Welcome Back To My DoFollow Blog! I’d Like to Extend a Big Thank You to You and Give You FREE Access to my “101 Ways to Connect for E-commerce” Report. Discover NEW Key Ways to Reach Your Audience! ~ Christine Brady

So you’ve published your first blog post.  Way to go!

Now, it’s time to start ramping up your traffic generation activities.  After all, a blog post without anyone to read it is pretty lonely.

Market With Blog Commenting

There are thousands of ways to promote your blog.  But, whatever method you use, going viral is the quickest way to get the most visitors.  One of the best ways of generating targeted traffic back to your blog or website is through blog commenting.

Simply put, blog commenting is visiting other blogs and, after reading some of their posts, leaving a comment back to the author.

That’s the simple definition.

But blog commenting presents so much more of an opportunity than just the basic definition can cover.

Commenting on other blogs is actually a traffic strategy.  And with any good strategy a well thought out plan in place is crucial to your success.

Start Blog Commenting

Here are 5 ways to make sure your blog comments stand out in the crowd:

1.  Before you comment, read through the other comments first and see if you can jump in anywhere first.  Discussions are great.  Plus, the one starting the discussion increases their exposure by interacting with others.  Throwing your two cents out there is good, but also avoiding accusations and playing nice is also expected, on most blogs.  Some of the best discussions are had on blog comments, so see how you can join in.

2.  Write more.  In school kids are taught to write more details.  Writing a comment uses the same principles.  Be an eloquent blog commenter and you will be noticed.

3.  Grab a gravatar.  A gravatar (picture next to your comment) helps put a face with the name.  Did you know that Realtors, mortgage lenders, and pretty much any other sales rep will often have their picture on their business card?  The thought behind this is to establish name-face recognition.  So that if you saw them back in your office again, you would at least think, “I’ve seen them before.”  Think of your gravatar as your online business card.  As you comment on more and more blogs, you will stumble upon people who have commented on the same blogs you have – pictures allow people to see and get to know you.

4.  Install Comment Luv on your own blog.  Comment Luv is a plugin for WordPress blogs.  It is a very powerful plugin that attracts fellow Comment Luv users to your site.  Maybe it’s the fact that you can see your own previous post attached to your comment.  Maybe it’s because you gain exposure.  Either way, Comment Luv shares the “love.”

5.  Make your blog a DoFollow blog.  By default, WordPress blogs are NoFollow.  What this means for the blog owner is that whenever someone comments on your posts, the link they submit to their website will not be followed by search engines.  In contrast, a DoFollow blog allows the link to be followed to their site.  Having a DoFollow blog shows readers that you are helping them build their backlinks as well.  But don’t let this stop you from commenting on a post from a NoFollow blog – a mix of both NoFollow and DoFollow links is optimal.  Plus, readers can still click through to your site and read your blog.  To make your blog a DoFollow blog, you have a couple options.  CommentLuv offers an upgrade which makes your blog DoFollow or you can install the DoFollow plugin.

Implementing these five blog commenting strategies presents a huge benefit to you as the commenter, but it also benefits the blog owner.  Having, lots of friendly discussions on your blog makes it a fun place to be, a place where people want to contribute and hang out.  And, as the commenter, wouldn’t you want to be where all the action is?

Having the right tools in place to foster interaction and involvement makes your comments stand out and makes your blog a friendlier place to comment in return.

Leave a comment on my DoFollow blog!

Image credit:  xedos4 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net