The Secret to Gaining New Readers on your Blog – Commenting on Other Blogs!
Looking for an easy way to promote your blog? All you need to do is make your presence well-known in the online community by focusing on your relationships with other bloggers. You can accomplish this by reading and commenting on blogs that relate to the real estate industry. Do this for a couple of weeks and soon you will be attracting new readers to your own blog. (See our real estate blog websites for agents looking to start their own a blog site.)
To start, choose blogs that are interesting to read and already have a lot of followers. (Once you are established on your own blog with a lot of followers, you can expand to the start-up blogs that are still growing.) Find blogs that your readers might be interested in, such as buying and selling homes, home improvement, market opinions, finance advice, product review blogs, vacation guides, etc. Try to find some blogs that hit close to your real estate area as well. Make it easy on yourself and subscribe to your favorite blogs so that you are notified by email every time there is a new post. Then, all you need to do is read the article and leave regular comments.
There is a certain etiquette that should be followed when commenting on blogs. Follow these 10 tips and you will be leaving thought-provoking comments in no time.
- First, get your face out there by making sure your avatar is a photo of yourself. This will show other bloggers that you are real person. (What’s an avatar? The little photo that appears next to your name. A photo can be uploaded in your Gmail account.)
- Read the whole post before you comment, and make sure that you really understand the points being made.
- Read all previous comments so that you don’t repeat ideas that have already been touched upon.
- Write useful, informative comments that add to the discussion, and refrain from rephrasing or repeating things that have already been said. You can even keep the conversation going with good questions.
- Write at least 2 to 3 good sentences, unless you can’t think of much to say and all the other people are leaving one-line comments.
- Never put your website URL in the comment box. It is spam and considered to be very self-serving – basically a big no-no in the blogging world. If someone wants to find out more about you, they can click on your picture and it will link them to your website. (Some comment boxes will have an area to enter a URL, which is the only exception to this rule.)
- Show how involved you are by responding to comments made on your own blog, as well as replies to the comments you leave on other blogs.
- Be free with compliments to the blogger who wrote the post.
- Be careful about deleting comments that people leave on your own blog. Keep in mind that it is OK if someone disagrees with you. If they have their facts wrong, you can politely correct them. Of course, if it is completely inappropriate and offensive then don’t hesitate to delete it.
- Follow all posted rules, and above all, be polite at all times and refrain from arguing with other commenters. If you disagree, do it nicely and with facts that support your point of view.
Take the challenge to dive into the online community by really getting involved with the discussions on other real estate blogs. The ultimate goal is to create a genuine connection with other bloggers by exchanging ideas and contributing to the conversation. The key to gaining that “connection” is helping others to feel valued. If you get really serious about commenting daily on other blogs, you will see an increase in traffic to your own blog in about a month (or even less!). Why? Because people will start seeing you as the expert that you are, and they will want to hear more from you. Try it out, and just see what happens.
Real Estate Blog Websites
Real estate blogs are ideal to help you connect with your clients and other real estate professionals. You can connect and network getting your name and branding easily online. If you haven’t already, then check out our real estate blog websites containing the tools, design and support you need to set you on the right real estate blogging path. We offer great real estate blogging tips such as this one, real estate marketing ideas, SEO tips, custom real estate WordPress add-ons and more.
I realize this is breaking one of your no-nos above but what’s wrong with filling out the “website” field when you leave a comment, especially when it’s relevant to the conversation? Isn’t that why the “website” field is offered or am I missing something?
@Dallas – The recommendation is that you don’t add your URL to the “Comments” field since that can get caught in a spam filter or be perceived as spam. It is recommended that you only enter your website address in the designated “Website” field. This will allow a visitor to click your name and that will lead them to your website. Hope that clarifies things.