. There’s definitely been a slowdown in new subscribers since I stopped commenting as much.
Oliver Timmermann
November 5th, 2007 8:15 am
I would be very happy if i got 700 new readers. Commenting on other blogs could help for sure..
CFernandes
November 5th, 2007 8:16 am
More important than the actual number of visitors is how much time she spent commenting to get those visitors. If she spent more than half an our a day (15 hours a month), then I would assume it would have been cheaper just to spent the money on Google Adwords or something
Hot Librarian
November 5th, 2007 8:27 am
Good post. Me too.
Now that’s the kind of comment that won’t get you anywhere (but is awfully nice for the author to hear. I know I enjoy any and all comments even if they don’t contribute the conversation because they make me feel special… of course I don’t get a lot of comments to begin with)
Like the previous commenters, I too have found that commenting on blogs is a great traffic generator. As a “mommy blogger” I’m often checking out other mom blogs. I try to use my comment there to add to the conversation AND to let them know how I got there. It’s the “de-lurking” concept that can help both blog author and commenter alike.
And thanks to pro-blogger for sending me lots of traffic every time I do have something relevant to say!
Thássius
November 5th, 2007 9:05 am
Here on ProBlogger we usually find great comments that really add value to the post and increases the conversation. That’s natural for those good ‘commenters’ to get visitors.
The Great Seducer
November 5th, 2007 9:26 am
Do you have any suggestions for commenting in a way that will draw interest to you? Obviously an insightful comment is the best plan…. but when there are 100+ comments sometimes they get over looked.
Claudia
November 5th, 2007 10:22 am
It is nice to know that comments are that important to build traffic. I like to leave comments in blogs but I felt that it was a waste of time sometimes because many bloggers don’t bother about reading them.
Now I know that at least it will affect my traffic. I will comment more then. :)
By the way, your blog is a great guide for new bloggers, but I am sure you already know that.
Nice job!
Claudia
Tevin
November 5th, 2007 11:12 am
You know. I’ve just started blogging. And I’ve always had a sense that commenting was a good way. I think this a great article. And a great site. Since I’m new to the scene I appreciate all the insight.
Netvalar
November 5th, 2007 11:20 am
I agree that the power of commenting is there, I also would like to emphasize the import of contributing to the convo going on. I actually pay attention to where I have commented by using my visitors stats. Those posts that I have visitors from are the ones that are most likly to have additional conversations going on in the comments for me to check back on in my niche.
Dave C.
November 5th, 2007 2:18 pm
This subject always brings up a question for me, but this is the first time I’ve actually brought it up anywhere.
What I’d like to know is what do people consider a usual comment or rather, where does the line begin between spam and contributing to the conversation, especially when there are already 60+ comments on a post, as there was with this exact post?
That being said, is there an unspoken deadline for comments? I know these posts are always available and searchable, but does it make sense to only comment on posts no more than a week old? maybe two weeks?
Finally, of course its best to comment on blogs that compliment your own, but where are the exceptions? We run an interior design blog, but does commenting here benefit us? What is the likelihood that readers of Problogger are going to be interested in our subject? A chance we should be willing to take or should we focus on related sites instead.
Brad V.
November 5th, 2007 2:45 pm
Great post! When my blog was first starting out, much of the traffic I received came from commenting on other blogs.
I also like reading other people’s comments and looking at their blogs as well. There’s so much out there it can be hard to find. I have come across some really good blogs just by clicking on the links that commenters provide - even right here at ProBlogger (although I’m not surprised!). :-)
Adam
November 5th, 2007 2:51 pm
I think the web is so full of people who are out there making blogs to make money. Sure why not, but if that is the main motivation then it is just work, for me, well there are better ways to make money then spamming the hell out of the web, I often wonder how tedious that must get, spending hours adding useless comments like “yeah good blog” etc just to add a link.
I have 3 blogs that cover my 3 main interests, and if I get 1 reader a day then I am happy, for me it is all about sharing something I am passionate about, not about the stats.
so with that said
Yeah great blog…hehe
Sara East
November 5th, 2007 6:01 pm
Leaving a good comment is always important. While some blogs have thousands of readers a day and other just a few. Any visit is a good visit and any link is a good link.
While some do not think 700 is a large number, we must not forget our own beginnings in the world of blogs. My first website was a retail business ten years ago, getting traffic can be a bit harder when all you offer is products. I would have killed for 700 visits in a month on the first website. Although I did learn a lot from the experience.
matt
November 5th, 2007 8:55 pm
Yes there have been many changes in google algo regarding the nofollow tag too. You can read here about it
http://seomization.blogspot.com/2007/10/nofollow-tag.html
Jimson Lee
November 6th, 2007 1:53 am
There was a post on crmhelpdesksoftware.com that listed over 100 Blogs with a PR$ - PR6 with the NO-NOFOLLOW tag turned off. This commenting on these sites with REAL COMMENTS
Gisele
November 6th, 2007 2:17 am
Darren,
That’s a good point, but Caroline does NOT discuss the time/results ratio of leaving comments on 10-15 different blogs per month. It’s true she got over 700 new visitors, but in the end she made $0 for the month in terms of income.
For new bloggers who have to deal with so many different components of a business, how to you include a function like comments on blogs and forum in a way that actually brings in tangible results…and not just people landing on your homepage?
Do you hire someone to do it on a daily base?
Getting traffic (good quality traffic) seems harder than getting Britney Spears to leave her home with underwear on for new bloggers.
Gisele
http://www.mybeautymatch.com
Nathania Johnson
November 6th, 2007 3:04 am
700 referrals based on comments alone is phenomenal, IMO. Each of those 700 has the potential to link to her or share her posts with others - which could ultimately result in even more visitors.
The ripple effect (aka word of mouth) may be difficult to measure, but it’s probably by far the most effective method of blog growth.
Muhammad Siyab
November 6th, 2007 3:23 am
Well commenting on other blogs is quite powerful. But quality comments are more important than quantity comments, do not you think? Some blog owners become very happy if they get a hundred meaningless comments on their blogs, but are disappointed if there are only a few but quality posts in there. How strange?!?!
Jake
November 6th, 2007 5:00 am
700 is just a few hundred less of my complete monthly traffic. I discovered the importance of commenting when I started making my rounds through other blogs, commented on about a dozen of them, and saw my monthly visits go from 250 to almost 600.
I attest, hallelujah!
Millionaire Shopper
November 6th, 2007 8:42 am
I don’t know, 700 visitors sounds like a ton to me! At this point, just starting out, I’d be happy with half that. That being said, and despite the topic of the article, I do feel a wee bit guilty leaving a comment, just in hopes of attracting some visitors of my own…
caesar
November 6th, 2007 9:24 am
Millionare, do not feel guilty. After all, nobody forces you to put the link to your website. You can left the box empty. :P
Jeremy Steele
November 6th, 2007 10:33 am
If anyone wants an easy way to get a bunch of comments just try to get in the top 10 comments on one of john chow’s income reports - those things can really drive traffic heh.
Trish
November 6th, 2007 10:37 am
Hats off to you, Caroline!! Thank you, Darren!
In reading all of the comments here, you have added light-years to my knowledge.
This is only the second time since my blogging began that I have commented, because I do not feel I have enough experience. All of you and your commenting are quite endearing to new bloggers.
Being eleven months into blogging and trying to gain comments is and has been a daunting experience. However, I realized the need to have credible, somewhat humorous and logical posts after studying ‘blogging’ for many months prior. Plus, your thoughts for this particular post remind me of a real down-to-earth community.
I’ve seen really negative posts on others blogs and thought the old adage… ‘if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it’. So, Maki Eduardo, I understand what you mean.
Congratulations to you for your content and traffic you are able to attain. Keep up the terrific energy and endurance!
Many ‘Thanks’ for sharing your insight and bless all of your hearts!!!!!!!!
BillinDetroit
November 7th, 2007 4:09 pm
PING: Turtie.
I write on my blog until I am ‘all written out’ for the day … then go on a stroll through other blogs to post comments wherever I think I can add to the dialog.
Then I go live some other part of my life, keeping a lookout for fresh blog material.
Syd
November 7th, 2007 4:56 pm
Thanks for such an informative and entertaining article. I used to comment on other people’s blogs but not on a regular basis and even though I got some amount of traffic and links back to my blog, I didn’t pay much attention to commenting and eventually stopped doing it altogether. Such a big mistake!
Now reading this post, and a similar success story I read at another blog and also reading many of the comments of people here who seem to have got good success with commenting, I am now determined to start making useful comments on other blogs and do so on a regular basis.
Commenting can help not only in building traffic and back-links, but also in building my online reputation as anyone can become known among people of his/her niche.
It can also help in cultivating strong healthy relationships online as people might notice you and they in turn would like to comment on your blog, thereby starting a good relationship among bloggers with similar interests. I thing frequent commenters (who make useful comments and participate in the discussion going on) can attract a lot of favorable attention. Am I right?
Reed
November 8th, 2007 8:42 am
I like it how everyone is repeating the same thing over and over again just so they can do just that, get more traffic to their blog.
I believe it is a great strategy, but just repeating what someone else said ahead of you but only in a different way is not the way to do it.
Be unique. Your comments are apart of your brand, so try to distinguish yourself from others.
If someone said it before you, chances are you aren’t being unique, your just being a non-contributing traffic building commenting machine, and those aren’t fun to talk to.
Igor The Troll
November 9th, 2007 8:18 pm
ProB, I am in total accordance with you! You are very often ahead of the curve.
So, if anyone wants to see what I am about can just Google me!
I am not even going to drop my link in the signiture..:)
Nathaniel
November 10th, 2007 5:49 am
I totally agree. I try to comment on several blogs every day. It’s actually pretty fun to track down interesting blogs. From there, you just do like you said, leave interesting and insightful comments that people will be inclined to follow.
What I have found particularly important about this method is that EVERY one of my somewhat regular visitors are either friends, family, or those who followed a comment to my site. That’s pretty powerful. I do get random stoppers-by from search engines, banner impressions, blogrush, traffic exchanges, etc… but you get some good quality traffic from comments. I really need to put together a strategy for hunting down blogs to comment on. So far, I’m using a combination of blogrush and RSS tracking to find good articles… but it’s slow going.
Guardian Angel
November 11th, 2007 12:32 am
I am amazed on the result of Caroline’s post. In addition, quality comments not only resulted to traffic, but also real friends on-line who can give you more inspiration to write good and informative posts. I am also posting some comments on some good blogs. Although I have not yet been awarded financially, I know I am on my way there…thanks for reminding me!
coldhitz
November 11th, 2007 12:41 pm
I am new to blogging, and I only became aware that I was blogging recently. I am a trained pizzaiolo, who recently decide to share my passion for fresh pizza with the world. Now that I’ve got my Youtube channel up and running, I’m starting a blog. I’ve only been commenting on other bloggs , so far, and have seen the interest other’s have shown in my comments. My viewership is steadily increasing , and it’s just from posting videos, and commenting on the other food blogs, mostly bakespace.com.
M.S.
November 12th, 2007 6:14 pm
Commenting on others blogs just for the sake of increasing the traffic on ones own is a turn off and a pain in the neck and nothing but another form of spam. But it seems that a big part of the net commmunity is pleased with this kind of less than superficial “pseudo-communication” and loves to scratch others backs hoping that they in turn will scratch their own = payoff in clicks ->money. This blog seems to be nothing but the same dull place that celebrates the empty “goddess of traffic” as the ultimate goal of acticity.
Silvia Chauvin
November 15th, 2007 7:58 am
Nice post Darren thanks!
Just yesterday I came across this plug in to encourage good comments and reward the commenter with a dofollow link.
http://money.bigbucksblogger.com/lucias-linky-love-a-dofollow-plugin-to-foil-human-comment-spammers/
I haven’t installed it yet but it seems very promising.
Muhammad Siyab
November 17th, 2007 2:00 pm
whoa. 700 visitors is quite a large number! Well now I get the true importance or commenting on other people’s blogs! Previously i thought it was just a waste of time.
aritoni
November 24th, 2007 7:51 am
I’ll be a little scepticist. I feel that when commenting to other blogs (especially in a small “market” like Greece) the major number of visitors came from these sites are only bloggers who runs their own blogs.
Glen(Web-Design Blog)
November 26th, 2007 2:02 am
That is a very interesting point. When ever I read a comment on a blog I like ,in most cases I go to that persons blog and read the material . This was the same method I used for finding problogger!
Allen
November 27th, 2007 9:22 pm
Darren you have given me a strong reson to think on my part about the way to comment all around. Even no body likes to have a meaningless spam coments stating nothing usefull stuff other than just passing their URL. Even that frustrates the Author of the blog of that weired responses. And if u find a good response u even dont mind to pass a interrelated link to others blog & even not hold on its approval part.
And as i am new to this world all over i got some interesting facts to come across ur blog and the responses provided by the visitor.. Thanks
coldhitz
November 28th, 2007 8:26 am
I just started my blog at blogger. I’ve been asking my brothers and friends to test it out , for function , as I kept getting an error message , and no responses when I clicked on interacting feilds. This was finally solved , when I stripped every module , and tracked it to my Amazon Unbox player. All the traffic that came to , what I was really happy with , was unable to see all my youtube work , or even comment on my posts. So , I have to say that the traffic will only build by returning to a Vlog , which they can interact with, by commenting on . I am rebuilding it , and will continue to study this great resouce … Thanks to all of you for publishing , and commenting.
Tara
November 28th, 2007 11:13 am
I’m lucky to get one link back from a comment that I post, nevermind 94 like Caroline, so I think she’s definitely doing somethign write.
Breadlegs
December 1st, 2007 2:04 am
So how do you guys ensure that the content of your comments is worthwhile and attracts a response ?? Great article by teh way…
danae sinclair
December 2nd, 2007 11:36 am
Hey, interesting article and resource you have here.
I’ve only been blogging since August and find i waste a lot of time commenting on other blogs - mostly because so far I have stuck to a small writers community and have focused on getting some writing on my own two blogs (i have one for journalling and one for some fiction I’m working on). Time is short in my household so cruising the blogosphere (or whatevs its called) is a luxury I don’t often allow… and, to be honest, a lot of the blogs that are part of my ‘community’ don’t really get me worked up enough to leave any time-worthy remarks…and the comments left on my own blog are not the kind of open ended, inviting kind that generate any conversation from me - should I be responding to comments left on my blog? should I go and visit the blogs of the inane commenters? hmmm.
…not to mention that I wouldn’t have the foggiest idea of how to find stats about visitors etc - and I’m guessing that it will take a whole lot of clicking to find out!
but - you reap what you sow!
I’d love to increase traffic to my sites so a new strategy would be to chose blog comments wisely - that is, find/write some content that actually inspires some decent commentary (er, like this one??) and join a wider community of like-minded souls - no?
*sigh* there is so much to learn.
Jon Ward
December 9th, 2007 6:49 am
amazingly enough, I’ve had similar luck with comment posting. nowhere near the degree of success that caroline has had but it does prove to me that it can be a fruitful way of getting yourself known. the key is to choose a few good websites with similar content to your own with lots of readers, comment regularly on their posts and become a member of their community, good things will come of it.
Steve
December 27th, 2007 3:38 pm
There is a lot of good advice on this site. I am fairly new to blogging and trying to promote my site. I’m going to bookmark your site and try more of these ideas and I’ll try to post regularly to show how they are working.
TechleMe
January 2nd, 2008 9:29 am
That’s a really interesting post. I’ve used stumble upon before but I’m curious how she’s generating all that traffic from her stumble upon account. Does Caroline have an enormous number of stumble upon friends?
I agree, commenting is important though
Jon Griffith
January 10th, 2008 6:52 pm
As an executive apprentice in the world of promoting a blog, and an intermediate Wordpress user, as well as a seasoned Windows Administrator, I would never have thought that the amount of time I would spend on a given task, such as commenting, would actually pay off. Thanks for the insight!
Ciara Copywriter
January 22nd, 2008 5:01 am
I will be doing a website traffic increasing trial this month to get from a measly 7 visitors per day to at least 50. Making blog comments will be one of the tactics I will be using, so I will certainly be able to report back soon, in a month, if you will.
So, we know that a good blog comment draws direct traffic from the comment but does it also look better in Google’s books, I wonder? Obviously, you get more inbound links but perhaps so many links on one page gets disregarded by the big G. Anyone know?
3magin8.com
April 1st, 2008 5:06 am
leaving comments is essential becuase you also get linkbacks.
but you also have to be sure to leave a worthwhile comment.
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