Over the past two month I have developed a fairly complex commenting strategy. You've probably noticed me on your blog. I'm the guy that tries to show up first and will try and keep coming back and adding to the conversation. (Note the try in that sentence)
What hasn't played into my consideration of commenting at all? NoFollow or DoFollow. I don't care if you choose to utilize either or. I'm there for the content/learning experience not the backlink. I don't care in the slightest about the SEO ramifications (this is coming from a former SEO practitioner btw).
Some SEO people are probably scratching out their eyeballs now. But I adhered to the Tad Chef model of SEO 2.0/just enjoyed solid posts and blog articles and commented accordingly.
What have I learned from this experience? I've gotten more traffic from just adding value to a variety of blogs then simply by leaving hackneyed comments of "Great Job!" and "A+ writing!" on DoFollows. I look for interesting posts and comment...it isn't rocket science.
The result after a solid 1-2 months of commenting? Better Alexa rating, more comments on my own blog, and exposure. I always say that I just need to get into the room with someone to convince them of my merit. Otherwise, I'm just a dumb 24 year old kid.
Unless I can PROVE that I add value, no one is going to be interested in anything that I have to say. I can get as much untargeted Stumbleupon, Digg, and Reddit traffic from Linkbait as I want. (Not all the time mind you...) However, I'm writing for conversation, education, business development and thought leadership (I hate that term btw).
I write this blog to incite conversation about concepts and ideas that I find interesting within the space in which I work. At least half of the ideas that you find on here are incomplete or still works in progress. I use them as a way to organize my thoughts and crowdsource solutions/feedback. Basically for me this blog acts as a "longform Twitter".
For me the best part of writing this blog is the conversation that inevitably continues in the comments below. What are your thoughts on this style of blogging? Should I go for more detailed thoughts? Or am I on the right path?
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tagged as blog commenting, commenting strategy, dofollow, nofollow, nofollow commenting, social media commenting
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
It's funny, I was just talking about this same thing with someone else. We have noticed a trend – men tend to like to write blog posts that teach, and don't seem as concerned with the conversation – although many do. I might be completely off base, but she brought up that interesting point to think about.
I prefer conversation style because I learn more from the comments than my actual post – like you, many of my posts are incomplete thoughts that I want to discuss further with brighter minds than my own.
-L
II think you have the right idea; you have to organize your thoughts somehow, why not do it in a place where you can learn/grow and have other people help you figure it out? The first step is making others aware that you’re out there; open and willing to even have that conversation in the first place. Why not start by reaching out to them first?
As far as proving that you can add value, I've always been on the fence about that. While yes, it's important that you bring something to the conversation, I think we learn by engaging. There’s a lot of value in consistently engaging and making an effort to contribute as well.
Love your blog, and enjoy reading. Keep up your style, not just because it's your own, but because it will evolve as you do. Still trying to figure it all out myself
Stuart; I enjoy your comments! You have a fresh perspective. I look forward to more in my email!
I think your approach is the correct one for long term sustainable gains. You can run around gaining hits and readers but if you don't have something to offer them, they won't stick around. By adding quality comments to supplying quality content to your readers everyone wins.
Great job!
Always glad to see case studies where actually my approach works. It works for me, I sometimes even drop links in comments btw. 
but sometimes I have the impression that many more people don't believe it could work for them than actually try to implement it.
Kudos for not caring about SEO from other blogs' comments, but what about your blog? Which do you enable here? I offer DoFollow on mine.
But a bigger question looms in my mind: Do you care if the blogger whose article you add a comment clicks to your blog and adds a reciprocal comment? Does there come a time–does it matter?–when you've posted one too many comments at XYZ blog if that blogger doesn't come to yours?
Agreed, I don't worry about follow vs nofollow because the aim is to get interested readers to visit my site. While improved search rankings do help–by making a site more easily discovered in the future–comment links create a direct path here and now.
In particular, they bring targeted traffic from blog readers who already have an interest in the topic. This is far more useful than the potential traffic from search engines. The trick of course is to be relevant. I wrote more about this awhile back in Enhance your reputation & increase traffic by joining discussions on other blogs. One of the keys in my mind is to comment naturally on articles you find worthwhile. If you read something and have an immediate reaction, thought or question, then add it. If nothing comes to mind then don't force a comment, just enjoy the read.
As for your blog style, yes, I think you are on the right path. My own blog tends to be written in more of a teaching style, but that's because I began it when I worked at a university and was using it to give advice and tips to our campus Web maintainers. The goals have evolved over the years but the style stuck, and it seems to work for me and my readers.
Mano Singham, a professor friend from those days uses his blog to work out his thoughts for future articles and other publications. He's recently been writing a series of entries on the subject of “torture” and has a book coming out later this year that evolved from a series of posts he'd done regarding the teaching of evolution. I think any style that helps us formulate our ideas AND connect with our readers is the right approach. Happy Blogging!
Got a suspicion that Google looks at and uses nofollow links to some extent, so feel the whole nofollow/dofollow debate is starting to become a moot point. Nofollow has grown beyond Google's intent and wouldn't be surprised if they just stopped considering it (if they haven't already).
You're for sure on the right track with your blogging/commenting style. First off, if it works for you and does what you need it to do, the rest doesn't really matter. Beyond that, when I see your comments around the web I usually (not always) end up learning something that adds to the original post.
And your posts here are often damn insightful and look at topics in a way I didn't consider before, or are statements that I completely agree with and are just put so eloquently they become a resource to share with others.
Having said that, I'd personally be interested in a few posts here and there that go into full depth on a topic and take us on a journey of how the Stuart Foster looks at a certain idea, why, and how to utilize that knowledge to our (and our readers/clients) benefit.
Depends whether you're writing this blog for yourself or for others. And who they are. If the former, then it serves a purpose as a means of not only organizing thoughts but helping you realize what you actually know. If for an audience (of people other than bloggers who are simply here in order to reciprocate) then you probably need to offer something useful enough to make it worth their time.
Good post, I commenting is a good way to build traffic. And if you have a product that targets blog webmasters, every comment you leave on small to medium blogs will be read by them so they might even wind up buying your product.
How do you track blogs to see when their newest posts come out? Just watch feed burner, or google tracking somehow?
I'd say that you're on the right path. I don't care if a blog is “no-follow” or “do-follow” either. Think of it this way, the back-link is just a bonus. What I'm looking for is the interaction/engagement.
I've established excellent blogging relationships with other bloggers simply because we've gotten to know one another via the comments. This has led to increased subscribers and a larger community.
Is it some form of irony to comment on this blog post?
But really, you are so dead on with this post, I totally agree. With so many people that are new to the blogosphere and social media running around trying to learn how to interact, there needs to be a standard or code of ethics being taught…explaining HOW to interact correctly, which means genuinely. Unfortunately, some people just can't be genuine. All they care about are links and SEO and driving traffic to their site's landing pages.
All you can do is keep setting a good example and hope for the best.
Yes and No. I think that as the search engines still rank sites according to inbound links that are follow it matters to have inbounds. Thats the No answer. The yes side of things (I always try to see the flipside if I can) is that commenting on blogs adds your thoughts to the topic and this adds value. If we pretend that search engines don't exist then this is a good stategy. So I think Yes and No!
Yes and No. I think that as the search engines still rank sites according to inbound links that are follow it matters to have inbounds. Thats the No answer. The yes side of things (I always try to see the flipside if I can) is that commenting on blogs adds your thoughts to the topic and this adds value. If we pretend that search engines don't exist then this is a good stategy. So I think Yes and No!
Yes and No. I think that as the search engines still rank sites according to inbound links that are follow it matters to have inbounds. Thats the No answer. The yes side of things (I always try to see the flipside if I can) is that commenting on blogs adds your thoughts to the topic and this adds value. If we pretend that search engines don't exist then this is a good stategy. So I think Yes and No!
Yes and No. I think that as the search engines still rank sites according to inbound links that are follow it matters to have inbounds. Thats the No answer. The yes side of things (I always try to see the flipside if I can) is that commenting on blogs adds your thoughts to the topic and this adds value. If we pretend that search engines don't exist then this is a good stategy. So I think Yes and No!