If you frequently add comments on blogs, please accept my thanks. I and other bloggers enjoy reading your thoughts. We jump in joy (really, we do; ask Darren, Chris, Danny, Andrea, Kirsten, or Craig) whenever there is a new comment. If there is a request for response or a call to action, we add a comment back to you.
However, something needs to be said here. Your comment involves multiple parts — and the comment itself is but a bitty part. Forget its weight and focus on the other parts of your comment.
“Huh?” you are probably asking me right now.
Can I share with you a secret as the third part of my week-long series on boosting comments? Please lean your face in closer so nobody else can hear it…
First, an image of what you would see if you add a comment below:
The most important part of the comment you leave has nothing to do with the comment field, but everything you fill in above it: your name, your email address, your URL, and your Twitter handle.
At a minimum, your name and email address are required for reasons elaborated in my comment policy. Everyone fills in those fields. The email address is only shown to me, so I can email you if any questions or to follow-up down the road.
People write their name differently, though. Have a look at six comments added last weekend when I introduced this series. Feel free to click the image to zoom-in if you can’t see each name clearly:
The first five comments include the commenters’ names, and many also opted to fill-in their Twitter handles. Hone in on the sixth comment, by Debbie. Look at the red font, which indicates a link. Unlike the other names above her, her name is not linked but other words are linked. Have another look:
Debbie took advantage of my installation of the KeywordLuv plugin (only for Wordpress blogs), which enables you to create anchor text next to your name to better describe your URL.
Debbie chose to use words that are in her domain name. I’d argue those are not the best words to use from a search engine optimization perspective. Rather, she should have attributed her website to “Smart Digital Cameras” or “Jacksonville Camera Store” or such. Still, it’s notable the other five commenters only typed their names.
KeywordLuv enhances your URL with contextual linking. The format to use is instead of typing your name, type your name followed by the @ sign followed by the keywords.
For example, instead of your name field being John Smith, you could write:
John Smith @ Smart Blogging Tips
John Smith @ Hummingbird Lyrics
John Smith @ Social Media Strategy
etc.
Please limit to three words (after the @ sign) on this blog. If you add more words, be aware I will edit to maintain uniformity.
That’s KeywordLuv. Next up is CommentLuv.
Scrolling up to the screenshot of the six comments, do you see how Arafat, Jon, Mason, Dennis, and Debbie have links after their comments that indicate their last blog posts?
This is the direct result of the five of them previously opting to register a website (and my installation of the CommentLuv plugin for Wordpress). Once they register a site and add their URL to a CommentLuv-enabled blog, they will see a dropdown menu in the vicinity of the submit button that offers a choice of the last 10 blog posts to associate with their comment.
In other words, each of them could have chosen one of ten posts to share with other readers — along with their KeywordLuv-enabled link to the URL and their name and Twitter handle.
For more background on both plugins and the benefits of each, please see advice by Growmap on KeywordLuv and Kikolani on CommentLuv.
There you have it, folks. Any questions?
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I agree with all you’ve said about leaving comments.
One thing though, and I think it is something that bloggers themselves might consider is that far too many bloggers will not allow a comment that disagrees with their philosophy or point of view. When that happens, that discourages commenters from saying anything.
Sure, it would be wonderful if every comment was met with thousands of accolades. However, there are lots of bloggers who make mistakes (as I do as well). However, when I have disagreed with some bloggers in the past, I have even been reported to Askimet as a spammer, when nothing could be further from the truth.
I always attempt to fully explain my point of view when I disagree with a point made by a blogger, but in many many cases that isn’t enough.
At least when one uses Tweeter or FaceBook, one gets to write something and it appears.
Not so with many blogs. Many bloggers are very liberal in their politics and life view so long as a commenter agrees. But, they become ruthless when there is the slightest attempt to introduce another viewpoint.
I haven’t found that here, so I thought I would try to make the point, since you are addressing your comment outward, one comment inward is fair.
Beth
My favorite hobby shop:
ToysPeriod is a leading online shop specializing in lego sets and model railroad equipment.
From Beth Charette to you: A Brief History of Ancient Games
I’ve never heard of comments unapproved because of disagreement.
Thanks for writing about DoFollow, CommentLuv and KeywordLuv Ari. You know I am a huge fan of our community of bloggers who are dedicated to all three.
I am sure there ARE many bloggers who delete comments because they don’t like them. I believe in respecting the opinions of others and will approve comments as long as they do not attack others, contain profanity (which I will edit out), or link to bad neighborhoods (which, again, I often edit out).
Hearing viewpoints from as many divergent sources as possible only adds to the discussion and enlightens us all faster.
From Gail @ KeywordLuv to you: Freelancers: How to Get More Freelance Work
This is the second blog I took advantage from KeywordLuv plugin today. Shameful to say I have mistreated some other opportunities given while commenting earlier. Glad I’ve met Gail (Growmap) on Twitter and Ari, always a nail in the head (Ouch! but in a good way).
From Ching Ya @ Social Media Blogging to you: 7 Features to Brand, Market, Manage with MarketMe Tweet
I think I need to make some changes to my own blog now. I always thought KeywordLuv and CommentLuv were the same thing. Different companies or individual developers perhaps, but performing the same function.
One question, for the Twitter name entry, is that also a plugin? That’s one that I’d like to add for sure.
From Wayne John @ My Personal Blog to you: The time when a Burger King employee threw a double cheeseburger at me
I use the WP Twitip ID plugin — by the same developer of CommentLuv, as elaborated on the latest list of plugins I use.
I’m so scatterbrained lately, thanks for the links Ari!
(warming up to KeywordLuv now…what did you do to me?)
From Wayne John @ Burger King to you: The time when a Burger King employee threw a double cheeseburger at me
Ari, this is great advice for those that are new to commenting on blogs. I have signed up for the comment luv plugin and find that it works extremely well. Also, if you have a post relevant to the topic at hand, it works even better because people will be inclined to click. Unfortunately, I have not yet created a post on How To Comment on Blogs. I should have done this before writing this comment
From Richard@How To Videos to you: Copy DVD To Hard Drive
Great plugin Ari, looked at it a year ago and never took a good enough look, adding this to my blog as I type
You always find nifty plugins!
From Maria @ Business Blogging to you: Online Marketing: After You Get Found
Which do you refer? KeywordLuv or CommentLuv?
I had run across this only once before that I am aware of and the way it was explained confused me. I really like the way your paragraph below explains how this works. Of course with this it forces me to think through what my @ handle should be. A good thing overall, but something long avoided.
From Fred H Schlegel @ Marketing Innovation to you: Is The American Dream Dead?
You can always change the Keywords, by the way; as the URL can be different, too.
A great and helpful topic.
Honestly, I lose inspiration to write the next post if I notice that there is almost no to no comment on my posts. To me, comments are the life of a post. If there’s no comment on a post, I feel that’s dead; as well as I end up taking too long time to write up the next post (just because of no inspiration, you know).
From Aminul Islam Sajib to you: Tips For Paid Review : Don’t Forget Your Blog’s Niche
I’m fond of saying it’s more important to run metrics and gauge readership levels than commenting levels. If people are reading, even if they are not commenting, keep writing.
Hey Ari, I just wanted to make sure I was doing it right. Not sure I will rank for is this how you do it anytime soon but it is all good. Thanks for spreading the keyword and comment luv around.
From Danny @ Is this how you do it? to you: Increase your blog traffic with dofollow community
Yep, that’s how you do it (though I changed the words).
Hi Ari,
Thanks for featuring my comment. One of my target keywords for my blog is Best SLR Camera. It gets a decent amount of searches in google every month. My target reader is the new user to digital slr cameras.
I love comment luv. And I’m sure I’ll get some visitors and comments from your blog. Thanks!
From Debbie@SLR Camera Bags to you: Get Started With Macro Photography
Great bit this. I’ve asked a few times on twitter about what you expect out of your readers. It’s a different focus than to keep asking what your users should expect from your blog.
This is right on that topic with advice to your readers about how to make the best use of your comment system. Heck. I’m likely to steal a good bit of this to use on my blog.
Though KeywordLuv is less common, CommentLuv is very common. Commenters on your blog seem to be mostly up on it, but I’ve seen commenters on other blogs totally missing out.
Cheers for another great post, your friend,
Todd
From Todd Jordan @ Social Networking Tips to you: Time Magazine Sports Illustrated iPad Future
Steal on, brother.
I find it curious that you listed some names that never reply to comments…
From Dennis Edell to you: WANTED – Keyword Research Expert(s)
…such as who?
Darren for one, absolutely. I’ve heard the same of a couple of the others…I wouldn’t know personally though, I don’t visit blogs that don’t reply.
From Dennis Edell to you: WANTED – Keyword Research Expert(s)
I followed your CommentLuv featured post here from the debate raging over at HotBlogTips about whether it is better to be do follow or no follow. Everyone who reads me already knows where I stand on that issue and I am glad that you weighed in as well.
I just added links to this post, your blog, and your about page with appropriate anchor text from my post in support of KeywordLuv. I also added you to my dofollow Twitter list and KeywordLuv Twitter list.
From Gail @ KeywordLuv to you: KeywordLuv: How Using It Benefits Us All
I have introduced about three new bloggers to the blogoshere. All were tech guys. And it took them forever to get what I was talking about with these plugins. You do have to lay it all out like that. Good post. I also have CommentLuv and Dofollow after three comments.
From Stephan Miller@Affiliate Marketing Blog to you: Turn Your Wordpress Blog Into A Review Site with MyReviewPlugin
Great information I’ve never seen before. Making a comment is more complicated than I would have believed. Recently I was shocked to learn some comments are recorded on Google.
I have read that you should use the same name, information in order to “brand” who you are. Is it better to mix things up?
Still learning…
Actually I would like an example of the “perfect” response.
So far I’ve only experienced Comment Luv. I find it great for posting on blogs and using specific keywords to find that info with. I will have to explore the keyword luv one and see how that one works but definitely will get around to adding them to my blogs.
From Marie Leonard to you: How To Write A Great Press Release
I do hope I’ve got that right after you’ve just explained it so beautifully. I’ve never understood how to use the keyword idea before. Kinda funny that I couldn’t figure it out. Plus, I see two more posts that I want to read. Thank you for giving me a new tool to add to my commenting arsenal.
From cheryl @ Stay Young to you: soup served in a toilet bowl and other strange goings-on
Hi,
This post is important if people are new to the keywordluv plug in because its happened to me and I did not do the name@key word, so thanks for clearing this up and thanks for the link love!
Regards
Dan
From Dan@Solid Wood Desks to you: Solid Wood Desks
Hello ARI HERZOG,
I learnt blog commenting only last week and had done several of them. I have seen commentLuv and how it work but I never knew such thing called keywordLuv until I read your article.
You have clearly explained what at the features of both commentLuv and keywordLuv and shown picture of the 6 comments as an example for your illustration.
They are well said and understood. Perhaps, I wonder if we apply them during commenting, is there any implication to our own website in terms of ranking ?
Nice post, comment on blog with commentLuv is a super way to get others to visit your site. I receive hits on my site on a daily basis because of such comments especially if you have an attract headline!
I have been commenting on blogs with the keywordluv plugin now for about 2 weeks now, and I have seen my keywords moved up in the search engines from nothing to about 300 down on the list. This isn’t good, but at least it is a start.
You seem to be doing a good job of spamming dofollow blogs with this very same comment. Thanks 4 leaving the same on my blog though i deleted it.
@Ari: nice blog you’ve got here. i should be leaving some good comments anytime soon. Cheers
Thanks for your compliment!
I run several blogs and it is hilarious to me that I see the exact same comments from the same spammer over and over again. I wonder just how many quality links these spammers get? and how much their sites benefit from said links.
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