You’ve probably heard the age old ‘how to find readers for your blog’ advice that goes:
“Leave Comments on Other Blogs”
It was one of the first tips that I was given on how to find new readers for my blog five years ago and it’s one of the first pieces of advice that I hear most people giving still today. It’s so common in fact that I think that many of us gloss over it looking for a ‘sexier’ way to drive readers to our blogs.
But today as I analyzed the post featured in this video I saw something that drummed home to me the power of leaving relevant comments on blogs as a way of driving traffic.
The tool I’m using in this screencast video is CrazyEgg – a click tracking tool that creates a heatmap of where readers click when on your blog.
I do want to emphasize again – that the strategy of building traffic to your blog by leaving comments on other blogs only works when your comments ad value and are relevant to the post. If you don’t adhere to this you’ll just end up hurting your reputation.
See the Full Sized Video at YouTube, MySpace, Blip.tv and Viddler.
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Never thought it would make such a difference.
Also, it’s quite sad that the link in the commenters name gets barely clicked on.
My conclusion: Unless you can add value to the post/conversation by linking to either your blog or another blog, it’s almost not worth the time and effort, if it’s a part of your strategy to get traffic by leaving comments.
I seriously need 3 of me
1 for blogging
1 for eMarketing (commenting, social-bookmarketing, adWords, etc…)
1 for research & learning (reading problogger, yaro’s blog, etc…)
I’ve actually noticed that leaving comments on other blogs have made a huge difference. High profile blogs have contributed a good amount of traffic to my blog just because of comments I would leave. Now, whether it’s because they found the information I left insightful or because they wanted to see who this crazy obnoxious snob is… that I don’t know. Just kidding… sort of!
Great post – thanks!
Great post, thanks a bunch.
If you want to save money (even though Crazy Egg is fairly cheap), you might want to check out: ClickHeat also: http://www.labsmedia.com/clickheat/index.html
Regards
Thomas Clausen
http://www.trendminers.dk
A simple “Great post mate.” adds nothing to the discussion and simple clutters the comments.
If allowed, I often try to link to my blog with some valuable information. This has worked wonders, especially when its a high traffic blog.
Words of wisdom again Darren!
CK
First off, great tool for checking click through rates.
I’m new to blogging, after mainly doing websites in the past. I approach blogging as a community. So, posting on other people’s relevant blogs is part of my strategy (like I’m doing now).
I liked you take on “relevance”… which I believe to be key. So, if I had my blog up and running longer, I would link to a relevant post that continues or adds to the conversation instead of to the main page of the blog.
I also use a tool that notifies me when my favorite blogs make a post so I can be one of the first to post a comment on posts I find valuable. Obviously, I’ve put your blog in the tool! Keep up the good work.
Excellent tutorial. I can really tell that you have been getting something out of your video classes.
Also, Google Analytics has a site overlay feature that that shows the amount of clicks on a link while displaying your website in the background.
Thanks again.
Thanks for the mention by the way Darren! That post still drives a lot of traffic to my EVE Online blog!
CK
Darren, what percentage of your traffic comes from people clicking the link above your comment?
I write comments on this blog, and others, almost daily. Yet they drive less than 1% of my traffic. Looking strictly at the numbers, I have to conclude my commenting time would be better spent on other things (such as writing new blog posts).
I thought that the commenter’s name was the one clicked most. Either way, it’s still amazing to see how many people have clicked the links inside the comments, especially the first one.
I agree with Chris. It’s good to comment on other blogs and link to relevant articles – I do it daily – but I’m not convinced that you can build significant traffic unless you get lucky.
It’s more helpful as a community presence / brand building technique, isn’t it?
This is probably the number one that I do in terms of SEO for my blog along with free directories. I won’t say I get a ton of traffic but I have increased page rank on my homepage which is a t shirt website. My blog is a new add on to the main e commerce part but I believe the links I picked up from do follow comments were the only reason that I am ranked at all right now.
I once left a relevant link to my own blog here, and I also did it once over at Unclutterer. It does work, but I felt a little uncomfortable linking to myself, even though I KNEW it was relevant and added to the discussion.
Very interesting, I always link my name at the bottom of comments so as that people who are interested in what I say can find a bit more about me and what I do at my blog. I have never used heat maps to look at this but I can see this on my referral statistics very clearly.
Thanks Allot
Andrew (Now is no exception!)
Great post! I guess I’d be remiss to not comment that, eh? Well written and forever bookmarked.
Great info, Darren. I’ve just recently gotten into blogging and have a lot to learn. This idea is the one you hear most people tell you to do, but I have often be suspicious of just how well it works and if it is worth the time. I understand that there is no sure-fire way to gain many visitors (especially quickly), but I do suspect there are certain ideas that those who have created very successful sites are not sharing with others. Completely understandable, but it doesn’t help those that might actually have a good site they are trying to get the word out about.
Anyway, great post. I really enjoy the valuable info you share here.
Thanks.
Steve
Great post. I’m forwarding to a lot of the business book authors we work with who say to me – “I’ve posted a couple of things on my blog – now what???”
Most of my traffic comes from links I’ve left in comments. I try never to be gratuitous about it, hoping that I’m adding value or interest to the conversation.
Conversely, I click on a lot of comment links; that’s how I’ve found most of the blogs I read regularly.
I would say up to 3% comes from sites that I left a comment on, which in numbers terms is around 600 hits a day.
When someone adds value to the post, I usually check out their site to see what I can learn from them.
*resists the urge to add a link* ;)
I never considered using crazyegg to check for how often people click through the comments on my blog. Right now I use google analytics, which also has a site overlay feature.
Fortunately I have realized the value of commenting on other people’s blogs, especially when I am able to link relevant content.
Thanks for the great video post.
By the way, I was just curious if you could link me to the blogging software that you use to create these on your Mac? I recently upgraded my Macbook and I was hoping to do some video editing on it. (It now has a 250 GB hard drive and 4 GB RAM)
Crazy Egg looks like a very useful tool for tracking where visitors are clicking on your blog. Looks like it can make a big difference and should really influence how and where we place our links. I’m going to test it out on my blog.
Thanks for sharing! I still get people saying the only marketing they ever did for their blog was simply leaving comments on other blogs, and perhaps a little social networking.
In the end, looking at the heatmaps definitely does help! It always makes sense to see where your users are clicking to adjust the site likewise.
In the very short time I’ve had my blog, I have noticed that leaving comments on other blogs gets you some traffic. I agree the comments have to be meaningful or worthwhile for anyont to pick up on you comments.
Thanks again for all your great information.
Thanks for the insight concerning Crazy Egg. I remember some time ago when you shared this tool but never signed up. I will not make the same mistake twice.
Does anyone know of other similar tools out there? I found a service called StatCounter but nothing that really catches the eye, especially like Crazy Egg.
Hey Thomas, Thanks for sharing about click heat, looks good.
Hi Darren,
Great post. On a side note I just wanted to let you know I bought your book and I received it today so I am extremely excited to check it out! I will let you know what I think when I am done, but for all you Problogger fans out there, I briefly glanced through the pages and it is full of content! I am sure it will exceed my expectations and I hope everyone else is able to get a copy.
Best
Lewis
Thanks for the Crazy Egg. Traffic or not, add value or not, one should thank for the effort of providing info for free, particularly on a business blog like Pune real estate market news…kidding…no!
You are so right … I have noticed that leaving relevant comments on your blog along with some others have started driving traffic to my blog. The video is awsome too. Thanks, for sharing.
i completely agree. adding value with comments provides readers with even more wisdom!! that’s one of the main benefits of blogging in my opinion. thanks for all the wisdom….
Problogger is by far the very best place to leave meaningful comments that will translate into people clicking through to your blog.
I have commented daily on lots of popular blogs. I mean everyday for months. I am able to track where my readers come from through Google and a few other programs.
High numbers of readers on a blog does not translate into clicks from the comment section that will bring people to your blog.
Problogger is one of the blogs that people do click back to your blog from. Why? I think it is because the people who tend to read Problogger tend also to be more inquisitive, mature, and intelligent.
I’m not saying that to kiss Darren’s A**. I’m saying it becasue I think it is true. Other blogs have a high amount of traffic, but that traffic is made up of people that really don’t bother reading the post. They at best skim and at worst pick out just one or two keywords that strike them.
There are some popular blogs that I don’t read because they are just too wordy. By the time you get to the comments you want to take a nap.
Darren is one of the few bloggers that has the ability to make his point with the right amount of words…not to many..not to few.
Live From Las Vegas
The Masked Millionaire
The thing that surprised me most about the video was how certain comments further down the comment list received even more clicks than those at the top. I always thought that the number would diminish. Great comments=more clicks.
Billy
I have heard of this tactic often, I have even suggested it myself but wondered of its effectiveness.
Thanks for sharing this little piece on the subject.
Great stuff; I too, have underestimated the power in leaving comments on other blogs. I’ve finally gotten around to setting up my newsreader for blogs I enjoy-the same reader I’ve been advocating that my readers subscribe to. It’s so efficient to pop over to some great posts and drop a comment and I’m going to make more of an effort to do so now.
Just this week, I finally got around to doing a weekly roundup of my favorite articles from around the blogosphere. I think I’ve now matured into diversifying efforts away from just posting, and I’m now sharing my favs with readers at the expense of exporting traffic. Building legitimacy and recipricol good will amongst peers and readers isn’t a bad thing. Darren’s blog has been instrumental; I’m reading the book tonight actually! Anyway; perhaps this will translate into some hits, perhaps not. But I have one extra tool in the arsenal now that continues to keep me interested and motivated in blogging, branding and generating content.
Thanks!
Dan at EverydayFinance.
A great video Darren, I believe that leaving comments on blogs is an absolute must. If you have an opportunity to provide extra value to a conversation then leave a comment.
On the other hand if you just say things like nice post. I agree etc then this type of comment ads absolutely no value and you wont get any traffic from the comment.
Comments are a great source of driving traffic to your website and should be used in conjunction with SEO techniques to drive traffic to your site. SEO techniques alone will work but if you want more diversity then you need to use other methods to drive traffic your way.
For years, I typically frequented blogs that were either bookmarked on my browser or linked on my blogroll. But I couldn’t keep track of new posts because I manually visited each site.
No longer. Last week, I looked around at news readers and installed the Windows desktop version of NewsGator FeedDemon.
I am still figuring out how the reader operates, but with about 20 subscriptions so far, including ProBlogger, I can see snippets of new posts and click into those that appeal to me… and comment appropriately.
Commenting on popular blogs like ProBlogger can drive blogs like mine some traffic, A sort of Shame less Promotion !
Commenting on blogs is something I do daily, and have done it for a longer time.There are free softwares developed to find relevant blogs in your niche.Have you heard of commentkahuna? (commentkahuna.com)
I’ve always been lackluster about leaving comments. I believe that if you want to actually gain visitors from commentating, you have to get into some kind of routine, and post comments on a regular basis.
I have noticed that after posting a comment on certain sites, I can get an extra 5 to 10 visitors, and every so often, I’ll continue to keep receiving visitors from that comment for a while.
Great video! Whenever someone asks me what to do to get more reader I always tell them to comment on other blogs, that is what I do and I think everyone should do it. It’s amazing how much traffic you can get to your blog just by leaving good comments on others blogs.
While commenting on blogs is a great way to generate interest in your own blog, you do need to be selective on when and where you comment –
1) Comments must contain some ‘value’ for both the blog owner and the comment reader. In other words if the comment does not contribute to the discussion in some way, it will have a negative impact on your reputation.
2) Not all posts on a site should be commented on – pick and choose which posts you wish to spend time and effort writing a comment about – commenting on every single post can come across as being spam, rather than having something valuable to contribute – even when the comment may be on target and well written. If your name is the first or second commentor on every single post on a site, you start to come across as ‘the creepy guy’.
3) Not all blogs will result in well targeted visitors to your niche site, so be selective on the blogs you comment on, or if you want to participate on a blog that is off topic for your niche do so without linking to your blog.
4) Posting on a number of blogs can become a drain on resource – is an hour spent commenting on a couple of blogs worth the increase in visitors that could have been gained by using that hour to write an informative article, and which one will result in the best long term gain?
Like alot of people who read PB, I participate in a number of blogs and websites across a wide spectrum of topics. Those related to one of my sites will generally have a site linked via my name, any that have no relevance are done without a site link.
Thank you, so much, for helping newbies like me to better understand how to blog, when to blog and how to promote it. You’ve been a great help.
Great illustration of the concept Darren – Crazy Egg rocks!!
I’ve looked at commenting on other blogs as kind of a grass roots style of marketing your blog or site for awhile now, but it’s nice to have the proof laid out for you. Very swell.
just go to technorati and be first to ccomment on big blogs drop link and you’ll get traffic regardless of scope
but it wont work on site that moderate comments such as huffington post or engadget
I’m not convinced that posting comments has any real SEO benefits (at least not on the major blogs) as some have suggested. The reason is, most major blogs have the “no follow” attribute aytomatically included to every link in the comments section making Google at least, ignore it for ranking purposes.
Thanks for the information on this one. I have already checked out crazy egg and look forward to trying out the free version (for now). We’ll see how it works.
Hi Darren,
This is amazing, I am using blog commenting as an extra tool, I know it works but never know how powerful it is.
Thanks for the video, you are doing a great job.
Tanny
Internet home business ideas
Perhaps commenting is not always top of mind because it’s slow growth. I’ve talked to new bloggers that want instant growth and try to find a tool to get them there. Building a community by commenting takes time to do it well.
I’ve been using the site overlay from Google Analytics which works ok but is buggy sometimes. These site maps are very revealing and often surprising. Looking at the overlays made me change a few things around on my blogs. I will check Crazy Egg out. It sounds like it is much more in depth and flexible and I see there is a free version that will suit me fine.
This is amazing I am looking for any advantage to get my blog up and running. This will truly help the cause.
Thanks Steve Scor
I totally agree with this article. The only issue is that it is very hard to follow and read other people’s blog on a daily base. I mean. I am pretty busy following my blog, plus i have to read other blogs related to my niche, i have to write posts for my blog and i have to write comments in other blogs? In my opinion this trick can work if you have a blog which gets around 100 visitors a day and you update it once in a while. For a blog like mine which is updated every week with two or more posts, this is pretty difficult. if i want to get more visitors i prefer paying $150 a month and have my blog advertised on yahoo…that’s a better strategy…if you have buck of course
In my niche (productivity, creativity, thinking operations, etc.), I think that commenting has more value for building authority and recognition than by click through traffic. Backlinks and clickthroughs aren’t a priority to me. I work from the premise that if I leave relevant, informative comments on the site that I read, I’ll eventually build mindshare in my niche. That said, I certainly can’t prove that it’s been the case to date.