I have seen many posts about commenting on blogs, replying to comments, do-follow, no-follow etc… this last couple of weeks, and have commented heartily on most of these posts. I personally think it is VERY important to comment on blogs in your niche and want to give MY opinion about who/what/when and where:


Why Comment on Blogs?

First of all, it is NOT about getting links to your crappy landing page for your crappy products site, (I have a products site too, but it is not a crappy site! :-0) these links you get from commenting may have some value, but they are not as valuable as the other benefits I believe you get from leaving “quality” comments on a niche blog. If you are interested in links, go spend your time writing more unique content and get some “natural” links to your site because people will WANT to link to you.

I have been blogging for about 2yrs, and have been commenting on blogs almost as long. It has taken me close to that long to come to the realization on why I comment on blogs. I started out like most others and commented to get links back to my site. Later I started to enjoy commenting more simply because I like to express my opinions and add my points. Then I started to realize that some traffic was coming from places I commented, so I was actually promoting my site by commenting.

All these things are a good reason to comment on blogs, but I see dropping links in comments as “promotion” or “advertising”, NOT part of SEO. I link back to my site because the site owner may like my comment and then come to my site, if I have written some good content, he might return, if he/she really likes something I wrote, they might link to me from their site “naturally”, meaning they put the link in their article or sidebar etc… and I didn’t “drop” the link myself. Natural links will increase your PR 100 times faster than dropped links, Google knows the difference.

How Comments Build Community:comments build community

By having comments on your blog and commenting on other blogs, community is built. What is community? Think of it as your “neighborhood” just like if you live in a neighborhood at home. You have neighbors, and neighbors help each other (at least they do here in the south).

If you actually add value to an article by commenting, it will get noticed. If you look at your commenting like you do your content, maybe you will write better comments and people will be interested in your content too. So write good comments, be sincere, add value, argue your point (be polite) and don’t be scared to type more than 2 lines in your comment.

As for the other side (the blog owner), make it easy to comment on your site, try to reply when it calls for a reply (if someone asks a question, first time commentator, a debate is needed, etc…) and don’t EVER think you are too important or busy to reply. Some articles are in the comments, not in the post. I get so many post ideas from comments on my site(s).

Do you Help Build Community?

So, are you building community on your blog? Do you add value to other blogs by commenting? Is it too time consuming to roll your sleeves up and dig in with your community? Are you helpful to your community? Don’t be a “do as I say”, be a “do as I do” blogger!

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