6 Tips on How and Why to Comment Like a Pro

If you are reading this blog post, I want you to make sure that you leave a comment once you are done reading…don’t forget! Actually more than forgetting, don’t get lazy! Commenting seems like such a simple and small act but it can bring you so many amazing benefits. If you don’t believe me, you are perfect for this post. At the end of of this I hope you leave excited and enthused to start leaving comments all over the web…or well smart comments at least.

First you need to start by reading and following some blogs that you find relevant to you and your interests. If you read ESPN but want to be known in a sector of the finance field, then commenting on ESPN will not exactly help. Read ESPN or other personal treat blogs in your free time but focus and start off with 2 to 5 industry related blogs that you find interesting and enjoyable. These are the blogs that you need to become more involved with in order to get noticed and start building or adding on to that personal brand of yours.

There are tons of perks to leaving comments on industry related blogs but there are also some rules and etiquette that you need to follow. Luckily I am here to help!

Why should I leave comments on other people’s blog?

Everything comes down to one thing, building your personal brand! Commenting does this by getting your name and face out there to their right audience as well as helping to build traction for your blog. Let me break this down into a few exciting perks:

1. Get your face out there. Your end goal is for people to recognize who you are and get to know you and your way of thinking. If people, as well as the bloggers themselves, notice that they are consistently seeing you leave comments on industry related blogs, they most likely have no other reason but to assume that you are highly involved in that specific field. The more they see your name and face, or in this case your profile picture, the more chance of them starting to recognize who you are. Recognition is always a great thing when trying to build your personal brand, but you just have to make sure that you are being recognized in a good way. This is where the way you comment will come into play.
2. Become cool with the big boys (or girls). Creating some sort of relationship with the blogger, especially if they are an influential blogger, could create tons of opportunities for you. First of all, if one of these influential bloggers starts noticing you and decides to stroll by your blog, a tweet or Facebook share by them could be huge! As an influential blogger, they most likely have tons of followers that trust their judgement and opinion, so them sharing your blog post could lead to tons of new readers…how cool would that be? The other two great things that could come out of this relationship are the opportunity for you to guest post on their blog and/or work on some collaborative project with them in the future, such as an e-book, book publication, presentation, etc.
3. It’s all about the blog traffic baby. Finally, commenting is a great way to bring back traffic to your own blog. Like I mentioned above, it could entice an influential blogger to come take a look, but also could attract the blog’s everyday readers. If these readers see you consistently leaving strong, thought provoking comments, then they will eventually begin to start trusting your opinion and be curious to see what else you have to say. This is perfect because your comments most likely link back to your blog, so it creates an easy access portal for these readers to jump over to your blog and see what is going on over there.

What kind of comments should I be leaving?

Although commenting is a great technique to use, it is actually the way you comment that will determine the impact that it will have. Avoid being one of those annoying commenters and follow these simple rules:

1. Stop being useless. You do not want to read a pointless blog post, just like people do not want to read pointless comments. So don’t leave them. Leaving comments such as “Great post” or “Nice work” is ultimately pretty useless. It doesn’t add any value and just makes it seem like you put absolutely no thought into your comment. It is okay to give props to the blogger but add a little more to it such as letting them know what you thought was so great.
2. Get specific. A great way to add some value is to pinpoint a specific point made by the blogger and add on to it. You can either agree with this point and expand upon it by adding your input and including other resources or tools that are relevant, or you can even disagree with the blogger and express why you are not on the same page. Either way, do not give some bullshit answers. Whether you agree or disagree, make sure you back it up with some actual thought.
3. Stop selling. Commenting is all about leaving genuine and authentic thoughts and ideas, it is not about marketing or selling yourself. Your main objective should be to start getting involved with the community and begin building interactions around your topic of strength. Commenting can help you build relationships that in turn will help you grow your personal branding. Do not leave a comment in order to drive traffic back to a specific product or blog post…stop selling and start interacting!

In Conclusion,

You should select a few relevant blogs that interest you and follow them intently. Once you have begun understanding each blog’s community, it is time for you to finally start getting involved. Start adding your two cents by leaving comments but remember to always make sure that these comments add some sort of value. Nobody wants to read a bunch of crap, so don’t write a bunch of crap (Click to Tweet). Use my tips from above and start building your personal brand and go get your name and face out there!

Your turn: First of all, you should be leaving a comment on this post no matter what because I just explained why you need to. Now that we know that you will be leaving a comment, I would love to hear any experiences you’ve had with this tactic. Have you seen any positive impacts from commenting on other blogs or run into any ridiculously annoying comments? I would love to hear about it!