Aug 01 2008
How Does NOT Commenting Hurt a Blog?
I had loads of free time in June and did a wee experiment to see if commenting on other people’s blogs more than usual would have any sort of imapact on the number of visitors and RSS subscribers for Nerdy Nomad. I figured it was a pretty sure bet that commenting more would lead to higher traffic, more subscribers and more comments on my own blog which turned out to be the case.
On the flip side, I also wondered what sort of an impact not participating much in the blogging community would have on my site. I spent July travelling around and maybe left a total of five comments on other blogs over the course of that month. I was fully expecting that not commenting would have the exact opposite impact of commenting lots and was really surprised to see my traffic and RSS numbers rise substantially despite my month long vow of silence.
- RSS Subscribers - At the end of May my subscribers were at 129 and with all of my commenting they rose to 158 by the end of June. Now at the end of July they’ve jumped up even more and are sitting pretty at 225.
- 45n5 Top 100 Blog List - I started at 234, moved up to 205 and now I’m at 191. I had been up around 170 before Google dropped me from PR4 to PR3 which affected my ranking.
- Comments - I had 55 comments in May, 148 in June and 104 in July.
- Traffic - I jumped from 42 unique visitors per day in May up to 58 in June. July saw a further jump with an average of 62 unique visitors.
So… what does this all tell me? Not much! I’m confused. My best guess is that once you get the word about your blog out there, it takes a while for everyone to catch on and you can see the benefits of commenting for several months.
Who knows. Any thoughts? How did your blogs fare in July?
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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. 
This is fascinating. I really find it amusing.
I suppose if your blog is good (i.e. contains information that are interesting to at least a group of Internet savvy people), then it just needs that initial hurdle to be crossed. After that much of your reader growth comes through your initial readers? Almost like word of mouth?
I can’t remember how I came across your blog, but I do know it was NOT because I followed the link from a comment left by you. I think I was searching for something about free living… can’t remember.
Anyways, good post.
I find your website fascinating because I have been wondering for years if I could turn my blogs and websites into money making machines that could help out with these student loans and with my constant traveling. I still have no idea how to build a website but at least I’ve got a few ideas on how to learn how to make money thanks to you! Its a good start. I didn’t even realize that clicking on ads in peoples blog could be helping to support them. Now I’m clicking away as much as I can when I stop by to read.
Do you have any suggestions for books or something I could purchase to learn about website building?
It seems that the comments helped quite a bit I would say.
During the last month, I saw your alexa ranking getting better and better…
Still how time consuming was the experience ?
Hey… I just checked your alexa details…
Weird : it says that 44.6% of your traffic comes from South Korea ?
Very interesting experiment!
As I’m still starting out with my blog the number of hits are still low, but in one experiment I did, I used the Google Blog search to see other blogger’s posts specifically about the same thing I had just written about and left them a comment that I felt contributed to the discussion. I haven’t much frame of reference since I’ve barely tried to get my blog out there (still not 100% happy with the layout), but that brought me a burst of traffic; mostly because one person wrote a post specifically about my blog and another one put a link to my blog on their site (I didn’t ask them to). Obviously commenting on old posts won’t get any visitors from their regular subscribers, so directly contacting the blogger would probably achieve the same thing. I’ve tried the “great post” comments too, and that DOES get visitors, but only for a couple of seconds, which barely counts; so it’s yet another reason to actually try and contribute to the discussion.
I think your own experiment has the “noise” of so many other sources of traffic (I myself found you through Google Reader’s recommendation), so I agree with François above. I think two similar blogs running in parallel, with good content but too new to be known, one with a lot of comments linking back to it and the other without would really give more conclusive results!
At least one thing we see is that you had less comments in July; that would be logical since a lot of people feel like giving back a comment when you leave them one. But it’s not down too far… face it, you just have too good content to need to rely on comment traffic like the rest of us
It also depends on where you post your comments. I managed to get a basic “great post” comment in first on a post that made it to the digg page and I got some great flow-over from it (alas, all less than 10 second stays though).
I’m trying out a few new experiments myself this month so do write about any other ideas you may have
I’d have to agree with Benny and some of the other commentators… I stick around because your posts are always significantly interesting. However, I think I found you because you were listed on a ‘do follow’ blog list. Go figure.
Perhaps many of the comments that you left in June brought people here initially and then your great content during July (which was WAY up in the post # to previous months since you’ve been on the road) kept them coming back for more.
Just a thought…
-Suz
What an interesting experiment! I just arrived to your site from another blog, but from a link, not a comment. I would definitely agree with what the others said. During your uber-prolific month of commenting, you probably got a lot of exposure to your blog, and since you’ve got a lot of really interesting posts, it was enough of an intrigue factor for all of us blog readers to come back and check out what you’re musing over even if you were being silent.
I think the reason why you continue to see a benefit in some areas is because of the long-term benefits of short term comment boosts.
New readers will find you during the commenting sessions and may subscribe or comment. Those who enjoy your site will stick around even while you’re not commenting much because they’ve already found you.
However, when you stop commenting you get less new readers from that process but a smaller amount from the new readers who may be plugging you anyway.
I also find that traffic brings traffic. The more you get, the more will come.
(This all made sense in my head but seems less logical written down.)
Hi Kirsty,
We spoke when you first started this blog. I’m glad to see you’re still at it! After reading your post, I’ve decided to experiment a bit and see what happens when I comment.
-Beverly
Yes there is not doubt in that.
I think that in the end there is nothing that makes more impact like comments!
More the comments, more the interest!