A common question for any blogger is attaining readership. It’s fun to get a blog up and running and pretty exciting for a few weeks thereafter, but it can be deflating a bit if no one is reading your material. One of the surest ways to generate traffic is by visiting other blogs and leaving relevant, thoughtful and valuable comments. It seems a bit counter intuitive and perplexing when you’re just getting started but rest assured – it works.
Here is a video from ProBlogger that proves this concept. Through the use of click mapping technology you can see that as people read a post and go through the comment section they click to find out more about the person leaving the comments. It is especially true of those who leave relevant and valuable comments. It’s just natural if you really think about.
Watch the video:
So, go ahead leave a comment!
Chris Shouse
June 19, 2008 at 10:49 am
Very interesting and I will have to think about it more but I know you provided a very good post. Thank you.
Vance Shutes
June 19, 2008 at 11:14 am
Shailesh,
One of the first things I learned as a noob blogger was the importance of adding to the discussion, not just glomming on to links that come from commenting. While my RSS list grows every day, and so many great articles come pouring in, there are few that move me enough to be able to add to the discussion. That’s not to say that the articles aren’t worthwhile, only that I’m unable to come up with something of substance that would make my comment add anything to the discussion. Clearly, your article here moved me enough to comment, and I only hope that I can add to future discussions.
Wayne Herman
June 19, 2008 at 11:15 am
Okay I’m venturing out here to ask questions about my new blog. Thanks for your post. I’m doing a blog for a television station and it resides on their web page. I began it just a couple months ago and comments have been sparse. Now that I feel a bit more comfortable blogging I’m going to ad one to my personal real estate business site as well. Is it okay to duplicate my content from one site to the other? I’m wondering if that confuses the search gods. Thanks for your help and any advise would be smiled upon.
Christopher Zabka
June 19, 2008 at 11:41 am
CrazyEgg looks awesome! Thanks!
Teresa Boardman
June 19, 2008 at 1:13 pm
A couple of thoughts, from things I have learned over the past few years. I do get comments on my blog, it gets traffic and it get me business. The people who have blogs are not always the same as the audiance I am writing for. There doesn’t seem to be a correlation between the number of comments and the business I generate. Not all comments are equal, not all traffic is equal. In a nut shell I guess I am happy that I do get comments on my blog, but do I really need them?
Benn Rosales
June 19, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Wayne, we’ve gone indepth on this issue in the past as others have elsewhere- duplicate content is horrible in search engines and can have some serious consequences with google.
It is best to do trackbacks backs from one blog to the next to increase reputation in google- this is by far the most successful way to go about it. Cross linking in posts is a win win even within your own blog posts on the same site.
Benn Rosales
June 19, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I’m with T on this one.
Bill Lublin
June 19, 2008 at 2:48 pm
@Tboard – I like comments because they make me feel validated (and I’m so lonely – if it weren’t for @boomerjack & @sarahwv in the early morning on twitter with a cuppa I don’t know what I would do) And I enjoy commenting because I’m a big mouth. The tough part is that I actually need to do some real estate stuff to pay the bills and that takes some time away from commenting.
@shailesh I love the video clip and I think your point is well made. Now please go comment on anything at rereflections.com my new blog or movephilly.blogspot.com (my older one) and comment like crazy! 😉
Shailesh Ghimire
June 19, 2008 at 2:56 pm
@Tboard – I like comments because a lot of times it adds value to my own way of thinking. There have been times when I’ve posted something from one angle and someone posts from another – it just makes the post that much better because a subsequent reader gets a better experience with my post. Now as far as correlating with business – as a lender, I’ve found that I’ve been able to build stronger relationships with referral partners such as real estate agents because of comments. This has subsequently resulted in business. 🙂
@Bill Lublin – I’ll be sure to check it out. But remember it’s relevant, thoughtful response that is good for traffic. Sometimes my ramblings don’t qualify.
John Wake
June 19, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Another benefit – David Smith at RealEstateBlogLab.com found that Google ranks posts with more comments higher than otherwise.
ines
June 19, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I’m with Teresa here. When I was blogging at AR, the concept of reciprocity was a very valid one because we were blogging for other industry people, not necessarily the consumer. Getting comments was exhilarating. Then I learned that if I wanted to make any money from blogging and not just treat it as a hobby – I had to define an audience and write for them.
It just so happens that my audience seldom comments, but contacts me directly or even calls me and don’t have blogs.
Commenting is an important part of the blogosphere, but should be done more for networking and being part of a whole.
Jay Thompson
June 19, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Nice post. 😉
Jim Gatos
June 20, 2008 at 5:49 am
I’ve joined the conversation here and at other blogs. Please come visit mine when I get it up and running. The only thing holding me back is a name..LOL..
Thanks
Jim
Teresa Boardman
June 20, 2008 at 10:36 am
Bill – if I had known that you need my validation I would have left comments on your blog every day. you have to know that there isn’t anything in my life that is more important than being there for you. Now go away.
Michael Price
June 20, 2008 at 10:58 am
I love Jay’s comment. Tongue firmly in cheek. Jay, You should have added links to all of your web sites and blogs to really round the intention of your message. 🙂
T’s comment is without a doubt the best ever. I can just picture her looking up at Bill and saying that with a straight face, turning around and heading out of the building for effect. Can’t wait to get a dose of Teresa again next month.
Stephanie Edwards-Musa
June 20, 2008 at 11:04 am
Comments are good, I agree it helps for networking, but like some have mentioned most of us write for the consumer. I know that 90% of what I write will not be appealing or interesting to most agents out there in the blogosphere. It doesn’t hurt my feeling that I don’t get a lot of comments.
I like to read other bloggers posts, I subscribe to tons, but at the same time I don’t comment if I can’t add to the conversation or blog. This leaves the question, and I think @tboard mentioned it, do consumers care about having reading comments irrelevant to the post? Maybe someone should do a poll on that. 🙂
Bill Lublin
June 20, 2008 at 11:23 am
If I had not already gone away ;-(
I would tell you how important your validation was to me and gow fulfilled I am at this moment – Thank Goodness I went away before I said all that
😉
Teresa Boardman
June 20, 2008 at 11:42 am
Bill – yes that is a good thing. I know I need to work on my people skills. LOL
Paula Henry
June 21, 2008 at 12:05 am
I admit, being born at Active Rain, I thrived on the comment – not so much anymore. I do like to hear from my friends accsionally, but think I’m going to have to get Do-Follow on my site to see that action.
Mostly, I am just happy to have clients call – that’s where I get my money.I would like to see a poll on whether clients care about the comments – do they see it as validation of the agent?
Cheron Lange
June 23, 2008 at 11:49 am
Wow great post….it never amazes me the advancement of technology. We’ve been blogging for about 6-7 months and ActiveRain has been a plus for referral / relocations. We comment within Inman news and are slowly spreading out. We’re linking our blog…blog.letourfamilyhelpyours.com… so we can receive traffic. slowly but surely this will all come together, our mentors do say we are doing everything right. And I have to say we are receiving traffic…but as my husband says, “I want more!”
Steph Fax
September 18, 2008 at 4:53 am
Hi, been reading the article and posts, pretty interesting, I have had trouble getting people to leave comments on my fishing blog even though it has over 80 visitors per day. Your marketing tips will be implimented, many thanks.