Commenting on Blogs – Add value, don’t spam!
August 13th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff
Commenting on other people’s blogs is a great way to generate back-links to your website. The problem is that many people forget the intent is to add value and become part of the community first, before leaping in with “all about me”.
My personal favourites are the people who post comments such as “I found your site when looking for blogs about (insert your keyword here), specifically sites about (insert long tail keyword here). I agree with what you say and/or you have a great site”.
Ed Dale from the 30 Day Challenge describes the sort of crap comments that I highlighted as making withdrawals from a bank you have no deposits in. It is called robbery!
I personally moderate all comments on my blog before they appear and take great delight in deleting the comment or listing the person as a spammer when they attempt to make these sort of comments.
You don’t have to publish spam comments on your blog just because someone made them. It will significantly reduce its value to the true community members who read your blog (as well as hurt you in search engine rankings). Delete them and stay true to your readers.
So … how can you comment on someone’s blog and not be seen as a spammer? Read the posts in some detail. Find out what the flow of the blog is all about and find a post that is directly relevant and related to a point you want to make.
Take some time to craft a reply expanding on a particular point in the post, commenting on a point in the post or adding in your own point. Yes, you can make a careful and considered link using your keywords back to your post BUT (and this is a big but) you have to add value first.
If you follow these simple strategies and focus on adding value first, everyone wins.
Until next time
Ingrid Cliff
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 10:08 am and is filed under Web copywriting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
When I read this blog Ingrid, I raced to see if you had deleted a previous comment I had made on your blog.
I understand where you are coming from, but I personally dislike those who vet comments – I read that as – I will only publish comments that are a positive reflection on blog.
Is that honest?
Is that in the spirit of discussion?
????
August 14th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Hi Heather
I agree totally about the spirit of discussion. Any genuine discussion points (either positive or negative) definitely go through to the blog.
What I was referring to was a pile of blog posts pushing particular dubious software programs, things to grow male anatomy, or posts pushing e-bay get rich quick schemes.
These are all the ones that have bitten the dirt as they are not even attempting to add to the discussion.
Hope that clarifies
Ingrid
August 15th, 2008 at 7:45 am
I also hate the ones that are only posted so they get their URL in them. Fair enough if it is relevant to the content of their comment but usually there is little or no content in the comment at all.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Thanks for clarifying what you meant by spam. I agree with Heather, was worried that I was spamming if I posted agreement with a particular point being made.