The vast majority of blog readers don’t leave comments before they leave the blog site. Are you one of them? If so, it might be time to re-think the importance of commenting on blogs. If done correctly, your comments can gain exposure online and increase your network. While your personal blog and social media profiles allow you to share information and express opinions in your own social sphere, commenting on other blogs gives you greater exposure to those involved and interested in your particular niche. This offers an even larger venue to voice your opinion and provide thought leadership.

A few simple hints to integrate when commenting on blogs:

  1. Make sure your content is valuable, helpful and useful. “Very informative” doesn’t give the reader any idea of how their post has been helpful. Show, don’t tell. Quality always outweighs quantity. If you don’t have anything constructive to say, don’t.
  2. Find a few great blogs in your niche that you really enjoy and that are relevant to you. Comment on the top 5 or 6 (commenting on more than that may cause you to look like spam). Again, quality over quantity wins.
  3. Provide links to other content in your blog comment. Whether you link back to your personal content or someone else’s, as long as it adds to the discussion, it is credible. Bonus: Linking to a page other than yours will grab the owner’s attention, and they will be more likely to return the favor.
  4. Tweet about the blog. Again, exposure for you, exposure for the blogger.
  5. Be the first. All the commenters following you will have to read your comment first.
  6. Leave your comment open-ended so those who comment after you have some food-for-thought to add into their comment.
  7. If someone comments on your post, respond quickly. This will give you credibility and let others in your niche know that you are passionate about the discussion.
  8. Get a “gravatar” and use the same one consistently. This is the image that will be shown in each comment, so it’s a great way to start branding yourself in each blog community.
  9. Make sure formatting on your comment is correct, including grammar. Nothing helps you lose credibility faster than misspellings and grammatical errors.
  10. Don’t start commenting on others’ blogs until you have ensured the content on your personal blog is worth them linking back to.

There are many helpful blogs out there about content and blogging. Try Copyblogger for an entertaining, informative and helpful read.

So what tactics are you going to implement to help your exposure?

Renee Achterhof is a content writer for Mindscape at Hanon McKendry