Unfortunately many people seem to have heard about getting traffic from comments but have no idea about those comments needing to be of value.

It is ironic that in the last 30 days I have received more spam comments than ever on a post devoted to getting traffic from commenting which I wrote and posted on my blog about 15 months ago.

Since there is nothing about encouraging spam commenting in that post I have to wonder where these people posting comment trash learned to do that.

Anybody with an intelligence of a ten year old knows that spam in any form is not welcome.

Why is it then that people who have blogs and bank accounts think that their spam and trash comments will be approved?

They most definitely won’t.

But even if by some temporary inattention or a mistake they were to be approved, why aren’t the authors of this trash smart enough to realize the obvious?

Even if some other visitor to the same blog where the worthless comment found its way reads the trash, they won’t be in the least interested in reading anything else from the feeble-minded author of it.

If you are fairly new to blogging or if you are a prolific blogger but haven’t considered commenting before, you may want to read my blog post that I mentioned above. The title of the post is Get Blog Traffic Increase With Blog Comments.

That post received 75 comments, soon after it was published, which were approved and several dozen of trash comments lately.

It seems that spammers like to post their trash on older posts with the hope of not being caught. Not very smart behavior again.

People who spam comment think that they are smart and everybody else is stupid. They think that if they post 5 spam comments on the same post with slight wording variation that at least one of them will be approved.

People who spam comment are convinced that Google is stupid too. They must think that even if nobody visits their blog due to their worthless comments that at least Google will count their links due to the spam comments that will somehow make it through.

Don’t be a spam idiot posting spam comments that will only end up in trash and will damage your reputation with anybody who reads them and also with Google.

Be smart and post proper and valuable comments on other blogs and you’ll get traffic from them. I certainly have gotten traffic that way and continue getting it.

Have you read the post I suggested to you yet? It tells a story of my getting traffic from posting valuable comments with some concrete numbers.

Before you leave decent comments on this post you may want to watch a video or two, three or even four, if you like, from small internet marketing networking events that took place recently. The most recent ones come first:

Under the Skin Chip, Magnet, Magic Wand Fun Talk Video:

Breffo Spider Podium Tablet, Shot Gun Microphone Video:

Robotix, Transformers, Mexican Food Video:

No Noodles No John Chow Dot Com Pho a la Turkey Video:

What to do now?

1) Leave a comment telling me and the other readers what you think about trash or spam comments and those who are posting them.

2) Add anything else that comes to your mind about commenting and make your comment into a model comment of value of the best quality or, if you are less generous today, of a slightly better than passable quality and state which you think it is.

3) Tweet and bookmark this post for others to find it and leave their own comment or, even better for you, visit your own blog because of the comment you have left here.

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Authored by Vance Sova

I know that this sounds counter-intuitive to most people which is why they are afraid and don’t want to lose traffic to other blogs and websites.

They’d never consider giving a do follow link to anybody, putting links to other relevant sites in the so called blogroll in the sidebar or installing a Comment Luv or Keyword Luv plugins.

I’m here to tell you that if you are afraid of losing traffic to anybody you should consider first if you have any traffic to lose in the first place.

Get More Blog Traffic Linking Out, Not By Being Stingy

If you enhance the experience of your visitors by showing links to other sites they are likely to come back. And even if you do lose a portion of the visitors to your blog by them using the links you provided, do you think that they were going to come back to your blog if it weren’t for them clicking on those links?

By engaging with other blogs and the whole internet community you will gain traffic and visitors to your blog.

Engaging also includes commenting which I have covered in another post: Get Blog Traffic Increase With Blog Comments.

Linking out and giving links through various plugins mentioned above will go a long way in attracting traffic to your blog. I’ll relate a story supporting this further down so keep on reading.

Scared of Google Taking Your Rank Away?

One of my blogging friends Josh Rimer whom I met in September of last year has now decided to do just what I’m talking about. On his own accord without me ever mentioning it since our first conversation in September.

He has been told and believed like many bloggers that having do follow links on his blog would cause him to lose Google ranking.

There is a wide spread belief that Google supports link hoarding by calculating which links are going in and going out and if your blog links out it will lose.

Since Google wants to enhance the experience of people who use it to search the internet such belief is very irrational. It would be working against what Google wants.

There are enough bloggers with high Google rank like Kristi’s Kikolani and Sire’s Wassup Blog that are not link hoarders for you to realize that you can do the same without being paranoid.

A True Story of One Blog That Got Scared of Sharing

I emailed this story to Josh in response to his decision to go do follow etc.

Let me tell you of one guy’s blog that I used to visit and comment on. It used to have a do follow and showed people’s comments in the side bar and even had top commentators. That blog used to have twice as much traffic as mine and ranked higher too. It also had plenty of blogroll links.

Then the guy became paranoid, probably being influenced by some non sharing freak.

He removed everything from the side bar: everything having to do with sharing, went no follow and guess what happened to him: Google stopped liking his blog.

His rank is now 0 and his traffic is 2 to 3 times less than mine. You’d think that he would restore things back to what they were before but no, he’s persisting in hoarding things for himself and keeps on losing more and more.

I stopped visiting his blog (except every 3 or 4 months just to see if he came to his senses) and so apparently did a lot of other people. He used to get more comments than me, now he usually gets none or 1 or two per post once in a while. If he gets 4 comments he probably has a celebration now.

I hope that you’ll at least consider linking out besides of course commenting and giving do follow links. If you’re still scared of doing this at least link out in person by attending live events, even small ones like the one shown below.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, the video and the nice banner.

Tell me and all the readers your view on giving links and getting traffic to your blog.

Leave your comments and do tweet and stumble and digg this post for others to see and share their views.

Authored by Vance Sova

There is one blogger that I know of and have a great respect for who from time to time makes a video mentioning which were the top 10 blogs during a period of a month that sent her the most traffic. The top 10 blogs of course change all the time.

I’m proud to say that for the period from May 15 to June 15, 2010 the very blog you are reading now was the number one blog that sent Sally Neill the most traffic.

You can check the video showing the top ten blogs sending traffic to find out what Sally has to say about me and my blog and the runner ups.

What did I do to send Sally the most traffic over a period of a month?

How To Become A Blog Traffic Magnet

What I did was both purposeful and accidental but looking back it can be easily replicated at any time by anyone. When I say accidental I mean that I never expected the results to be so good.

1) I  created an information product, my first ebook The Basics Of List Building.

2) I  posted about the topic of the ebook and about the ebook before it was released in my post called Email List Building, Opt in List, Not Just for Internet Marketer.

3) I wrote a post Email List Building Ebook, How To Build Email List In Any Market which highlighted my new ebook after I published it.

4) I made comments on three or four dozen blogs that I like to read.

That’s about it.

Of course I do respond to comments that my blog readers leave and thus keep the communication going.

My then just released new list building ebook attracted tons of traffic. A portion of that traffic was passed on to Sally’s blog.

But how was the traffic from my blog getting to be passed on to Sally?

How To Get Traffic From Secret Traffic Blogs

The way Sally got so much traffic from my blog and the way you can get traffic from secret traffic blogs is very simple but not that easy.

It is a way that I’ve covered before in Increase Blog Traffic Using Comments. Sally was commenting a lot on my blog because she liked my new ebook and what I was writing about.

It was just at that time that my blog was getting extra large amounts of traffic and a significant portion of those visitors noticed the high quality comments Sally was making.

Naturally they became curious about what else she had to say and went over to her blog.

Commenting is not the easiest way to get traffic because your comments need to be valuable if they are going to attract people to your blog and that takes time and hard work.

So what are the secret traffic blogs? If you watched the video on Sally’s blog you’ve got an idea. But really, any blog with a content you like can become a secret traffic blog at any time.

Top 10 traffic sending blogs for you can be the same ones that were the top secret traffic blogs for Sally but they can be a completely different set of blogs.

The key thing to keep in mind is that no top traffic sending blog will send you any traffic unless you take the initiative and work hard for it.

There is of course always paid traffic but that is another subject.

Do you keep track of your own top 10 traffic sending blogs?

Have you used commenting to get traffic?

If not, will you consider it after reading this post?

Please leave your comments and bookmark and tweet this post so others can join the discussion.

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Authored by Vance Sova

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When it comes to traffic and comments, Get Blog Traffic Increase is a post that you may want to read. Other posts that may be of interest to you that are about traffic are Get Blog Traffic With Top Directories and a bit controversial Get Blog Traffic From Twitter.

How To Get Your Blog 10 Times More Popular

A lot of work goes into writing blog posts that people actually want to read, and perhaps more importantly, cite in their own work. The best in the world have an active comments section and catchy post titles. Do you want to be the guru or the guilty pleasure?

Here are ten tips to becoming more popular in the blogosphere:

1. Make yourself known: You are more than likely a member of blogs that you read for enjoyment. Make some relevant comments and you will attract readers who want to add YOUR blog to their daily online diet.
2. Be Vulnerable: Do not be afraid to admit your shortcomings to the world. This adds a level of ‘humanity’ to your posts, giving your readers something to sympathize with. It also encourages comments because many readers feel compelled to come up with solutions.
3. Invite comments: Ask for feedback on ideas that you’re pondering. Do a roll call to see who is reading your work. You want your readers to be active and involved with the ideas that you are talking about. They have similar interests as you do, and might have great insights.
4. Encourage others to share among themselves: This relates to step #3. You want your readers to be offering something relevant to you and to the others around you. Encourage your readers to talk with one another. You might learn something that you didn’t know.
5. Make awesome titles: Offer something that sparks your reader’s curiosity. Instead of ’5 ways to lose weight,’ try out ‘How I lost a pound a day for 5 months.’ Be fun with your title, thinking about the ones that attract your attention. Your originality brings in the viewers to your site.
6. Appeal to the right brain instead of the left: Use pictures to demonstrate your points. This sets the emotional side of your brain in motion, rather than the one which has to translate words into meanings. People are also attracted to pretty things.
7. Write about your passions: It is quite obvious to others if you’re writing about something you know nothing about. The way to set yourself apart from the others and be seen as an expert is by writing about things that you know. The more you know, the more you can share. The more you can share, the more value you have to your readers.
8. Make your blog readable: A garish striped background with black frames is distracting. Readers need to be focused on the text, rather than on how loud your background is. Use bulleted lists and make your points concisely.
9. Have contests: Don’t be afraid to have contests for your readers. See who can comment the most on your blog in a month. Who can draw the best picture of a llama? The contest makes no difference as long as they are compelling and. Your readers want to be engaged, and you want to get the page views.
10. Write just enough to keep the reader’s attention: Have you read blog posts that feel like you’re walking a desert road? Split your text up if you find that you’re going too long. If your post is too short, try ‘expanding the lens’ to make it more general.

People want to read your blog because you offer some enrichment to their lives. You have informative posts for the readers. You might write some great humor. You could share common interests. All of these are valid reasons for reading others’ blogs. How do you make others desire your blog?

I need your comments here. Which of the above 10 tips are you already implementing?

Which of the ten tips to make your blog more popular is the most appealing to you and one that you are most likely to implement first?

What is working for you the most in attracting more readers?

Make sure you bookmark this post on Digg or any other site of your choice and tweet it so others can find it and contribute their comments and views.

James Adams is a staff writer at Cartridge Save where he reviews popular items like the HP 343 ink cartridge and helps to maintain their design and marketing blog.

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One of the good ways you can get blog traffic is to comment on other blogs as I have covered in my post Get Blog Traffic With Comments. Another good way to increase blog traffic is to build links to sites that will help your blog to be found by others.

Link building is a part of SEO. I have mentioned some elements of SEO in my post called Blogging SEO Strategy.

There are hundreds of blog directories that you can list your blog in. I would start with the top ones first. I’m Vance Sova and I invite you to read on.

The following is a guest Post by James Adams:

Top 10 Directories That Will Help Get Your Blog Noticed

Once you’ve got your blog set up and have been blogging for a few days or weeks, you may have wondered why the readers and visitors aren’t flocking in.

The answer is: you’ve got to get the word out. If you don’t tell anyone about your blog, then no one will even know that it exists.

One of the best ways to get instant exposure for your blog is to submit to a blog directory. There are hundreds of these around the Internet, but some are much better than others. Here are the top 10.

1. DMOZ: This is one of the oldest and most respected directories on the Internet. DMOZ.org won’t accept your site until it has been reviewed by their editors to make sure that it’s not spam. Unfortunately, this process can take several months, so it’s a good idea to get started early. When your blog finally does get listed with DMOZ, Google will look upon your site with much more respect.
2. BOTW: Best of the Web is also an established and highly respected directory. It has been in business since 1994. A link from BOTW will instantly give your blog a boost in credibility and visibility.
3. Business.com: If your blog is commercial in nature, then this is an essential place to get it listed. For a listing fee of $299, you’ll be able to get targeted traffic all year.
4. Yahoo: Yahoo bills itself as the oldest directory on the Internet. Although Yahoo may not have the prominence that it once did, it still gets a ton of traffic every day. If you can get your site listed here, it can be well worth it. It’s free for non-commercial sites, but $299 for commercial sites or if you’d like your site reviewed within 7 days.
5. Bloggeries: Bloggeries is a great directory because of its organization. Visitors will be able to quickly find your blog by category, which will result in more targeted traffic for your blog.
6. Eaton Web: This is another highly respected blog directory. One of the strengths of this directory is that blogs can be rated and will be listed based on their overall strength and popularity momentum. This can get you a lot of exposure if people begin to find your blog valuable.
7. The Blog Frog: This is a directory that is quickly rising in popularity. The Blog Frog combines a blog directory with a social media platform. Not only can you list your blog, but you can interact with other bloggers directly on this site.
8. Blog Search Engine: Blogsearchengine.com is another highly selective blog directory that can give your site a nice boost. Many Internet users come here directly to search for blogs, so you want to make sure that your site is served in their search results.
9. MyBlogLog: MyBlogLog already had 45,000 members when it was acquired by Yahoo in 2007. Now, it has more than a quarter million members and 22 million visits per day. You can list your blog and encourage other members with similar blogs to form a community around you. This is one site you don’t want to skip.
10. Blogged: Blogged is similar to news aggregators like Google News. The only difference is that it pulls news stories from blogs rather than traditional news sites. If you write about topical subjects on your blog, then you definitely want to list your site at Blogged. You’ll be able to show up on the radar screen of web surfers looking for fresh content.

If you haven’t yet begun to promote your blog, or if you have been using other methods to get the word out about your blog; then your next course of action should be to begin submitting your blog to a few directories. The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll begin to see the results you want.

This guest article was written by James Adams who is a full time blogger working with an online supplier of ink cartridges. Check out their blog for more of his posts about design and marketing.

Please go ahead and make a comment. Have you submitted your blog to any of the directories above or any other ones? Have you noticed an increase in traffic?

Bookmark and tweet the post for others to see.

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Authored by Vance Sova

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First of all, let me say that I am no expert on twitter and that I don’t use any automation or clever software to submit my tweets. I also don’t follow people and stop following them if they don’t follow me back. I think that there is a program for that too.

All I do with twitter is follow some people that I know and some that I think are worth following. Most of my followers decided to follow me first and I do follow them back sometimes but not automatically as some twitter user advisers seem to teach.

Since I follow about 600 people and have only about 600 twitter followers (to me that is more than enough to keep track of), I realize that I can’t expect to get much blog traffic from them.

To get a significant blog traffic from my own twitter followers I’d need tens of thousands of them.

But would I really get that much traffic from twitter to my blog even if that was the case?

It is my qualified opinion that I would not.

I say qualified opinion because I don’t have that many followers on twitter and therefore can’t be absolutely sure.

What I am sure of is that even with having some of my blog visitors who on occasion like what I have to say tweet or re-tweet some of my posts, the resulting blog traffic from that is more than pitiful.

Even if just 5 of those readers, who kindly want others to also read what I post about had each just 600 followers like me ( I know that some of them have thousands or even tens of thousands), tweeted my post then in theory 3,000 people would be notified and invited to my blog.

In such scenario, which is the worst case of what actually was taking place within the last 2 weeks, I should be justified in expecting at least 1% of the 3,000 twitter followers to show up on my blog and I should get blog traffic equaling 30 visitors from twitter.

According to Google Analytics, within the last month this is the blog traffic I got from twitter: full 3 visitors. (Update April 28, 2010: 4 more twitter visitors since this post was written – i.e. about one twitter visitor every 4 days).

Unless I’m doing something wrong, which anyone reading this is cordially invited to point out, (in fact I beg you to do that), the amount of blog traffic one can get from twitter is hardly worth the effort.

Anyone who blogs wants more traffic.

I have written several posts on this subject where as opposed to my twitter experience the methods I write about actually work very well.

You can read my Get Blog Traffic Increase with Comments which will give you a proven way to get traffic to your blog where previously there was none and that will also help you increase an already good existing traffic.

My blog so far has been getting most traffic this way.

There is even, arguably, a better free way to get blog traffic increase.

You can read about it in my post Earn Money Blogging, Get Traffic Without SEO?

The second best source of my blog traffic is the search engines and thus SEO.
It has brought me more than 17% of all traffic within the last 30 days according to Alexa and about 34% according to Google Analytics.

I choose to trust Google more because of the research that I’ve done on both.

But either way, SEO traffic plays a big and significant part in getting visitors to my blog. And I’m sure it will do that for your blog too.

I have heard a hugely successful blogger and online entrepreneur say “screw social media”.

I wouldn’t go that far but there is some truth in that saying for those of us that spend too much time trying to get blog traffic from twitter and other numerous social media platforms.

Again, I’m not here to knock down anything. If you get a lot of blog traffic from twitter I want to hear from you. Please voice your opinion and experience in the comments.

If, on the other hand, twitter underperforms for you as it has surely done for me then pay attention to what I wrote and for sure read my two posts mentioned here.

I want to hear from everybody.

So post your comment regarding your twitter and blog traffic experience.

Then bookmark and tweet it so others have the chance to contribute to the discussion as well.

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Authored by Vance Sova

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Or Get Blog Traffic

Using Blog Comments

You can get blog traffic to go up dramatically within hours, days and weeks when you decide to use blog comments.

Blog traffic increase can mean a boost to your mood and in some cases even to your bottom line.

If you are just starting to blog and have no traffic at all you will get traffic to your blog for sure using this method. It produces results very quickly.

Blog comments are a great way to increase blog traffic at no cost to you, except of course you need to spend some time.

But if you like blogging you most likely also like reading what other people blog about. And when you read interesting blogs, commenting is not hard at all.

Blog Commenting Is A Part Of SEO Strategy

If you’ve read my previous post on blogging seo strategy you’ll know that I mentioned link building there. If you haven’t read it here’s the link: Blogging Seo Strategy.

By writing comments of value you can be reasonably sure that your comments will be approved. What is a comment of value? I’ve covered that in my other post on traffic which you can read (it’s covered under point #4) here: Get Traffic To Opt In.

How You Get Traffic To Your Blog Through Comments

I must admit that when I first heard about commenting in connection with getting traffic to my blog I was very skeptical. But I started to do it anyway. And I continue doing it because

I found that it produces results in at least three tangible ways:

1) You get blog links when your comments are approved

2) You get visitors to your blog that read your comments

3) You get comments on your blog from some of those visitors

And then there are some intangible and long term benefits

For example you’ll meet people and some of them you’ll become friends with.

That alone is a great benefit. But friends talk and that may bring you more visitors too.

There is a potential of future JV partnerships but we’ll leave that alone now.

Another long term benefit will come through the accumulation and aging of links which will help your blog to be placed higher in search engines.

This is the SEO benefit which starts early but takes more pronounced effect with time.

Ninety Eight Visitors From One Comment

Yes, I’ve received 98 visitors to my blog from just one comment. That comment was on a blog post that attracted a lot of visitors many of whom decided to visit my blog.

None of them left a comment but they spent on average 16 minutes reading what I had to say here. They kept on coming at the rate of 4 to 5 per day for three whole weeks.

A few days later a comment on another blog brought me 37 visitors over one week.

The traffic from both blogs started to pour in within 10 hours from posting my comments.

Not every comment will produce exciting results like these.

Sometimes it may take a couple of weeks or even months before a visitor arrives as a result.

But when such visitor spends half an hour reading on your blog I think even that is well worth it.

And to be sure, some comments won’t bring you any direct visitors at all.

But you’ll still get a link.

And some links are amazingly valuable and will bring you traffic for a long time sooner or later.

I may cover the kinds of links that are out there and their values at some other time.

What to do now?

1) You want to leave a comment on my blog whether you like this post or not and express your opinion.

2) If you liked what you’ve just read Digg it, Delicious it, Tweet it and Technorati it or use any other bookmarking of your choice.

The bookmark icons are further below.

3) Start practicing blog commenting on other blogs after making a good start here.

Thank you for visiting and for doing the above 3 points.

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Authored by Vance Sova

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