Don't Be a Comment Whore: Attract Traffic, Not Annoyance

I recently got an email from someone who had seen one of my other blogs. He sent me a note saying he had just started his own blog, and he had been advised to get the word out by posting comments on other sites ("a tactic affectionately known as 'comment whoring,'" he said). He said he didn't leave a comment on my blog because the topics were so dissimilar, but he was sending me an email to let me know about it anyway in case my interests included designer baby wipes.

This was timely for me, because I'd recently made the decision to delete a couple of comments here that struck me like they might be spam. I wasn't a hundred percent sure, but I didn't want anything up here that might make my readers think that I allow spam, so I deleted them.

I'm not against people posting comments on my blog to attract traffic to their own sites. Leaving comments on other blogs is a great way to introduce yourself to a community of bloggers and readers who share your interests. Here are a few tips for the people whose posts I deleted on how to make sure it doesn't happen again--and for anyone else considering comment whoring. There's a better way.

Don't write like a total cretin. I'm not saying you have to sound like a genius in every comment. But don't write so badly nobody understands you, either. One of the comments I deleted was barely intelligible, with lots of abbreviations like "ur" for "your" (that's my least favorite of all those Instant Message abbreviations. Ur is a city in Iraq, people. It doesn't even sound like the word "your.")

If you're just commenting for the sake of commenting, a few typos and non-perfect grammar won't get you deleted. But if you're really, really bad, the administrator might mistake your comment for spam. And if you want to attract traffic back to your own site, the last thing you want is to sound like a moron to everyone else on the blog. Nobody likes to read bad writing, and nobody will want to check out your blog after seeing a badly-written comment.

Avoid those "nice post" one-liners. Some administrators delete these, but I often let those comments slide in my blog and give the commenters the benefit of the doubt. But if you want to attract traffic and attention to your own blog, you're going to have to do better. Consider each comment you make to be a tiny "teaser" for the type of writing you do on your blog. Write something interesting and thoughtful that adds to the discussion. Most readers will ignore a link from a "nice post" comment, especially if this is a highly-trafficked blog with a lot of commenters. But if you write something interesting, entertaining or thoughtful, you'll definitely make people want to read more.

Be selective about the blogs you comment on. I'm not saying that people who aren't business writers shouldn't comment on this blog. I don't care if you blog on stock markets or Santa Claus, or if you don't blog at all. If you have something to say in response to one of my posts, feel free to say it.

But if you're trying to get the word out about your own blog, focus your efforts on blogs that cover the same or similar topics. There's a ready-made audience of readers on those blogs, and they're likely to be interested in your writing. Plus, if the blogger likes your site, she might write a post about you, link to you in her blogroll, or write a response post to something you've recently said. The more attention you get from other bloggers, the more quickly your audience will grow.

Plugging your product? Be careful. In general, it's usually best to avoid salesy writing and specific sales pitches when commenting for traffic. The idea is to sound like just another commenter, although smarter or more interesting than the usual. You do not want the administrator or the audience to think you have an outside agenda for posting there.

However, there are times when it's more permissible than others. If someone wrote a post in response to something I've written or on the same subject recently, I'm happy for them to link to it in the comments section for the post I wrote. It's better if you write a paragraph about the issue, not just throw up the link.

When I wrote a bunch of posts on Elance recently, somebody from oDesk, another online bidding site, left a few promotional comments. I considered deleting them, but decided that some of my readers might be interested in oDesk, so I decided to leave them up. If you're going to do this, do it only on posts that discuss something extremely relevant to that product. Try to keep your tone casual, write a thoughtful comment on the topic, and throw the link in at the end as an aside. You want people to think you're commenting there after work or on a lunch break--not trying to sell something.

Leaving comments isn't just about getting your link up in as many places as possible. It's also about introducing yourself to a community. Make sure you pick the right community, put your best foot forward, and avoid being promotional. Think quality rather than quantity, and grow your audience over time--and you're sure to see success.