Ask popular bloggers for 10 ways to build traffic to a new blog and I’ll guarantee that almost all of them will mention the importance of commenting on other blogs as part of their answer.
Much has been written about commenting as a strategy to build traffic (because used correctly it is a powerful tool) – but very little has been written on the dangers of it. Over the past few months I’ve noticed some bloggers using comments in increasingly aggressive ways to build their own readership – to the point where I think they are probably doing more harm to their own brand than they are doing good.
I should say that this topic has been one I’ve been a little hesitant to write about – partly because I see some of these tactics used here at ProBlogger. This is not a post written with any particular person (or people) in mind – however I put it out there for your consideration and feedback.
Two notes before I start:
- I’m not going to include using automated comment spamming techniques – I’m assuming that people will have the brains to work out why this can hurt your brand
- Some of these techniques will annoy some but not others. Some of them I personally don’t like but some are observations about what I’ve seen annoy others. A lot of this is about the perception that you give off to others. Whether you see them as annoying or not is important – but more important to your brand is what others think of the techniques.
1. Excessive use of Signatures – I ran a poll back in 2005 about whether ProBlogger readers thought that I should allow the practice of leaving a signature in comments (ie a link to your blog at the comment itself in addition to the link that you get as your name). The result at that time was that 56% of readers said the practice should be allowed. As a result I decided to allow them here at ProBlogger. However at the time I also suggested that I didn’t like them as did a significant number of other readers. I still don’t like the practice personally and particularly get turned off when people leave 2-3 (or more) links under their comment (note, I’m not talking about relevant links inside your comment that add to the conversation). While this might not turn off everyone – it’s worth noting that it does get some angry – and even if this is the minority it can hurt your brand.
2. Excessive Self Linking – The practice of leaving links inside posts is not something that bothers me too much – unless it gets excessive. A well placed link back to something you’ve written (or that someone else has written) previously can really add to a conversation – particularly if what you’ve written else where is too long or detailed for the comment thread itself. What does risk annoying others is when you include lots of links to yourself in every comment you make and/or when the links are irrelevant to the topic and/or when you just leave a link without saying anything else. Keep links relevant and in moderation and you’ll find people respond to them well.
3. One or Two word Comments – Some comment leavers seem to be have a ‘quantity over quality’ mentality where they think that the more comments they leave on as many posts as possible the better they’ll be (whether for SEO or direct click visitors). Newsflash – it’s not. One insightful, intriguing and intelligent comment that is relevant and helpful to readers can achieve far more than many two word comments that ultimately mean nothing. All you’ll achieve by leaving loads of useless comments is to annoy bloggers, get yourself listed on comment spam blacklists and to potentially hurt your blog’s reputation as a spammer.
4. Not Reading Posts Before Commenting – I’m sure most of us have been guilty of this from time to time. You see a post title that you want to react to, you read the first line or two and feel strongly moved to comment. You leave the comment without reading the full post and then realize that you’ve made an idiot of yourself by saying something stupid, wrong or poorly thought through. While you might be able to repair the mistake by leaving another comment – it’s hard to get a comment removed on blogs – your words remain for years to come to highlight your opinion. Take a moment before leaving comments to make sure you understand what’s being written about – this means reading the full post first – it can also mean reading what others have written too.
5. Flaming and Personal Attack – While blogging has always been a medium where people don’t mind a little vigorous debate – it’s also got a history of flaring up into personal attack and flaming from time to time. It’s easy to do – you read something that you strongly disagree with and write a comment in the heat of the moment. Your comment is misinterpreted and read by another emotional person who responds – things escalate and suddenly things get personal. No one really wins in these exchanges – in fact more often than not both people come out of it with slightly tattered egos and reputations. Get a reputation for repeated flaming and you can really hurt your credibility.
6.’Anonymous’ Flaming – From time to time I get ‘anonymous’ comments left on this blog which get a little personal or which critique me or my actions. While I try to take these in good spirit (critique is actually an opportunity to improve) I sometimes wish that the person leaving the comment would reveal who they are – not so that I could attack back but so that we could have a good constructive interaction via email. What I do find interesting however is that many ‘anonymous’ comment leaves don’t seem to realize that when they leave a comment their IP address is also included with the comment in the back end of the blog. If you’ve written a non anonymous comment previously under your real name it is very simple to connect the two together. So your attack, jibe or personal swipe might not be so anonymous after all – and this can only hurt your reputation.
7. Always Being First To Comment – This is one of those tricky ones that doesn’t really annoy me personally and which can actually be a good tactic on some levels – but which can get a little excessive and become annoying for some. I’ve done heatmap tracking on comment sections of posts before and it is true that the earlier that you comment on a post the more chance that people will come to visit your blog. As a result – I’ve seen numerous people compete on popular blogs to be the first to leave a comment. While this can generate some traffic – the problem is that if you do it on every post and if in your rush to be first you write junky, quick and irrelevant comments you will begin to annoy both the bloggers who you are commenting on the posts of as well as their readers. Balance is the key if you want to be first – and quality comments count for a lot.
8. Dominating Comment Threads – A couple of years ago I had a blog which had a particular reader who commented multiple times on every post that I wrote. I’m not sure why they did this but while the comments were on topic, relevant and quite often helpful – they were also overwhelming in their quantity. In any given week this person would comment on my blog 50 to 100 times by responding to everything I wrote and most of the comments that other readers wrote. It got to a point where they were more active on my blog than I was and that other readers began to complain that they felt they were being drowned out. I ended up talking to the comment leaver about it and they scaled things down to a more reasonable level. Lots of comments are great – but when comment threads are dominated by any one person the feeling of community and dialogue can be lost and the person dominating the conversation can be seen in a negative light.
9. Keyword Stuffed Names – This is another one that people will have differing opinions on – but it is annoying for some and therefore could be considered as slightly risky. The reason that people leave comments under names that are not their own name but which are other ‘keywords’ are numerous. For some it is an SEO strategy (although it is worth noting that the majority of blogs these days use no-follow tags which stop Google Juice being passed on), for others it’s about communication what your blog is about, for others its about anonymity and for others it’s probably more of a branding decision. I get all of this and as a result it doesn’t worry me that much – however I do know some bloggers and blog readers who can’t stand it and who consider it to look spammy. While I don’t hold such strong views I would say that by not using your real name you could actually be hurting your own personal brand because there’s something about a real person’s name that is… well…. it’s personal. I would much rather chat to someone who has a name like James, Sara or Rahul than someone called ‘Million Dollar Get Rich Quick’ or ‘Free Debt Advice’.
10. Not adding value to the Comments – This is related to other points in this list but is worth saying. Every comment that you leave has the potential to either add value or take value from that other person’s blog. Add value to the conversations that are happening in the wider blogging community and you’ll build yourself a reputation as a wise, insightful and knowledgeable authority figure. Conversely – every comment that you leave that is obviously self serving, that illustrates that you’ve not read the post or that tears down others says something about who you are also and can give you a different kind of reputation.
OK – so there’s 10 ways that you can potentially hurt your brand by the way that you leave comments on others blogs. As I mentioned above – some of these are more black and white in my mind than others (some, like ‘being first’ or commenting a lot can start out as good but tip over into being bad if you get excessive – however all are worth considering.
You may decide to continue to do all or some of the above for good reason – but do so knowing that there is cost and potential for being misunderstood or perceived as doing something that perhaps you’re not intending to do.
Remember – everything you do or say in a public forum like another person’s blog comments have the ability to positively or negatively impact you and your blog’s brand. Not only that – the things you say and do in these spaces are permanent (at least until a person retires and deletes their blog). As a result commenting on blogs should not only be seen as an opportunity – but also as a practice that can be risky if you do it in the wrong way.
Have Your Say
Now it’s time for you to have your say. By no means am I an expert on any of this – so I’m keen to get your input:
- What practices would you add to the above list?
- Which would you remove from it (or modify)?
- What advice would you give bloggers when it comes to commenting on others blogs?
- As a blogger – do you police any of these types of things? Do you have a comment policy of any kind?
Oh – regarding commenting without reading.
Sometimes the blog owners don’t help matters…in my most embarrasing commenting episode, I once commented something which I will be forever remember – which might’ve been avoided if that person had an ‘about me’ page I could’ve referenced first.
Good attempt at shrugging responsibilty there, wasn’t it?!
I found your site through mamablogga.com
Thank you for your insights– I like what I’ve read so far!
*fights urge to write “FIRST!”*
*loses*
I do not like names that’s filled with keywords. First of all, if this person is commenting on a post that’s not related to the topic, I would be thinking “Is this even relevent?” On the other hand, if this person is commenting on a post that’s related to the topic, I would be thinking “Why should I bother reading your site? I don’t think your site would be any better than what I’m already reading.”
So yeah, either way it just doesn’t work for me.
I’ve found that I had the most problems with all of this when I had the DoFollow plugin running. When it got so bad that I turned NoFollow back on, normal people started commenting again. Sad but true! :)
#9 gets me. I prefer conversing with a real name rather than an seo-inspired keyword(s).
Yes, I can accept the branding accept such as:
Martin | SmallOfficeAustralia
But I would only do that for a short period and let my comments speak for themselves.
Also, I can’t stand the the “me too”, “great post” comment. Sometimes I feel like emailing them back and asking what they actually liked about my post. :-)
Commenter #1…
I think we are all afraid of commenting first and commenting at all
I’ve never had a problem with commenting first or commenting at all, but I only do it if I have something to add to the post/conversation.
I am someone who’s been leaving signatures and it didn’t even occur to me that some people might consider it rude until I read something about it on Tim Ferris’s blog and also I think in one of my comments he deleted my signature (not positive on this though).
So lately I’ve been pretty quite as I haven’t been sure if I should be using a signature or not — what I’ve been using is my full name on one line and then my website url on the next.
Also, I don’t think it’s made a big difference to my traffic by not adding the signature as I’m guessing now that a lot of people won’t click just on prinicipal alone?
For my own blog I don’t have any comment rules so far and I don’t imagine I”ll need to but if I had a serial commenter like you did I would have to do the same thing I think… you want your readers to feel comfortable and not like the blog is being taken over.
Angela :)
I think having a name and keyword together (eg – Darren from ProBlogger) can work. In my mind it’s more personal than just the keyword approach which is good.
There! I SEO stuffed the name, which, by the way I don’t particularly like. (Though I did it for the second time here. The first was at Chirg.com’s blog article on comments.)
As Wendy mentioned about 4 comments above, the issue of SEO stuffed comments and poor comment etiquette has plagued the dofollow blogs. There have been zillions of discussions of the issue, and it’s clear that each blogger has a slightly different opinion aobout what is acceptable and what is way over the line.
So, to deal with the issue (for dofollow bloggers) I decided to write a plugin with a variety of options. Don’t like SEO names? Then, don’t permit do follows for names with more than 15 characters. Don’t like people trying to get extra links in comments? Then permit do follows to the signature but not the links in comments.
I figured a plugin to that gave the blogger choices would be more useful than just talk. We can each individually decide what to reward.
(I asked if Chris if I managed to merge “on topic” with self-promotion. And, I think I’ve done it again! But obviously, someone who actually wrote a plugin to deal with these issues, has thought a lot about this comment issue!)
Hmm, If people choose to leave a useful comment related on the topic why shouldn’t they be allowed to get a little back (a link to the their site). It seems only fair, I guess this whole post boils down to common sense, everyone has it but not everyone wants to use it.
Thanks Darren! Honestly again I have not thought of the topic that much. But, running through the list I think it applies to blogging as well as our everyday life – don’t talk when angry, don’t comment when you haven’t got the whole picture yet… Great reflections!
Ad always a brilliant article. I have to say that keyword names are a pet hate. I try to accept them if they are relevant to the topic but if there short then more often than not it gets deleted.
But on a positive I have once removed one from my spam messages and accepted… I guess I was in a good mood that day.
I partially agree with your post. I don’t however with Nr9. I always use the the keyword as the link, but then I also always sign with my real name. If the link is a do follow, then it will give me some link love besides and if not, no problemo.
I personally approve my comments before they get shown. Even with spam attack and other spam preventing widgets and plugins those silly enough to spam find new ways all the time to add crappy links.
In the end it comes down to using common sense. I try to visit at least 5 real blogs every day and read their posts. If I like them, I will comment.
Hope this helps
Monika ;-)
To me, it’s a very good point and very positive.
As a new blogger and as english is not my primary language, most of the time it’s hard to add a value in my comment.
Most of the time as a new player, we really want to say thank you after reading good information. But , as I say before .. language limit us. that is where the ” One or Two word Comments” come.
This topic give me motivation to improve my english.
Thank Darren
it’s all about value, isn’t it?
hate when people do comments-just-to-annoy. but it’s a common problem because most of us still don’t think that the comment-zone can be a discussion-zone too.
if i had a comment-policy it would be something like “don’t waste my time, don’t waste your time, let’s us create something great”.
I’ve learnt not to write an emotional email last thing at night and send it. I generally draft it, re-read it the next morning, and delete it!
Don’t you think you are more prone making a faux par at night then first thing in the morning?
I pray that most people follow these rules out of common sense.
Although, I can see that some newbies might not know all of them yet. Spammers, should use their brains and follow these as well so their garbage makes it through the filters and moderation. But let me stop giving them advice.
For the most part, the blogging community does follow these rules, in addition to a few others that I do not have the time to go into now.
Anyway, the list is still well thought out, and should go into the 100+ rules or laws of blogging.
Another nice post, Darren!
It’s been a consistent problem on the Internet, even back from before the Web existed. There’s always a subset of people who think that it’s an ant farm–that all those voices and words weren’t created by actual human beings, so it’s ok to be obnoxious and shake the ant farm to watch them run around.
Unfortunately, it takes a very small number of these folks to make a system unusable. I wonder what percentage of Internet resources are used to control spam.
On the issue of commenting first…I am located on the east coast (U.S.) and I find that due to the time zones, I often end up first in line to comment on blogs in the morning. It just happens out of chance sometimes. :)
-Raymond (MONEY BLUE BOOK)
I have to agree with most but would like to question number 8, if you comment a lot couldnt it possibly bring more people into the post for a discussion on the topic, while it may seem spammy to some, if a user brings experience and good information wouldnt it be a benefit to both the blog and the users blog.
Even more useful than the marginal traffic than you might get out of a comment on another blog is the inspiration for upcoming articles based on the discussions that get rolling underneath. I write about NHL hockey, and by making the rounds every day and dropping a comment here or there, conversation gets going that moves the overall dialogue along much more quickly than it would if Blog A wrote an article, and Blog B wrote a response, etc.
Very good tip, as I do have a few blogs I comment a lot on, and I need to be very careful of #8. And sometimes, commenting can become preaching to the wall…. after writing a long comment, no one else react to your comments and the world moves on. It shows an exciting idea is not necessarily exciting for everyone. The problem is I would not know it, until I write the comment!
I just did a post today, about whether readers are apprehensive about posting on new blogs. Sometimes I feel this way.
Also I usually run a spell check, from the Google tool bar, on my comments just to avoid those embarrassing typos.
As usual you’ve pretty much covered everything. Thanks for the timely post. Emma
thanks for sharing the cool tips i will make sure i fllow these 10 tips carefully.
I’m always late to the party when #7 is concerned. Being central time, I suppose I have a slight disadvantage with those easterners. Regardless, when someone always comments first or “owns” the comment portion of a blog it can become slightly frustrating – but in the end I’m generally happy as long as they genuinely have something to add to the conversation.
I am totally guilty of number nine. I don’t do it for the SEO, because no one is searching for that word (unless they are specifically looking for me). However, I have found that it seems to help people remember my blog, which may contribute to returning visitors. That said, “Bloggrrl” is a people name and people can find my real name (MIchelle) on my site. Overall, I agree with your point, even though I figure I’m getting off on a bit of technicality. ;-)
I’m having fun with the comments right now, so I don’t have a comment policy. I do moderate, but I’m not sure why, because I have let every comment that wasn’t link-filled spam through. I have a couple of haters, but at the moment, I am flattered that someone thinks lowly enough of my opinion to leave a comment. I’m weird like that.
~Michelle
Bloggrrl – see with you I don’t feel it as much as with others because you use a name that is kind of like your online identity. It’s like Clark Kent commenting as Superman ;-)
All very good and valid points in the article. I never really thought of commenting as a way to build traffic to my own blog, but more of a way to let the blogs I read know that I am reading. I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t love getting comments. :)
What a perfect article! My web 2.0 specialist recommended, actually insisted that I start commenting on blogs that have similar content to my website. I just started to give it a try and although I’m pretty competent in most areas, I had to ask her what was and was not appropriate in a comment… you covered all my questions! Thank you!
oh-audrey.com
Be brave, be inspiring, try something new…
When time permits, I like to search out new blogs, and leave comments (always positive, of course), and encourage the newbie bloggers to keep “plugging along”.
Over five months ago, when I started blogging, my first comment came just days after I published my first article. That comment “made my day” and inspired me to keep posting. I knew, for certain, that what I had written was being read, and it had an impact on at least one person.
Since it takes time for “newbies” to learn proper blogging/commenting etiquette, I say,
“cut the newbies some slack”, if they break the (unwritten) blogging rules.
BTW: Darren, your new theme is awesome.
I hadn’t visited you for a couple of weeks, and thought I was on the wrong site, as I was so used to the “orange”.
thanks Barbara. I agree with you on the newbies comment too – it’s easy for old timer bloggers to forget what it’s like starting out.
I once read a blog entry that was GREAT. I really wanted to comment because the writer had written an exceptional entry that was very helpful to me. There were already 383 comments. I thought ‘boy, lots of folks benefited, not just me.’ Then I started scrolling down to read the comments… more than half said something like ‘thanks’ and was signed Valium or Celebrex or some other search term. I ended up not telling that author how much difference he’d made to me personally, but I learned something that day-moderate my comments. I don’t think any of this helped me as a reader nor that blogger.
Blogging is such a great way to promote your site. I read an article that stated simply that a blog is the “propeller” for other websites (this was in reference to eCommerce sites for the most part).
My biggest pet peeve is definitely #3. “Nice post.” or “Thanks for the input.” Usually I just delete these. Is this wrong? or is this spam?
Another that relates to #2 and #10 is leaving links to sites that have absolutely nothing to do with the industry you are writing about. Usually when I take the time to comment on other peoples blogs, it’s because they are writing about things I am interested in and write about as well. Linking to a site about pet supplies or health products, is that good link building strategy? I don’t think so but what do you all think?
Hi Barbara just read your comment… and really felt nice… that old bloggers do think about encouraging new bloggers… as m new in the blogging world… some of these tips are certainly going to help me… what i liked about this post… “Dominating Comment Threads “… on various big blogs i have noticed people talking any and everything without adding much values and which certainly irritates us… as learners.. coz we are basically trying to learn something new from experienced people and get to read some annoying comments… and yes not to forget the race of being first to comment… sometimes within a blink of an eye you have 2 to 3 comments added… and few of them have nothing much to add… coz actually they have just posted a comment without reading through the article… which certainly makes the comment quiet irrelevant… but sometimes it’s fun to see how people are actually rushing to be the first one to post :)
I would definitely agree with all of these except I don’t really care what people call themselves. Since my blog is a humor blog, some people call themselves rather funny things, and some people call themselves by the name of their blog.
I had one post recently on the topic of Jury Duty, and a guy signed himself ‘Judge Dredd’. LOL. But I know that isn’t really what you were talking about.
Nice post again… I agree with your view points especially excessive self linking one…(though my blog is a small one and covers a niche area in S/W testing) …I also tend to get annoyed if a see people leaving their blog link and not adding value to the post .
It seems like common sense especially where you say longer comments that actually add to the discussion count more than one line comments. One line comments may be suitable sometimes but you are right for the most part you didn’t add anything to the discussion and are wasting your time.
It’s the same thing as people posting just to post. Writing content on their blog just to write content so they have more pages indexed in Google. If you are not writing quality posts/comments you are probably wasting your time as well as your readers.
I hope this was a quality comment :P
comments should be always relevent and not to demean or hurt anyone.Positivre comments leave positive impact.
comments should be always relevent and not to demean or hurt anyone.Positive comments leave positive impact.
Thnx. This was a bit of an eye opener 2 me. Building a brand is hard work, so we should b careful with what we do while representing it.
I would like 2 ask ur openion about using the no-follow tag n comments, good idea or not?
Also, this is the 1st time i learn about them & i’m not so happy. Cuz f somebody is using no-follows he should cummunicate it 2 the audiance & i’ve yet 2 c that practice.
F u did’t have time 2 repond 2 this, i won’t hold it against u :)
I like how all of these comments follow the above rules really well :) I hope, including this one.
What do you do if there are oodles of comments before yours?
There are about 90 for this informative post already. Even if you have something brilliant to say, what are the chances of being read?
When there are many comments already, not commenting seems best.
I am totally annoyed with #9. It shows that the person leaving the comment is probably only doing so because of the link and exposure.
I have had an experience with #6: Anonymous flaming. I reviewed Malaysia’s two blog ad aggregators a few months back. They were new and were competing against each other. I’ve heard rumors that one of the companies were flaming the other company anonymously (with different nicknames) in other blogs but of course, there were no proof.
Then, the anonymous flaming started in my blog. I recorded a video with the proof but was later shrugged off by the villain claiming that it could be someone else spoofing their IPs. However, it did not end right there. The company continued to flame the other anonymously in my blog using different nicknames. There were also some occasions where he “anonymously” defended his company in my blog when there were negative comments.
I waited patiently and gathered even more evidence to proof that it was him all this while. I wrote a few posts back-to-back exposing his dirty tactics. He has kept away from my blog ever since. It’s a real shame that some companies have to resort to such business tactics. He has lost all credibility in my sight.
“One or two-word comments.” I totally agree with you on this one. A law should be passed banning these kinds of comments. I mean you read a 250-word blog post and all you could say is “nice post”. It’s just unacceptable. Gross, actually.
The one or two word comments are what really get me. It makes me mad to see people doing it on blogs other than my own even. I just feel that if you don’t have anything useful to add to the conversation, fine, but don’t leave a comment that says “Nice post” just get the link back or whatever.
I admit that I have left comments before without reading the whole post. Luckily I’ve not made an idiot out of myself by saying something completely unrelated to the article. Sometimes I see the title and read the first paragraph and I can’t get down to the comment form quick enough to share my thoughts. lol
One/two word comments can make sense, if a question was asked. As always, I suppose the comment has to add value, and value is relative.
I just adore those creative drive-by comments that are like horoscopes… they find a way to make sense no matter where they are placed. Clever, clever, clever and spam. Sometimes they are so good I want to leave them up, but I realize that without additional commentary they simply add no value.
Damn I didn’t post first!! How many rules have I broke here!!! I should have read the post then i’d know! :)
Your points should be called the netiquitte of comment posting.
Ray
I thought this was a really good list, although I admit it isn’t something I’ve given a whole lot of thought to. I have always considered commenting on blogs to be something that is a bit like walking into a group that has a conversation already going. I would use the same etiquette.
Don’t interrupt with stupid comments;
Figure out what they’re discussing before chiming in;
Be helpful, not hurtful;
Etc. etc.
It’s common sense and common courtesy mostly. That said, what annoys me about some bloggers, to take the flip side, is when they turn off the link feature in the commenter’s name so that no one gets a link back. That annoys me because I think that if I am helping the blogger out by providing useful and valuable comments (ie content) then the least they can do for me is to give me that link. As long as I’m not abusing the commenter’s privilege then I consider it an even exchange. Otherwise, I agree with the signature link – too much can be really annoying.
A very useful list Darren, thanks! Thankfully so far I haven’t had any problems with flaming, personal attacks or intense discussions on my blog. Knock on wood :-)
I believe that links shouldn’t appear in comments, outside of the space provided for when the comment is entered. If what you say is pithy enough, that should be enough to peak someone’s interest enough to see what your website is about.