Want to know how to get free traffic to your site while building strong relationships with other bloggers and influencers in your industry?
Blog comment marketing is an ancient traffic generation technique that has been around for a while and still works like a charm… if you know what you’re doing.
How lucky are you then, stumbling upon this very guide!?
Why exactly? Because…
Here you’ll learn:
- What are the 4 awesome benefits of comment marketing
- How to find suitable blogs to comment on
- How to develop a blog commenting strategy that works
- How to leave comments that make an impact
- How to use Disqus for SEO
- and much more
In other words- you will learn how to get free traffic from blog comments.
Sounds good? Then, Let’s go!
How to Get Free Traffic From Blog Comments
I must say it right off the bat:
Leaving thoughtful blog comments as a marketing strategy is a long-term play!
Meaning, you cannot expect to get immediate results, and in fact, oftentimes it’ll seem like your efforts are in vain- you won’t be getting any traction whatsoever.
However, the results will be there. Subtle at first, but if you keep on commenting, they’ll quickly compound into a real marketing benefit that you can see, feel, taste measure, AND improve.
Note: Comment marketing doesn’t work and will not work for most folks, that’s the truth. But that is because they give up too soon. So it’s actually really easy to gain a foothold for your site with this tactic. You just have to persist and not give up when you feel like quitting.
Quite a brainless strategy, don’t you think?🙂
4 Benefits of Blog Commenting as a Marketing Technique
You read the sub-header above, right? You know that there is some kind of benefit to commenting, but you aren’t sure what it is exactly.
Well there are FOUR of them and they are:
- Relationship building
- Creating Niche Relevance
- Building Brand Awareness
- Highly engaged traffic
1. Comment your way to recognition and appreciation by fellow bloggers
When you leave a good, thorough, well-thought-out comment on someone else’s blog- you’ve done an awesome thing to them.
- You updated their page so Google will deem it fresh and rank it higher.
- You added new content so Google will find new long tail keywords to rank them for.
- You built social proof for them, and it’ll help them sell more in the future
These are all great side effects of you commenting and the thing is- that blog’s webmaster knows all these things.
Perhaps they haven’t thought about it consciously, but subconsciously, they know you did them a favor and they’ll be looking for a way to repay you. It’s the law of reciprocity in action and in your favor;
2. Relevant blog comments build site relevancy
Make sure that you comment on niche relevant blogs and that you leave a link to your website. This is crucial.
Why is this important?
When you leave comments on relevant blogs, over a period of time Google starts to notice that your comments (and your site’s link) appear on niche related blogs and NOT on any other types of sites.
So the algorithm starts to see you as belonging to that specific niche and thus you get segmented from the rest of the web.
That is actually a good thing because when your site firmly belongs to one niche, and not any other, you get a boost for all keywords that pertain to that one niche.
In other words and I know you’ll like this a lot- by building niche relevancy you will need fewer links to rank.
It’s because, besides pure authority/ranking power, Google looks for site relevancy too.
3. Comments build up your brand
Blog comments build brand awareness, especially if your brand is your name.
For example, if my website is ronaldsegura.com And I leave comments as- Ronald Segura. This is beneficial for me long term because it plays into the rule of seven and into your advantage.
Do you know what the rule of seven is?
It states that someone must make 7 contacts with your brand before they get accustomed to you and start trusting you.
And I’m guessing you know that in online marketing, higher trust=more sales.
4. Relevant comments help you get FREE Traffic
I’ll be real with you and cut out the bullshit you can find elsewhere:
You will never get huge traffic from any comment you leave, anywhere on the web!
It just isn’t realistic.
The best you can hope for is that the page you commented on becomes highly trafficked and you get trickles of traffic in the long term.
But don’t be disappointed, trickles are all you need.
You see: “little traffic” from a single comment can turn your business around and make you the happiest webmaster on the planet.
Picture this:
If 1000 people see your comment and only 10 click-through- is that abysmal result?
I’d say it’s superb!
Those 10 people are already interested in knowing more about you. Those 10 are your business. Those 10 will move your business forward.
It’s a huge mistake to think that more traffic= more sales.
Not true at all.
You could go on Fiver today and buy traffic of one million people. But those people would come from God knows where; they won be engaged; they won’t speak English, and no- they won’t buy from you; or even remember you.
Whereas,
folks who click on your link are those who have read your comment and who were intrigued by it. So they segmented themselves into your potential customers, and now it”s your content turn to dazzle them and get them to convert.
And what’s wrong with making a few sales from your commenting efforts?
Tell me in the comment section below:)
How to find blogs to comment on
Since marketing, in general, is a collection of skills you must have and a thousand and one things you must do, it is imperative that you’re both effective and efficient in everything you do, including commenting on blogs.
And it all starts with finding suitable blogs to comment on.
And these can be:
- Ultra-popular blogs in your niche. In the SEO space where my business resides, the giants are Moz, Ahrefs, SEMRush, and Majestic.
- Blogs that are usually run by one person; for example- neilpatel.com by Neil Patel; www.shoutmeloud.com by Harsh Agrawal; or www.jeffbullas.com by Jeff Bullas).
I suggest you have a presence on both types of blogs. The first kind will give your comments exposure to an insane audience, and the second will allow you to connect with your fellow bloggers more easily.
The Effective way to find blogs to comment on
There are many ways to do it, but I like to use Feedly because it is so fast and efficient that it’s almost a crime not to use it.
What is Feedly?
It’s a free service that pulls RSS feeds from subscribed blogs and present their content within its dashboard, and for your convenience.
Think of it as a centralized content bank. For you to skim, learn, and comment on.
Neat, don’t you think so?
How to open a Feedly account
I already have an account, but I’ll open a new one so you can follow along with ease.
Step 1– Go to feedly.com and click on “Get Started for Free”.
Step 2– Sign up. You can do it with your Facebook account; Google account; or with Feedly themselves.
With my account open now I need to add websites I want to track.
So I go and click “Create your First Feed”
Then I click on the green “Add Content” button and type “SEO”.
This will open a host of blogs that are tagged under “#SEO” and I’ll be able to take my pick.
I can also search by the name of the blog if I know their name:
And that is it really. Now you just have to be vigilant and keep track of content. And in no time you’ll be a commenting superstar:)
Blog comments that work for you- A.K.A. leaving meaningful comments
Meaningful means:
- useful,
- succinct,
- and elaborate.
Elaborate means that they are relevant to the topic and provide value to whoever reads it.
That is a win for the reader; a win for the webmaster who hosts such helpful comments, and a potential win for you if the person gets interested and decides to click and visit your site.
When they do- make sure you receive them with open arms:)
This was all theory- how about an example of a good comment in action?
Here’s the comment Nikola Roza left on my post about increasing blog traffic fast end easy
The comment is:
- relevant to the post
- a nice contribution that complements the post and makes it slightly better
- He asked a question about Quora which is one of the tools I use for blog promotion
And here’s my reply
This comment will be very beneficial for him in the future. When someone reads it and then read my reply. two things will happen:
First, they will learn something new, guaranteed. Second, Nikola’s name will become familiar to them so next time they see it, they will have formed positive brand bias toward it.
It’s really long term, I know- but it works and it could work for you too…
3 Quick get free traffic from blog comments effectively
1. Length is strength… except when it’s not. Most of the time, writing a thorough comment can put you on top and on the blogger’s radar. However, oftentimes, really succinct and witty replies will help you much more.
It’s on per comment basis so I can’t give you much advice, except that you should know that it’s not necessary that every comment is 300 words long.
2. Engage with other people. When other folks have commented before you make sure you read theirs before you make your own. Because you don’t want to appear sloppy be repeating someone else’s thoughts.
But when you do read, you will often find that people have questions in need of answering. So why don’t you answer, right there and then?
The webmaster will be thankful because it’s one less thing they have to do, and they’ll definitely remember you if you provide useful replies and answers.
Remember, every blog owner is immensely proud of their content, including the comment section.
3. Be first. This is hard to pull off, but remember that when you’re first, your comment stays at the top and all other people who want to comment will have to read yours first.
Something to think about…
Bonus – Creating relevancy through Disqus
What is Disqus?
Discuss is the commenting platform adopted by many websites and the one true rival to WordPress native commenting system
I like Disqus, a lot. The interface is very elegant and streamlined and the same as with Feedly, you can access many site’s comments from one dashboard. It’s simplicity itself, bliss…
But, what I like doesn’t make a lick of a difference to you, right? What matters is that you can build niche relevancy through Disqus.
And here’s how to do it.
First, go and set up your account. It’s easy and takes a minute. Go do it- I’ll wait.
Note: make sure you fill out your profile with keywords and especially your site’s link.
Then you just need to find popular blogs in your niche that use Disqus and comment your way to recognition.
How is relevancy built through Disqus?
The same way you do it with normal WordPress commenting.
Comment only on niche sites and never comment on any site that doesn’t belong to your niche.
If you do- it won’t be the end of the world, but you’ll be diluting the benefits you’re getting.
Can I get free traffic through comments on Discuss?
I wish to say yes, but the answer is actually… NO.
When you comment in WordPress, you have a chance to leave your website’s link. That’s a direct connection to your site. But with Disqus, you’re leaving a link to your profile, that hosts your link.
So it’s one more step for folks to take and one step too many for most people.
Conclusion: Can you really get free traffic from blog comments?
Yes, you can, but not only that.
By implementing a well-devised strategy you’ll also be building:
- Your brand
- Your niche relevancy
- Your relationships with fellow bloggers
Many shun blog commenting as a traffic generation technique. They say it’s ineffective and a waste of time.
But, wanna know a secret? Just between you and me… These people are lazy.
They aren’t ready to make sacrifices and that is why they won’t get far with their business (my opinion only- feel free to disagree).
But you can be different.
You now know that getting relevant, engaged traffic is far more important than just getting heaps of people on your site.
And blog commenting is all about getting people who’re eager to meet with you.
So let others moan, frown and complain. You do the work and reap the rewards. 🙂
