Just about every single person that has ever given advice on blogging has suggested commenting on other blogs and getting involved in your niche. In fact, it’s so important that commenting earns you points towards fulfilling your daily blog score goal. However, one thing I’ve noticed throughout my life is that there are some people out there who absolutely must see something for themselves before they believe it. I know because I’m usually one of them. Anyway, I thought I’d give you “doubting Thomas” types some solid concrete evidence to back up the almost cliche advice to comment on other blogs.
Towards the end of last month, I picked a bit of a fight over on JohnChow.com. While wracking up the comments wasn’t my intent, I did record a new personal best for my daily blog score, as well as earn myself a spot on John’s list of top commentators. So, what did I get out of it? See for yourself. This is a screen shot of my referrals from JohnChow.com for the 15 days after I began commenting on his site.
(Click image for full size version)
As you can see, JohnChow.com sent 272 visitors to this site in 15 days. That’s on pace for more than 500 visitors in a month and an average of about 18 visits a day. Sure that’s only a fraction of John’s traffic numbers, however, there are plenty of sites out there that don’t get that many visitors total, in a month. As with most things that produce results, it does take some work. John’s site has a very active base of commentators, a significant portion of which only leave one line comments (spam in most books) just to pump up their comment count. However, I probably spend less than 20 minutes a day commenting on his site and at this stage in my blog’s development, one minute per visitor is a pretty good exchange. Not only that, but the traffic John sends me is highly targeted as well. People that read his blog are naturally more likely to be interested in the subjects I cover. The stats illustrate that point quite well as the referrals from JohnChow.com are more than twice as likely to subscribe than the average visitor to this site.
So, is commenting on other sites in your blog’s niche worth your time and effort? Looking at these numbers, you tell me…
Author: Ben
Updated: May, 2012
Find more on the top Theme Clubs and WordPress Themes with NTHEMES.
Updated: May, 2012
Updated: May, 2012
Recommended
If you are interested in learning more about Financial Planning including topics such as How To Budget Money, Debt Consolidation, and other financial related topics, be sure to check out our friends at LearnFinancialPlanning.com
Ugly or Pretty…
WordPress Plugins
Plugins give your WordPress powered site the added features and functionality you need to separate yourself from the pack. Learn more about the best WordPress Plugins.
I’ve found commenting on other blogs in my niche to be very helpful in gaining traffic that is interested in what I have to say. Plus commenting on blogs in your area of interest gets your name out there and establishes you as an authority.
Excellent entry as always. Very intriguing stuff. I visit in between 10-20 blogs every single day and try to comment on all of them as often as I can (as long as it is a useful comment). I’ve found that I owe much of my success thus far to commenting on other’s blogs – since my SEO niche is pretty saturated!.
Commenting establishes a bond between you and the author. I comment on sites that I really like even though our topics are different. Just do what is fun and comfortable for you so you will have no regrets.
I like to comment on anything I read if I have something useful to say, regardless of subject matter. I just like chatting in general. Last night I was thinking of this idea exactly, what would happen if I was top commentor on a popular blog and you’ve already done it! It seems from your results it could help out with sending visitors to you, but during that time did you happen to see if you check to see if you gained more RSS readers or if they returned? Just curious!
When I comment on another blog I do hope that people will see my comment and want to check out my blog – but another big reason I comment is to establish a relationship with the author of the blog I am commenting on. If you’re adding to their conversation and participating, it’s more likely that at some point in the future they might mention you, might link to you and show you some love. It’s all about building blogger relationships.
@ HarpersDad, you’re definitely right and in fact, John just mentioned the contest I’m hosting here in his miscellaneous ramblings post today. Not sure whether it was because I’m on the top commentator’s list or not but it sure doesn’t hurt
@ GnomeyNewt, the visitors that came here from John’s site definitely subscribed to the RSS feed. As I mentioned in the post, they subscribed at twice the site’s average rate.
Majority of the traffic I have coming to my blog is from commenting on other blogs. I actually enjoy commenting and starting discussions about topics that interest me. I know I enjoy comments on my blog, so why not give back and comment on other blogs that I visit? I only makes sense.
That’s some decent sized traffic coming in for simply commenting. Looks like I’ve gotta start commenting on John Chow’s blog more often and get in that top commentators spot!
Nice article. Look forward to reading more.
Hey Ben, I didn’t take the sentence to know that you got those results? Or they are just more likely to?
Good job cracking the top commentator’s list! I’ve only been commenting on his blog for a few days now, but I’ve noticed some traffic trickling in from his blog already. I only average about 50 visitors per day so any little bit helps. Keep up the good work sir.
commenting is definitely worth it — as long as the comments contribute to the discussion. i found your site today thru kingnomar’s comments on his webrank post. i thought it was an intelligent response and your site is the only one i decided to check out. if someone doesn’t have something to contribute to the discussion i most likely won’t check out their site.
I agree that commenting on blogs brings visitors, and in some cases (especially those cases where the new DOfollow trend is in force) increases backlinks to boot.. however, I wonder how different your stats would have been had you not been ‘fight picking’
Good info, and I’ve seen a similar trend. Just for commenting on a John Chow post gets me a number of new visits. I try to comment daily on high traffic sites, of course assuming I find something I can comment about.
I don’t do the “Nice post” or “Thanks” comments. I’ve found that by adding a little of value, or a good perspective I get more links.
What has generated the most traffic for me (600+ visits per day) is a popular StumbleUpon article. If you can get something highly stumbled, it’s AMAZING what it can do for your traffic.
The trick with Stumble is to catch the “surfers” attention. I’ve found placing a bright attention getting graphic at the top of your Stumble targeted post really helps. My top stumbled article had a picture of a bright red BMW M3 at the top.
I enjoy reading your site BlogEx, keep up the good work. Talk to you in the Authority Blogger Forum (yes this is a shameless plug…but hey, I like the forum!)
I only started this campaign of letting my name out there by commenting on blogs. I also received some comments too and I really started liking this. I look carefully for a good post and only then comment. When I have something to say. I didn’t yet start any controversy, but I am sure it is a good way to drive traffic. Most of the times people just agree with each others. I think that we should speak our minds if we’re not that pleased with the idea in the post. Making it in a nice respectful way with some good arguments too, would benefit the post in the blog (it would really start getting more interesting) and your traffic since people would come see who you are.
Try staying in the top commentator list! That bad boy is a feat in itself.
I’m thinking about submitting some guest articles to him to see what that will do as far as numbers.
My New Hustle | Make Money Online
Be the man, stop working for him.
@ cooliojones, glad you found the site! It’s definitely a task to stay up there towards the top of that list. The key I’ve found is to comment a few times a day rather than a bunch in a single day. Submitting a couple articles to him or any other high profile blogger would be a good idea. I can tell you, his site definitely drives traffic. I can only imagine how much you’d get if the article was about you (a review) or written by you.
Once again, welcome and good luck on the guest posts.
Being new to blogging I have this post to be very informative. I do not plan to make money with my blog but I am trying to generate more traffic. I think my current blog is to generic and I need a more targeted niche specific approach. Your blog is great, thanks for the information!!
Thanks! I’m glad you found it helpful. I took a quick look at your blog and would say that personal blogs are tough. I’ve tried one based on humor before and it can be tough to gain regular readers. I would say make sure you develop your voice and play around til you find something that works. Once you do, stick with whatever it is. Once you establish a trend of creating quality content, then I think you’ll start to win people over.