UPDATE: 9/19/09 ProBlogger Guest post I Came, I Saw, I Commented: Was It Worth It by Josh Hanagarne – The World’s Strongest Librarian – provides this additional confirmation that commenting does indeed work. He gives these stats:
The numbers after commenting:
- A 100% increase on RSS subscribers (160-320)
- Over 40 newsletter subscriptions
- A second traffic spike due to people returning to answer my comment on their own blogs
Note that HIS strategy was commenting on the blogs of those who commented on his previous ProBlogger guest post. Imagine what could happen if he had used the additional strategy explained below. Maybe he’ll read this, try it out, and let us know what additional growth his blog sees from it.
UPDATE: 3/23/09 I thought some might be interested to know that the Google Analytics default view (which compares the most recent 30 days to the previous 30 days) now shows traffic is now up 76.63%. This traffic is almost exactly evenly split with one third coming from Direct, one-third from search engines, and one-third from referring sites.
Want proof this strategy works for others too? Check out these two Tweets I received today (Mar 23, 2009):
PaulHassing@GrowMap Thank YOU! Yesterday my site traffic was double what it was last Monday. All I did differently was follow your advice. Great stuff!
PaulHassing@GrowMap It’s nice (& rare) to see an approach which is ethical & practical having an effect. For once, good guys don’t finish last! 
ORIGINAL POST BELOW
What if there were a simply action you could take whenever you have a few minutes that would benefit the other blogs you visit and increase your own blog traffic too? Would you be interested enough to act on it and see if it works for you too?
Here is the step-by-step method responsible for the increase in traffic here:
- Visit your favorite blog, preferably a dofollow CommentLuv blog.
- Leave a high quality comment.
- If the blog uses CommentLuv select the most relevant post to share or a post you wish to promote.
- In a CommentLuv blog you can leave two links in a comment by changing the primary link JUST BEFORE you click submit. When you’re ready to send the comment paste the other link into the box and immediately send the comment BEFORE the CommentLuv system loses your selected post.
- AFTER you’ve left your comment share the post at Twitter, FriendFeed, cliKball, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us or on any other favorite Social Networking site or reader.
- When sharing use an excerpt, image and title illustrating what YOU feel is the most pertinent information in the post. This will increase the number of new visitors the post will receive – and the number of readers who may read your comment or be interested in your featured post.
- I often also share the best comment(s) or additional thoughts at cliKball and FriendFeed.
We all have limited time and the same number of hours in any day so maximizing the return on how we spend that time is critical to our success. If you already have quality content on your blog and a recent post worth sharing it is time to focus on getting quality backlinks from commenting to greatly increase your traffic.
NEW: If you don’t fully understand how CommentLuv works or haven’t registered your blog take the time to read this excellent post with screen shots on How CommentLuv works and the benefits of registering your site.
Combine our strategy above with the one from that last link to Peter Lee’s Work from Home blog and your time is guaranteed to generate incoming links, better search engine placement, higher visibility and more traffic to your blog.
For a more advanced strategy read How I Doubled the Pageviews of my Blog in Two Week – That post opens in a new window to make sure that BEFORE you do that you START immediately increasing your own traffic here:
The best way to learn something is to do enough of it that you will remember how and it will become a habit. The great thing about this strategy is that you can easily get started RIGHT NOW:
- Just leave a comment in this post; the early commentators get the most exposure so go ahead and leave it now. It won’t take that long since you’re already here.
- Be sure to include a link to your blog post. Make it your most recent post, the most related post, one you want to promote most OR one that your readers like best.
- If you have a Twitter account here is an easy way: Just click this Tweet This!
- Then share it in your other Social Networking accounts and share it in your reader. The more you share the more it benefits you and everyone else.
- BONUS VISITORS: If you want even more traffic publish your results and link to this post. We’ll find your new post, leave our own comments, and share it at Twitter, FriendFeed and cliKball.
BLOG COMMENTING:
- NEW: Internet Marketing Blog of Vance Sova – Increase Blog Traffic Using Blog Comments
- NEW: Social Media Training blog Velvet Connect – (Keith Jenkins) – Boost Your Reader Base by Commenting
- WordPress How To Spotter (TheSpotter) 3 Reasons Why Blog Commenting is Important
- FMS SEO Company – (Follow Karl)(Follow Kelly) – Blog Commenting for Traffic Generation
- ExtremeJohn - (Twitter) – 16 Reasons Commenting on Your Blog Sucks
- OES tsetnoc – (Twitter) – Blog Commenting – High PageRank
DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv Blogs With Comments Moderated by GrowMap
I approve more comments to support small businesses, good causes and bloggers than most bloggers so being active in our blogs is to your benefit. They are all 100% dofollow from the first comment and have both CommentLuv and KeywordLuv installed:
- GrowMap (This blog) – Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Blogging, Supporting Small Businesses, Local Search. See Best of GrowMap.
- GoodMillwork – Wood Products Manufacturer of architectural moldings including crown moldings, door and window trim, baseboard, chair rail, wood siding, exterior shutters. They can match any existing woodwork of any age for historical restorations, sell rare woods including cypress and genuine mahogany and mill mahogany moldings and ecofriendly TimberSIL.
- ExecGiftsBlog Personalized Gifts ~ Gift Affiliate Program ~ Wedding Store
- NoBogies Golf Store and Blog
- GrokHorses Horse Information Blog
- PSPLiving Living Healthier
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Twitter: LottoMan01
March 23, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Twitter: @LottoMan01
Derek? Who the hell is Derek. Damn it IS, it takes me forever to find out that you are a female, and then before I can even start to work my charms on you this unknown factor is brought into the equation.
Sire’s last blog post..Thesis Theme Is Just Not Flexible Enough
Twitter: GrowMap
March 23, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
@Mitch Adding threaded comments IS on the to-do list and Derek will get to it when he can make the time. Unfortunately I don’t know how to manage my own plugins or update WP so I depend on others who have those skills to handle those tasks for me.
Derek is extremely busy and a blog more likely to make money faster is our priority. No one will be happier to get threaded comments here than me. Trying to figure out which I’ve replied to by scrolling up and down isn’t so much fun.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Don’t Make ANY Changes Based on Web Analytics Until You READ THIS FIRST
Twitter: mitch_m
March 23, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Twitter: @mitch_m
By the way, IS, I’m thinking that it might be time to add a threaded comments plugin. lol
Mitch’s last blog post..Where My Traffic Comes From
Twitter: GrowMap
March 23, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
@Kevin You’re very fortunate or in a high demand niche if “sales just happen”. Congratulations. If you ever wish to find others interested in your niche then Twitter might be useful for that.
@Dana So far none of the bloggers whose blogs are larger or more established than mine have indicated that they thought to do this. Some of them don’t use Social Networking much. One thing I probably should have mentioned is this is extremely time-consuming so only those who can invest much time online will find it most useful.
@Paul Good to have you here. I’m spreading my time between Social Networking, commenting, and another blog so posts are not daily, but sometimes come in flurries here.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..REVIEW: Mastering Google Analytics – Easy to Understand FREE eCourse
Twitter: paulhassing
March 22, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Twitter: @paulhassing
Golly! This sure seems to be working for you. Congratulations. I look forward to reading your other posts. Best regards, P.
Paul Hassing’s last blog post..Bleeding Between the Lines
Good Information. it’s a pretty obvious strategy. But I guess it’s like they say… common sense isn’t too common.
dana’s last blog post..Destination Paradise – Hawaii: Samuel Adams Imperial White
Twitter? It just seems such a waste of time.
I don’t buy traffic, I don’t participate in traffic exchanges, I don’t send out spam emails, I don’t engage in questionable or black hat tactics, I seldom seek JV partners, I never seek inbound links, I blog when I feel like it, my SEO happens automatically,
I don’t solicit sales, sales just happen.
Regards
Kevin
Kevin Phoenix’s last blog post..Personal Financial Rescue Plan
Twitter: GrowMap
March 21, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
@Dennis LOL – I do both. I only add a second link when I have something particularly relevant to share.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Making Money with Your Blog – Part 2 – Evaluating Affiliate Programs
Twitter: DennisEdell
March 21, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Twitter: @DennisEdell
Of course, all the better if one does both.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..2 Updates Before You Flood Me With Emails
Twitter: GrowMap
March 21, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
@Mitch Thanks for the clarification. The great thing about the Internet is we can both have precisely what we want: some can do it your way and others can do it mine. As you say, it is just a preference.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Blog Traffic Up 54.87% in the Last 30 Days: Our Proven Traffic Improvement Strategy
Twitter: mitch_m
March 21, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Twitter: @mitch_m
IS, what I prefer is to only have to deal with my last 10 posts and not add a different link other than what CommentLuv is already giving. One, I don’t want to have to go searching back through all my old posts to find one that might suit whatever I happen to be commenting on; I do that already with my own posts. Two, I figure if my last 10 posts aren’t representative enough of what I write about to encourage people to stop by, then an older post won’t do it either. Yes, I know you’re doing it, as a commenter, for your own purposes, but I’d rather go back through my own posts and deep link from within.
Not saying you’re doing anything wrong, just a preference.
Mitch’s last blog post..Is Alexa Relevant Again?
Twitter: GrowMap
March 21, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
@Sire I’m not sure what you’re looking at but if you can tell me I’ll look at it. Yes, CommentLuv DOES do that but only for your last ten posts.
What Dennis and I are saying is that CommentLuv would be far more useful if we could share the most relevant post which is likely NOT to be one of the last ten. I do recognize that might greatly increase the demand on CommentLuv resources.
@Mitch What specifically do you prefer that Andy suggested? That we put the related link in the body of the post? The reason we don’t is that then the blogger has to either moderate it or find it among the SPAM and rescue it.
One very friendly but busy blog we frequent has stopped reviewing comments that Akismet marks as SPAM because she gets so many comments it was too time-consuming.
It is very challenging for those of us who comment actively to keep up with the preferences of each individual blogger regarding links / nolinks, keywords / no keywords, comment policies, etc. We do the best we can.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Making Money with Your Blog – Part 2 – Evaluating Affiliate Programs
Thank you very much for those ideas. I just started my blog and honestly I do not know much about increasing traffic. It’s great to find useful ideas like this. Thank you again.
Alex’s last blog post..American Idol Top 11 Results, Replay | Season 8 American Idol 2009 Week 2 Recap
Twitter: mitch_m
March 20, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Twitter: @mitch_m
I think it’s an interesting idea, and I like Andy’s take on it myself. I don’t pay any attention to how someone might do that on my blog, as I know it’s been a recommended tactic to use for years, way before CommentLuv came up. I don’t see me doing it, though.
Mitch’s last blog post..Some Random Thoughts
Twitter: LottoMan01
March 20, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Twitter: @LottoMan01
Perhaps I was wrong, what looked like two links could be one very long link?
I’m confused about all this deep-linking; Isn’t that what commentluv does naturally anyway, deep-ling to an actual page?
Sire’s last blog post..Googles Interest-Based Advertising Sucks
Twitter: DennisEdell
March 20, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Twitter: @DennisEdell
You’re welcome.
Yes linking to relevant posts no matter what the age is a practice all bloggers should accustom to; especially on their own blogs, but elsewhere as well.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Do You Charge For Blog Reviews?
Twitter: GrowMap
March 20, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
@Sire Yes, some CommentLuv blogs could be nofollow. Dennis shared a Firefox plugin that lets you easily tell which are and which are dofollow.
The key to getting two links to STAY in the post is that you must change the primary Website URL and IMMEDIATELY submit the comment BEFORE the CommentLuv has time to change the other one.
Did you check two links that I put anywhere or the ones in the examples in a comment I suggested above? I just confirmed that the two links do indeed take me to the two posts I selected.
Can you offer an example of where it doesn’t work? Note that I do NOT do this in every comment – only when there is a post relevant to where I’m commenting that is too old for CommentLuv to pick up.
@Dennis Thanks for the clarification on duplicate content. This discussion is a great example of how much bloggers can benefit from exchanging experiences and knowledge.
I’ve been mentioning the categories on my site in comments and posts so more people are aware that there is a ton of information here that they could be interested in.
Thank you for confirming that bloggers are more likely to approve a deep link in the Website field than a link left in the body of a comment. That has been my experience – and leaving it in the body makes more moderating work for the other blogger.
LOL. Fifty might be good – or all of them. Unlike some blogs that are about breaking news or content that is quickly dated, our posts are often still relevant for years.
I often share older posts on Social Networking sites in my travels across the blogosphere. Sometimes I mention they’re “oldies but still goodies” – sometimes I don’t. That probably annoys the brilliant people with photographic memories who only want to see what happened today and think last week’s posts are too old.
I figure there are a lot more ordinary folks who will benefit from them!
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Making Money with Your Blog – Part 2 – Evaluating Affiliate Programs
Twitter: DennisEdell
March 20, 2009 at 8:55 am
Twitter: @DennisEdell
@Andy – Indeed you may be biased from too much spam lol. I too check URL’s for funniness, but that’s mainly for sales or affiliate pages, which I do not allow if I catch it.
Two primary reasons I deep link in the URL field…
1. It compliments the post I’m commenting on (the best for both parties). Remember, MANY bloggers still don’t see value in quality links being left within the comment itself and will delete it all.
2. A post I do want readers to see, yet it may be past the point of CommentLuv (remember when I asked you to make it like 50? LOL).
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Do You Accept Guest Posts? Get Your Name On The List
Twitter: DennisEdell
March 20, 2009 at 8:48 am
Twitter: @DennisEdell
@IS – Yep duplicate content, and the worst kind. Dupe content within the same site is the kind Google really bags on according to them (Google themselves).
Yes I do have both categories and archives checked off for non-indexing for that reason, however i still interlink to them for user navigation purposes.
After all, keeping you on my site as long as possible is the name of the game, right?
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..2 Updates Before You Flood Me With Emails
Twitter: LottoMan01
March 20, 2009 at 2:28 am
Twitter: @LottoMan01
BTW, I just checked a couple of links in the comments, and although there seem to be two links, both take you to the primary address left in the first link.
Sire’s last blog post..Googles Interest-Based Advertising Sucks
Twitter: LottoMan01
March 20, 2009 at 2:23 am
Twitter: @LottoMan01
Hey IS, a great post, but unless I am mistake I don’t think that all commentluv blogs are necessarily dofollow blogs. I am pretty sure that many choose not to be.
As for the double link thing, I must be the only dumb one here because I can’t get it to work.
Sire’s last blog post..Seven Things About Me You May Not Know
Twitter: GrowMap
March 19, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
@Andy Bailey Sorry for the delay. I rescued your latest comment from among 89 that ended up in Akismet. There was one other real comment in there which was captured because it was very short. I don’t know why Akismet grabbed yours; perhaps because it included the word SPAM?
The reason I put a deep link to a particular post in the Website / URL field instead of in the body of comments is because a link in a comment will almost always get sent to either SPAM or held for moderation while one in the URL field won’t.
I do usually mention that I linked to a post there and why I did it and in someone else’s blog it will always be related to that specific post. (Sometimes I will suggest another post a commentator might be interested in when doing it in this blog.) I shared a couple examples in a comment above.
Did you see the post Dennis shared above by a major blogger suggesting it would be best to ALWAYS use a deep link instead of the main page for SEO purposes?
Regarding first impressions: except for only seeing one post instead of excerpts from numerous recent posts there is no difference in this blog between a deep link and the primary URL.
Most blogs today use plugins that show categories (usually with mouse-over descriptions the way they appear here) plus Recent Posts and many other plugins that offer indications of what else is on offer.
I have a simple way of deciding whether something I may do is appropriate or not:
1) Does it negatively impact anyone?
2) Is it misleading or dishonest?
3) Does it benefit others?
If the answers are no, no, yes and I can not come up with any reason not to do it then it is ethical. If I were using this particular strategy to mislead, take advantage of, or SPAM anyone it would be unethical.
If it is only used to offer additional relevant information I believe it benefits the greater good and is perfectly acceptable.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Making Money with Your Blog – Part 2 – Evaluating Affiliate Programs
Twitter: GrowMap
March 19, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
@Florida Web design: Yes, commenting does increase visitors – but commenting and then sharing the posts you visit and comment in is what REALLY makes the difference.
@Martin – The methods I share here are always based on what has worked. There are more posts about increasing traffic here. Check out the categories and sub-categories in the right sidebar to see those and much, much more.
@Bruno Thank you. I hope you’ll be back.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Question: When Does Entering a Blogging Contest Give You More Than You Contribute?
Twitter: GrowMap
March 19, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
@Lee There is so much to learn that collaborating only makes sense. If new bloggers knew there was so much involved they might never start! It is up to those of us who have been working at it the longest to share and make their path easier.
I don’t know how I missed finding your blog before now. Our content is related and my readers should find your posts very useful. I’ve already linked several into existing posts and when I have time I’ll add some more. You’ll usually find them in Related Resources sections at the bottom of my posts.
Where IS your recent guest post? I’ve tried – so far unsuccessfully – to locate it again. I’d love to share it with my readers and also to make sure I did share it at Twitter, FriendFeed and cliKball.
Did you see my Twitter FriendFeed Quick Start? It contains some great links and also lists of the best bloggers on Twitter and FriendFeed. I’ll use it as the primary link (above) to this comment to make it easier to find.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Don’t Make ANY Changes Based on Web Analytics Until You READ THIS FIRST
Twitter: GrowMap
March 19, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
@Dennis Thanks for clarifying that the All-in-One-SEO plugin can be configured. My first blog was set up by an elite SEO company owner and he told me to link to posts or to the main page but never to category pages.
While he was so brilliant it wasn’t always clear why he recommended certain actions I suspected those pages weren’t being indexed – probably because of a duplicate content issue?
I don’t know why we wouldn’t want them to be indexed unless doing so causes duplicate content? How do you have that configured? Anyone else have an opinion on what is best?
I would be very interested to see how you and also the most knowledgeable SEOs think whatever is in the latest version of WP compares to All-in-One-SEO or if there are other plugins they feel are better.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..REVIEW: Mastering Google Analytics – Easy to Understand FREE eCourse
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