Why Commenting on Blogs is a Waste of Your Time

by Kim Niemi

So your business is humming along and you wisely enlist the aid of a marketing expert to bring you to the next level. However, with the landscape evolving so quickly, not all marketing advice is sound. Here’s one of our favorite bits of bad advice and a better option for expanding your online presence.

Bad advice: Comment on relevant blogs to build your online presence and drive traffic to your own business’ website. 

Why it’s bad: At first it doesn’t seem like it is. A popular blog with lots of interaction seems like a captive audience, “So many people will see my comment and the link to my business!” Even a niche blog with a smaller number of dedicated followers sounds okay, “My comments will really stand out!”

But in both cases this isn’t really true. In the case of highly-trafficked blogs, the volume of comments is so enormous yours isn’t likely to break through. With niche blogs it’s usually the same few people commenting every time, so your exposure is limited. 

And here’s the real kicker: no one is reading the comments. 

Exceptions to this are as follows: 

·         The person writing the blog – and even they may not be reading them all, plus (to use a niche example) if they are an attorney themselves, offering your services as an attorney is pointless

·         Trolls interested in arguing with every commenter who disagrees with their comment

No one is looking for their next lawyer, auto mechanic, or hairdresser in the comments section of a blog. 

Also, commenting on a blog and sharing a link to your own website can be considered bad form, or even spammy, depending on how you do it. Loyal followers, not to mention the blog’s author, are not likely to appreciate you trying to divert attention to your own business, in fact they may mentally blacklist you for it. 

Better option

Instead of wasting time and energy trying to sound pithy or intelligent enough to attract followers on someone else’s blog, start your own. 

How? Here are a few tips for standing out in the crowd: 

·         Find a new angle on topics relevant to your business and write about them

·         Use every internal promotional tool at your disposal – categories, tags, social media auto-shares, an email sign-up and/or blog “follow” button

·         Encourage interaction with a call to action in your posts – ask a question that your readers will be moved to answer

And remember you can call on us for more in-depth tips, or for help writing your content.