People say that to make an impression, you'll have to open your mouth. While that is physically impossible in the virtual world of the Internet, saying your piece is easy. Thanks to forums and discussion boards, you can leave a comment or start a discussion thread about virtually any topic from anywhere in the world. And yes, leaving comments on relevant blogs and forums can drive traffic to your blog and increase your readership.
Leaving effective comments.
You're probably old enough to know that not every comment that gets thrown into an opportunity for interaction creates the desired effect, much less become appreciated by those who hear or read it. If you don't use this technique carefully, you will either waste the opportunity or simply allow it to create the wrong impression.
Here are ways you can do it effectively:
Choose the sites you leave comments on carefully.
Ever wondered why Tiger Woods is so good? Because he chooses his battles well. You'll never find Tiger swinging his club at a lesser known tournament. Not because he's a snob but because he focuses on the games that truly matter, and being on equal ground with other greats. Keep this in mind before you leave comments on a website. Just because you have the burning need to drive traffic to your blog doesn't mean you can just drop by a site, any site, and write there. This is considered as spam, and the blog or forum owner will just delete your comment or post.
Choose the sites and blogs whose forums you participate with carefully. Find out if the site deals with a topic or subject related to your own blog. Practice only purposeful commenting. The kind where you leave only well-crafted comments on sites that will help build the buzz about your blog. If the site is completely irrelevant but you have the urge to leave a comment, do so only during your spare time. Otherwise, focus your energies only on more productive activities.
Know what you're saying.
Before you leave a comment with the purpose of driving traffic to your blog, at least write one that is useful. Your goal is to be noticed AND respected for your opinions so leaving useless and dead end comments such as 'Cool!' and 'Way to go!' just won't cut it. If this is the best you can do, forget about leaving comments right now and focus on other strategies to drive traffic to your blog. Better avoid this technique than be embarrassed or be viewed as lame or mediocre. But if you can write and have something meaningful to say, by all means, do so.
With every comment you post, make sure you keep it short, concise, to the point and useful. Talk about relevant topics and avoid those that will do nothing for your purpose. Avoid strong language. Of course, some sites will probably allow you to leave comments that are strongly worded or at least camouflaged as symbols such as !#$%.
The most important thing of all to remember when posting comments with the intention of driving traffic to your blog, is put yourself in the position of the blog or forum owner. If it was your blog, or forum, would you find this comment useful and would you allow it to be posted on your blog. Most quality forums and blog comments are all moderated so if its low quality, it will be deleted.
Always remember quality comments = quality traffic.
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1 comment:
Nice analogy with Tiger Woods. I agree that too many people just hop around from blog to blog and post something that isn't even relevant to the post itself. "Great!" and "Awesome Post!" don't mean anything, and surprisingly that's a large majority of the comments you'll find around the net. I use the Akismet plug in to ensure that I don't get spam, but when comments that aren't technically spam get through, but only say "cool post, I like this blog", I still mark them as spam.
Anyways, you write pretty well, nothing amazing, but certainly above the norm. You should look into getting your own domain name and hosting, articles like this should have far more then 0 comments. You're basically getting screwed out of the traffic and potential money you want because you use blogger rather than your own url in which you can use SEO to help yourself out. I promise this wasn't my original reason for coming here haha, but if you do decide to get your own hosting, look into host gator, I get a bit of cash for each person who signs up through my link, and you could use hosting, only reason I share it now. Good luck with the writing either way, hope to see you have your own site up eventually.
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