So you’ve been told that one of the ways to encourage visitors to visit your site is to post comments on other people’s blogs, but you’re not sure how to go about it.

Here are some tips to make sure that you’re neither too timid nor too aggressive.

Start by Introducing Yourself

The main point is to establish who you are and why your opinions are valuable. One or two sentences should be sufficient. After that, people are going to want to see what you actually have to say.

Respond to What Has Been Written

If you are unsure where to start, pick out something specific that draws your attention. Include a direct reference to your prompt within your post.

Regardless of whether you agree, disagree, or just want more information, drawing the connection between your comment and the original post will grant it more weight.

Don’t Overshadow Your Host

Your contribution to the discussion should always take up more space than any description of yourself or your services, and you should do your best to keep from writing replies that are longer than the original article.

Your Expertise is Your Marketing

The main thing you are trying to do when you contribute to some else’s blog is show that you are someone worth investigating or working with. Do not toot your own horn, let the quality of your posts speak for you.

This doesn’t mean you have to avoid mentioning your own site, accomplishments, or products, but when you bring them up, make sure that doing so contributes to the conversation.

• “I talk about something similar on my blog”  is lackluster, but usually acceptable.
• “I recently experimented with aggressive and passive blog marketing strategies and posted the results in my own blog. When I look at the data I gathered it seemed that…” will go over much better.

With the latter you are actively contributing to the conversation and you turn your own site into an on-topic resource for the other readers.

Make Sure You Leave a Trail

If there is a place to input your URL, you should do so. You want people interested in what you have to say, but you also want them to be able to follow you back to your own site.

If there is no place to input your URL, look about to see if links have been included in any of the other comments on the blog. If they have been, how were the links included, and how was the comment received?

If nobody ever posts links, or if anyone who does receives a hostile reaction, you should probably look for a different blog.

You Are Your Brand

When representing yourself as part of a company, your expertise will be perceived as your company’s expertise, your demeanor will be perceived as your company’s demeanor, and so on.

This means you should be careful when posting to a blog written by someone else in the same industry. If you share relevant expertise freely, you will be seen as a boon, and readers will eventually want to learn more about you and find their own way to your site. However, if you routinely hold back more than you give, or if you always talk about your own products, it is more likely that you will be viewed as a poacher.

There’s no time like the present to get started!

Did you find this blog entry useful?  Do you have other netiquette question?  Feel free to leave a comment and join the conversation!