I have already informed you about importance of commenting and how to get free backlinks. How often I get comments here at Shoutmeloud in which self promotion links are added and where people add a note “I hope you will accept my link with this comment”.
One of the first thing, which strike into my mind seeing such notes, such commentators are kind of sure their comment will not get approved. Though for such commentators , its not always the same. Any blogger including me will love to see useful and informative link with comments only if,
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Genuine comments
If the comment is being added as a reason to add values instead of self promotion or for traffic drive. There are many ways to judge this, and I’m sure being a blogger I don’t need to tell you about this.
Active commentator
Usually when a new commentator join any blog,they have two approach. Participation or self promotion. Bloggers love participation and may let self promotion in if the the commentator is participating in a way or other. Imagine a new commentator joined your blog, added 10 comments on 10 different posts, with 5 self promotion links in those 1o comments. Do you intend to accept such comments?
Attitude
Attitude again plays a great role while commenting. I have seen this by the me and some of my blogger friends accept comments. If some one is being very offensive or while replying to other comments being very attacking, its a negative approach and it hurts the other feelings. While commenting or replying to any one comments, make sure you respect every one views. Your views will be appreciated only if you present them in the best possible way.
How to get your link comments approved by other blogger?
This is quite tricky and may or may not work, but IMO this will work in many cases. Understand the meaning of comment form in a post, it does not mean , you need to reply using nice post or great post. Add values to the post by giving your own view. If you feel very much connected write a detailed comment or a nice 2-3 line comment will do the needful. Where ever required, add a link to different domains, which add more value to post ideas. This way you will become a legit commentator and any blogger will appreciate your comments and links embedded within it.
I may be wrong here, but this is what I have learned from my experience in part one year. I will love to know your review and opinion on the same. Will you accept all the self promotion link added by your commentator, or what kind of criteria you have set to accept such comments?
Article by Harsh Agrawal
Harsh has written 945 articles.
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
I read elsewhere and find this formula works in most cases:
Informative + Personal.
Yes, I do accept these types of comments. Should be genuine and add some value.
I totally agree with you Harsh. In today’s blogging scenario people are rather in much hurry to promote their blog/website that they even don’t read the complete article and jump down to the comments section with – “nice post” or “good information” and hurriedly summit their comment with the sole motive of getting the back link. I personally feel that the whole essence of blogging lies in the fact that you read the whole article before putting your comments on it, whether you agree with the author or not is an entirely different issue, and even if you disagree, put your views forward in a very soft and polite manner, which, I believe also go a long way in building your relationship with the author or blogger.
Thanks.
Yes, i agree most bloggers just read the titles and share their posts related to the topic.
I second your Opinion Ravi and probably 80% of blogger does the same mistake in the beginning, may be because of ignorance or just to get the backlinks. But I find it ok, reason being they are not aware of reputation management here. I’m sure this pot will help many users here.
I will accept the link in comment if related with article.
Dana Accepting a comment is not the thing here, but until unless its been added with the motivation of adding values but not the sole purpose of self promotion. Thanks for your comment.
On some popular blogs some Posts are not even worth commenting but still people comment on it and keep the discussion going !
Greed of a the back link , self promotion sucks ! Instead of wasting time in having a commenting strategy on popular blogs on regular basis ( just for the sake of doing it ) It’s better to FOCUS on Quality SEO Optimized Useful and Niche Content on self blog
I would be glad just to get comments on my blogs never mind links!
Rakesh its not the greed of backlinks , its mostly Exposure and traffic and also love. People are in love with such blogs. May be in a way or other those little posts add some point of interest to them. Example take any small post of mashable which is usually 300 words, but see at the list of comments and you will realize what I mean here..
The hard part is I guess whether to approve a “Thank you” comment for an informative post. It’s hard to differentiate at times whether it’s a spam or not
I understand Michael, we feel good to see some one enjoy the post but same time realize this thank you must be just a gatway to backlink
Is there any blogger that also want to put their blog on comment for extra promotion? I get lots of spam on my blog, most of commentator just put link , with saying few words, I really hate such type of comment.
It will never cease to amaze me just how many people (not spam bots) will take the time to write a halfway decent comment and than drop a link in. Why bother?
My new thing is editing comments and removing links it makes me smile inside, just a little bit.
Hey Harsh …. I got the Point…. Nice Post
BTW : Won’t you Post for a Vote Appeal for SML…
http://multivote.sparklit.com/web_poll.spark/21900 by Indibloggies
I have already voted there….
Though there is DI in the nominees I think you have good chance to Win…..
Hey Deb
Thanks for your comment and heads up. I have still not decided that should I actually write a post on it for asking for vote or should I keep it natural. Still wondering :0 . And Thanks a lot for your vote.. I much appreciate that..
I don’t think there is anything wrong in a Vote Appeal….
In fact you could just write a post that the “The Indibloggies Blog Awards for 2008 are goinn one…” The Prizes are …. the nominees are …
I am sure most of your readers are not aware of it…..
Unless the comment contains a live link, or comments on several of my posts in a very short time frame, I have no issue approving comments.
I may not feel like it adds to the post, but someone else may and the commentator may feel like it has, so for that reason I approve them.
I agree with you here FAQPAL, atleast that commentator read your posts and add links which adding value in a way or other. In that case I will not mind accepting links.
I have noticed that you always get those users with short comments. What I normally do is visit their site and I can tell (a gift I have) if the user is just commenting to get a link or if they have really read the post and giving me their opinion.
I guess as your blog envolves, you can pick up quickly who is just commenting for the sake of backlinks.
The whole purpose of comments is to provide value for the actual post and nothing more. Personal chit-chat should in my opinion take place somewhere else like Twitter. Link spammers are the worst, when they try to stick their links everywhere. Even though their comments may be valid it pisses me off, that they nearly always put a link to their own post. Many times I just remove the links from the comments and then publish the actual comment.
While we are bashing commentators, how about all you bloggers who do NOT take the time to actually go through comments that have been marked as spam.
Sometimes this so called “spammers” are not spammers and have something to contribute.
Please, take the time it takes to go through the spam.
I can’t say about others but I personally visit spam folder and pull up genuine comments from there. I also try to convey this message to commentator that his comment is being cached as spam by Akismet. but sometime when no. of spam is more than 100, I have to skip it.
Cool one, jus now I have subscribed to this as its so interesting. Hey I would like to know how to add the footer categories below, and also the twitter and facebook icons at the left side. I am using Thesis too.
Personally, I think site owners often take liberties with their visitors comments. Sure, it’s your site, you can publish a comment or delete it, but I find it offensive when my comment is published without the link. It’s just not fair play.
I disagree with Typo Tat. It is my blog and I’ll remove useless links anytime I want. However I’ve also added a reply with a link to the commentors site if it is worthwhile. Engage others in meaningful discussion and your comments will be valued.