It’s quite amazing to me that some people still lose their time trying to leave useless and meaningless blog comments that will never be approved.
There is actually a very easy way to leave comments on other blogs that not only will be approved by the blog owner, but attract readers of such blog to click on your own link and help you build valuable back-links to your site.
Here are five golden rules that you need to implement in your blog comments to make sure that you and your site will benefit from it to the maximum
1. Search for Comment Friendly Blogs in your Niche
Even though you want to make sure that you leave valuable comments on other blogs, you also want those blogs to be comment friendly. If the blog doesn’t provide for you to leave a comment easily, you might as well go to the next.
Personally, I don’t want to lose my time to become a regular on blogs that don’t give something back to their readers by providing a friendly comment area where I can link back to my own blog.
Blog commenting should be a give and take. I benefit from your comment and I give you back by allowing you to link back to your own site.
Once you have found a nice list of blogs that offer the opportunity to comment on their posts, you need to do the next best thing before you start commenting on those blogs.
2. Read the Post Before you Leave a Comment
This might sound a lot to do for some, but the next thing you need to do once you have found a blog to comment on is read the post.
Really, think about it for a minute, if you can’t be bothered with reading the post that you are going to comment on, why would the owner of the blog be bothered with reading your comment, approving it and even replying to it?
I am sure that you can see why reading the blog post is really a MUST if you expect your comments to be published and give valuable back-links to your own blog.
3. Write an Intelligent Comment
What is an intelligent comment? To start with it’s not a comment that says “great article” “Good stuff, thanks” or “thanks for sharing”. Bloggers hate this type of comments, because they usually prove two things.
a) You probably didn’t read a word of the post; therefore, you’re not able to say anything about it.
b) You are probably there only for the back-link. No blogger wants to be bothered with this type of comments and certainly not the high ranking blogs that you want links from.
There is no such thing as something for nothing; if you want the link, the traffic and gain in popularity, you need to do your part. This means reading the post, leaving an intelligent comment that brings value to the post.
In order to post a comment, you don’t have to always comment on the blog post itself either. You can also reply to or answer questions from another bloggers’ comments or you can ask questions yourself.
Make sure you know the name of the blogger and use it in the comment. This shows at least that you know who the blog owner is. If you comment on a guest post, make sure you know that too.
I see people sometimes, addressing the blog owner when they are really commenting on someone else’s post (a guest post). Not only this shows that they are not paying attention, but it’s a bit rude for the person who spent their time and energy writing the post and not being credited for it by the person leaving a comment.
4. Spelling, Grammar and Structure
It’s not because it’s just a blog comment that you shouldn’t pay attention to your writing. Once you’ve written the comment it’s time to edit it just like you would edit an article. Make sure it’s spelling error free, that your grammar is correct and that you write in paragraphs if your comment is more than 5 sentences long.
The more your comment sounds and looks good the better it will be for you in the end. If you leave messy comments who is going to want to click on your link anyway?
5. Use an Avatar of your Own Face and Use your Real Name
I know some people who have always insisted in not using a real picture of them as avatar or don’t want to use their real name. This is a big mistake if you are a blog owner. People want to see that you are a real person and that you are not trying to hide behind a fake name.
Cartoon avatars may be cute and fun, but you will never be taken seriously as a blogger if your picture is a cartoon. Honesty always pays off in the end. I can’t find any reason why you would want to hide behind a fake name or image, unless, you are not looking for success.
If you follow these five golden rules each time you leave a comment on a blog. Your popularity will increase and your blog will reap all the benefits and rewards you can expect from it.
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If this article was helpful to you, or if you have any thoughts about it, don’t forget to leave a comment and link you own blog or post to it!
Why, Sylviane – it’s amazingly simple, isn’t it? And yet, here I am in another tab, cleaning out more spam spun by spam spinners. (As if article spinners weren’t bad enough!)
You’re absolutely right, too, when you say “To start with it’s not a comment that says “great article” “Good stuff, thanks” or “thanks for sharing”. Bloggers hate this type of comments, because they usually prove…[y]ou probably didn’t read a word of the post; therefore, you’re not able to say anything about it.” But more than that – even if you did read the post, those types of comments don’t sound like compliments at all – they’re very dismissive, really. “Meh. Throw you a bone. Have two words.”
A Tae Kwon Do instructor I knew years ago reminded his students to always be thankful for constructive criticism, as it took time and thought and courage to give it. “Good job” actually is meaningless. WHAT did I do right? You know, so I can do it again. WHAT ideas did my post spark? Come have a conversation with me, and I’ll know that not only did you read, but we connected – I communicated effectively.
Thank you for this post (and for citing one of mine!) I do tend to get all nitpicky over spelling and grammar, and I’m glad to see you advocate for both in comments!
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Well, Holly your comment was sure NOT one of those trashy ” great stuff” comments 🙂 Full of very thoughtful thoughts, instead!
You are so right, leaving two useless words such as “great post” or “well done”, etc… as a comment on long blog post full of goodies is more of an insult and anything constructive.
I agree with the listed rules. I admit that I get much punctuation and grammar but I always emphasize what I try to pin point. Also, the gravatar thingy, I think this is the most common rule users tend to do, they just dont how important to have a gravatar.
Thanks Sylviane and Happy Holidays
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Yes, the gravatar is like your own trade mark your personal logo – very important indeed! and some people haven’t got that yet 🙂
Thanks, Herbert and happy Holidays to you too!
How often do I break the most important rule of all: “Read the Post Before you Leave a Comment”. I get a couple paragraphs into the post, I get all excited, I just have to leave a comment, I go to the bottom to leave a comment, I…wait…what if something further in the post makes my comment look silly. OK, back up and read the rest of the post. And sometimes, I edit my comment because what I wanted to add was already covered toward the end of the post.
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I have been guilty of that very fact myself 🙂 But that’ s a good sign, right? This means we we are excited about the post and can’t wait to tell about our thoughts.
Hi Sylviane,
I must say you’ve are right on every point here. It’s rather unfortunate that many do not take #5 really seriously. If you really want to connect with other bloggers and you want the blog owner to take real serious, using an avatar of yourself is something you must not forget. I do hope that more and more other bloggers will take about things like this.
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Yes, Chadrack the cartoon avatar, not the best tool to make human connections, right? Yet, some people don’t get that for some weird reason!
I think that once people understand the benefits everyone can receive from commenting Sylviane, they will take more time to actually do it correctly.
At first we are taught it’s all about link building. Then once you start visiting other blogs you start to realize just how much you can learn from them. Of course you have to read the entire post to really get what they are trying to share instead of skipping over parts because you are short on time. If that’s the case, come back later.
Then you want to add to the conversation like giving them your take on what they shared or maybe your own personal experience and the outcome. Join in the conversations of other comments if you’ve read one that really caught your eye or you could relate.
By all means, use your own photo. I mean this business is about relating to others so you certainly can’t do that if we can get a feel of who we are speaking with.
I do understand that a lot of people may not be the best in grammar or spelling so I don’t necessarily dismiss those comments. There are a lot of people online whose first language is not English or it just may not have been their best subject. I say as long as they are giving it their all, I’ll approve their comments. I would say if you are trying to build a business that’s an area you really should work on though.
Great points you made Sylviane, I agree with them all. Interact and share what you thought of the post and you’ll do just fine.
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Hi Adrienne,
I sure do approve comments that are not necessarily using the best grammar as well. Heck, English is not my first language either 🙂 But by respect to the blog I leave a comment on I try to do my best, however, mistakes do happen, for sure 🙂
As long as we do our best, at least, that great!
Great points you mentioned Sylviane, many bloggers do blog commenting wrong, I remember watching a video for Andy Bailey about having an avatar for our self and how we can get a lot of benefit from it.
we all love comments but we hate being spammed by irrelevant comments, so we have to make our comment to the point of the post and if we can start a decision this will help building relationship as well.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
Thank you for mentioning the avatar, Faissal. I know a lot of people who have an issue with little details such as avatars.
Such people want people come to their site and become their customers, yet, they won’t show them their face. I am going to be very blunt here, but I thing people like this need therapy before going to sell online. As a matter of fact, I help some of them as a life coach 🙂
Your tips were great to read, I especially agree with the ‘intelligent comment’
Sometimes I scan through comments on a Blog and it is so obvious the commenter did NOT read the Blog Post *oops!*
I also have noticed once I leave a comment that is thoughtful with my photo, I have a visitor soon after from that Blogger. AND I am “in” on their Blog for future comments.
Good stuff!
Thanks, have a great week.
Lisa (and my two kitty cats Madison and Abigail)
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Hi Lisa,
Did you know I love cats? 🙂
Yes, you are so right, when you leave a good comment you attract the attention of the blog owner versus being just deleted. Then, you’ve got there trust forever. And chances are they will come visit you:)
Thank you for passing by mine and I am glad if you enjoyed it 🙂
It’s rather difficult to find blogs that fit my niche as my site so eclectic. This is hard because this is one of your first points, to make sure that the blog follows your niche. What I’m finding out more and more is that people who comment on other’s blogs are usually self-help blogs such as themselves. So, I find it easier to find new sites sprouting about (to comment) than blogs in my niche to comment (because these sites rarely have comments that are directly propagated by other bloggers in the same niche).
Does that make sense.
Thank you Sylviane. I hope you have a beautiful week.
Hey Jonathan,
I’ve just took a look at your site, sound interesting! So, what would you say your niche is? I am not sure I understand fully what you mean, but do you have trouble finding blogs where you can leave comments on, because of niche issues?
If that’s the case, leaving a comment on blogs like mine is just fine with me:) Thanks for passing by.
Hi Sylviane
This is going to sound like I’m an idiot, but please know that I am blind and have been having difficulty with learning about images and such on the internet. Can you please tell me a simple way to add my avatar to a comment?
Thanks if you can help.
Are you serious? Not that you’re blind, but that you don’t know how to add an avatar! You’re site seems pretty professional looking to me 🙂 But if you really don’t know, just go to avatar.com and download a picture there. That’s it 🙂
Hi Sylviane ,
hehehe, as for the website, got lots and lots of help … and yes, I am serious about not knowing about this. Went to avatar.com and couldn’t find anything there about downloading anything or creating an avatar. Did find another site in a search to do it and got the following URL to my new avatar … hope it’s not got my head cut off or anything. :P. …http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/bca913d97283328bcf69c82f9d8a3ef1.png
Anyway, sorry if I’m asking to much, but what do I do with this to add it to my comment? Yes, I’m a complete newbie! 🙂
Thanks
never mind … I think I need to get someone to help me with this one on one … I know it seems oh so simple to you, but not simple to a blind person. Thanks
Oh my did I say “avatar.com” Gosh that’s what I meant, gravatar 🙂 don’t know what I was thinking.
Hi Sylviane,
I have been blogging for years now, and I have never really paid attention to visiting others’ blogs … simply due to the lack of organised time. I can see that commenting is important indeed, and not just to get more visitors to your blog, but also to respect the other person’s writing, as that person has obviously put in a lot of thought into their work. I enjoyed reading your “rules”. Sometimes, though, commenters are out to just show themselves to be witty, and it takes a lot of patience to accept them – as, after all, they, too, are your bona fide visitors.
Do visit my active blog http://drtaherofarabia.blogspot.com
Yes, drtaher, visiting other blogs is really important for any blogger. Having yourself a nice commenting area on your own blog is very important as well. For example the link that you put at the end of your comment could be added automatically with commentluv which I use right here! Did you see that?
Hi Sylviane,
Another great post full of great advice. It’s quite amazing that people still try to leave silly comments, don’t they realise the benefits of leaving decent ones? Obiously not as they keep trying 😉
You make a good point about reading the post first, I find some skimmers skim their way through and just copy other comments then paste them in as their own. Like we’re so stupid we’re not going to notice.
I feel commenting is so much more than the back links we build, I think it’s about the relationships we generate through them, and they are far more valuable than the back links and will carry us a lot further as well.
I’m not a natural writer Sylviane and my spelling is really bad, in fact i keep a dictionary beside my desk. but one thing I do is keep my email program open so I can quickly paste a word or sentence in there to let the software spell check for me 😉
Have a fantastic time over Christmas and a Happy new Year.
Take care, Barry
PS Did you get my email about next week?
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Hi Barry,
I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year too!
I agree with you, blog comments go way beyond the backlink; it’s really a way to connect with other bloggers and people online. I’ve done much more of it in the past few months than I used to before, and all with great results.
hello Sylviane, your post interests me the more and am learning some new things from you blog. Actually am not a blogger but i am trying to do some affiliate marketing but i finds it difficult getting blogs to comment on, may be you can have a look at my site and tell me what to do http://www.relationshipmadeperfect.com.
Thanks for this kind of post, its helpful
It’s hard for some people to use their real picture as their online avatars. Some of them could be shy, and some would just use some images that represent them well. But you’re definitely right about the name. If you’re going to leave comments on blogs, using your real name will make it easier for other people to call you. Imagine if people would start calling you “cheap dog food sale online”, or something.
Hello,
Thanks for your comment, however, another thing you shouldn’t do is add your URL in the comment area. I use “commentluv” which allows you to add your link naturally. You can use this option. For now I removed the link from the comment. Thanks. I am going to be more and more picky about comments this year. Sorry 🙂
Oh, okay. No worries. Sorry about that. I was kinda getting used to the signature thing. Good luck with your blogs!
As a person whi loves reading comment and writing them too; I couldn’t agree more. There are times when I just cringe because I see “great post” written in the comment box. Come on everybody has something to say. I mean okay, sometime we don’t really know what to add to comments maybe because the content was awesome and there’s nothing that can be added to it; or nothing comes to your mind. Then there are loads of way to compliment it rather than just dropping a two liner!
I feel that reading the blog intently always helps in picking out points from the post where you might want to discuss further!
Loved the post Sylviane!
Hi Hajra,
Always a pleasure to see you! I am glad you like that post.
Some people don’t realize how important it is to leave good comments. It can really help the person who leaves the comment because others will start noticing and click on their link to know more about them.
Hi’ya Sylviane,
Can you add some detail around the most important aspect of blog commenting, the backlink? What’s the best way to leave that in the comment itself? Do you find that you can wrap the link in a href tag, as a live link, with anchor text, or do you find that you have to leave the link as: “I have found this site useful, visit http://www.whatever.com“, and hope that someone captures the text and drops it into their browser? How have you found it to be successful? Thank you.
I know right this moment I am having some issues with my CommentLuv but when you leave a comment on any blog that has “CommentLuv” plugin you can leave your link automatically at the end of your comments.
I almost never use blogs that don’t have commentluv plugin installed and if I do, I do not insert any link in the comment area – never. Most bloggers don’t like that.
Hope this help, and have a great day 🙂
Thanks Sylviane for your post on How to blog as most of the time I find blogs a waste of time as there is no value there. I am anxious to read your Article Marketing eCourse and anticipating learning a thing or two as I did from this blog. I’ll be back.
Joe
Please let me know how to add a picture to your blog.
Thanks,
Joe
Nice rules to consider for blog commenting. I must say that blog comments are really powerful for back linking.
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Hi Sylviane,
I really enjoyed this post, all your points make so much sense.
I can’t imagine why anyone would try to comment on a post that they haven’t even read. I get so much information from reading blogs, and also have come up with some of my better post ideas from them. I also typically read quite a few of the comments before I reply (I don’t really want to repeat what’s already been said).
I also get a little irritated with the “cartoony” gravatars. That makes absolutely no sense if you want to be taken seriously. The same goes for fake names, I want to build up my brand.
Thanks, Sylviane. – Steve
Thanks Sylviane for your post on How to blog as most of the time I find blogs a waste of time as there is no value there. I am anxious to read your Article Marketing eCourse and anticipating learning a thing or two as I did from this blog. I’ll be back.Thanks!
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Finally your blog post made my day. I really like your post. Actually I was also written a post on blog commenting benefits and later I think that why not to read what other bloggers thinks about the commenting benefits and after reading your post, I learned some extra benefits of commenting.
I also would like to share that we can also get a great commenting benefit. i.e we can make our online identity, A great blog commenter can make his or her online identity through his or her quality of commenting on other blogs. Harleena singh and Adrienne smith is my favorite blog commenters and I never read any useless comment by these two bloggers. They always leave a great and high quality comments. So this is the benefit which I like most though commenting on other blogs. 😉
Happy Blogging
Chetan Gupta 😉
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