It is possible to drive traffic to your blog simply by leaving comments on other blogs.  I’ve personally tested the concept and I can attest that it works.  However, like most things in life, you should know a few things before you begin.

Comment Early and Choose Wisely

To get the most out of your efforts, choose your blogs wisely.  You want to make comments on blogs with a great deal of traffic.  Although commenting on a small, personal blog may certainly win you a lot of appreciation, it won’t drive traffic to your blog.  Likewise, comment early.  If many people comment, your comments can get lost in the shuffle. Experts say that you should be within the first 3 to 5 posts for maximum effect.

Leave Relevant Comments

When leaving a comment, it is important to add something to the conversation.  Don’t just leave a “I really liked this post” comment.  You can share a helpful experience or information that other readers might find helpful. Long comment posts seem to be most helpful in conveying to others that you know what you are talking about.

Negative Can Be Positive

Use this tip with great caution!  Some bloggers are open to other opinions and have no problem when people disagree with their opinons.  Other bloggers take this as a great offense and may begin to spar verbally.  Although, I have to say that I’ve had friends say that all the negativity they experience in such sparring really did increase the amount of traffic coming their way.  I’m not personally sure I’m sold on the idea.

Build Relationships

One of the ways that I have found to increase traffic is to forge relationships with other bloggers.  Following people on Twitter, commenting on their tweets and also leaving comments on their blog is an incredible way to help steer traffic to your site.  Having other people re-tweet your tweets or suggest you as a great person to follow can also have a huge effect on traffic.

Enable Link Luv

This way, people can see your most recent post when you comment on their site.  I’ve had many people check out my site simply because of this feature.

Be Respectful

Every so often you will have a blog owner that is intimidated or doesn‘t get how blogging is a team effort and you really can become part of a community of commenters adding value to a site and gaining trust at the same time.  If this is the case, simply comment on another blog. I once had a blogger create a post about how she hated SEO “stuff” and made some incredibly strict commenting rules. Her blog went strangely silent after that and last time I looked, it wasn’t even online anymore.  It appears that many people, like me, respected her wishes.  Perhaps she should have been a little bit careful when she was making her wish list.

 

It may sound like a cliché, but useful comments will never die. The same is true for content. On the free people search and personal privacy blog I write, I’m trying to contribute value for everyone who’s interesting in reconnecting with a long-lost friend.

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