Now, you know commenting on blogs gives you the best results if you comment on blogs that are related to yours (relevant) and when you comment on recently-published posts (topical). The final factor in determining whether your commenting is successful is that you must leave meaningful comments.
It is no longer good enough (it never was, actually) to leave a comment like this:
Great post!
Remember, the objectives here are manifold, but the main objectives are getting the site's publisher to notice and engage you, as well as to get direct traffic back to your own site by virtue of leaving compelling comments; visitors to the site you're commenting on may want to get to know more about you and they will follow the link in the comments back to your site. It happens all the time.
So, if you're in the sewing niche and you read a post on a fellow sewing person's blog and you want to make a comment, fully engage yourself in making a worthwhile contribution to the dialog.
Even though blogging isn't “real-time”, it can be considered a two- or multi-way conversation, so treat it as such. Add value to the original post by making an intelligent, non-promotional comment. You may say something like this:
I loved your idea about [this]! One thing I've had difficulty with in the past is [this] and I think your solution may be just what I needed to complete a project I've been putting off for quite some time. Thank you!
See the difference? You added to the conversation and you validated the author's post.
Always remember to make sure that your comments add to the conversation and aren't mere advertisement (in disguise). If you do this, not only will your comments have a high likelihood of approval, but they will also engage the author and his readers. Many good things will come from that outcome.
If you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll answer it.
Check out the Backlink Search Tool in the Chrome Web Store.
Awesome series of Posts. It is absolutely crazy the amount of people that talk about backlinking, and simply dont break it down to the very basics, and because they fail to do that people end up being REALLY confused. I sometimes wonder if they do this because they have a service they are trying to get you to buy.
Thank you for demystifying the process.
There’s a well-known saying by a well-known IMer that goes like this: “Useful, but incomplete.” I hate to think that I do that – I’m really trying to break this down step-by-step (and note they are MY steps and can be modified to work better for YOU). But I think on the other side of explicitly laying things out (my objective) is to be so damned vague or even dishonest about a “thing” that the user is more confused after consuming the content than he was when he went in.
I’m all for making a buck, but the LAST THING I want to do is confuse somebody to the point that they throw up their hands and say, “Help me.” I want them to say, “Dang, that guy really helped me out last time. I wonder what he’s got next?” And that next might be a paid product.