Blog commenting - what it really takes?

[sharrydan]

Are you doing blog commenting? Can you share what it takes? Is it as demanding as for me?

I am trying to learn how to do that right way. I search for blogs that accept comments, I read them and always try to contribute to the conversation.

Yet, on 90% of blogs, all my writings, each of which takes from 15 to 45 minutes, are simply gone as soon as I press the Submit button. And they never appear on the blog. The usual result that I see is comments before and after the date I have tried to post mine. And that's always the same, no matter how long I wait. My comments simply do not appear there even if I check back after a month or two.

So, if I work hard enough for about 12 hours, all I manage to harvest is just 2 or 3 comments that stick.

I know that commenting takes both time and effort. But the way it works for me seems, hmm, a little too tough.

I need to say all at once that I never spam, I do my best to contribute. But my comments do not appear even on blogs where there are tons of spam comments before and after my attempt.

Can anyone comment on this? What can I possibly be doing wrong?

So for example, here is a blog stuffed with spam comments so that it could not be worse.

blog.lib.umn.edu/raim0007/RaeSpot/040259.html

I normally do not comment on this type of pages. But here I made an experiment. I tried to leave a comment on August 8. See what type of comments are accepted there before and after. But mine is not there. Why? And this is really typical for wherever I try.

So I wonder if anyone experiences something similar. Or, even better, anyone who has found the reason for such and way out?

[fluffythewondercat]

Are you using keywords in the Name field? That will get your comment dropped in some cases.

Try leaving a comment on my blog and I'll see if I can help you.

fLufF
--

[sharrydan]

... and, yeah, it is not platform related. For some time, I was thinking that it was only for Wordpress blogs where I was not able to comment. But now I find that this is the same also on other platforms.

Very, very, very few blogs allow me to comment.

Since I do not have other type of blog commenting experience, I would appreciate if you share yours...

Tell me, for example, how many manual blog comments approximately would you be able to produce working 12 hours only doing that? If you read my previous post, you may know that my score was 3 the other day

[PaulV]

I think you are spending far too long on writing comments if it takes you 15-45 minutes.

You really shouldn't be spending more than a couple minutes to put together a useful comment, especially since you've had such trouble.

As Fluff mentioned above, some blogs will not accept the comment if the keyword is in your Name field. So try seeing what others are doing and replicate. Put the keyword in the text field when necessary.

Hope this will help you out.

- Paul

[David Morris]

I usually outsource these type of tasks for cheap - Your time is way to precious to be going around commenting on blogs for link juice and exposure!

[sharrydan]

Thanks, Fluffy!

My comment sits there (from Egil) awaiting moderation which is in itself an outstanding fact for me to get that message. Most often, my comments disappear without trace.

Keywords in Name cannot be to blame here. I have tried a lot, with and without keywords, the outcome is very much the same.

If you saw the blog I mentioned in my previous post, all s..t is being accepted there in Name. But my comment just vanishes

[Sohel Parvez]

Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat

Are you using keywords in the Name field? That will get your comment dropped in some cases.

Try leaving a comment on my blog and I'll see if I can help you.

fLufF
--

ifyou use keywords in the Name field on WP blog Akismet may catch it for Spam.

[sharrydan]

Originally Posted by PaulV

I think you are spending far too long on writing comments if it takes you 15-45 minutes.

You really shouldn't be spending more than a couple minutes to put together a useful comment, especially since you've had such trouble.

As Fluff mentioned above, some blogs will not accept the comment if the keyword is in your Name field. So try seeing what others are doing and replicate. Put the keyword in the text field when necessary.

Hope this will help you out.

- Paul

Thank you, Paul.

I do replicate. I try with or without keywords in Name. The result is always very much the same.

Yeah, far too much time. But I am new to IM, and I hope that the time will reduce as I get my hand beaten

[sharrydan]

Originally Posted by David Morris

I usually outsource these type of tasks for cheap - Your time is way to precious to be going around commenting on blogs for link juice and exposure!

Could not agree more, David. I plan outsourcing. Right after I earn my first buck

[sharrydan]

No, please, keywords in name is definitely not the problem here. In the blog I mentioned in my first post, all good and evil gets accepted. But my comments vanish.

Who can explain that?

[kaytav]

Autoapprove High PR Blogs are very hard to find . You can buy a list of autoapprove blogs , and then do comments on them and again harvest more urls from the same domains .

[joshcoffy]

Hmmm. That is wierd that your name doesn't show up..

Blog commenting is definitely something that I do for 4 Reasons:

1. Back-links. Whenever you post a comment on someone’s blog, you are creating a back-link to your site! The more back-links, the merrier! Google absolutely loves back-links, meaning you should love back-links!

2. Traffic. Through commenting on highly trafficked blogs, you can open the doors for that traffic to trickle to your blog! (I have done some blog commenting on several TOP earners in the industry and have received TONS of traffic from it because I was on their front page for “recent comments” for 2 days!)

3. Friendship/Connections. By giving positive comments and feedback, you engage with the author (and sometimes other viewers) and you begin establishing trust and friendship! This is one of the most vital keys to being successful online! This is a PEOPLE based business! People join YOU! Not your BUSINESS!

4.Learning.The best part about this entire process is that you will be able to learn from other people! You will be able to expand your knowledge of marketing tactics other people are using, see what your competition is doing, and learn what NOT to do. lol. (I have encountered some really bad blogs in my time and whenever I see those, I tell myself I will never do that..)

Keep commenting and let's ROCK it out!

[fluffythewondercat]

Originally Posted by sharrydan

Thanks, Fluffy!

My comment sits there (from Egil) awaiting moderation which is in itself an outstanding fact for me to get that message. Most often, my comments disappear without trace.

I approved your comment before I even knew it was you. (I'm sure Preacher appreciates your vote!) I think my standards are probably tougher than some: a commenter has to give some indication they actually read the article.

So I'm at a loss to explain your experience. On the other hand, I don't go back to blogs to see if my comment was posted, and I don't keep track, so perhaps my record is as poor as yours.

As for the time thing, smart bloggers use bullet points and summarize each paragraph in a heading, so you can just run your eye down the headings, pick one that intrigues you, and comment on that.

I'm with Josh: people visit people.

fLufF
--

[Alexa Smith]

Sveiks, Sharrydan!

Originally Posted by sharrydan

Are you doing blog commenting? Can you share what it takes? Is it as demanding as for me?

Not quite, but I hear you. It is demanding, and it isn't easy. And it's essential to target relevant sites, and to make comments which genuinely add value. And all of that is time-consuming.

But very worthwhile, because you can get relevant backlinks out of it (as well as other potential benefits mentioned by others above). And that's really valuable, regardless of page-rank.

Originally Posted by sharrydan

So, if I work hard enough for about 12 hours, all I manage to harvest is just 2 or 3 comments that stick.

Ooh, well, I admit I'm doing a little better than that ... I estimate one per hour (maybe sometimes one per hour-and-a-half) for a very valuable backlink.

But when you think that the link-juice of that backlink can easily be worth the link-juice of 100,000 non-context-relevant, PR-0 article directory backlinks, it's still a very good deal.

I have no "quick solution" for you. Just the observations that (i) it does get easier when you get more used to it; and (ii) it can be worth taking "probable ease/difficulty of blog commenting" into account in choosing your niches.

Visu labu!

[ryanrob]

I use blog commenting, although you do need a great deal or patience as this is a long term strategy. It sounds like the blogs you are posting om are seeing your comments as spam.

[Dele]

sharrydan, perhaps this article may be of some help to you.

=> 15 DoFollow Blog Commenting Tips That Will Get Your Blog Comments Instant Approval

[fluffythewondercat]

I just left a comment on someone's blog and as is so often the case, he was using Disqus.

It occurred to me that Disqus may be able to block IPs by country and they may be blocking Latvia.

Perhaps you should try commenting via a proxy server and see if you get better results.

fLufF
--

[ymest]

Well, I am getting desperate re finding good blogs in one of my niches! It is health related and there doesn't seem to be anything worth out there! Maybe serious health niches are more difficult to locate since the issues are sensitive and most of the people with health blogs aren't doctors etc.....

Desperation, desperation and desperation.....

[sharrydan]

@ Fluff
Thank you, your comments gave me an invaluable thread. Even though I cannot imagine why any system would want to block my country, I cannot exclude such a possibility.
I am more inclined though to think that this can be something connected with my ISP. When I strain my memory, I can remember that I had e-mail problems a few years ago that turned out to be caused by their IP being blacklisted in some spammer blacklist...
But I would never have come to this idea on my own if you had not written...

@ Alexa
I have not come really into the habit to watch the relevancy. What I have read from IM experts, they are about 50/50 as regards the importance of relevancy. So I have not been really stretching myself for relevancy. I am, after all, quite new to this stuff, so I am just trying to beat my hand a little commenting here and there
But I managed nevertheless to get a bit discouraged by seeing how seldom my comments stick or get approved, and I really doubt that those disappearing ever come up to any moderator. Most likely not.

How come that you sound so Latvian?

[sharrydan]

@ Dele

Thank you for the link. I read the article. Yes, that's a good one. But my problem seems to be a little different though.

Left a comment. It stands very nicely "awaiting moderation". That's an achievement!

@ Everyone

Warm thank you to all of you for your help. However strange, when I comment on your blogs, my comments stick. I am not far from recovering self-confidence with blog commenting

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by sharrydan

@ Alexa
I have not come really into the habit to watch the relevancy. What I have read from IM experts, they are about 50/50 as regards the importance of relevancy.

Ooh, I've read and talked to different experts (easily done!) ... "mine" are 90% that relevance matters.

Originally Posted by sharrydan

I managed nevertheless to get a bit discouraged by seeing how seldom my comments stick or get approved, and I really doubt that those disappearing ever come up to any moderator. Most likely not.

Well ... I'm not convinced about this (though you may be right, of course). But can it possibly be that this "relevance" issue will also significantly increase the proportion accepted? Worth trying, perhaps?

Originally Posted by sharrydan

How come that you sound so Latvian?

I just happen to speak a few words. I have friends in Riga.

[LarryC]

I sometimes do blog commenting, but I'm going to respond from the perspective of a blog owner, as I have quite a few and am constantly moderating. I delete at least 90% of the comments -most are blatant spam. I'm sure this is typical. Yet this fact can work in your favor, as the bar is set pretty low when it comes to the quality of blog comments. Even one or two coherent sentences that have some relevance to the blog are a welcome relief! Another thing I look at is the URL. I don't like comments that link to irrelevant sites or affiliate links, as I feel this does my own site more harm than good.

[LannaW]

Some blogs have comment moderation on. Many time when I submitted my comments I didn't see the "comment moderation" message showing up either. It seems my comment just disappeared. But I tried not to submit it again. I know if I do, my comment will be marked as spams for sure. I don't know that could be your situation or not. Just a thought.

[celente]

Originally Posted by David Morris

I usually outsource these type of tasks for cheap - Your time is way to precious to be going around commenting on blogs for link juice and exposure!

yes one of our niches blog comments far outpulls sales than another other traffic tactic, yes even paid traffic.

I just think its still a great way to make money doing this.

We do not do this, we just outsource this to english speaking people. But we test them first. Make them do say 15 comments and we test them to see how long it took an the quality of the comment.

Then we rehire the good commentors that put in the hard work. And do not touch the people that give us poor stuff.

We have literally created a business from the ground up and build huge lists from blog commenting alone. It depends on your niche but I guess. Like I said for our one niche, blog commenting works better than anything else. ITs a great way to not only to get traffic, but highly targeted traffic, and if you send them to a nice sales page with good copy. Whammo.... you will see GOOD RESULTS.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[Dahlia Valentine]

Sharrydan... do you use a Gravatar showing a picture of yourself? When moderating my own comments I pay close attention to comments without pictures of people, because often spammers.

And keep the keywords out of the name, unless the blog is KeywordLuv enabled. That's another spammer signal.

Blog commenting has been a major part of my IM strategy from day 1.

But I only post comments to blogs that are relevant to my niche. I can't speak for everyone, but that's what works for me 100% of the time. My comments stick and I've made some awesome friends along the way.

If you're going to spend all that time writing comments, then at least post to blogs where your customers are. Trust me, it works.

[PaulV]

Originally Posted by sharrydan

Thank you, Paul.

I do replicate. I try with or without keywords in Name. The result is always very much the same.

Yeah, far too much time. But I am new to IM, and I hope that the time will reduce as I get my hand beaten

Yes, as you move along you should become more familiar with the process. I still think you're spending way too long.

Next post you do, just graze the main topic and add something appreciative about the post and reference the topic slightly but you do not need create some profound insight or anything.

Just keep it simple.

And also one thing that might help is to see what the date was of the last accepted post.

Sometimes you will find blogs have posts of many accepted comments that obviously have keywords in them and some may even look like spammy comments.

But the administrator will shut off accepting comments and will never accept your comment no matter what.

So if you see the last comment accepted is 1 year ago then either skip this or leave a pretty simple comment and do not spend much time on it at all, since the likelyhood of it being accepted could be pretty slim.

I hope this helps!

- Paul

[SteveRocks]

My best suggestion for you is to create a list of websites related to your niche, and which provide you facility of registration....So, after registration you will get your each comment listed...........And what about 15-45 minutes about a single comment.....I never spent more that 5 minutes posting a comment....:P

[glinda2011]

Only comment on blogs related to your website. Avoid spamming.

[bloomingrose]

[QUOTE=Dahlia Valentine;4462923]Sharrydan... do you use a Gravatar showing a picture of yourself? When moderating my own comments I pay close attention to comments without pictures of people, because often spammers.

Dahlia Valentine - can you make a Gravatar for every niche?

Blog commenting has been a major part of my IM strategy from day 1.
Yes, but it is easy to get sidetracked and spend too much time on others sites and not developing your own.


Also - you might try commentkahuna.com - a free resource. Also try the phrase "powered by soapblox" in conjunction with your niche.

Good luck!

[Dahlia Valentine]

[quote=bloomingrose;4463170]

Originally Posted by Dahlia Valentine

Sharrydan... do you use a Gravatar showing a picture of yourself? When moderating my own comments I pay close attention to comments without pictures of people, because often spammers.

Dahlia Valentine - can you make a Gravatar for every niche?

Blog commenting has been a major part of my IM strategy from day 1.
Yes, but it is easy to get sidetracked and spend too much time on others sites and not developing your own.

You can make a separate Gravatar for each e-mail address. Then depending on the site you're commenting on you just use the appropriate e-mail address.

Blog commenting is as simple as leaving a 1 paragraph comment, that takes me 5 minutes to write. It's not like I'm writing a full-fledged article.

Besides, I comment to generate traffic and make connections with other bloggers, so for me it's worth the work.

[Heidi White]

My take - if you are good at this blog commenting strategy, like doing it, and enjoy making friends along the way - great - continue.

If you're not good at it, or it takes too long, and no friends are being made - and no comments are getting approved - then by all means - try outsourcing that job.

[newgenlead]

I know some site have auto or easy comment with high PR and high alexa rank:

1. Johnchow.com
2. http://www.csulb.edu/org/cultural/chinese-society/
3. USF Premed AMSA

[sharrydan]

Originally Posted by PaulV

Just keep it simple.

Yeah, I feel I need a bit more relaxed attitude. I still have to overcome a certain strain when I comment.

Originally Posted by PaulV

So if you see the last comment accepted is 1 year ago then either skip this or leave a pretty simple comment and do not spend much time on it at all, since the likelyhood of it being accepted could be pretty slim.

I hope this helps!

- Paul

I value a lot your advice. I have seen these situations more than once, and I have figured out a conclusion like this. But your comment reinforces that idea and gives me some proof that that's the way things really work, and it is not only in my head where they exist.

[design2convert]

Originally Posted by David Morris

I usually outsource these type of tasks for cheap - Your time is way to precious to be going around commenting on blogs for link juice and exposure!

Very nice,, i am also doing in the same way, Time is so precious no doubt.

[jackwebson]

My maximum time of commenting on blogs is 3 to 4 minutes only cause I know majority of it will not be posted after you submitted it. I had also the same issue with you that's why from now on I don't really spend too much time on making relevant comments. I'd rather outsource this job rather than wasting my time contributing comments and not be posted anyway.

[Kronom]

"Yet, on 90% of blogs, all my writings, each of which takes from 15 to 45 minutes, are simply gone as soon as I press the Submit button. And they never appear on the blog. The usual result that I see is comments before and after the date I have tried to post mine. And that's always the same, no matter how long I wait. My comments simply do not appear there even if I check back after a month or two."[CENTER][/CENTER

I was about to say that you are spreading yourself too thin, the situation is exactly opposite. You are not allowing enough diversity whilst wasting a lot of time. In 12 hours you could possibly create a podcast (if not 2-3) related to your article or a couple of videos that would actually be yours whilst not being on the mercy of other blog administrators. I am trying to backlink in such a way that I do not rely on other people too much for this.

I understand that decent blogs can really give you a good link juice, but I am not experienced enough (I think) to make significant contribution to my niche, ensuring that my post would stick.

If I was you, I would focus on what you doing, but a lot less. Maybe spend 2 hours a day, whist using a programme called Article Ideas or Tip Builder, they would search the net and find related information that you require that would help you making good comments or posts a lot quicker.

Spend the rest of the time creating a real diversity of your backlinks.

Start with three or four methods (lower quality article blasts, manual high quality article submissions, forum commenting + blogging). Then, when you are quite to speed in reaching your daily numbers for each, add another method.

[billspaced]

I would bet that it's your country or ISP. Try a free proxy service (google "free proxy") and see if that helps.

You may find some success. I would try this on different niches, too. Just a couple thoughts.

[Dele]

Originally Posted by sharrydan

@ Dele

Thank you for the link. I read the article. Yes, that's a good one. But my problem seems to be a little different though.

Left a comment. It stands very nicely "awaiting moderation". That's an achievement!

Your comment showed up on my blog and i have approved it.

I left a further comment for you, on the post.

[PaulV]

Originally Posted by sharrydan

I value a lot your advice. I have seen these situations more than once, and I have figured out a conclusion like this. But your comment reinforces that idea and gives me some proof that that's the way things really work, and it is not only in my head where they exist.

I am glad I was able to help you out in this situation. That might be the major problem, that maybe you were going after blogs that simply weren't accepting any comments at the time.

By targeting blogs that you know for sure are accepting comments it will make you work much easier and be far more fulfilling.

[sharrydan]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

I just happen to speak a few words. I have friends in Riga.

What a small world, Alexa! I live in Stelpe, and that's ~40 miles southeast Riga.

stelpe-our-home.blogspot.com

[sharrydan]

Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat

It occurred to me that Disqus may be able to block IPs by country and they may be blocking Latvia.

Perhaps you should try commenting via a proxy server and see if you get better results.

fLufF
--

Fluff,

I must admit you are the closest to the root. I must be a lousy writer if so many Warriors misunderstand me. How can I ever dare to become an Internet marketer, article author? It will obviously take a lot of work for me to learn to get my point across.

Following your advice, I am doing experiments on proxies today. I will let you know when I have some results.

Thank you again for being so diligent and the only one who dug the real meaning out of my clumsy writing.

[sharrydan]

Originally Posted by LarryC

I sometimes do blog commenting, but I'm going to respond from the perspective of a blog owner, as I have quite a few and am constantly moderating. I delete at least 90% of the comments -most are blatant spam. I'm sure this is typical. Yet this fact can work in your favor, as the bar is set pretty low when it comes to the quality of blog comments. Even one or two coherent sentences that have some relevance to the blog are a welcome relief! Another thing I look at is the URL. I don't like comments that link to irrelevant sites or affiliate links, as I feel this does my own site more harm than good.

Nor on my sites will comments with no relation to the content ever see daylight.

On the other hand, if you have read at least a couple of sentences, and you have, let the least important, thing to say about that, I will let your comment pass.

I am not too particular about the links either. If the comment content is relevant to my page, I don't care whether your link is relevant or not. And I do not care even whether you are a competitor or not. If you give a relevant comment to my blog, you deserve your link and you go with that.

What remains for me to find out is how to make the links do-follow for my commentators on the Wordpress platform. I really want to allow them do-follow. But I want some easy way to do that without tons of plugins and things.

Can anybody show me how to do that?

[sharrydan]

Originally Posted by PaulV

By targeting blogs that you know for sure are accepting comments it will make you work much easier and be far more fulfilling.

Paul, that's what the problem is.

I am not able to comment where I know for sure the comments are accepted. I only see tons of comments before and after my attempt, but my own vanishes.

Today I'm following Fluff's advice and test commenting via proxies assuming that some systems might be banning my ISP or even my whole country.

I will write here about the results.

[PaulV]

Originally Posted by sharrydan

Paul, that's what the problem is.

I am not able to comment where I know for sure the comments are accepted. I only see tons of comments before and after my attempt, but my own vanishes.

Today I'm following Fluff's advice and test commenting via proxies assuming that some systems might be banning my ISP or even my whole country.

I will write here about the results.

Ok. That would be good to test out.

If you do have a nice list of blogs and it still isn't working out for you then you can always go to Odesk and get some real quality people to do that for very inexpensive prices.

[Hein George]

I do not ever get good results from blog commenting, instead of you must perform other activities which shows quick results.

[dotgirish]

Commenting on high PR blogs is a pain. scrapebox blog commenting pointing to your money site will give you negative impact. I use blog commenting as a indexing tool nowadays.. I mean backlinking my backlinks

[rwbovee]

Something called online-sweepstakes.com won't delete your comment. Many blogs have online sweepstakes and you must leave a comment to enter, so they won't be deleting them.

[sharrydan]

No, a proxy does not appear to be a solution either. That must be some magic spell.

While there are some few places where I can comment, I cannot do that where most people can.

Even when I use proxy, my comments just vanish while I watch a couple or three rolling in behind me. It gives me such an awkward feeling!

They vanish even when I comment with my real name and without adding any links.

Obviously, I will have to resign to the thought that blog commenting is something far beyond my scope even though I would have loved it.

[sharrydan]

Originally Posted by rwbovee

Something called online-sweepstakes.com won't delete your comment. Many blogs have online sweepstakes and you must leave a comment to enter, so they won't be deleting them.

Thank you! That sounds smart. That must be also really easy to implement.

But, alas, not for me again.

Without proxy, I do not even have access to those blogs.

When I use proxy, my comments just keep vanishing, as I have seen that happen only too many times.

Meanwhile, I can watch comments from others roll in right after my attempt.

[sharrydan]

Originally Posted by dotgirish

Commenting on high PR blogs is a pain. scrapebox blog commenting pointing to your money site will give you negative impact. I use blog commenting as a indexing tool nowadays.. I mean backlinking my backlinks

I cannot say that commenting as such is any pain for me. I love doing comments, and I love visiting the sites of others.

But from now on, I will be writing comments only on my bedroom wall since that's the only place where they stick