From Jeremy: I am always looking for interesting guest content to provide information to you… the readers of Refocusing Technology. Here’s an interesting post about how to better utilize blog commenting by Bob McClain. I think it’s one that I’ll re-read a couple of times and give the ideas a try. I hope that it’s helpful to you. Enjoy!
___
photo credit: Viernest
We all know we should be doing more online marketing to drive targeted traffic to our business websites but there’s the slight problem of NO TIME! Not to mention some of us would like to have a life outside of our business. (As much as we may love our business…)
However, I’ve put together some “cheats” and “tricks” to help me get more done in less time when it comes to online marketing. One of the primary and most successful forms of online marketing I’ve used is blog commenting.
When I first started doing it, I found it was taking too much time to do it and the links didn’t seem to have all that much value. In other words, it seemed like a waste of time. So I did some research to find out why Internet Marketers (you know, those “people” who spam the heck out of you with daily emails on getting rich on the Internet) recommend it so highly and do it so much.
As I dug deeper, I discovered some of the tools they were using to make it worthwhile and effective. Pretty much the stuff they don’t tell you until you send them your life’s savings.
Here’s what I learned and the process I developed to make blog commenting powerful:
First, we need an automated system that will tell us exactly where to go to find blog content related to our business that we can comment on. And I prefer to do this for free. Here’s how. Go to Google Alerts. If you don’t have a Gmail account then create one first. Then go back to Google Alerts and sign in.
Click on Settings and change the email to whatever email you’d like to get the alerts sent to.
(HINT: Under settings you can create a profile for your website – DO SO! Profiles on high pagerank sites with links back to your website are extremely valuable – more on that later).
Then we start creating Alerts. If your website has been organically search engine optimized, you should have one to four keyword phrases for each optimized page of your website.
Open a Notepad or document and make a complete list of every keyword phrase used on your website. Then go back to Google Alerts and create an alert for each keyword phrase. You want the alerts to be Comprehensive, Delivered to your Email, and sent Once a Day.
You will get your alerts in the morning. Try to start commenting as soon as the alerts show up. The sooner you jump on the Alerts, the more likely you’ll be one of the first people commenting on the blogs.
Some of the Alerts sent to you will be newspaper and magazine articles. Check them out. Usually they will insist you “sign up” and create a profile. DO SO! These are great sites to have a profile on because they are real news sites and Google gives them high priority (including any content on them). These will be terrific one-way links. Then, once you’ve created a profile, go back and comment on the article if you think you can add something to the conversation.
Remember: Blog and article comments must be relevant and offer something of value. A tip, a suggestion, a disagreement (but be polite); but something of real value for the blog readers. Otherwise, you risk your comment being deleted.
Lastly, when you fill in the form to comment on a blog post, use the keyword phrase from that alert in the Name slot instead of using your actual name or the name of your website. This will tell the blog readers and Google what you do and reinforce for Google that your comment is relevant when it follows the link back to your site and sees where the comment came from. Then fill in your website URL and your email. Like this:
Sometimes you may choose to just use your name for the Name or the name of your business. That’s okay to do occasionally so Google doesn’t get the idea you’re spamming. However, on the occasions where you use a keyword phrase for your name, always sign the end of your blog comment with your real name and the name of your business. Otherwise, you run the risk of them deleting your comment because they don’t know who you are and some blogs are very particular about this.
Here’s how I sign: Bob McClain – Principal – WordsmithBob.com
By the way, you should also go to Gravatar and register your email; the one you’re planning to use in your blog comments. Gravatar lets you upload an image so that when you comment on a blog post using that email address, Gravatar will post your image in the little box. It makes your blog comment look much more professional than the people who don’t have a Gravatar. You can use a picture of yourself or your logo. Because these are social media sites, I tend to believe that a face is much friendlier and more likely to garner interest than a cold logo.
Finis…
Bob McClain is an Online Marketing expert who uses Organic Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, SEO Copywriting, Strategic Link Building and Pay Per Click advertising to help clients dominate their niche on the ‘Net.
Visit Bob’s website at: www.wordsmithbob.com
Follow Bob on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/WordsmithBob
Did you enjoy this article? Please subscribe to Refocusing Technology to receive all the FREE updates!
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blog comments,
Bob McClain,
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The “Fast and Furious” Secret to Blog Commenting For Business (Bob McClain)
by Bob McClain on August 25, 2009
From Jeremy: I am always looking for interesting guest content to provide information to you… the readers of Refocusing Technology. Here’s an interesting post about how to better utilize blog commenting by Bob McClain. I think it’s one that I’ll re-read a couple of times and give the ideas a try. I hope that it’s helpful to you. Enjoy!
___
We all know we should be doing more online marketing to drive targeted traffic to our business websites but there’s the slight problem of NO TIME! Not to mention some of us would like to have a life outside of our business. (As much as we may love our business…)
However, I’ve put together some “cheats” and “tricks” to help me get more done in less time when it comes to online marketing. One of the primary and most successful forms of online marketing I’ve used is blog commenting.
When I first started doing it, I found it was taking too much time to do it and the links didn’t seem to have all that much value. In other words, it seemed like a waste of time. So I did some research to find out why Internet Marketers (you know, those “people” who spam the heck out of you with daily emails on getting rich on the Internet) recommend it so highly and do it so much.
As I dug deeper, I discovered some of the tools they were using to make it worthwhile and effective. Pretty much the stuff they don’t tell you until you send them your life’s savings.
Here’s what I learned and the process I developed to make blog commenting powerful:
First, we need an automated system that will tell us exactly where to go to find blog content related to our business that we can comment on. And I prefer to do this for free. Here’s how. Go to Google Alerts. If you don’t have a Gmail account then create one first. Then go back to Google Alerts and sign in.
Click on Settings and change the email to whatever email you’d like to get the alerts sent to.
(HINT: Under settings you can create a profile for your website – DO SO! Profiles on high pagerank sites with links back to your website are extremely valuable – more on that later).
Then we start creating Alerts. If your website has been organically search engine optimized, you should have one to four keyword phrases for each optimized page of your website.
Open a Notepad or document and make a complete list of every keyword phrase used on your website. Then go back to Google Alerts and create an alert for each keyword phrase. You want the alerts to be Comprehensive, Delivered to your Email, and sent Once a Day.
You will get your alerts in the morning. Try to start commenting as soon as the alerts show up. The sooner you jump on the Alerts, the more likely you’ll be one of the first people commenting on the blogs.
Some of the Alerts sent to you will be newspaper and magazine articles. Check them out. Usually they will insist you “sign up” and create a profile. DO SO! These are great sites to have a profile on because they are real news sites and Google gives them high priority (including any content on them). These will be terrific one-way links. Then, once you’ve created a profile, go back and comment on the article if you think you can add something to the conversation.
Remember: Blog and article comments must be relevant and offer something of value. A tip, a suggestion, a disagreement (but be polite); but something of real value for the blog readers. Otherwise, you risk your comment being deleted.
Lastly, when you fill in the form to comment on a blog post, use the keyword phrase from that alert in the Name slot instead of using your actual name or the name of your website. This will tell the blog readers and Google what you do and reinforce for Google that your comment is relevant when it follows the link back to your site and sees where the comment came from. Then fill in your website URL and your email. Like this:
Sometimes you may choose to just use your name for the Name or the name of your business. That’s okay to do occasionally so Google doesn’t get the idea you’re spamming. However, on the occasions where you use a keyword phrase for your name, always sign the end of your blog comment with your real name and the name of your business. Otherwise, you run the risk of them deleting your comment because they don’t know who you are and some blogs are very particular about this.
Here’s how I sign: Bob McClain – Principal – WordsmithBob.com
By the way, you should also go to Gravatar and register your email; the one you’re planning to use in your blog comments. Gravatar lets you upload an image so that when you comment on a blog post using that email address, Gravatar will post your image in the little box. It makes your blog comment look much more professional than the people who don’t have a Gravatar. You can use a picture of yourself or your logo. Because these are social media sites, I tend to believe that a face is much friendlier and more likely to garner interest than a cold logo.
Finis…
Visit Bob’s website at: www.wordsmithbob.com
Follow Bob on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/WordsmithBob
Did you enjoy this article? Please subscribe to Refocusing Technology to receive all the FREE updates!
Tagged as: blog comments, Bob McClain, google alerts, WordSmithBob.com