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How NOT to Leave a Comment on a Blog

Some things to keep in mind:

  • Incoming links (links from other Web sites to yours) have search engine benefits.
  • You can create links from someone else’s blog to your site by leaving a comment.
  • People respond to incentives.

Thus, it’s no surprise that unscrupulous marketers (and even some with scruples) leave a lot of comments on other blogs for the sole purpose of increasing the search engine visibility of their own site or blog.

Never mind that almost every blog in the world uses a no-follow ref tag in the comments section, basically neutering the SEO benefits of a comment.

That being said, not everyone seems to have gotten the memo. There’s still benefits to leaving a comment, however:

  • Adding to the conversation the blogger started
  • Getting the attention of the blogger and perhaps beginning a mutually-beneficial relationship
  • Having people admire how intelligent, insightful and on message  your comment is, and possibly following the link back to your Web site or blog.

That last bullet point needs to be repeated, this time with some emphasis:

  • Having people admire how intelligent, insightful and on message  your comment is, and possibly following the link back to your Web site or blog.

And that’s the trick. You need to be intelligent, insightful and on message. Although every blogger has his or her own rules for when to leave a comment up there, I’ve always been open to destroying a comment with extreme prejudice if they seemed more interested in promoting their own work than continuing the conversation I started.

For example, I recently received this comment on a post on How to Add Photos and Videos to Your Tweets:

How Not to Leave a Comment

Besides the atrocious grammar, it’s hard to take someone serious who:

  1. Recommends a product which also appears to be his URL
  2. Has a generic sounding gmail address
  3. Was named “Mass Email” by his parents

Not to mention it has nothing to do with the post at hand. If this were a post on email marketing, or bulk email marketing tools, this would be perfectly appropriate.

If you are going to leave comments on other blogs, please add something of value. It helps the blogger, his/her audience, and may actually do some good for you as well.

Rich Brooks
Small Business Blogger

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  • http://www.hurleysolutions.com/about.aspx Josh Hurley

    Maybe “Mass Email” is a family name.

  • http://www.hurleysolutions.com/about.aspx Josh Hurley

    Maybe “Mass Email” is a family name.

  • http://Www.jebswebs.com John Brandt

    You might want to add: making insulting comments and getting into arguments with other respondents to the blog entry does NOT make you sound intelligent, no matter how good it makes you feel.

    Also, do you have a strategy for which responses to “not approve,” other than the obvious spams and whiners?

  • http://Www.jebswebs.com John Brandt

    You might want to add: making insulting comments and getting into arguments with other respondents to the blog entry does NOT make you sound intelligent, no matter how good it makes you feel.

    Also, do you have a strategy for which responses to “not approve,” other than the obvious spams and whiners?

  • http://QuanSite.com CoachDeb

    hahaha
    you had me at:
    “Was named “Mass Email” by his parents”
    (((still laughing)))

  • http://QuanSite.com CoachDeb

    hahaha
    you had me at:
    “Was named “Mass Email” by his parents”
    (((still laughing)))

  • http://www.flyte.biz Rich Brooks

    Classic! The very comment spammer I called out above left a piece of comment spam on this post! http://twitpic.com/syh81

  • http://www.flyte.biz Rich Brooks

    Classic! The very comment spammer I called out above left a piece of comment spam on this post! http://twitpic.com/syh81

  • http://QuanSite.com CoachDeb

    HA!!!
    Classic indeed!

  • http://QuanSite.com CoachDeb

    HA!!!
    Classic indeed!

  • http://www.thegoodwall.com Thom

    I suppose there are still a lot of folks out there who think that spamming is a genuine way to reach a market. Foolish, in the days of Akismet and open conversation channels.

    Still, I can look past the irritation of having to deal with spam, purely because of the value brought to blogs by the comment areas. A great way to connect with your audience and find out wha people are interested in – market research at its purest and most enjoyable!

    Thom

    http://www.thegoodwall.com

  • http://www.thegoodwall.com Thom

    I suppose there are still a lot of folks out there who think that spamming is a genuine way to reach a market. Foolish, in the days of Akismet and open conversation channels.

    Still, I can look past the irritation of having to deal with spam, purely because of the value brought to blogs by the comment areas. A great way to connect with your audience and find out wha people are interested in – market research at its purest and most enjoyable!

    Thom

    http://www.thegoodwall.com

  • http://webfixtech.com Dragos

    just got this one on my blog :)

    “скачать фильм судный день ужас амитивилля фильм онлайн фильм гости из будущего кастинг фильм месть 1990 скачать лавка чудес фильм скачать фильм крысиные бега самые лучшие фильмы 2008 года сумерки 3 скачать фильм герои фильма матрица фильм три икса скачать фильм рэкетир морское путешествие фильм кадры из фильма мелкие останки музыка из фильма слепая ярость смотреть фильм онлайн бесславные ублюдки эффект бабочки 2 фильм фильм звонок япония скачать самый лучший фильм 2 mp3 девять мультфильм он лайн фильм ловец солнца фильм дух живого леса пицца фильм фильм когда земля остановилась отзывы кислородный голод скачать фильм песни из фильма опустевший город американский пирог просмотр фильма смотреть онлайн фильм королевство фильм уличный гонщик скачать фильм инцидент шиндзюку фильм схватка 1995 смотреть онлайн”

  • http://webfixtech.com Dragos

    just got this one on my blog :)

    “скачать фильм судный день ужас амитивилля фильм онлайн фильм гости из будущего кастинг фильм месть 1990 скачать лавка чудес фильм скачать фильм крысиные бега самые лучшие фильмы 2008 года сумерки 3 скачать фильм герои фильма матрица фильм три икса скачать фильм рэкетир морское путешествие фильм кадры из фильма мелкие останки музыка из фильма слепая ярость смотреть фильм онлайн бесславные ублюдки эффект бабочки 2 фильм фильм звонок япония скачать самый лучший фильм 2 mp3 девять мультфильм он лайн фильм ловец солнца фильм дух живого леса пицца фильм фильм когда земля остановилась отзывы кислородный голод скачать фильм песни из фильма опустевший город американский пирог просмотр фильма смотреть онлайн фильм королевство фильм уличный гонщик скачать фильм инцидент шиндзюку фильм схватка 1995 смотреть онлайн”

  • http://hireheathervilla.com/ Heather Villa

    There are a lot of really good blogs out there with some very helpful, useful information. I use to find myself in the habit of thinking that I MUST leave a comment on every blog I read. Now I only leave a comment if I have something to say, whether it be further insight into the topic or a word of thanks or encouragement. Otherwise I just read and enjoy the post. :)

  • http://hireheathervilla.com/ Heather Villa

    There are a lot of really good blogs out there with some very helpful, useful information. I use to find myself in the habit of thinking that I MUST leave a comment on every blog I read. Now I only leave a comment if I have something to say, whether it be further insight into the topic or a word of thanks or encouragement. Otherwise I just read and enjoy the post. :)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 7:20 am and is filed under Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Business Philosophy, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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