Promote Your Expertise and Help Build Web Traffic with Blog Comments

But don’t wimp out with useless comments like "Great post."

Want to promote your expertise and build website traffic? All it takes is 15 minutes a day … and it's a fairly simple task. Look for influential blogs your ideal clients are likely to read, and then post thoughtful or controversial comments.

That’s what I do. And so far, that strategy has resulted in:

• Invitations to be a guest blogger at several blogs where I have commented.
• An invitation to write this article. Steve Kayser blogged about boilerplates in press releases. I posted a comment on his blog earlier this year, and he asked me to write an article for this ezine, which has a circulation of about 135,000.
• Requests for interviews from Internet radio hosts and podcasters.
• Queries from authors who are writing books on marketing and publicity and want to quote me as an expert.
• Calls from journalists. Nine out of 10 journalists do their research online when looking for experts to interview, and many of them end up reading blogs devoted to the topic they’re covering.

The same thing can happen to you. Here’s how to get in on the action.

Let Google do the heavy lifting

First, do your research. But let Google do most of the work for you by creating a Google Alert at www.Google.com/alerts. Google Alerts are e-mail updates of the latest relevant Google results based on a certain topic.

You can use Google Alerts to monitor a developing news story, spy on your competitors, or, in this case, find out what bloggers are saying about your area of expertise.

It takes just a minute or two to create an alert. Tell Google what keyword or keyword phrase you want to know more about. Then decide what you want Google to monitor: news, blogs, web, video, groups, or all of those (comprehensive).

Next, specify how often you want to receive the alerts: once a day, once a week or as they happen. I like the alerts only once a day. Then type in your e-mail address. Google will send you a confirmation e-mail. As soon as you approve it, your alerts will start appearing in your e-mail.

Decide which blogs are a good fit

You’re free to comment at as many blogs as you wish. But to keep the task manageable, I usually comment only at blogs with a Google PageRank of three or higher. PageRank is Google’s way of judging the importance of a site. The higher the ranking on a scale of 0 to 10, the more important the site.

PageRank for your website is determined largely by the number of other influential, or high PageRank, sites that link to yours. You can download the Google toolbar at toolbar.google.com/T4/index_pack_xp.html and instantly see the ranking of every site you visit.

Some days, no blogs are worth a comment. Other days, I might find two or three bloggers who have written something that’s worth commenting on.

In the comment box, I type my name as "Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound" because "The Publicity Hound" is my brand. Not one blogger has ever complained.

When commenting, I usually mention whether I agree or disagree with the post, and explain why. Sometimes I offer a different viewpoint on the topic. When appropriate, I mention my 22 years as a newspaper editor so readers are aware of my background and experience.

Don’t wimp out with a useless comment like "Great post." This is a chance to show readers you really know your stuff. So show them!

Join the conversation, but don’t blatantly promote

Commenting at blogs isn’t about promoting. It’s about joining the conversation. So don’t blatantly mention your products and services, or you’ll turn off the blogger and readers.

If the topic is something I’ve written about, I’ll sometimes refer to a free article at my website, or a free tutorial, or a post at my own blog. Sometimes I’ll mention other websites that are also great resources. But I never link to my own product pages or those at other websites.

Many blogs allow you to add simple HTML to your comments but I don’t bother because it slows me down.

Almost all blogs that allow comments let you add a URL. Most URLs include a "no follo" tag, which means the search engines don’t count the inbound to your site in determining your own page rank. But the link is visible to anyone who reads the comment. All readers have to do is click on the URL and, within seconds, they can be at your website reading your free articles, looking through your product catalogue or subscribing to your free ezine.

Most bloggers love controversial comments because they prompt even more comments and make for lively discussion and interesting threads. Don’t be afraid to heat things up. Check back from time to time to see who has responded to your own comments. If you can, keep the conversation going.

Connect with journalists

Posting comments at blogs is not only a terrific way to get in front of journalists doing research online, it’s a strategic way to catch the attention of specific journalists who might be interested in covering you. That’s because many journalists blog, often as part of their jobs.

Let’s say you’re aching to pitch a story to a reporter at Fast Company. Type the reporter’s name into a search engine and find out if that reporter blogs. If he does, rather than e-mailing a pitch about your business, spend some time at his blog and comment on one of his posts. Keep reading the blog, and comment again a week or two later.

Start building the relationship. Then, when it’s time to e-mail a pitch, chances are excellent that the reporter will already know who you are because he has read your comments, and he’s probably flattered. At media conferences, journalists recommend that the best way to catch their attention is to "comment on our work."

Time-saving tips

I’ll admit it. Some days, commenting at blogs takes longer than 15 minutes. If I’m not careful, it can suck an hour or two from my day. But I’ve found a few ways around that problem.

My virtual assistant monitors all the Google Alerts, visits the blogs, notes the PageRank, decides if the blog is a good fit, and e-mails me with the links to the blogs where I should post a comment.

I also have started using a countdown clock, which counts down a certain number of minutes and seconds. I set the clock at 15 minutes, then try to visit the blogs, comment and complete the task within that time period.

OK, now it’s your turn. Create Google Alerts, and start impressing the world with your expertise.

About the Author:
Publicity expert Joan Stewart, a.k.a. The Publicity Hound, publishes "The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week," a free ezine on how to generate thousands of dollars in free online and offline publicity. Subscribe at www.PublicityHound.com and receive free the handy checklist "89 Reasons to Send a Press Release." She blogs at www.PublicityHound.net.