How To Comment On Blogs Correctly

[Bloggeries]

I think the key here is to comment on blogs in your niche. Like on my home business blogs I get people leaving comments with keywords all the time and that is what they get for taking the time to leave a comment that stays.

They do look spammier so the comment really has to be decent for me to leave it. If someone comments with keywords from a totally unrelated niche I'll usually nuke it though unless it's really moving lol.

I think Bruce and Rhys both made great points and this is a great thread as it's informative and it stirred some debate that was handled in a respectful manner.

[Bloggeries]

Just thought of something else from personal experience.

If the blog accepts comments automatically you are much more likely to get away with using a descriptive key-term as your name. If they moderate them... Chances are they won't bother approving if they have say 50-100 spam mixed in there...

[The University Kid]

I accept comments automatically (Akismet nukes spam) but still will change the anchor text if the comment used is irrelevant.

What people fail to realise is that having too many unrelated links with such anchor text to websites can kill your website in terms of the search engines, which is why no blogger (unless you're running a coupon blog or something) should allow something like 'Coupon Code Blog' or even 'Animals Need Help'.

If it's related, I'll let it slide, although I prefer not having thousands of commenters with 'Make Money Online'. For irrelevant blogs, I'd prefer people use their names, or at worse something like 'Coupon King' etc.

[jshaffstall]

Just a few comments, since Rhys has stated my opinions very well.

Originally Posted by Shopping4Coupons

[*]Find a higher PR blog or at least one with lots of traffic.

For networking purposes, which is critical for sites just starting out, comment on other sites that are just starting out. Give those people some encouragement, they'll do the same for you, and you'll build a network of partners who will help each other as they grow.

I think that's a far better use of my commenting time than trying to pull traffic away from blogs that are getting a couple hundred comments on each post.

Originally Posted by Shopping4Coupons

[*]Add your name as your keyword, like for example I'm not going to type "Bruce" I'm going to say "Coupon Code Blog" or something like that. Adjust the name to match the page where you are pointing the link to.

As others have noted, this is generally frowned upon by bloggers who use DoFollow. I'll personally allow it only if the name of the blog itself is used, but I'll edit keyword stuffed names.

Originally Posted by Shopping4Coupons

[*]Add your comment next, if you are going to spend all that time don't just say "Hi, I like your post" Say something with some good keywords in it like "Your post about blog commenting really helped me figure out the difference between blog commenting correctly and just wasting my time commenting on blog posts"

I'd probably delete this comment just on general principles, especially if my post was about blog commenting. I pay attention to keyword density in my posts, and to have a comment arbitrarily push my post into too high a keyword density range would be pretty annoying.

That said, authentic comments are a good source of keyword diversity. So I wouldn't recommend trying to keyword stuff the comment, just leave a natural sounding comment.

Originally Posted by Shopping4Coupons

[*]A positive comment is always better than a negative one. Don't forget there is usually someone on the other end moderating and could just hit delete.

Doing some homework on the blog first is probably a good idea. For example, I'll approve negative and even hostile comments with no problem, while I delete the spammy ones.

Originally Posted by Shopping4Coupons

[*]If there is a button to get follow up emails on further comments to that post I would do that too just to be nice and maybe add a further comment to their blog later.

That is definitely a good idea. Leaving a comment and then never being heard from again doesn't build relationships, which are just as important (if not more important) than traffic.

Jay

[Strongbow]

I think any worthwhile comment will get approved it is just the one or two word comments and the massive lists of porn links that usually get the boot.

[Shopping4Coupons]

Yea,, it is working for me so far I'll change the way I'm doing things if I see a problem. I do try to write informative comments otherwise I wouldn't comment at all.

[Katalina]

Very interesting thread and I like that not everyone is agreeing!
I am encouraging comments, so it has to be pretty spammy for me to delete it. I will edit out stuff I really don't like.