Yes, we’re often genuinely moved to comment on other blogs. Yes, we have real relationships with fellow bloggers in our niche. But let’s not pretend we don’t want traffic from our comments on other blogs. We most certainly do. And since we know we want traffic from our comments, then let’s get as much as we can, yes? I’ve developed some effective blog commenting strategies and tactics over the years which I will reveal to you.

Warning

But first, a warning: you still have to write good comments! If you try these tricks in absence of any real, valuable content in your comments, they will only work for a very short time, or not at all. They could even backfire on you and piss people off. So, do not forget Rule Number One: provide value and contribute to the discussion.

Now, on with the dirty tricks…

If You Want More Traffic from Commenting, Be First

The first comment often gets the most attention compared to the rest of the comments, so being first has its advantages. You’ll get more blog traffic and have more influence over the discussion than comments which are buried in the middle of a long list of comments. Note that this doesn’t apply when comments are listed in revers order, as often the case with Disqus comments, for example.

How to be first:

• Whatever your feed reader is (if you’re not using one, you should), create a folder for the blogs you want to comment on regularly. This way they won’t get lost in the noise of all your other feeds. Keep your reader open to the feeds in this folder in a separate window on your desktop, and keep an eye on it.  This is so you can swoop in the moment a post is published.
• Additionally or alternatively, you can use an instant notification services such as http://rss.im/ or http://rssforward.com/.

If You Can’t Be First, Stand Out

• Reply to the first comment if the blog uses nested comments.
• Write a long comment. In a sea of short “nice post!” comments, a long comment demands attention: somebody has something important to say, and people stop scrolling to see what you’re on about.
• If the blog has video comments, leave a video comment. These stand out from the rest of the comments in the stream and people click on them.
• Learn enough HTML to be able to create bulleted lists, which stand out and are easy to read (most comment boxes don’t have formatting buttons, so you have to know enough HTML to do this)
• WRITING IN ALL CAPS WILL GET ATTENTION, but if you’re going to try that little trick, you’d better have something good to say to justify grabbing “scrollers” by the eyeballs. This is a pretty ninja-ish tactic. People stop in their tracks to see what you’re “shouting” about. Use this carefully.

If You REALLY Want Traffic from Commenting, Use This Ultimate Deadly Ninja Comment Trick

What I’m going to tell you in this tip is so effective, it is guaranteed to send you traffic. However, (and this is important) it must be used sparingly, like a nuclear weapon. You can’t do this all the time on the same blogs because you will wear out your welcome. But when you use it appropriately, it is the most effective traffic siphon ever:

Instead of leaving a “normal” comment, write a post of your own in response, then leave a comment with a link to your post in the comment body.

This can only be done correctly when you can in truth write a great blog post in response to someone else’s post. In your comment, say something like: “I had so much to say in response to this post, I decided to write my own post instead of leave a really long comment here.” There is nothing disingenuous about this. Every word is true. And yet, it is utter fiendishness, because people can’t help but click on the link to read what you have to say (and this almost always includs the original post’s author).

Use your blog commenting ninja powers wisely, and have fun!