How To Write Blog Comments That Actually Drive Traffic

You’ve probably heard this advice before: Write a comment on a popular blog and your blog will grow. Sounds almost too easy, doesn’t it?

Even in 2020, blog commenting still works if done properly.

One blogger experimented by leaving 3 insightful comments every day on the leading blogs in his niche.

The result?

His comments generated more than 2.2K visits to his blog and kept on sending traffic even 1 year later.

Commenting on popular blogs can be an effective way to put your new blog on the map. It can put your name in the back of a successful blogger’s mind.

Not only that, but usually successful bloggers read blogs of other successful bloggers. So it increases your chances of getting noticed by more influencers than just the one you’re commenting to.

Effective blog commenting can kickstart relationships, grow your network, and drive traffic to your blog all at the same time.

However, you have to go about doing this in the right way. There are certain steps you need to follow.

I like to think that blog commenting is similar to making a sandwich – the top bread, the veggies, the meat (or tofu) and the bottom bread.

There are different elements that all get put together to create something that looks appetizing to the post author.

So, that’s where this blog post comes in. By the end of this guide, you’re going to know exactly how to strategically place comments on influencers’ blogs that get noticed.

The Benefits Of Blog Commenting in 2020

Leaving insightful comments on other high traffic blogs has numerous benefits. 

Forget the spammy comments that you’re used to seeing online. If you put a little effort into writing comments that genuinely add value to a discussion, you can use it to drive traffic, build new connections, and land new business opportunities.

Let’s quickly analyze some of the main benefits of blog commenting

First, let’s go through some of the benefits of blog commenting.

You might be wondering if any of this is worth it, if you can really gain something from such a simple act like leaving a blog comment.

And the answer is yes! Of course you can! There are many rewards that can come from putting in a little effort.

So what exactly are those benefits? Let’s check it out.

Blog Commenting Helps You Grow Your Network

Perhaps the best benefit of blog commenting is that it helps brand you and your blog across the blogosphere. It gets your name out there without you having to wait or ask for anybody’s permission.

Popular bloggers and influencers get hundreds of emails a day. Some of them don’t even check their own emails.

They’re handed off to assistants. Sending an email and hoping to get a reply back is not always the best way to start relationships with them.

Most times, starting it off with a thoughtful blog comment is the best way to get noticed.

They may ignore emails, but most bloggers always read blog comments to see what the feedback is like on their writing.

Getting your name out there makes it easier to get in touch through email. Instead of a cold email, the blogger now knows your name and recognizes who you are.

Ryan Biddulph, a blogger and author, built his whole blogging business by leaving comments like the one below on every leading blog in his niche.

You’ll find his comments on almost every blog in the digital marketing niche. And I’m not talking about comments like “Great Post!”

They’re detailed comments that would immediately catch a blog owner’s attention becuase of how detailed they are.

As a result, he built dozens of connections with high authority bloggers and used them to grow his own blog.

Leaving comments on your target blog also increases your chances of getting a reply to your cold emails because the blogger is now familiar with your name.

This drastically increases your email’s chance of being read and responded to.

Blog Comments Generate Traffic

You won’t get tons of traffic from blog comments, but it can be enough to make it worthwhile.

For example, here’s an article from SmartBlogger with more than 400 comments.

Never forget to link to your site in comments.

They’re no-follow links but if you’re one of the first to comment on a brand new article for a popular blogger, that can even result in hundreds of visitors that clickthrough to your site.

This is because most big blogs have huge email lists. And after publishing a new article, they’ll send out a broadcast email to all their subscribers.

Being at the very top of the comments section, combined with leaving a valuable comment, can drive some nice traffic your way.

Helps You Get More Comments On Your Articles

This point can simply be explained as a you give and you take situation

Not every blogger will return the favour, but one who value your input and enthusiasm will often be kind enough to leave a comment on your new articles as well.

And there’s no cooler feeling than getting a blog comment from a big influencer.

Blog Commenting Opens Business Opportunities

You may be completely caught off guard when you receive an email from a blogger that you admire greatly asking if you would like to write for their blog because they checked out your site and your style of writing is exactly what they’ve been searching for.

This is exactly how Gina Horkey, a successful freelancer, and product creator, started her entrepreneurial journey a few years ago.

She built relationships with different bloggers in her niche and landed her first big writing gig because of her comments on a famous freelance writing blog.

This gave her the platform to showcase her work to thousands of people which eventually helped her establish her own blogging business.

Wouldn’t it also be cool to be invited to participate in expert roundups, conferences, or other cool opportunities?

Now, it won’t happen overnight and it sure won’t be easy. This is something that builds up over time and the results won’t be immediate. But, the sooner you get started the sooner you will see the benefits.

How to write an awesome blog comment (with examples)

How does an awesome blog comment start, end, and what kind of things go into the middle?

Essentially, there are 4 parts to building a great blog comment (and any delicious sandwich).

Let’s explore them!

PART #1: The greeting (top piece of bread)

Do you ever walk up to someone you’ve never met before and just start talking about your life story? Do you immediately tell them that you have a kiwi allergy and that you like long walks on the beach?

Perhaps, but this information would digest a bit easier for them if they had an introduction first.

And yet I see it all of the time, commenters just throwing themselves at the author without any kind of prior acknowledgement or greeting – That’s not appealing at all!

A proper greeting can go a long way so don’t be afraid to say hello first and greet them by name.

PART #2: The sincere compliment (vegetables)

If you’ve gone ahead and read this blogger’s entire post, it’s likely that you like them or they add value to your life in some sort of way.

Don’t be afraid to acknowledge that and let them know.

Pay them with a sincere compliment.

It doesn’t have to be complicated or long.

Make their day….

Tell them how much value they add to your life…

You can pretty much say anything as long as it’s sincere.

Keep the part about the blogger rather short. If you give them too much praise it might rub off a bit creepy.

Put most of your focus into complimenting the post itself. Talk about a particular section that helped you in some way or that you found extremely insightful.

PART #3: The Added Value (The meat)

The bread of a sandwich can look all nice and squishy but nobody is going to eat it if the contents insides don’t meet expectations.

Your goal for every comment should be to add value. I know, the word “value” is dramatically overused in the blogging world but let’s go in depth of what it really means.

In this context, it means doing something that will make you look valuable to the readers, specifically the author you are trying to impress.

It means being useful, interesting, insightful, or entertaining. In other words, being valuable makes you a person worth knowing and making a personal connection with.

But how?

Let me know show you some tactics that have a very high success rate.

Tactic #1: Ask Thoughtful Questions

Was there a part of the post that sparked curiosity in your brain? Did you not understand a section of the post? Do you need an expansion on a certain key phrase.

Asking thoughtful questions is a great way to engage the author in your comment and build a relationship.

They may even shoot you a personal message with an answer to your question and ta-da! You are now having a one on one conversation with a blogger you admire dearly.

Take a look at Dusty’s question here on a post from RankXL. He did well by asking the author about how he can search for an SEO apprenticeship, which he knows the author has experience in.

Also, Max is rocking his question by asking how he can add value to his blog which means the author will likely visit his site to see what they think. Smart move, Andrew.

For the sake of keeping the article clean and not too long, the author often won’t expand every point to the maximum. So don’t be afraid to ask about anything even if you might sound dumb.

Tactic #2: Share personal Insights

Did you feel enlightened by a particular part of the post? Did something feel familiar to you or hit close to home? Did anything remind you of something you are struggling with?

Sharing personal insights gives the author a sense of who you are and how you think. This way, they may feel like they already know you in a sense before even having a conversation with you.

Remember, quality over quantity.

Jim Hofman aced this by sharing something that is beginning to work for him.

Jove added value by sharing something that he’s been personally struggling with. He thanks the author for making it much clearer.

And Bhuboy demonstrates personal insight perfectly by sharing a comment about how he can make his family happy while working from home. Good luck to you, Bhuboy!

Lastly, Jatin tells Chris he can relate to the article.

There are unlimited ways of sharing personal insights but the more personal it is, the more it will stand out. The more it stands out, the more memorable it will be to the reader you are trying to impress.

Value Tactic #3: Adding to the discussion

Did the author skip a point in the post that you want to add? Want to dig deeper into a point that the author had? Would you like to propose a point for the author to think about in the future.

If your comment will add value to the post, the authors usually never fail to see the benefit.

Sometimes they’ll even realize how much value they’ll be adding to their post if they add in what you suggested and they will go ahead and update their post with this brilliant new information.

Plus, author’s love it when their comment numbers skyrocket on a certain post, which is often what happens with challenging comments like these.

Everyone wants to be a part of it and that’s just a validation that the author did a good job.

If it’s your comment that fueled the discussion, you’ll be at the top of the comments chain and you will get the most traffic by people clicking on your name to see what kind of smart mind decided to ask such a question.

Remember to read the article first so that you are contributing with the most relevant comment.

Saleh did an excellent job at adding to the discussion with a possible target to consider.

On the other hand, Rafa informed the author about something they may have not known about.

And the best part is that the author will often remember it, and your name! Glorious!

Value Tactic # 4: Give Them Proof Of Concept

Nothing makes a blogger happier than seeing success stories becuase of their work.

If you’ve tried a tip by a certain blogger and found success, share it with them in their comments section.

It not only makes them genuinely happy but acts as a testimonial they can use in the future to attract more leads and customers.

For example, look at this article on a popular freelance writing blog.

It’s a success story of one of the blog’s regular readers.

The blog owner learned about it because of a comment on his blog, took to Skype to get the details from the commenter, and then published it as a complete success story on his blog.

It’s a ready-to-use testimonial for his services, why wouldn’t he publish it?

So if you’ve tried a strategy by a bogger and found success, share it with them in comments and reap the benefits.

PART 4: The parting promise (the bottom bread)

The parting promise is basically telling the author that this sandwich was the bomb.

If you’re smart, you’ll want the author to know that you’re interested in biting into another sandwich, made by them because it was the best you’ve had and you want the world to know.

There’s no better way to do this than letting the author know that you’re going to link to them, many times, which in return will boost your SEO.

But breaking a promise is not cool, so make sure you follow through by reading more of their articles, leaving more comments, giving them a shoutout on your podcast, or tagging them in the post that you’ve tweeted so that they know you are good for your word.

Common Blog Commenting Mistakes

Here are a few mistakes you need to avoid while leaving comments on your target blogs.

Using a Novelty Image or No Image At All as Your Display Image

Using a picture of a Japanese anime character or winnie the pooh seems cheesy doesn’t it?

It can also get your comment ignored easily.

Well, it is and it sure doesn’t look professional. So does not using an image at all. People are a lot more likely to build connections with a real face than a cartoon.

Plus, they may be able to recognize you on other sites or put an image to your name when it pops up if you have an image of your face. Besides, you know you’re sexy, so why hide that smile?

Using a False Name or Nickname

This sort of ties in with the point mentioned above. It’s alright to use a nickname with friends and family but as long as you are in your professional zone, you should always use your real name.

Bloggers want to know who is trying to persuade them, and using a fake name could stick in someone’s mind, but probably not in the way you want it to.

Using Blog Commenting For Link Building

Using blog commenting for link building is a waste of time for so many reasons.

First of all, almost 99% of comment links are tagged no-follow which means there’s zero SEO benefit from them.

Secondly, putting links into your comment increases its chances of getting spammed.

Thirdly, and most importantly, blog commenting has so many other much greater benefits that it’s senseless to use them for backlinking only.

So instead of littering your link profile with useless no-follow blog links, try using them for building connections, demonstrating your knowledge, and giving exposure to your brand.

And, for your link building efforts, consider something that is proven to deliver high quality links that increase your domain authority: Help A Reporter Out Backlinks.

Leaving Comments That Add No Value

Comments like “Great Post”, “Thanks Buddy”, “Great stuff” etc. add no value at all to the discussion or to the bloggers content.

The same goes for generic comments that offer no specific insights about what the commenter is trying to say.

Here’s an example.

Such comments can be used on any blog.

But they’re still useless.

Leaving such comments also doesn’t help you achieve any blogging objective, for example, networking, or driving traffic to your site becuase such comments are so easy to ignore. Nobody notices them.

If you want to get any value out of blog commenting, avoid leaving such useless comments.

Spamming your Comment with Links, especially Do-Follow links

I rarely include links in my comments unless I think it will truly benefit other readers or help the author of the post.

And even with the purest links, there’s still the chance of it coming off as a cheap attempt to promote yourself or something else.

But if you do add links to your comments, make sure you only link to known, trusted, authoritative sites. Otherwise, you will seem like you are spamming the feed and that is frowned upon.

Not Reading the Post Before Commenting

If you didn’t read the post, should you really be commenting? You must do your research to be able to complete the assignment or else your work will be meaningless.

Most comments made after not reading a post are generally short or irrelevant to some extent. And if that’s all you have to offer, you won’t be thought about twice.

Don’t Repeat What the Post Just Said

So if you did end up doing your homework and reading the post, and if you agree with what the post is saying, come up with something new to write about in your comment. Don’t just repeat what the author already wrote.

Don’t Get Caught Droning On and On

Try not to repeat what you’ve already said in your comment. Choose your words wisely and make sure they are all different in similar ways. Quality over quantity, if you know what I mean.

Using an Invalid or Inactive Email Address

You’re leaving your email for a reason, right? In case there’s a chance the author wants to get in touch with you.

If you give them your spam email, you might totally miss their name amidst all of the Walmart and Trip Advisor propaganda. Also, make sure to spell your email correctly, otherwise their message will never reach you.

Leaving Comments on Non-relevant Blogs

I see this one a lot. For example, a health and medicine blogger commenting on a travel blog. Yes it’s nice to leave a comment but it surely won’t help you gain traffic to your website. The people reading the post are more than likely looking for travel related content, not medicine.

Failing to Read the Previous Comments

Last but not least, not reading the comments that exist before yours. You do not want to repeat what someone else said before. That just shows an equally bad lack of effort as not reading the post at all.

Not Commenting Early Enough

This one can be hard to catch, but it’s important. Depending on the blogger and how many comments they’re getting on one post, it’s common that they won’t respond to the ones that are alllllll the way at the bottom. You want to be at the top (or close), not at the bottom.

5 Proven Blog Commenting Tips For Faster Results

Here are a few of my practices that have helped me generate a lot of fo traffic and build multiple relationships via blog commenting.

Shortlist Your Target Blogs

You don’t want to waste your time commenting on blogs with very little engagement and traffic.

This is why before you go on a commenting spree, you need to define the criteria for targeting blogs.

In my experience, you should go for a blog with the following traits

• Blogs that are relevant to your niche (in the same niche or a complementing niche)
• Blogs that generally get a lot of comments on every article.
• Blogs where the authors respond to comments
• Blogs that publish content regularly
• Blogs with a large social media following and email subscriber base
• Blogs that are slightly ahead of you in terms of traffic and audience engagement. 

The last point is really important because you’re much more likely to build a relationship with a blogger who’s slightly ahead of you as compared to someone who’s already a niche authority.

Create a spreadsheet and list down as many blogs as you can that meet your selection criteria.

Join Their Email Lists and Follow Them On Social Media

Once you’re done with listing the blogs, start signing up to their email lists and social media profiles especially Twitter.

This is important becuase most blogs notify their subscribers and social media followers about new content.

Whenever there’s a new post on your target blogs, you need to be ready to comment on them.

Be The First To Comment

I’ve already mentioned how commenting early on a popular blog can drive a lot of traffic to your site.

Doing that becomes easier when you’re subscribed to your target blog’s email list and social media account.

The moment they publish something, quickie head over to the site and leave a comment.

The faster you move, the better.

Ask Questions In Your Comments

You’d ideally want your comments to turn into a long discussion with the blog owner.

Sometimes even other commenters jump in and it becomes a really long thread of comments.

To make that happen, make sure you end your comment with a genuine question to the author.

It could be anything about the article or a related topic.

Try being specific in your question so that the author feels compelled to answer.

Generic questions are generally ignored.

In case the author responds, make sure you keep asking questions as long as possible because that’ll keep the discussion going and give you more exposure.

Don’t Comment Too Aggressively

It’s all good to target a blog for commenting but make sure you leave gaps between posts when commenting on a blog.

If you’re the first one to comment on every single article of a blog, it can actually backfire instead of helping you build a relationship with the author.

Time To Make An Impact With Blog Commenting

As you’ve seen in this article, blog commenting is much more than a spammy link building technique.

If you invest time and effort in regularly commenting on different niche blogs, you can quickly grow your network, build new relationships, drive more traffic, and find new business opportunities.

However, blog commenting is a long-term strategy and you need to make it a regular part of your promotional activities in order to fully benefit from it.

Let me know if you have any questions about it in the comments section.