I am a strong believer in building relationships online as part of my marketing strategy. And that’s exactly what I’m teaching my clients. I’m telling them about the time the pizza delivery guy gave me a ride home and that most of the time people won’t buy your products unless you have some social proof.
I am also a strong believe in reciprocity, and this means that people are responding to a positive action with another positive action. People are rewarding kind actions. So, if you smile, most people will be smiling back at you.
If you asked me how you can combine relationship marketing and reciprocity, my answer would be to start commenting on blogs. This method alone, is by far the easiest, cheapest (it’s free) and one of the most powerful marketing methods online.
I believe that there are 12 really good reasons for why you should start commenting on blogs today.
1. Tell the author what you think of the post
Think reciprocity. When you’ve written a blog post, even though you might not care much for a lot of comments, you want some kind of feedback. You want to know if people understand what you’ve written, and you want to know if people agree or disagree with you. And that’s exactly what other bloggers are looking for as well. Many times you don’t have to write a very long and detailed comment, just let them know what you think of the post. If you comment, they’ll comment on your post and tell you what they think of it. It might not happen if you just comment on one post, but it will eventually happen.
2. Be visible. Be everywhere
A lot of people have told me that they’ve seen me close to everywhere, and the reason they’ve seen me everywhere is because I’ve been everywhere. When you comment on blogs, people will see you, they’ll notice you, and they’ll remember you. When you comment, and you use an avatar (I’m always using the same avatar. I don’t change it, because it’s part of my branding and a way for people to remember who I am) people will remember your face. This technique is what I use to promote my newsletter.
3. Get traffic
When you comment on blogs that are using CommentLuv (I’m using it on this blog), you can add a link back to one of your blog posts. The title of the blog post is visible, and if you add a good title, you’ll end up with more traffic. People do read comments, and I click on links to the various posts in CommentLuv all the time.
4. Create relationships. Be part of a community
When you comment on blogs you’ll eventually meet the same people over and over again. That’s how I’ve met people like Bill, Adrienne, Sergio, Carolyn, Ruth, Ben, Mark and many more. When you comment on blogs, you’ll create strong relationships, you’ll become friends, and you’ll feel that you’re part of a team. They’ll support you and help you out. I’ve received some really awesome gifts from people I’ve met just by commenting on their blogs.
5. Guest blogging opportunities
One of the best ways to get direct traffic to your blog and to get a higher ranking at Google is by writing guest posts. You’ll meet a new audience, and you’ll get link juice by adding a link back to your blog. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to write posts like:
- 13 Steps to Relationship Marketing Success I Learned While Getting My Hair Cut
- The 10 Real Reasons Why I Love Spotify
- The 5 reasons why I am a failed writer
- How Fanta destroyed everything
- 3 Things I Would Do Differently If I Started Blogging Today
- The Importance of Creating Strong Relationships with your Customers
Comment on blogs and people will ask you to write guest posts.
6. Increase engagement
Think reciprocity. When you comment on other blogs, they’ll end up commenting on your posts. Most likely, they won’t just give you a feedback on the post, but they’ll increase the engagement on your blog. They’ll read what you’ve written, they’ll comment, and they’ll reply to your comments, and they’ll help share (on social media) what you’ve written. It’s not just about a plain feedback.
7. Be part of the conversation
When you comment on blogs, you’ll be part of the conversation and that means you’ll be learning more. It will help keep you up to date on what’s happening. Many times, you’ll find the latest news in a blog post, and when you comment, you’ll get a reply with even more news. When you comment, people will understand what you care about, and they’ll even send you emails and notifications (on social media) to let you know what’s happening.
8. Add value to the post
I usually don’t just give feedback on what I think about the blog post when I comment. I like to focus on adding value to the post. By adding value, you’re helping out, not just the author, but you’re helping all the readers as well. This means that you’re showing people that you’re an expert. You’re not just visible everywhere, but you’re part of the conversation and you’re a professional, and that’s why people should listen to you and visit your blog (and sign up for your newsletter, and buy your products).
9. Grow your credibility
Trust is a very important part of marketing. If people have never heard of you, they won’t buy from you. If people have seen you around, and they’ve read what you’ve written again and again, and you’ve been adding value to blog posts, they’ll trust you. Blog commenting is a great way to grow your credibility. And, I believe that it’s the fastest way to get people to trust you online (that, combined with writing guest posts).
10. Create links to your site
Like I said earlier, if you comment on blogs that are using CommentLuv, you’ll get a link back to your blog. This way you’ll get direct traffic and link juice (higher ranking from the search engines). But, you’ll also get a link back to your blog from blogs that are not using CommentLuv. You might not get as much direct traffic from it (or link juice), but you’ll get the link. And links matters.
11. Find the point of interest in the story
Think of blog commenting as part of your training. When you read a blog post, try to find the point of interest in the story. And comment on it. I’ve been making many mistakes, and one of my recent mistakes was when I commented on a fictional character, and I thought it was a real person. I’m learning from my mistakes, and I’m using blog commenting as part of my training.
12. Create Commentable Content
When you read and comment on blog posts, you’ll eventually understand what type of content you should write in order to get more comments (and more likes and shares). If you’re just writing, you won’t understand what makes blog posts become popular and why people comment on some posts, but not every single post. I’ve written many posts on my blog, and some of them has more than 100 comments, while others have close to zero. I’ve learned what makes a good blog post, not by just writing my own posts, but by reading other blog posts and commenting on them.
Do you comment on blogs as part of your marketing strategy?
I’ve talked to many people about why they should comment on blogs, and some say they do it once in a while, other are doing it every single day as part of their marketing strategy. What’s important is that they’re authentic and they’re adding value, that’s when it becomes a real powerful marketing strategy.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Are you commenting on blogs as part of your marketing strategy, or why are you commenting on blogs?
I absolutely agree. Adding value to the post is very important and it’s something the author really appreciate.
Thanks.
Twitter: berget
Thanks a lot for the feedback Meena
Twitter: PNCGlobalorg
Jens you are very open and honest, and share great advice not only here on your blog but also in your Sunday email. I always enjoy receiving that email as well reading your blog. You make a great point that by commenting on blogs we can truly develop relationships with other bloggers as well as their readers. Looking forward to more great posts from you.
Twitter: mark_harai
I haven’t necessarily done it for marketing purposes; mainly for building and strengthening relationships…
But I plan on using for marketing purposes a lot more in the future!
Some great tips here, Jens – thank you!
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Twitter: lisapatb
Jens, I do. I try to I should say. I find this category of blogs is the easiest. The ones I have for retail can be a little harder to do. Everyone involved in marketing, social media and blogging are very active in this stuff. But other areas are not as much. Maybe some people are just shy too. I know when I first started it was hard getting used to seeing myself on other websites. It is a great way to get know people – through their blogs and comments. It really is another social medium. Thanks for sharing your insights on it.
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Twitter: berget
That’s exactly what I’ve been experiencing lately. I have started several blogs for clients, and it’s so hard to get comments on them. And the same goes with my Norwegian business blog. It seems that we need to build that relationship first, and only then will the comments come.
Twitter: WFHConcepts
This is a great post and great advice for those who are reluctant to leave their thoughts and comments like I used to be. I’ve followed this advice and had nothing but positive results. Thanks for sharing this…looking forward to more post from you!
Twitter: berget
That’s awesome Corina. Thanks a lot for the feedback
Glad to have found your blog through a tweet! I have definitely learned a lot through commenting and have discovered the value of building a community online. Your post really explains very clearly why commenting is so important as a blogger or anyone hoping to build an online presence. Even if I did not have a blog of my own, I will still appreciate the community that grows out of commenting on blog posts. I plan to share this post with friends who are new to blogging.
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Excellent article – plenty of content without the fluff. As someone just setting up a website on the WP platform I am aware that posting useful comments is something I should be doing.
One question – do you restrict your commenting to your niche (marketing) or do you spread it around on non-related blogs you have an interest in or come across by chance?
I agree with helping with gaining more traffic to the blogs and helping with the popularity and ranking. Though its a risky thing to do and time consuming since now all comments are approved and posted.
Blog commenting is the place where the professional use to share their toughs. This will increase the business growth as per suggestions and enhances, which is going to change in your business. In general people use to browse many blogs by which they can able to find the related blogs for others products or services. You can able to understand the actual marketing status of the products where a professional use to comment.
Twitter: MillerFinchSM
Excellent post. Shared it on FB. Commenting on posts is something I’m improving at, but I’ve run across the Blogger.com platform as difficult to use if you don’t have a Blogger account. I would recommend to those using that platform to change it to something more user friendly. Or, maybe it’s just those blogs themselves that have the difficulty, IDK, but I just wasn’t able to comment and participate in the discussion.
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Yes, I like to comment on blogs!
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Twitter: designaustralia
This is an awesome post. I really like the concise style and straight forward information. Yes, I do comment mainly on web design blogs. I agree that you learn a lot, as you read the articles to find out the context and the viewpoint of the author. This then enables you to add comments with relevance and value add.
Twitter: Incionweb
Blog commenting is one of the popular activity comes under link building, blog commenting has many benefits, best benefit is to increase website popularity on the web.
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Twitter: DarleneToday
WOW!
This is my first time on your site.. which goes to show.. there are lots of amazing bloggers out there!
Do I typically comment on blogs as part of my marketing strategy? Not so much. If I have a little lull in between projects, I’ll go around and see what’s up, and comment.
My main marketing is guest posting + Twitter + email campaign. Not necessarily in that order. Hah!
Will bookmark your site.. darlene
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Interesting news . It would be great if you can provide more details about it. Thanks you
Twitter: Tom__Coleman
Hi Jens-Petter, You always hear you should: 1. Guest post on other blogs 2. Comment on other blogs. And you do it because it’s a good strategy to get traffic to your own sites. You have opened my eyes LOL. It’s all about building relationships, helping people, and making friends. That’s what all marketing is about. This is the first time I’m actually getting this regarding blog commenting. I am active on Twitter and that’s an amazing medium to build relationships. People are so giving, funny, and helpful. I actually got here because @JohnAguiar follows me and I was checking him out. John recommended one of your posts and I got to this one. This post totally resonates with me. “It’s not about me. It’s about you. It’s about we. It’s about the community and the relationships.” What a great community of online marketers. The web allows for amazing connections and interactions. It was wonderful to meet you Jens-Petter and the community you have developed here. You’ll find I don’t type very well. So be forewarned…LOL..
Have a great day. I’ll be back…
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My 12 Reasons to comment are:-
1. Help enrich the content and clear the intent of the author.
2. Appreciate and extra effort by any reader/author of the post so readers can extract best out of it.
3. Build relationship to enhance better mutual understanding and fellowship.
4. Earn friends of similar thinking.
5. Establish foothold in the online community.
6. Link and interlink next post of my blog.
7. Learn guestblogging by writing in some other’s blog environment.
8. Give feedback and correct it if I feel something wrong.
9. Understand presentation skills from experienced authors.
10. discussion sometimes brings out of the box solutions and Idea.
11. Learn Handling criticism and debates on comments by the author.
12. ear mark favorite posts and authors to follow.
Cheers,
Mohit
Its like being in touch with family. In this case Blogging Family.
Twitter: i_am_rotk
Loved the post! Gave me a much broader perspective on blogging. Traffic aint my prio for now, but reading helpful and practical stuff like this is. Thank you Jens!
Twitter: berget
That’s awesome! Thanks a lot for the feedback. And, let me know if you have any questions.
Twitter: rtmixmktg
Jenns-Petter,
Great post. Who knew there were so many great reasons to comment. One of my weak areas – I’ll admit!
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Twitter: berget
Thanks a lot Tom. I used to be a lot better at commenting, but it takes time. And, at the moment, time is my most valuable asset
Twitter: WWcopywrite
Hi Jens, I do make a point of commenting on blogs (look, I’m doing it right now). The main benefit for me has been the online relationships I have managed to build. As you’ve explained, these relationships lead to more shares and comments of my own posts. The another benefit is that to be able to comment, you must first read the blog properly. Reading other people’s blogs is a great way to increase your knowledge.
Twitter: jacquimba31
Great post and I’m glad somebody else said it! We all enjoy reading various articles and posts, but many of us skip out on the check. We leave no comments…no trace that we were actually there, other than behind the scenes analytics.
Let us all do better. Try to find one or two blogs to follow and post comments regularly. The authors will begin to look forward to hearing from you and they just may sign up to follow your blog, too. It, indeed, is all about reciprocity!
I haven’t been commenting on blogs for very long, but so far it has been interesting to see the difference between commenting to add value and just commenting because I want to say something. I enjoy the article and the other comments more when I feel involved in the learning process. Thanks for your tips!
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