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?
Thanks. These are some really good tips. I have 4 blogger blogs now and I put a link and a post on the one that I thought was most relevant. This is great.
I will usually delete comments which fall into these categories:
1) Spam (of course)
2) When it’s obvious they haven’t read the post
3) When all it says is “Great Post” or something similar
4) When it says “Interesting, please visit me at MyGreatBlog.com” or something similar
I like your blog… It adds value to the blogging community. This post had quite a few nuggets of wisdom I agreed with.
One impt thing that everyone should remember is that if the comment is not well received by the blog editor, the editor will not publish it. Plain and simple. I am always amazed at how some comments get included on a blog that should have been deleted. The Editor should just hit delete when looking at whether to allow the comment on the blog.
Thanks for taking the time to share blog commenting etiquette.
Juliet Sallette
I also find that some regular commentators who tried to be funny with their comments, often end up as irritating.
Here’s an interesting issue – commenting on a post that you’ve read but in a comment stream you simply don’t have the time to get through. Take this post for example – over 100 comments by the time I read it, something I really want to comment on, but by adding to the conversation without really knowing where I stand in it, I risk looking like Zach Braff’s JD on Scrubs waking up from a daydream to say something either completely out of context or something that’s already been said!
I know you touched on this in one of your points, but I’m curious about your take on this issue a little more in depth.
I’m new to the blogs world. Your post really help me.
I’ll keep the list in mind. Thank you Darren….
Thanks, Darren, this is really helpful to me! To your statement that comments can’t be edited or rescinded, I’d add that people should remember that anything posted on the Net will still be there when your great-great-grandchildren are landing on another planet. And although I admit that I didn’t read all 106 comments, I’m still going to leave mine.
4. Not Reading Posts Before Commenting, hahaha, this just happened in a comment (no, I’m not saying which one) that a blogger used as an example of something to make his point. It was funny because it was the same point that I made at the end of my post.
I know it wasn’t meant to be, but I found the example in 8. Dominating Comment Threads hilarious. No insult to the quality of your blog and the conversations it engenders, but maybe your commenter should get more of a life, 50-100 responses a week doesn’t leave time for much else:)
And I totally agree with the proofing/spell-check comments, not bothering strikes me as pretty disrespectful of other readers.
Two words: Great list. Two more: benchmark post.
About one or two word comments, I try to make a practice of checking the url for the many “nice”, “good blog”, “good post” comments I get. They are invariably either not blogs but advertisement-crammed sites or landing pages, or they are advertisement-crammed sites that are technically blogs in their structure but show no signs of human habitation. I can’t recall a single such “comment” which wasn’t spam. I delete them.
You know one of the most wonderful thing about this post (while great in it’s own rights) are the fantastic comments everyone has left. *chuckles* Seems posting about the dos and don’ts of commenting improves comments, at least on the post about them.
I’m still in the ‘very scared to comment’ section of new bloggers. I’m so afraid to say something stupid or come off concieted or damage my reputation that more often than not I refrain from commenting at all. I’m about to hunt through your archives to see if you have an entry about dealing with that.
Another query I have is: should there be a deadline on commenting? I often read back through archives that can be years old but think it’s just too late to drag the rivers of that entry by commenting now. If a post is three or four years (months? days?) old should we avoid commenting or do fellow bloggers appreciate knowing their older entries are still being appreciated today?
We surelt will be thinking twice or probably three times, before commenting – like this one!!!
I have commented on your blog more than any other. I find the information you provide here very informative, especially for someone starting out in the blogging world, such as myself.
If someone has something relevant to say they why not let them have a bone and display their link.
[…]Agree Dood.Positive comments always have positive impact.Comments should be always relevent.
Alex Bell[…]
I started blogging early last month and I noticed that when I commented on a blog site that had a blog that related to my site I got hits everytime (not too many I am sorry to say LOL but I am learning and the main think I am enjoying the process.
Regards to all,
Diane
Im afraid to comment LOL!!!
My personal comment policy on all of my blogs is that a comment has to pay its way. It has to add more value for me than it takes up space I’ve paid for. If it doesn’t, I’ll toss it to the wring wraith of Colcannon..
After running a couple of forums and getting “nice post” porno link spammed, I really think nothing of starting an editing session with an energetic round of deletions and blacklistings. Depending on my mood, there probably won’t be any such thing as a ‘second chance’.
It seems to me that a little bit of basic common sense would correct nearly all of the problems you mentioned. In other words, just forget that you are commenting for the purpose of drawing traffic to your blog. (For that matter, if that’s the only reason you’re commenting, you’re almost certainly going to end up annoying someone.)
Just enjoy the sense of community and comaraderie and, when you have something to say, say it in whatever manner is natural and reasonable. When you don’t have anything to say, keep your mouth shut and your fingers off the keyboard. ;)
I always use site name instead of real name, some use nicknames, but that doesn’t makes them spammers, right? :-)
Or if blog is nickname.com and dude is posting using his nick, would you call it “keyword stuffing”? So he would rank better for his own nickname?
I would add to your list that people should read posts before commenting. I have noticed that some bloggers are too quick to pull the trigger. Haha, only kidding. :)
Seriously though, the list you provided is good, sound advice and reflects the good basic tenets of life to live by – that is, to be kind and sincere to others and being sure to do everything in moderation.
I’ll comment in reply if you put it in another blog post because I value my commenting and comment style way too much to be lost down here on comment 120.
In short, I think the article you just wrote is misleading, at best, and dangerous, at worst.
I hope you have the courage and adventurousness to take me up on this offer. Say so and I’ll write a mid-sized reply on the real dangers of improper commenting.
If I don’t hear from you, I’ll do it anyways on my blog.
Sam
I’m pretty new to blogging -and commenting on other blogs – but I’m an avid blog READER. Personally I’m starting to post comments in order to network with other bloggers, but I realize that posting the name of my site could be misleading. Yes, of course I’d like you to visit (and comment), but some of us “newbies” aren’t all out to just build a name for ourselves – community and comaraderie – as mentioned by “Rachel R,” is most important to many of us. Since I am guessing that many blog commenters are also bloggers (not “just” readers) then this attempt to reach out to each other should be expected. BTW, I feel compelled to point out that #10 (lack of value) could be fairly subjective.
Great post and topic darren, please visit my . . . no I would never do that!
Seriously, it’s like content. The more natural your comment is the more likely it will be acceptable to others.
Be yourself. Be friendly. Be honest. It doesn’t just apply to blog comments either.
If you really don’t have anything new to add to the conversation, don’t just post a comment because you feel you need to or because you want a link back.
Find other posts on the same blog that you do have something valuable to contribute. You’ll still get the link back and you will feel like you are really making a contribution.
I know this post was about commenting on blogs, but as irritating as some people can be when commenting, it’s just as irritable to see that their are bloggers out there who take it personally when someone comments and adds a link back to their website.
It’s as if the blogger believes they and their blog are too important to allow this. I run a lot of blogs and if anyone posts a comment that is relevant to the post and isn’t flaming anyone, (well they can flame me if they want as long as they can take it as well as dish it out. :)), then they are welcome to add a link back to their own blogs or website within reason.
Within reason is one link, maybe two if the link is relevant.
Ok, my long two cents worth is done.
Another really good piece of information, i really could do with some of this stuffon my site http://money-makingtruth.com/ – IF i did nt leave links like this how else would I be able to get backlinks pointing at my site? There is a lot of good info on this site and I will be a regular reader going forward
I agree with all 10 reasons.
About the “Keywords” as name, these 2 ways work?
1. Include the Keywords as your Name, but leave signature with your own name.
2. Leave your real name in the box, and leave a keyword link n the signature.
I hope to see some kind insight toward my question.
On the excessive links things, it’s not cool. You look like a greedy pig if you bloat your own comment with 3 links! It’s ok once in a while to leave a relevant link in your comment.
One or two word comments are ok but not if it’s becoming a problem for your readers. Sometimes I read a cool post and I just want to say “Hey, nice post!” because it really is a nice post. Sometimes you’re in a hurry or it’s late…ya know?
Not reading the post before commenting is like saying “Nice tie” to someone who isn’t wearing a tie. Delete comment in this case.
Anyone who personally attacks another reader should be first humiliated and then blacklisted!
There’s nothing wrong with always being first to comment. People like blogging and commenting.
I think keyword stuffed names are fine. Look, we all know what we need to do to improve our rankings and if that’s effective then so what? Take it easy and don’t let those things get you upset.
Not adding value to comments is “iffy” . Suppose you simply ask a question, a one sentence question, that you really want to know the answer to? That’s ok right?
I don’t think that any of these things will reflect poorly on you because not everybody gives a damn about all these picky little things. Some do but alot of people just don’t care or wont remember.
I am glad to agree to all points.
As you rightly pointed out commenting is not for just getting a link alone at least but also to add some points missed in the post or expressing point of view of reader to the author of post.
That was really well done darren. I agree on almost everything you said. All 10 points are valid. I manage about 60 blogs now so I see about everything you can imagine on comments.
I will delete comments that are obviously only made to get a link back to the commenter’s website. Intent is what matters in my opinion, so I don’t mind short comments that just say great post or I disagree, etc. At least their intent is to comment on the blog post.
I don’t think people who make those short posts expect to get traffic from making the comment and they probably don’t.
Flamers should just remeber if you don’t have anything nice to say it’s better not to say anything. That doesn’t mean you can’t disagree with the blogger or another commenter. There is just better ways to do that than getting personal.
I’ve done it. We all have. Sometimes you’re just in a bad mood. It’s more how you handle an argument after it starts than whether it started or not. I mean you can cool the other person off just as easy as you made them mad in the first place.
One thing you have right is that a blog is a community. So is the Internet overall. The Internet makes it a small world. You don’t remain anonymous for long and thinking that you can just say anything you want and it won’t come back to haunt you is just naive.
Anyway, I don’t comment here all that often, but I do read your blog and really liked where you went with this post.
Darren – this is really good advise and is worth revisiting. I was glad I did.
This was one of the most helpful posts for me, because I still trying to figure out net-tiket around here. Thank you for clarifying it Darren.
Thanks for the informative list.
#6: IP Address, doesn’t really apply to most Asean (formerly: South-East Asia) countries, because here ISPs give dynamic IPs unless you buy the expensive static IP service.
I pay the price for being poor and having a dynamic IP. ^_^
Secondly, iCafes. It was soo funny when one blog owner contacted me and started accusing me of flaming and spamming and what not. Told this girl that it was my first time to visit her blog and the I commented right then and there.
Lengthy conversation… I ended it up.. “do you know that I when I posted on your blog I was in an iCafe and there are 2 other people reading your blog at that time? Because that’s how I discovered your blog, I saw their screens and found your post interesting.” She didn’t reply back.
My only tip to add. Don’t rely on IP Addresses. As a Forum Administrator since 1998 and a Blogger since 2004, I know first-hand how unrealiable IP Addresses are for Asean countries, especially here in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, VietNam, and Thailand.
Ban one IP address because of 1 person, you are banning your other 9 quality readers/commenters. Or judge one (like what the girl did to me), you’ll only make yourself look bad.
So anyway, sharing my experience. People like me pay the price for that “same IP = same person” formula.
Good post btw :D
I really enjoyed the information I obtained from reading this post – and will definately recommend it to the many people that consistently spam and bombard my websites via commenting.
One problem I find particularly annoying is when a webmaster will leave their link in the “Website” form field AND add a link to their website inside of their comment, after their signature/name. Isn’t it enough that the website owner has so graciously allowed their link to be listed once? How greedy can you get?
Once again, wonderful post – and thank you for the points you’ve included, which stir me to “rethink” my commenting policy amongst my own sites.
A really great post full of thought-provoking and useful information. I normally try to leave only relevant comments, despite the fact that it means taking much more time, and getting to less blogs, but in the end, I agree that quality is more important than quantity. Again, great post.
I usually sign my name this way because there are so many “Jane”s around, but it probably does annoy some people a little.
Maybe I should go back to being just plain Jane.
Or maybe I could change my posting name on my blog to “Plain Jane” and sign my name as such.
I want people to read my comments and say “oh, I know her!”.
Unfortunately, it sounds like they might be seeing my signature and thinking “oh, it’s *her*”…
Very well true @Jane of Kidzarama.
Well, owners and commenters alike should not take the list by the letter, as from the comments of the people here have shown, there are limitations to it.
I mentioned the IP Address issue already, Jane mentioned her’s (ie Common name). Who knows what else.
@Christian – there are commenters who leave signatures usually out of being respectful or professional (if you will). Either they respect you so much that they sign “officially” or they are professional people who almost always sigh anything that they write.
Don’t judge commenters just because they share similar names, or they leave signatures, or they use the same IP Address that the spammer and anonymous poster is using.
Don’t be like the webmistress I mentioned. Shameful accusations, jumping to conclusions.
previously i was thinking whether commenting on blog is a correct way cos every comment link is tagged with ‘nofollow’…
after reading this post…it gives no doubt for commenting lead traffic…
but for pagerank is still a hard work for new entry blog…
I don’t see what is wrong with putting the phrases you want to rank for in the name field. I think a lot of people don’t do it because they simply don’t understand how it can help them with their SEO efforts.
I don’t think it is spammy unless the keywords you choose are totally irrelevant to the content of your site. Responsible SEO will attempt to increase the SERP of a site for terms that are relevant to the content and/or offerings of the site in question.
just my 2 cents. (with my keywords as my name field of course ;-)
One thing I’ve noticed on this blog which I absolutely despise is people posting comments that do nothing and usually are nothing more than ‘great post Darren. I agree’.
I come to this blog to get helpful advice – I’m quite aware that most of what you say is well written, and I hate these useless additions from your readers that just fill up the comment column.
I read the comments because some viewers of this blog will probably have something very good to add… but it’s always drowned out by these sycophants.
I emailed you or left a comment about it (can’t remember which) but you never replied.
Darren, I’ve learned a great deal about what to do and what NOT to do. I like the way you explain the rationale and present bith sides.
A particular pet peev of mine would be the keyword stuffed names. They seem to go right along with the two word comments. lol
Amen…
I get tired of the commentors using software like Comment Kahuna to find no follow links, then leaving a single sentence comment.
It adds nothing to content. I give them three chances, then blacklist.
As for valid comments, I don’t mind keyword phrases in the name field. Although it does take away from the authenticity of the comment.
Keep up the good work.
Wow I really needed to read over this list again. So many things I am doing wrong! no wonder my traffic is sparse. #3 and #9 especially.
Discussions on ActiveRain a real estate network about whether leaving a comment saying “Great post thanks for sharing” is being polite or a nuisance. I took a poll and 2/3 of those who responded want a “GPTFS” comment, rather than nothing at all. In the conversation on the subject say they think they are being polite by saying “GPTFS” on other members blogs.
Most of the discussion of whether “GPTFS” is good or evil is members only… many of the 98,000 +/- members are new to blogging
Hello. This is my first visit to your blog. I came here via Blogging Basics 101. As a real amateur blogger, this post was quite eye-opening to me. It is causing me to look at commenting in a whole other way. That being said, a few things seem like they should be straightforward, but the fact that you have to say them means they really might not be.
I’ll be visiting again. Thanks. :)
Always Always Always, I make whatever I comment on relevant to the topic at hand.
I really never seen commenting as a way of promoting myself and its really futile for SEO spammers to abuse them.
At times I tend to get really passionate, be very careful not to lose your cool and personally attack.
That will damage your reputation no matter what.
i agree with your point..blogging is more like worshiping something..and for professional blogger like us..its very important that we maintain the antiquates of blogging.
Instead of getting quick success…….its highly advisable to..build up a quality matter blog and then try to publish your blog into public domain..!!!!
And do remember its a slow and gradual process..but the end result is always fruitful!!
http://virgintech.blogspot.com
Thank you so much for that list. Number 7 hits home with me. There is currently a growing blog in the horse world that as soon as a new post is put up all the readers (currently 20K+) try to be first. Often the the only word you will see is the word “first” on the first few comments. The comments are un-moderated and reading them is often more fun than the original post.
I am also finding out that with popular blogs, comments that cause flame wars often induce more readers. I guess it is more like the rubber neckers on the freeway at accident time.
This article help to solve some of my questions. Nice post.
Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger
Nice Article. Great job highlighting different mistakes done by people in the blogging industry.
One should think twice before submitting comment on article or a post, As these comments can increase or decrease your reputation in blogging and internet industry.
It will be good for everyone if the comments are written relevant to the article and not just for link building.
I end up deleting these kinds of comments. I want quality content and quality discussion on my website.
The advice I would give to anyone wanting to comment is to treat it like it was real life. In real life if you were to constantly dominate a conversation or always talk about self promotion people would visible get annoyed. Since you can’t see the person behind the comment people go wild and leave useless and unnecessary comments.
If you were trying to get a friend to help you out you wouldn’t spam them ten times a day asking them for that favor in real life. You would ask once and remind them once of the favor. After that you would completely let it go.
That and comment on blogs you actually enjoy. If you don’t like the site and you comment it will start to wear on you. Those negative emotions will be linked to the whole process of getting your website off the ground and you won’t enjoy it as much. Then those emotions will be picked up by your readers and it will have an adverse effect on what you originally set out to do.
People have strong intuitions about others. They can smell it when you aren’t being genuine or come with an agenda. Over the internet this intuition is watered down but over time you will be found out.
This is an excellent article. As a beginning blogger, I have read much about the “do’s” of gaining readers and traffic, but this was the first that really pointed out how being too aggressive can hurt your readership and turn people off.
Thanks!