Comments can help increase blog traffic.
Simple.
You write a comment on a blog. Your comments don’t take much thought or time. Perhaps you write them routinely.
It’s actually gracious of you to write the blogger.
What if I told you by simply tweaking the content of your comments, you could increase traffic to your own blog?
The primary reason readers state for not commenting on a blog is lack of time. However, by saving yourself the small amount of time it takes to comment on a blog post, you could be costing yourself the large amount of time it takes you to grow your readership.
There is an expression that goes, “Don’t be penny-wise and pound foolish.” In other words, don’t sacrifice your long-term goal of growing traffic for your short-term goal of saving time.
Reasons to Comment
1. By commenting, you are building a relationship with the blogger. This is important because they may keep your writing in mind when looking for a post to reblog. This would lead to more eyes on your blog, and more potential traffic for you.
2. Other readers will see your comments. If they find your comments insightful, they will have motivation to come to your blog to see what else you’ve written that intrigues them.
How to Comment
What to Do
It is very polite of you to thank the blogger. That said, if you are open to using comments as a way of growing blog traffic in addition to being courteous, there is a strategy involved to commenting.
1. Comment first. If you are the first commenter, all the commenters after you will have to skim past your comment, and they will see what you’ve written.
I have written about the shot-gun effect in blogging. You are trying to increase the probability of traffic growth. By commenting first, everyone who comments after you has seen your comment. On big blogs with a massive amount of followers, that’s a lot of people.
I have written often about Jason Cushman. He often has more than 4,000 comments on one post. Rounding down, if he only had 4,000 comments, and I was the first commenter, 3,999 other people would see my comment.
In order to try to ensure you are the first commenter, subscribe to their blog. Ideally, this should be a big blog with more followers than you have. The more followers they have, the greater the chance people will find your comments insightful enough to check out your blog.
2. Repeat the blogger’s main point. It shows them you read, and understood, their post.
3. Then, make a comment that adds a new perspective on the topic.
This could entail an anecdote. Perhaps the host will ask you to guest blog about your story or additional perspective on the topic.
Writing on their site will enhance your visibility on a blog with a large amount of readers.
If the host chooses to share your story or perspective, they might link back to your site. This will enhance the number of outbound links coming into your site which is helpful for search engine optimization.
Write with conviction. This will tell their readers that you are a passionate writer, someone whose blog will be interesting to read.
4. Revise your About page. If this strategy works, you can expect new visitors to your site. The first place they will check out to determine if they want to follow your blog is your About page.
What NOT to Do
In the comments section, do not write that the blogger is wrong. You don’t want to embarrass the host blogger in public.
There is a finesse to writing blog comments.
Ready to Tweak?
I recently read a comment on a blog where the commenter disagreed with the host. I felt they were both right, and I commented about why I agreed with both of them. Notice my wording here. I didn’t disagree with either of them. I explained why I felt that both their points had merit. I am happy to report that the commenter is a new blog follower of mine.
Since I would like to grow my readership, I consider this a success story. You can have success stories too if you make these simple changes in your commenting style. Of course, you should still thank the blogger if that is what you are used to doing. In addition, follow these tips, and you can also experience traffic growth.
Related posts:
How to Immediately Get New Blog Traffic
19 Easy Ways to Dramatically Improve Blog Traffic
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