Commenting on Blogs

Commenting on other peoples blogs is a great way to meet other bloggers and you can also use it as a way to increase traffic to your site. Some bloggers will only comment on blogs that offer follow links. I think you should write on everyone's sites, but there are a couple of rules to follow when making comments. Let's go over them

Comment on many sites. Don't worry if they use follow or no-follow. No-follow means that they set it so that the search engines will not follow the link to your site. Since the search engines ignore the link, it does not increase search engine traffic to you, but this is only a side reason for commenting. Commenting also builds community. You should build up a community of other bloggers that you like to read, frequent their sites and comment on them. Blogging is a lot about making friends.

Comment outside your niche. You might blog exclusively about fashion, but that does not mean that you should only comment on fashion blogs. You should comment on a lot of other fashion blogs, but you should also read and comment on other blogs that you find interesting. You should, for instance, comment on Shabam Development regularly ;).

Make your comments useful. You do not have to have a long comment, but it should not be just "I agree" either. Remember, we are trying to build community here and just saying "here here" does not get them to want to come to your site, read your articles and comment on them. If you don't really have something to say, perhaps you should not say anything. You do not have to comment on everything. If you do have something to say, make it worth saying. If you just say "I agree" then I'm probably going to assume that if I go to look at your site there will not be anything useful there either.

Don't curse. If the author of the blog curses a lot, then it is probably ok to curse. If you curse on a comment to one of my blogs, I will delete it. It will usually be gone within a couple days. If you can't say it without cursing then you probably don't have the knowledge to respond. Cursing does not mean that you are not intelligent, I've known some really intelligent people that cursed every third word, but when they needed to they could speak or write without cursing. There are times when cursing is fine. It is not fine on most peoples blogs. If I would not want my daughter reading it, I will not keep it on my sites.

Don't veil your curses. %#$@ is still a curse. It is also a curse if you abbreviate it. If it is meant as a curse, it is a curse. See above for more on cursing.

Don't put down the writer or his work. It is OK to point out flaws, but putting them down makes them feel bad and makes you look like a jerk. You might be a jerk, but do you want everyone knowing that? Again, if you want people to come see you, you should be nice to them.

Be a jerk and put down others work and the author. Alright, this contradicts the above. I can't do this, but some people can be a jerk and get away with it. If your style is of the jerk nature, then go ahead and attack others. This is a way to get others to link to you and talk about you. If you are a jerk and do it well then you will get a lot of "see what a jerk this guy is" type links. If that is how you write on your blog, write that way in your comments. Just be aware that some bloggers might delete the post. For me, it would depend on the wording. If I would be worried about a child reading it, I'll delete it. I usually leave the jerk posts, as long as they are not cursing.