Submitted by Stephan Miller on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 10:17

There are a few things you have to do if you want to get the word out about your blog. Joining blogging social networks helps. Writing good posts help. But you will probably go unnoticed by other bloggers if you are not commenting on their blogs.

Oh, great. Another rehashed post on commenting.

Not!

I am not going to tell you how to comment or what to comment on. I am going to show you a few of the techniques I have used to spread my comments around as far as I have and to have the posts come to you.

And after I searched the blogosphere for posts to reference I realized I am rehashing a little because Caroline Middlebrook wrote a killer post on building a blog commenting strategy that mentions a few techniques that I didn't think of. But I am pushing on regardless because I have found a lot of tools that aren't listed in one place. Plus it makes my job easier. Read her post and then check out the tools here.

When I start blogging, I would comment here, comment there with basically no rhyme or reason. Don't get me wrong. I left what I thought were worthwhile comments, but I would get at the most maybe ten comments a week.

Subscribe to Feeds to Find More Commenting Options

I started by collecting feeds, a lot of feeds. All Google Reader says I have is 1000+. I did this through MyBlogLog and Entrecard. I would find a blog with great posts and subscribe.

At first, I used Firefox Livemarks along with the Feed Ticker plugin. The Feed Ticker picks random posts from your feeds and constantly scrolls them across a toolbar. Most of the time, just by watching the ticker for a minute or so I would find a few posts to comment on. The issue: Using Livemarks slows down Firefox. So it's great if you subscribe to a few feeds, but right around 600 I started having issues.

If I could, I would find a way to make this work. The randomness of the posts really helped. They worked like an artificial subconscious. I never new what was going to pop up and that gave a freshness to my comments.

I eventually stopped this and went to using Google Reader so that my computer wouldn't have to deal with the overhead of getting the updates on 1000 feeds. I can sort all posts from all feeds by date, so the newest one floats to the top. And I can search just the feeds I subscribe to. That's how I found all the posts I link to. And there are some tools to make using Google Reader easier:

One site I will leave up to you to investigate, because I haven't made it there yet and I tired of finding a perfect reader after I just found the perfect reader is favorit, which offers:

  • News Reading
  • Commenting
  • Blog Posting
  • Content Republication
  • Human Powered Blog Searching

Now if any of you can find me a true OPML cleaner let me know. I have been looking for one for months. I have manually removed duplicate feeds, but no reader seems to do this well. And I mean the ability to tell that a Feedburner feed is the same as a Wordpress feed of the same name. It would also have to know that adding www. to a domain doesn't make it a different. It would be great if it could tell me if there hasn't been a post for a month also. I don't ask for much. Just the world.

Hop Along

Explore the blogging communities and traffic sites you have signed up for. With Entrecard, I drop from 60 to 100 cards a day. By the end of that, I have found more than enough posts to comment on.

BlogCatalog recently added a lot more features to their dashboard that allow you to spy on the social doings of your friends there. I have yet to check out all the features, but it is bound to help you find posts that you can contribute to with your comments.

Targeted Comments

This falls under the "Guns don't kill people. People kill people" category. A lot of these tools could be used by spammers, but if used correctly can help you out a lot. Comments on blogs that use DoFollow can help you not only while people are reading the post you are commenting on, but they can also help you in the future by increase your backlinks.

The tools:

Of these three, DoFollo seems the best.

Then there is the CommentLuv plugin. So by searching Google for "keyword" and "This blog uses the CommentLuv plugin", with the quotes, you can find posts that fit with the last one you posted.

Another technique that Caroline mentioned in her article is being one of the first to comment. And I have a tool for that too.

Each of these are powerful tools if used correctly.

From Your Own Blog

And once you start getting comments on your blog, just go back through them and pay a visit to the people who commented on your blog.

So, how to you find posts to comment on?

Tags: 
commenting, CommentLuv, comments, dofollow, favorit, worthwhile comments

Comments

Submitted by Michael (not verified) on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 15:26
Hi Stephan, Michael from Germany here. Thanks for the info. Didn't know the Sniper. Will check it out now. Keep the good work up ...*-) Michael <em>Michael's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/emarketscout/~3/244055886/marketers-gone-mafia.htm' rel="nofollow">Marketers Gone Mafia?</a></em>

Submitted by Mirjam (not verified) on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 15:28
I like that concept... randomness of chaos for a control freak :D:D I guess the same goes for a perfectionist who needs to look outside the box ;) I read your new post with the links, but have not completely figured out how the entrecard script works... maybe I´d better stick to my own system... <em>Mirjam's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/memyselfandiblog/RuXy/~3/243295133/' rel="nofollow">Spending an Hour Wasting Time - Random Thoughts</a></em>

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 15:45
Michael, Comment Sniper is the tool I actually use the most of the software type tools. I have it loaded with only about 20 of the blogs I subscribe to. It's not only good for commenting but for making sure you keep up with the blogs you consider the top even if you subscribe to hundreds. Mirjam, The script is kind of strange. It only works with Windows. It's an execuatble that runs in the tray. All it does is make the "Windows" key and the "Z" key a hot button or whatever they call it. By pushing these two keys together it opens a random Entrecard site. I saved the download to my desktop and when I want to run through a random bunch of blogs, I just double click it to run it like any other software.

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 06:14
I work with Apple also when I have to, at work. After considering switching, I went back to Windows. It fits my control freak nature. But cool trick. I have Opera also. I was using that for while. To tell you the truth I have Opera, IE7, Safari, Firefox, Firefox 3 and Flock. I was an IE7 person forever. Then I switched to Firefox. Now I am no longer a true believer when it comes to any browser and use what works at the time.

Submitted by Mirjam (not verified) on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 05:46
For windows only ... I´m an apple girl ;) Taking chaos out of the randomness... have you tried neoco.org? By adding ImgLikeOpera to firefox to only allow certain images to open (speeding up sites) and combining it with the 3inky addon, you can open 100 firefox tabs at a time. Just wait a bit till all is opened (doing something else meanwhile) and once they are all open you can drop in a breeze... <em>Mirjam's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/memyselfandiblog/RuXy/~3/244756604/' rel="nofollow">Sales Tactics and Free Reports</a></em>

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 06:01
I run into that a lot, which is why I don't keep up with the post a day habit I tried to set for myself. Now it is more like four to five a week.

Submitted by Jack Payne (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 00:09
Fine piece. A lot of stuff in there that is all new to me. Guess I've still got much to learn about this mysterious blogging business. Big drawback to me is that I get in an average of about 15 comments per blog piece (high of 31). And, I find that I am spending so much time lately commenting on my comments that I have little time to write and post new pieces--despite the fact I only post a new piece about once a week. Ah, yes, I still have a long way to go as to understanding. Your info is helpful. <em>Jack Payne's last blog post..<a href='http://legalthriller.blogspot.com/2008/02/dont-be-victim-of-escrow-scams-how-to.html' rel="nofollow">Don't be Victim of Escrow Scams: How to Lose $630,000 in a Hurry</a></em>

Submitted by Blogoloco (not verified) on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 19:05
I hope it opens mine the next time you open random entrecard sites :) <em>Blogoloco's last blog post..<a href='http://magazine.pinoyunited.com/2008/03/02/kc-concepcion-and-richard-gutierrez-team-up/' rel="nofollow">KC Concepcion and Richard Gutierrez Team Up</a></em>

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Sun, 07/20/2008 - 14:31
I comment wherever I can and whenever I feel like it. There are times that I can leave 20 comments in a day and other days I feel less social where I have to force myself to reply to my own comments. But I take what comes.

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 08:11
But I think Comment Kahuna would have the most clean results since it check the source of the page.

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 08:10
Arun, I probably should have explained it more, but DoFollo came back with the most results for the terms I was testing.

Submitted by Blogoloco (not verified) on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 07:04
And I meant it, honestly. <em>Blogoloco's last blog post..<a href='http://magazine.pinoyunited.com/2008/03/02/kc-concepcion-and-richard-gutierrez-team-up/' rel="nofollow">KC Concepcion and Richard Gutierrez Team Up</a></em>

Submitted by Blogoloco (not verified) on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 07:00
absolutely brilliant tips mate. <em>Blogoloco's last blog post..<a href='http://magazine.pinoyunited.com/2008/03/02/kc-concepcion-and-richard-gutierrez-team-up/' rel="nofollow">KC Concepcion and Richard Gutierrez Team Up</a></em>

Submitted by Arun (not verified) on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 00:22
"Of these three, DoFollo seems the best." May I know how and why DoFollow attracted you. I'm the owner of Backlinkspot.com If you tell the reason why you prefer DoFOllow than BacklinkSpot, I'll try to improve backlinkspot. By the by this is a nice post. I never went deep this much into comments before.. Also your question "Was this comment useful to you ?" after every comment shows how much you're concentrating on comments!

Submitted by David (not verified) on Sat, 03/01/2008 - 13:39
You offer some really good advice. Do you think my website based on spreading <a href="http://www.scogrowth.com/" rel="nofollow"> Hip hop and writing articles</a> should use an RSS feed? I'm starting to suspect so, and will continue to read your excellent posts for more advice =).

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Fri, 02/29/2008 - 10:15
Lin, I plan on creating more niche blogs in the future. I like the free form of this one because I have so many options for now. When I get into more niches, I will have to learn more. There is just so much. Shanti, I have left "great post" comments before, because I have ran into posts that taught me so much I was amazed. There's not much else you can add to them at times and you just want to express your appreciation. I need work on this one. Sometimes I ask a question to get more info on a part of the post, but some bloggers miss the question or ignore it. Mirjam, I have done the exact thing with sitehoppin. I like randomness or chaos. I think it is one of the ingredients to progress. Being a control freak, I am prone to kill any chance for change by nature. If left to my own devices, I would have probably stayed in a group of tightly grouped blogs. If I go through my feeds feed by feed, I would eventually hit the same few every day. A feed ticker gave me no chance to do this. Sitehoppin did in the same way or I would have eventually stayed in the group that dropped cards on me. So I look for a tool that throws randomness in the mix so I know I am changing on a daily basis.

Submitted by Mirjam (not verified) on Fri, 02/29/2008 - 05:15
I used to use mostly entrecard, dropping blogs in the category I like and comment on them if I come across a post I really like or having something to comment on. However... I wanted to up the number of cards dropped daily, so I have changed the method a bit, wanting to combine different things at the same time. In firefox I open different tabs. One is the inbox of entrecard for dropping cards on the ones who have dropped on mine. In the other tabs (3,4,5) I open sitehoppin and than have it go through entrecard to make as many drops as time permits, commenting on the ones I really like and stumbling great posts at the same time so the action is 2-fold (dropping, commenting and stumbling). I do check out all blogs from the people who comment on mine before responding to them, mostly leaving comments on their blog aswell. And if I am really bored without ideas, I use Court´s D-list ;) Thanks for recommending Caroline´s post, going to have a look over there right now and ... you answered a question I was asking myself over these past few days :P <em>Mirjam's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/memyselfandiblog/RuXy/~3/242626057/' rel="nofollow">Why a Good Blogger is Like a Top Restaurant</a></em>

Submitted by Shanti (not verified) on Fri, 02/29/2008 - 03:57
Great post! I ussually try to write comments but don't because most of my comments are something along the lines of "great post keep up the good work". Which sounds completely spammy :) But I'm working on my eloquence:) <em>Shanti's last blog post..<a href='http://seeking-shanti.blogspot.com/2008/02/where-my-head-at.html' rel="nofollow">Where my head at?</a></em>

Submitted by Lin Burress (not verified) on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 17:15
Wow Stephan, I'm not sure I can list the many ways I've found blogs to comment on/subscribe to. I'm not real sure I like the changes made on blogcatalog recently, but maybe I just need to spend more time getting used to it. Checking out Blogrolls in my niche(s) has helped some. I visit the blogs of those who comment on my blog, and if I like it I will subscribe and comment whenever I have something more to say than just Nice post! StumbleUpon has done the most for my blog. Finding and befriending like-niche blogs and checking out the blogs they like and thumb up, has brought traffic my way and has allowed me to find more quality blogs to subscribe to and comment on. <em>Lin Burress's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TellingItLikeItIs/~3/240763847/keeping-the-fire-alive-in-your-marriage.html' rel="nofollow">Keeping the Fire Alive in Your Marriage</a></em>

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 10:55
Great use of the CommentLuv plugin. :)

Submitted by arham | Blogpreneur (not verified) on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 10:52
"you will probably go unnoticed by other bloggers if you are not commenting on their blogs" yup that's happening on me... I need to rise my comment..oh ya thanks Stephan for the tools :-) <em>arham | Blogpreneur's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Road-Entrepreneur/~3/241987710/' rel="nofollow">How to find a Dofollow Blog for Backlink</a></em>

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 04:53
You should never comment for a link, but then again, if you just wrote a post on a specific topic, you might as well find related posts to comment on because you're already in the groove.

Submitted by Tom At The Home... (not verified) on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 03:27
I have been using comment kahuna recently, and it is a useful tool.I don´t think anyone should comment on blogs for the sake of getting a link back to their own site.If you can add to the discussion with a useful comment, everyone wins.The blogger gets more content, and he/she who made the comment will get more visitors to their site. <em>Tom At The Home Business Archive's last blog post..<a href='http://www.tlmarketing.net/2008/06/05/about-commenting-on-blogs/#comment-22071' rel="nofollow">By: Tom</a></em>

Submitted by Marc Woodman (not verified) on Thu, 07/10/2008 - 04:52
I like that concept… randomness of chaos for a control freak :D

Submitted by jason (not verified) on Mon, 06/02/2008 - 11:12
I use www.commenthunt.com for finding relevant dofollow blogs. They also have blog commenting service 100 comments for just 19$, used them onces and comment were good.

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Sat, 05/03/2008 - 16:27
I actually found some software I ended up purchasing that works pretty well for me. There is also a free version available that would be all most part time bloggers would need. I upgraded to the paid version since I plan on building a network of niche blogs. It does live searches and checks Dofollow status while doing so. You can save keyword searches and bookmark favorite blogs to come back. I already have it loaded with phrases for one blog I am promoting and have been linking to specific posts. Each one now ranks #1 for the search terms I wanted them too. Do I see this as dishonest? Nope. I wrote a post related to the blogs I am commenting on. Chances are I would land on these blogs for research purposes any way. As long as I leave a valuable comment, I just see it as saving time by targeting my comments. What's better? Finding blog posts by chance that are unrealted to your last post and commenting on them? Here is <a href="http://www.regnow.com/softsell/visitor.cgi?affiliate=26915&amp;action=site&amp;vendor=2631" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">G-Lock Fast Blog Finder</a>. That is an affiliate link. But like I said, the free version doesn't expire and is worth using without even upgrading. The only limitation is it will only find 50 posts for each phrase you search for, but you can search for as many phrases as you want.

Submitted by Descartes (not verified) on Fri, 05/02/2008 - 11:54
To me the problem is always one of time, if I have a lot to say on a topic I'd rather blog about it than comment on it. I like the Dofollo search engine and have found a lot of good blogs using it. I tend to read and nod to myself and not leave a comment-then off to the next place. But I am trying to pay more attention and leave more comments. Great post. <em>Descartes's last blog post..<a href='http://ifyouwriteit.blogspot.com/2008/05/coffee-drink-of-gods.html' rel="nofollow">Coffee-Drink of the Gods</a></em>

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Thu, 05/29/2008 - 05:22
I'll check it out.

Submitted by Ask Terry Hall (not verified) on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 20:06
Excellent - I think this system does all that automatically and combines live typers to post comments for your behalf...Let me know your thoughts. -Terry

Submitted by Lupe Fiasco (not verified) on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 02:36
Very nice article once again. With so many blogs out there nowadays, people should be able to find something that's relevant for them. The only thing that's holding us back now are the no-follow blogs. <em>Lupe Fiasco's last blog post..<a href='http://www.lupefiascoblog.com/best-dressed-for-lupe-fiasco/' rel="nofollow">“Best Dressed†for Lupe Fiasco</a></em>

Submitted by Deborah Katy (not verified) on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 19:25
I actually just try to leave a comment if the post really interests me. And as I love to read I browse the net for nice blogs almost everyday. I try not to get addicted to the nofollow fever. Try to relax and enjoy the blogs and leave nice comments :-)

Submitted by Jon The DC Traveler (not verified) on Fri, 05/30/2008 - 15:39
Great article, very helpful, especially the feeds comments. I'll try it. Thanks <em>Jon The DC Traveler's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.b5media.com/~r/b5media/TheDCTraveler/~3/301327549/' rel="nofollow">"T"heme Day</a></em>

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Mon, 06/02/2008 - 11:19
Commenthut seems to work pretty good also. I didn't find it until after I wrote this post.

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 06:34
Comment Kahuna is pretty sweet. The first version was pretty basic. But the new version has a few more useful features. You should also give Fast Blog Finder a try: http://www.digitalproductsreview.net/blog/fast-blog-finder-get-all-the-dofollow-links-you-can-handle/

Submitted by Webmaster Resources (not verified) on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 02:45
That is some very sweet post. I never know there is such tool that helps with speeding up the process of commenting blogs to get SERPS and Google PageRank. Big Thumb up for The tools: * Comment Kahuna * BacklinkSpot * DoFollo I will definitely use it for my site <a href="http://www.digitalstuffs.com" rel="nofollow">Webmaster Resources</a> <em>Webmaster Resources's last blog post..<a href='http://www.digitalstuffs.com/graphics/20-premade-header-video/' rel="nofollow">20 Premade Header Video</a></em>

Submitted by Student Educati... (not verified) on Thu, 08/28/2008 - 11:54
I Love this Blog! This site has helped me get more ranking than any other. Keep up the good work. www.student-edu.com

Submitted by Deca (not verified) on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 01:42
I've used CommentLuv for my other blog

Submitted by Prasanna (not verified) on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 04:40
Commenting on dofollow blogs can be a good choice for commentors. But, for the dofollow enabled blog owner, this can turn out to be very bad in case if he gets beaten by Google.

Submitted by Palo Alto Criminal (not verified) on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 07:44
We have utilized both Comment Kahuna and Fast Blog Finder. We also utilize Link Diagnosis (which only shows Yahoo! backlinks). I agree that do-follow is for starting up and building your base, but it is a double-edged sword in the future.

Submitted by mp3real (not verified) on Thu, 10/01/2009 - 18:35
Thank you! Excellent post!

Submitted by Cazare in Bucuresti (not verified) on Sun, 03/22/2009 - 18:29
The problem with do-follow is people will spam. If a blog is good enough then the blog owner won’t need to have do-follow because people will comment to put their point of view accross, not to gain a back link. The BBC is a perfect example of this. There are no links in the forums and blogs, yet they have many users. However, when a blog is starting and it wants to get a upper hand, their is no harm in attracting people who want do-follow links, because some will become hooked, so even if you change to no-follow, people will still comment.

Submitted by Stephan Miller (not verified) on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 07:46
I have found that the increased spam is worth it, if more visitors comment. After all, plugins can take care of a lot of spam.

Submitted by Faizan (not verified) on Sat, 01/02/2010 - 06:49
Thank you for the info. I’m going to check out Google Reader.

Submitted by Prostate Cancer... (not verified) on Fri, 04/03/2009 - 04:54
Awesome post. Thanks a bunch for not only mentioning these tools but giving us a link to them. I am very positive that they will help in my ranking efforts, especially as i will be concentrating my efforts on only posting relevant and helpful comments. Thanks again for sharing this. Very helpful, I tell you.

Submitted by nicolehalden (N... (not verified) on Thu, 09/24/2009 - 19:06
<strong>Twitter Comment</strong> <a href="http://twitter.com/nicolehalden" title="Twitter Comment" rel="nofollow"> <div title="nicolehalden (Nicole Halden)" style="float:left;margin-right:10px;padding:0;width:60px;height:60px;background:url(http://www.stephanmiller.com/wp-content/plugins/chatcatcher/picbg.jpg) no-repeat top;cursor:hand;"> </div> <div title="nicolehalden (Nicole Halden)" style="float:left;margin-left:-70px;margin-right:10px;padding:0;width:60px;height:60px;background:url(http://purl.org/net/spiurl/nicolehalden) no-repeat top;cursor:hand;"> </div> </a> @eristoddle I'm on your site! [link to post] via TwitterRemote<br /><br /> - <a href="http://chatcatcher.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Posted using Chat Catcher</a>

Submitted by Free Articles f... (not verified) on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 00:07
I used to use only entrecard to find blogs to comment on but I soon found out that it is more desirable to find blogs that are do follow. Now I use the do follow diver which is a custom search engine for do follow blogs <abbr><em><abbr><em>Free Articles for Sitess last blog post..<a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freearticlesforsites/~3/KzjwRw3Iccc/" rel="nofollow">Five Tips to Buying Contact Lenses Online</a></em></abbr></abbr></em>

Submitted by Riezky Maulana (not verified) on Tue, 07/14/2009 - 07:10
Really useful post, I using Comment Kahuna now, Thanks in advance. regards, riez

Submitted by Staci (not verified) on Wed, 12/16/2009 - 13:02
This has some great advice. I think you may want to check out the Dofollow link. It redirected me to a porn site on my work comp...not fun. .-= Staci&#180;s last blog ..<a href="http://homejobadvice.blogspot.com/2009/12/get-rid-of-negative-thoughts-to-see.html" rel="nofollow">Get Rid of Negative Thoughts to See Positive Results!</a> =-.

Submitted by trimor (not verified) on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 04:41
Really wonderful piece of information and I appreciate it that you share something so useful with the readers of this blog.

Submitted by carls.j (not verified) on Mon, 08/31/2009 - 08:42
i try to find backlink by comment blogs but i think i must not spam them. but almost blogs arenot allow me to leave a comment... .-= carls.j&#180;s last blog ..<a href="http://www.nfcuorg-what.com/nfcu-2/" rel="nofollow">nfcu</a> =-.

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