Jul 03 2008
How Much Does Commenting Help a Blog - The Results
A month ago I decided to run a little test and see what kind of an impact commenting on other blogs would have on Nerdy Nomad. I was even keeping track of how many comments I had left and on which blogs but I seem to have lost that file somewhere into the abyss that is my disorganised hard drive.
Here are the results. I know you can hardly wait.
- RSS Subscribers - My feed subscribers rose from 129 to 158, a jump of 29 people. Hello new people! It took me ten months to get to 129 so I’m really happy to see it jump by so much in a single month.
- 45n5 Top 100 Blogs List - I jumped up 31 places on this list from 234 to 205. The list uses Page Rank, Alexa and Technorati stats to come up with some sort of system of rating blogs. I’m not sure how meaningful it is but I’m pretty competitive and something like this is a good motivator for me.
- Comments - I went from a measly 55 comments last month to 148 in June. This could be attributed to me having made more blog posts in June than in May, but a jump this big has got to have more behind it that just that. There have been lots of new faces and I know that many have found Nerdy Nomad through my comments on other blogs. They’ve told me so.
- Traffic - My visitor numbers rose from 42 to 58 uniques per day and from 85 to 140 page views per day. This seems to be a pretty big leap forwad too. I am guessing that my page view rose more because people new to my blog spent some time sifting through old posts which is cool. It’s always nice when long forgotten blog posts get a bit of reader love.
Obviously any number of factors could have had an effect on my improved stats but I have to think that leaving more comments and getting my name out there has been a large factor. Things have actually jumped up by a lot more than I expected. But stats aside, becoming more active in the blogging community has been rewarding in a lot of ways. It’s a great way to meet to people, exchange ideas, find new blogs and it’s even better when more and more new people find you.
As great as I think commenting on other blogs is, I doubt I’ll be able to devote much time to it in July. I might even not leave a single comment on another blog and see how that effects my numbers. Ya, let’s do that. So in July, no comments from me. This might be a stupid move and all of my hard work might go down the drain, but I’m curious to see what happens.
So are you guys surprised with the results or are they pretty much what you would have expected? I’m happy with my little experiment but lets see what July has in store.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go.
Commenting is probably my biggest marketing tool. And I have seem great results like you have. If you can dedicate the time to it, it will definately give your blog a nice boost!
Hi Kirsty,
not surprised at all. Driving visitors to your blog by commenting is one thing, but keeping them on your site and get them to subscribe to the RSS feed is another. The jump from 129 to 158 subscribers is impressive. (There will be even more that you don’t know of, using products that won’t be tracked such as Opera or Firefox’s dynamic bookmarks.)
Making these people return is the actual achievement, and this is not done by commenting on blogs but through good content that is updated regularly. Chapeau!
Frank
Yes commenting is certainly one of the must do activity for a blog owner…
too bad it is a “without end process”. I can’t imagine commenting to promote more than a handful of blogs…
Well you hooked me about 2 weeks ago. I can’t remember whether it was a comment or 45n5 Top 100. Either way, your blog has been my favorite lately. I just relate to your whole travel backpacking lifestyle angle. I quit my job in the IT industry in 2000 to study Spanish in Spain because I was so miserable working in my well paid job. My main website was conceived of and built in Barcelona in an internet cafe not far from the Kabul hostel. Just thought I’d mention it as I think you can relate.
Commenting can be really helpful and get a lot of traffic from other blogs. However, it is a process without end cause if you aren’t a regular commentor or adding value it just seems like you are phishing for traffic……speaking of which, how come u haven’t been around lately? lol
btw, can you (or anyone here) tell me what affliate ads are and how i go about selling them? You seem to make a lot of $ from that so I’m thinking that is the way to go but how do i sell them? are they part of adsense or another company? comission junction?
@Matt - Yes, Commission Junction, Share A Sale, Link Share are the three big ones. There are a lot of other CPA networks that sell products like ringtones and other faddy things. People make millions off them by driving huge volumes of traffic with PPC. It’s competitive with a long, steep learning curve though.
I didn’t find you through a comment, rather through a feed recommendation in Google Reader.
Commission Junction is a good example. They pool affiliate programs so that you just have to deal with one company. Of course they charge the advertisers for that, so sometimes you can make more profit if you deal directly with the advertiser. Talking about eliminating the man in the middle.
I think keeping posts regular and of a certain quality is the most important and I’m going to have a ahrd time doing that this month. Although I’m currently in a tiny village atop rice terraces and even here there’s internet. But the computer is doing my head in so I will say bye for now and reply to your comments in a few days.
I think I have lined up my first ever couchsurfing host for a city called Kaili so I’m excited about that! Will check back in soon!
Great experiment! I am especially impressed with your jump in RSS feed subscribers, although not too much since I am one such myself and I know the quality *grin*. I think that an aggressive commenting strategy combined with your quality content is what has made your experiment such a success. Congradulations!
Your site was recommended to me by Google Reader and after reading a few posts I decided to subscribe. I think what you’re doing (lifestyle-wise) is wonderful and I definitely understand the desire to promote your blog (especially when it’s your livelihood) but I have to agree with Nomadic Matt. Commenting has more value than building traffic. Rather than not commenting at all this month, why not comment on blogs without linking to your site? It would allow you to test your commenting theory while still participating in the community and giving other bloggers the thrill of hearing from the readers they’ve worked hard to earn.
Really interesting post. I’ve seen my own visits and page views go up since I stepped up reciprocating comments, so I do think it’s good. But like almost everything involving building a web presence, it takes lots of time, effort, and authenticity. I don’t comment about blogs that don’t speak to me and I try to leave comments that will build upon an ongoing conversation taking place on that blog.
Now that we’re out of villages in China and have a bit more connectivity in Europe, I’ve been thinking of performing the same experiment for our website. It’s thanks to your comment that I found your site. You’ve got great stories that combine both travel and web business - a great combination!
Thanks for the good article. I’m guessing me commenting on your blog is following your advice!
I liked seeing the pictures of China you put up as well… very beautiful!
Thanks again for the good read.