There is more to comment marketing than just writing comments on every article you can get your hands on. While the quality of your comment and the number of comments that you make does in fact play a huge bearing on the success of your campaign, there are other details/strategies of comment marketing that you should implement to get way better results.
If you’re looking to get the best results out of your comment marketing campaign, then this guide is for you.
But before we even start with how the whole process works, I want to emphasize how these 4 elements are the core of what will make your comment marketing campaign successful. So take these elements into heart.
Quality of your comment
I guess there’s no need for me to expound on this. If your comments are crappy, then don’t even bother running your comment marketing campaign – you will fail MISERABLY!
If all you’re thinking about is adding your links all over the place and leaving one liner comments like “Great tips!” or “Thanks for the tip!”, then you’ll just be wasting your time (let alone other people’s time as well).
The best thing that you can accomplish with adding crappy comments like that is not getting any replies from other people. Because if you IN FACT get any replies from them, I assure you that it won’t be a pleasant one.
Later, I’ll share with you a couple of tips to greatly enhance the possibility of people clicking on the URL in your comments – stay tuned!
Quality of the site you’re targeting
No matter how much time you spend on each comment to make it as best as it can be, it would’ve all been for nought if the site you’re commenting on is crappy.
Before you even start commenting on an article, you need to think about whether or not the site has a decent amount of traffic, does it have a decent amount of social shares, engagements perhaps, etc…
If you don’t consider things like these, chances are good that no one’s going to read your well thought out comment not because it isn’t good enough, but simply because the site that you commented on has very little to no visitors in the first place.
Consistency and commitment
Just like anything else, consistency and commitment plays a huge role on whether or not you will succeed in your comment marketing endeavors.
When I say consistency, I meant staying on track on your number of daily comments while maintaining your comments quality. I will be the first to tell you right now that there will be situations where you’ll seemingly run out of ideas and it’ll take you 30 – 40 minutes to write one comment simply because you’ve lost inspiration. It’s pretty much like how a writer would feel (and think) if he’s experiencing a writer’s block.
When I say commitment, I’m talking about you continuing to write the comments despite your doubts on whether or not comment marketing really works.
This stage usually happens when you’re 1 – 2 weeks in your comment marketing campaign and aren’t seeing any results (traffic coming in your site through your comments). You have to realize that there are a couple of factors that comes in to play when you run this type of campaign. It may take quite awhile for you to get results but rest assured that you will in fact get them, provided that you stay committed to it and follow the tips that we’ll be sharing with you below.
It’s also a numbers game.
If you’ll hear others telling you that comment marketing is all about quality not quantity, trust me, they’re dead wrong!
The numbers also play a huge role when it comes to comment marketing. While the quality of your comments should NEVER be compromised, the number of comments you make should also be considerably high.
I mean, think about it. Even if you’ve written a well thought out comment on a site with decent traffic, it isn’t a guarantee that other readers will take the time to read your comment. It could be that somewhere within the article, the writer shared a link that makes the readers want to click on it so bad that they end up getting distracted and not read the entire thing. Of course, that includes your comment.
It could also be that after some time, the webmaster has changed their comment section’s plugin to something that looks less enticing to the readers thus killing the reader’s motivation to go through the comments.
The issues can come from different directions. That is why it is important that you’ll comment on a couple of pages and not just a few of them.
If you’ve made peace with the 4 elements that I shared, and are ready to jump in the learning process with those 4 at your core, then let’s get going.
Tracker for our campaign
Allow me to share with you the tracker that I use when running my campaign – and yes – you SHOULD use a tracker as well. There are a couple of reasons why you should use one.
- You can keep track of the number of comments you’ve made daily/weekly/monthly. That way, you know you’re reaching the quota that you’ve set for yourself.
- You can also make sure that you’re commenting on quality sites (to some extent).
- If you get contacted by webmasters directly about your comment, you can easily keep track of what you wrote and reply appropriately.
- After checking with your Google analytics, you can compile a list of sites that’s giving you a decent number of traffic.
Here’s how my tracker looks like → http://tinyurl.com/p2qq7zz
I usually check my G. analytics at the end of the week to see which of the sites I commented on is producing good results (driving traffic). I then update my tracker’s “Traffic Received” column to reflect the number of traffic the site has sent over my site. This helps you determine which sites you should comment on frequently and which ones to ignore.
Search queries that I use.
There is more to using Google’s search box than just typing in your keywords. While that will give you relevant results, there are ways of using it to help you get EVEN BETTER ONES.
The answer? Use Google’s advanced search queries. Here are a couple that I use.
“Keyword” + Blog
“Keyword” + Write a comment
“Keyword” + Leave a comment
If you want to know more about Google’s advanced search queries, you can check this resource.
If you’re running out of keywords, I’d like to share with you three tools that you can use to uncover more keywords that are highly relevant to your site.
How I qualify the sites I comment on.
There are two ways you can determine which sites to comment on.
Type your keywords on Google’s search box then straight-up comment on the top 10 results.
The problem with this method is that you aren’t really screening the quality of the sites you’re commenting on. Remember that linking to low quality sites or spammy ones can cause your site to be penalized by Google.
It’s because of this that it isn’t ideal for you to just simply comment on the top 10 results.
Scrape Google’s search results, and check the domain’s data.
I have covered in one of my posts here on Techieio how you can scrape the data from Google’s search results. More than that, I also showed how you can obtain the site’s PR, DA and monthly traffic.
I urge you to follow the steps that I mentioned and obtain sites with a decent amount of PR, DA and monthly traffic.
* Note – Before you follow the steps on the guide, you need to add the column “Post URL” after the “Domain” column.
Here’s where you can find the post. → Click here.
At this point, you should already have a list of sites that you can comment on with decent stats (PR, DA and monthly traffic). This ensures (to some extent) that you’re only commenting on good quality sites.
How to write comments that will make people click your link.
Let me start by telling you what NOT TO DO before sharing my tips.
Don’t write one liner comments.
I know that the length of your comments doesn’t necessarily equate to how much of a quality it brings. However, I still advise you NOT to write one liner ones because it sends the wrong signals to the readers.
Most one liner comments you see on the web are almost always spam. Even if you aren’t spamming, you’ll look like it because that’s how most of us are conditioned to view one liner comments.
Also, one liner comments just do not provide as much value as an in-depth comment would. I mean, why stop when you can provide more value by adding more, right?
Do not exaggerate or make things up just to entice the readers to click your link.
Personally, I don’t like mentioning this because this just seems so obvious. However, since there are a lot of so called ‘marketers’ out there who’s doing this to make others click their link, I decided to include this nonetheless.
Let’s face it, if you exaggerate, the sky is the limit as to what you can add to your comments to make others want to click your link. And if you have that kind of freedom, chances are good that you can in fact trick a lot of people into clicking your URL.
However, running an online business or even just a personal site is more than just driving traffic. There are things like credibility, brand image, or trustworthiness (among many others) that you simply cannot compromise if you want to thrive in what you’re doing.
It’s precisely because of this that misleading people is a big no no.
As you can probably imagine, if you mislead people, you’ll end-up damaging your brand, credibility, and all other hopes of clients working with you simply because you lost your trustworthiness in their eyes.
Don’t be obnoxious.
I know, being obnoxious stirs your reader’s emotions which then puts you in a very good position to influence them to click your links.
However, you have to ask yourself, “At what cost?” You may be able to entice them to click your link but your reputation (and your site’s of course) will surely be damaged.
Avoid being too uptight
While there’s nothing wrong with addressing people with “Mr.” and “Mrs.”, you have to realize that these are the kind of things that spammers do nowadays.
What most people do nowadays though (the professional ones or the ones who know what they are doing) is to address others using their first name.
This makes the communication between both parties a bit more personal yet professional at the same time.
Forget about being agreeable. Just make sure that you remain professional.
Other marketers are so gung-ho about looking and sounding agreeable to others that they don’t bother voicing out their true opinion on things.
The truth of the matter is, while there are some benefits to being agreeable, you’ll get more people to click on your link if your comments are controversial. I’m not telling you to write unethical or rude comments; I’m just telling you to write controversial ones.
For example, we all know that Michael Jordan is better than Kobe. But if you write a comment saying otherwise, I’m sure a lot of people will react to what you wrote. Now imagine what would happen if you mentioned in your comment how a survey has been made regarding the matter and that it shows how your statement about Kobe being better than Jordan is actually true?
What do you think will happen if you share a URL saying this is where they can find the survey?
Now that we’ve covered the don’ts, let’s talk about the actual tips and techniques that you can use to write an amazing comment.
Address the author by his/her first name.
I’ve already talked about this. But if you missed it which you shouldn’t have – by the way), then allow me to tell you that the whole point of doing this is to avoid looking like a spammer AND to better connect with the author (or the person you’re communicating with).
Ask a compelling question at the first line of your comment.
You asking questions will make other people think. However, asking REALLY GOOD questions won’t just make them think, but it’ll also make them want to participate by adding their comments or doing what you’ve stated on your comment’s call-to-action; which in this case, should be telling them to click your link.
Add a sense of mystery in your comments.
When I say sense of mystery, I meant not telling them everything there is that you need to say. For example, supposing the article that you’re commenting on is about how to make your comment marketing successful, you can add something like this on your comment.
“… My team and I have used this one technique that DRASTICALLY increased the number of traffic that we’ve been receiving through our comment marketing efforts…”
Of course, you aren’t going to tell them what that one technique is. Instead, you’ll add something at the end saying…
“… Our team has written a detailed post about the techniques we used previously and how the new technique that we used stacked up against it. The results are quite mind blowing. If you want to check the details of it, you can click this link (add your anchor text with you link here)…”
If you’re running a comment marketing campaign and are looking for a proven and tested way to make your campaign a success, then I’m sure that uncovering the mystery that I talked about on my comment (which is the one technique that I used) becomes VERY IRRESISTIBLE for you.
Add statistics
Statistics are always interesting because numbers don’t lie.
Mentioning a compelling statistic/figure on your comment’s first line can be quite an effective teaser. I can assure you that it will keep your readers hooked. That is of course, if the figure you shared is quite surprising to the readers.
If that caught their attention, you can tell them that there are more statistics on your site (provided that there is in fact one) about the topic which you’re sure others can use.
Mention how you’ve written a detailed case study on the matter
Almost everyone loves case studies simply because they almost always get the answers to the questions that they’re looking for. Let alone the fact that case studies are very detailed in nature helping the readers conceptualize and imagine the flow of the study.
If your readers have problems that they want solved (which is probably the case), you can bet your family jewels they’ll be very interested about the case study that you wrote about it.
That said, in addition to adding quality tips on your comments, you can mention at the end how you’ve written a very detailed case study on it and share your URL (that is of course, if you have in fact written a case study about it).
Breakdown your comments to bite size pieces
When I say bite size, I’m talking about limiting your paragraph’s number of lines to 3 – 4 lines. Anything more than that will be too overwhelming to your readers.
While this rule is made to be broken, you need to at adhere to this at least 90% – 95% of the time.
I’m sure that you can probably imagine how a HUGE block of text can be such a turn off, right? I mean, even if your comment’s first sentence is quite compelling, if I see a huge block of text on the second paragraph, I’m probably not going to take the time to read the whole thing.
Attach images or other medias
As you can probably imagine, spammers won’t take the time to do this since it’s too tedious for them.
It’s exactly because of this that your comment becomes a bit more ‘legit looking’ to the author and the readers because you took the time to add an image. This is just one of its advantages, however.
Adding images will make your comment stand out. This in itself will pay you dividends if your goal is to get TONS of traffic to your site.
Use bold words.
Bold words almost always come from people who are experts and who knows EXACTLY what they’re talking about. Using words like “quite possibly” or “maybe”, can be such a turn off to people who are looking for answers since it just depicts uncertainty. Uncertainty of course translates to risks (unnecessary ones at that).
Add a CTA – Call to Action
When you leave CTAs, your readers will know what to do next after reading your comment. It gives clear directions and prevents your readers from experiencing confusion after reading your comment.
A good example would be…
“…Click the URL to learn more about the proven and tested tips that we used to succeed in our comment marketing campaign…”
Something as simple as the line that I shared above will help your reader’s chain of thought flow continuously. It won’t be disrupted by anything since you’ve given them a clear direction of what to do to learn more about what they’re looking for.
Rub the pain in then talk about how your link has the solution.
I’ve read hundreds (if not thousands) of sales pages and if there’s one thing that they share in common, that’d be the fact that almost all of them (and I’m talking about an estimate of 98%) talk about the reader’s problems IN DETAIL to remind them of it.
This then makes the readers emotional making it easier for the writer to influence them to do an action (in their case, buy their products).
The same principle applies in comment marketing.
If you want the readers to click your link, talk about their problems and mention how your link can help solve it.
* Note – Try to be AS DETAILED AS YOU CAN BE when talking about the reader’s problems. If you aren’t very detailed, then your message will come across as vague to them. A vague comment that the readers can’t relate to won’t do you any good.
You need to understand that writing a comment that provides value sometimes just isn’t enough. If you follow the tips that I shared in addition to your usually good quality comments, I am confident that you’ll drastically increase the chances of others clicking your link.
Before we end this guide, allow me to share with you a couple of general tips that you can use. These tips – despite being very general – are REALLY important, so don’t ignore them.
Use a profile picture – YOUR profile picture, at that.
Quite frankly, I’m not sure which is worse a.) You not having a profile picture on your comment, or, b.) You adding a picture of an animal, a car, or something else in your profile picture.
But just to be safe, don’t do any of them.
You NEED to use your own profile picture so you’ll look professional and legit. There’s a good chance that the viewers won’t read your comments if you aren’t using a real profile picture. I mean, who can blame them, right? If this person can’t even add a good profile picture, what makes you think he’ll add a decent comment?
I’d hate to say it friends but a lot of us have grown to be judgmental. It’s pretty much the same as how you’d feel when you’ll land on a website that’s VERY POORLY designed. When a website looks crappy, you don’t want to take the time to read their content (much less make a transaction with them). You’ll straight-up hit the ‘back’ or the ‘close’ button.
*** Note – Don’t keep on changing your profile picture and your name. In fact, I suggest that you use just one so others will become familiar with who you are.
Use a dedicated Gmail account
I cannot stress to you how important this is.
This is one of the very first mistakes that I did when I was started comment marketing, and boy did it annoy the heck out of me.
Because I was just using my personal email, I’ve been receiving TONS of notifications from the comments that I made when people started adding comments on the article or if they’re replying to mine.
While you’ll probably be happy that you received the feedback AT FIRST since you can easily keep track of the comments and be able to reply, you’ll soon find that receiving 10 – 20 or so notifications per day on your personal email can be VERY ANNOYING.
How did I solve it? You guessed it right. I used a dedicated Gmail account for the emails. At this point, I (or you) can spend an hour or so everyday (I only spend 30 minutes) going through that dedicated email to reply to comments.
NEVER give-up
I just really had to emphasize this.
As you go on with your comment marketing campaign, you will at one point question whether or not you’re actually wasting your time or not.
This usually happens to me after spending 2 – 3 weeks of regularly adding comments (I usually do 5 per day).
Whatever you do, don’t give up. You might not see any results in the first 2 – 4 weeks (maybe even a couple of months) but you’ll surely see results one way or the other. Just keep at it and make sure that you’re being very smart at what you’re doing. Don’t just go blindly adding comments at every post that you stumble upon.
Be wary of the number of comments (links you’ll be adding) you’ll make
What I’m trying to point out here is your link velocity.
Imagine. What if your fairly new site is getting an average of 3 – 4 links per month then it suddenly bumps up to 100? Doesn’t that look a bit questionable – at least to Google’s eyes? If you raise red flags like these, you increase the chances of getting your site penalized.
Be a stalker – in a good way though.
Other comment marketers follow or subscribe to sites that they’d like to comment on regularly, that’s definitely a technique worth sharing. But more than just the site, I actually go for the authors themselves.
That way, a real relationship can be built between you and the authors. The thing with following sites is that sometimes, it has TONS of contributors. It’s because of this that the authors that you hope to establish connections with won’t notice you.
But, if you stalk the author (for the lack of a better word) and comment on almost every article that he/she publishes, then there’s a very good chance that he’ll recognize you.
Avoid adding 2 or more links in your comments.
While this rule doesn’t always apply to every comment that you make, I’d wager that this applies 95% of the time.
If you add two or more links on your comment, you run the risk of being thought of as spamming links. So you might wanna keep your number of links at a minimum (1 per comment is a good figure).
Again, I’d like to emphasize that this rule doesn’t always apply to every comment that you make. It could be that for you to provide value to the readers, you have to add two or more links on your comment. If that’s the case, then by all means – add them.
Avoid VERY LENGTHY comments.
You’ll be amazed at how lengthy other people’s comments are. The longest I’ve seen so far is about 500 – 800 words.
Now don’t get me wrong, if you think you need to write a comment with 500 – 800 words in it to clearly explain your idea, then you definitely have to go for it.
However, I’d like to remind you how people tend to get easily overwhelmed when seeing a lengthy comment like that. It must be because we are all conditioned (perhaps subconsciously) to think that comments should be short in length (1 – 3 paragraphs).
If you’ll write very lengthy comments, you’ll play against how people’s minds are conditioned which will then lead to them getting overwhelmed. This of course ultimately leads to them ignoring your comments.
Use link shorteners like tinyurl
This tip is all about improving your comment’s aesthetics. If you’ll add a long URL, your comment might look too messy or perhaps spammy if the URL is REALLY LONG.
To avoid that, you can use free online tools like tinyurl to shorten the length or your link. That way, your comments will look crisp, clean and all tidied up.
Don’t be a troll
If you’ll do comment marketing for quite a while, you’ll learn tons of things and know what is real from what isn’t. You’ll know who the posers are and those who know exactly what they’re talking about.
It’s when you come across posers that you’ll tend to be a troll. The keyboard warrior within you will immediately want to jump into action and start lashing on the poser – don’t fall for that urge.
If (or when) you’ll want to start acting all self righteous, remind yourself that you don’t really know why the other person is doing what he’s doing. Could it be that he genuinely wants to help others by sharing his tips (which he’s gotten from someone else who doesn’t know what they’re talking about) but he just isn’t aware that the information he has is crappy?
We can never tell. So don’t judge and be a troll.
Instead, what you can do is point out how there might be errors that the author has overlooked. You can talk about these points and provide value by pointing out why you feel they aren’t correct.
If you do this professionally, chances are good that you’ll win new friends and perhaps even venture into a collaboration with the author (or the other readers who saw how professional you are in your comment) that can prove to be very lucrative for the both of you.
Additional resource about comment marketing – MUST READ!
I hope you found my tips to be helpful.
Because I want to make sure that you’ll get the most out of your comment marketing campaign, allow me to share a couple of posts about it which I think will be of tremendous help to you.
Glenys Grob – Increase Your Website Traffic with Comment Marketing
Jared Carrizales – A Complete Guide to Comment Marketing: What, Why and How?
Rand Fishkin – Comment Marketing as an Inbound Tactic – Whiteboard Friday
Alright! That should do it! If you follow the tips that I shared above, I’m sure you’ll see better results in your comment marketing endeavors.
Conclusion
Comment marketing is in fact an effective online marketing strategy that you can use to grow your business – don’t doubt it.
It will surely yield you good results if you’ll use the best practices that I shared above. While the results may not be instant, you’ll surely get them nonetheless if you just keep at it. Just like most things in life, you need to stay determined while working hard (and smart) to be successful – the same goes for comment marketing.
Photo attribution: Featured image courtesy of sheelamohan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
