Looking for low-cost ways to drive traffic to your website? Establish an online presence, build awareness and make connections – basically the same methods that entrepreneurs and businesses have been using to promote their products and services for years. In addition to networking on the Internet by participating in forum groups, message boards and social networking sites, you can also comment on blogs. There are even online communities for people who are serious about commenting. One of the more popular ones (and the one that I’m a member of) is the ComLuv network. CommentLuv is a “plugin”/program that works with blogs. When a member of the ComLuv network comments on a blog that is running the CommentLuv plugin, in addition to their comment, a link to one of their blog posts will be included. This is a wonderful opportunity for a blogger to get a “backlink” (link back to your blog/website). Thousands of blogs have installed this simple plugin. In addition to building awareness, useful and constructive comments can help to build a reputation too.
Today I read the blog post “The Internet Time Machine: Can You Predict What People Will Be Searching For?” The title hooked me from the start. Time machine? (Visions from the original “Star Trek” TV show started dancing through my head.) Predicting what people will be searching on? – I need to know that. Turns out, the link immediately redirected me from the blogger’s website to a page on another site. I landed on a page with basically two items – an embedded video and an offer for a free report (in exchange for my email address).
Since I had gotten that far, I started watching the video completely expecting to give it the obligatory 3-seconds before I closed the browser window and went back to what I was doing. Well, he (the man in the video) captured my interest almost immediately. The video actually engaged me. Rather than just another talking-head, he was standing in front of a large TV/monitor interacting with his presentation on their niche marketing software.
So, what’s the lesson here? Let’s ask ourselves a couple of questions.
How did the original blogger benefit from sending me to someone else’s blog?
- Writing an insightful review of another website, helps build her reputation of being an authority/resource for bloggers.
- Including screenshots and links to the training videos(from the Internet Time Machine website), provides something of value to her readers.
- Linking directly to the website that she’s reviewing, builds good will with that company.
- Linking to another website is an important part of an overall SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy. (Search engines love good links.)
How did I benefit from her sending me to someone else’s blog?
- I got inspiration to write this blog post (that I hope you found interesting).
- By linking to her post in this article, I’m a step closer to developing a (potentially valuable) online relationship.
- I’m now aware of a new niche-marketing software that I can point my readers to (if I think they would benefit from it) and training videos that I can link to when I write about blogging.
- By commenting on her post, I have another valuable backlink to one of my posts (because we both use CommentLuv).
I hope this article has got you thinking about the benefits of getting involved online by commenting on blogs. Do you comment on blogs? What have been your experiences with commenting? I’d love to hear from you.
About Sherryl PerryWelcome! If you're looking for help building an Internet presence that fits your needs and works for you, you're in the right place. I blog common sense articles about WordPress, social media and SEO. My goal is to help small business owners and entrepreneurs understand their core business. Together, we can develop and implement business strategies that make sense to you.
I guess making connections would be the easiest way for me to do, through the help of commentluv, it can trully build great and effective connections towards other bloggers!
I love ComLuv!
It’s promoting a give and take relationship between bloggers.
The more you do comment from others blog is the more chances of other going to your blog, very beneficial for both! 😉
I have met some amazing bloggers by reading their comments and following a link to their site. It’s all about building a community. 🙂
Sherryl Perry recently posted..6 Reasons to NOT Build a Website
Very true.. this is also how I found your blog! 🙂
Well, then I’m glad that you came over here. Do you blog Junior? Feel free to leave a link to one of your articles the next time that you comment and some of us may drop by and have something to say.
Some of the best internet interactions I have developed have come from commenting on posts and following blogs of other like-minded individuals. Networking in this way provides the valuable benefits that you describe and enriches the entire blogging community. I found this site as a result of one of your comments and will be looking around to see what else interests me.
I agree with you Kidgas. Commenting is a great way to find other people to network with. I checked out your blog and returned the favor by leaving a comment for you. I look forward to your joining the conversation here. There’s a lot to be learned here by reading the comments. I welcome everyone to share their experiences and opinions.
Nice post! I recently discovered the benefits of commenting myself. As a result of this and a few other blogs out there, I’ve joined the CommentLuv community. Thanks for the suggestions!
Just checked out your post… “Stay Illegal for Less”…. (the link from CommentLuv with the great headline made me do it!) and very clever use of video on your blog.
Thanks for dropping by! (I may never have found your blog if you hadn’t commented here.)
Sherryl,
Your articles are chock full of information and the look of your site is as pleasing to the eye as your information is to the brain. Gotta read more of your articles!
Thanks so much for the feedback. I hope you find a lot of valuable info on here. Please let me know if there’s ever a topic that you’re interested in (that fits on this blog). Lots of times, my posts are inspired by questions from readers.
Thank sherryl. Nice post. I totally agree with you. Commenting on other blogs is a great way to build reputation. But every one should keep it mine while commenting on other blog that your blog comment quality refer your blog quality. So always need to be more creative to comment.
Alamin, I totally agree. Everything you do is a reflection on you and to comment simply for the sake of commenting is a waste of everyone’s time, yours mine and the other readers who are hoping to learn something of value or to find someone else who they feel is worthy of developing a relationship with.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Afraid to Move Your Website but Know You Should
Thanks for the great post. I had never heard of CommentLuv but will be checking it out tonight. I particularly like your ideas about providing value to your readers. There are people who don’t believe in what they refer to as “promoting” others and only post their own original content. You provided an extremely valid argument about how sharing other’s work benefits everyone involved.
Thanks for sharing your insights 🙂
Julie,
I think you’ll be happy with CommentLuv. I first learned about the the network/plugin from Tia @ http://www.bizchickblogs.com/. Tia shares my philosophy that by helping each other, we’re the ones that gain.
Glad to see that you dropped by and thanks for the feedback. 🙂
Hi Sherryl. I’m enjoying the CommentLuv plugin. It was easy to install and I love clicking the links to posts that are left when people comment on my blog. It’s becoming a great tool. I enjoyed your post. Commenting is a great way to establish relationships online with other bloggers.
Thanks for the feedback Tammy. I’m glad that my post helped you discover a new tool.
I love CommentLuv. I agree that visiting other blogs and commenting is important. It’s also important to reply to people that leave comments on your own blog.
Glad to see you have CommentLuv up and running. Yesterday, I was searching CommentLuv’s site for other bloggers to network with. By growing my contact sphere online, I’m learning of all sorts of resources that I can tap into.
I agree that commenting on other’s blogs is great to give yourself more exposure, but more important than that is networking–as all money made online and off is generally a result of networking in some way or another.
Absolutely. That’s why it’s so important to leave meaningful comments that in some way contribute to the conversation. It is networking just online.
Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Good article but please guys don’t spam.
If you like a post and have something to contribute, comment. The best thing you can do to support a blogger is spend less than a minute “sharing” the post. Tweeting, stumble upon etc can really help a blog.
Spamming hasn’t been a problem for me yet. The “Akismet” plugin does a good job of capturing the few that I’ve received. (I don’t believe that anyone who takes the time to join the CommentLuv network is a spammer.)
I notice that you just joined the “Blog Promoter” group on LinkedIn. That’s another good resource for people who are looking for ways to promote their blog.
Thank you for the heads up on commentluv Sherryl. I did a little looking around and according to the commentluv author,
“This plugin will visit the the site of the comment author while they type their comment and retrieve a selection of their last blog posts, tweets or digg submissions which they can choose one from to include at the bottom of their comment when they click submit.
It has been found to increase comments and the community spirit for the thousands of blogs that have installed it. With a simple install you will immediately start to find new and interesting blog posts, tweets and diggs from your own blog and community.” Cool!
It is cool. I see you joined CommentLuv too and now have a backlink by commenting here. I hope you enjoy (and benefit from) being a member of the ComLuv community as much as I do!
I also use CommentLuv on my site, though I should really start looking for more sites that use it too. I see you all enter your real name in the ‘name’ section. Has anyone tried adding keywords like I did in this comment as this will be the anchor text.
Debbie
Debbie recently posted..How to Increase Adwords Quality Score
Debbie,
I use my name and picture because I’m building brand recognition on myself as well as my blog. I did weigh the choices but for me, this made the most sense. I’ve done a lot of consulting and face-to-face networking where people recognize me (and my name). I did not want to lose that name recognition. Same thing when I chose my picture for my avatar. Some people use their business logo. I just prefer to keep it more personal.
I checked out your blog post and commented. I tweeted it too.
Sherryl
Hey Debbie – When I comment on a blog for the first time, if that blog doesn’t have keywordluv enabled, I always use my first name. Otherwise, there is a strong chance the comment will go into the Akismet spam filter. I have a tendency to not check spam for a week or two at a time, so I know that I have missed good comments that went into the spam filter because of a strange name.
Depends on the keywords of course. Web consultant probably doesn’t trigger it, but something like make money online probably would, regardless of whether it was actually spam.
Hi Tia, I didn’t think of the spam filter but you are probably right. Anyhow, until I start with a new blog on ‘how to make money online’ maybe I am OK :-). Thanks for the tip though.
Tia, I kept seeing keywordluv on your site and had it on my “to-do” list. Finally, today, I followed the link from your blog. This is really cool stuff! I had no idea that it would turn my keywords into anchor text like that! Thanks again for the heads-up on another valuable blogging tool.
Sherryl – I have only been blogging for 5 months and I appreciate the information on this CommentLuv. One quick question is this for B2B or more for B2R?
Leanne,
You can find CommentLuv blogs on any topic. I’d suggest using the “Global CommentLuv Search” function http://bit.ly/crWD2m to find bloggers with readers that match your target customers. I use long-tail keywords and look for bloggers with similar interests that compliment my skill base but aren’t blogging on exactly the same topics.
Another tip is to find blogs that have an active readership. The more people there are leaving comments, the more likely it is that you’ll get some clicks back to your site.
I have been experimenting with commenting on others blogs and asking them to do the same. I will check out CommentLuv.
rob
Rob,
Here’s an excellent blog post on “Reasons To Love CommentLuv Blogs”: http://kikolani.com/reasons-love-commentluv-blogs.html. Good luck. I think it will help you.
Sherryl
Hi Sherryl, As a novice blogger this was great information for me. I certainly did not realize the importance/value of commenting.
Hi Kathryn,
I’m glad you found my post valuable. You may also want to read my article on social networking http://bit.ly/cf86Hi. One of the things I talk about is creating a globally recognized avatar with http://en.gravatar.com/. If you look above, you’ll see that both Tia and I have our pics next to our comments. By using Gravatar, our pictures are automatically post alonged with our comments. (We both use personal photos but it could be a graphic such as a logo. The key is to build recognition.)
Sherryl – Fantastic post! I hadn’t gotten notification of it yet but I came looking for it!
Note that with CommentLuv, you actually have two backlinks, one to your home page (anchored by your name) and one to your post (anchored by your post title).
The value of commenting is so exponential. If you check BizChickBlogs’ some 788 back links right now, about 600 of them are from commenting. It’s not that I’ve left 600 comments, not even close. There’s much more going on under the surface.
I’m happy, mostly, that we have connected. I think this is key. I was thrilled when you mentioned the RSS feed and that you read it. Without your comment, I wouldn’t have known. It was a great affirmation for me about this blog.
Great connecting with you!
Tia
Tia,
Thanks so much for the encouragement. It’s amazing how well CommentLuv is working for you. Those are very impressive statistics. Now, I have to stop procrastinating and enter the contest!
Great point about the two backlinks. I didn’t even think to mention that.
Reading your blog is how I learned about CommentLuv. I will absolutely continue to follow your posts!
Sherryl