Blog commenting used to be one of the most preferred ways of getting blog traffic to your blogs. Many of the successful internet marketers and bloggers have talked about this is in their books and blogs. This was considered to be one of the easiest modes of getting traffic. But it is no more so!!

If you are surprised as to why your comments are not getting any traffic to your blogs, then the tough truth is that it won’t.

I know you are one of the very frequent visitors to those established blogs from an established blogger. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever read through the comments in the posts that you last read at one of these blogs? Did you click on any of the links to check out what the commentator has on his blog?

Hardly, right?

That is the truth. You do not do that. I even wonder if you have actually spent some time reading the post that you visited. If you didn’t, then you know the reason why your comments are not getting any traffic to your blogs.

The reason for this decline in traffic from comments has to do with the attitude with which a blogger frequents well know blogs. These days, there are very few genuinely interested readers. People come to a blog only with a view to get a backlink or, to post a comment, in the hope that they will get some traffic from it.

No Traffic from Comments -

If you have ever taken the time out to read a few comments in one of those posts at problogger or, entrepreneurs journey, you will see a lot of comments saying, “Nice post, I enjoyed it”, “Good thought, You made my day”, “Well written, what a post?” etc. Are these comments relevant and adding to the post-value? I do not have a reason to think so.

Commenting on blogs is about adding value to the already valuable post. Most of the blogs these days are “No-Follow”. Hence expecting a backlink with comments like the above ones is utter foolishness and if you are one such blogger, then I would suggest that it is time you quit. But if your expectation is that you will get some traffic with a comment like the one above, then I will have no words to describe you.

What is the essence of commenting? When a reader reads through a blog post he will be looking for additional information on the topic or, some experts comments which could further build on the post. This is where comments come into play. It also helps the blogger to know what is good and what is not about the post he had written and also if he needs to improve on his writing. At times these comments also serve as a topic for a new post for the author of the blog. For a reader the comments provide additional value and it is then that he would be interested in knowing the details of the commentator. He would click through the link on the comment and visit the author’s page. Will a comment like the above do this?

Comment count explosion –

These days the number of comments in a really good post is countless. There are numerous people commenting on blogs in an attempt to get a backlink or, a trickle of traffic (which does not happen) and most of these comments lack value and relevance. I as a reader to a blog would have wanted to read through the valuable comments to gather further information, but this comment count explosion restricts me. I would not want to spend time scanning through the numerous comments in an attempt to find a valuable comment. It is here that commenting has lost its charm.

Commenting, no more gets any traffic because nobody is interested in reading a comment or, clicking on one the links of a commentator to visit his site in an attempt to know more about him.

Spam Comments –

The internet has gained its notoriety, thanks to its users – not the genuine ones, but the ones with a destructive mind. Such people are there everywhere. You will find them in the commentators as well. There are numerous spammers out there who spam your comment box with comments that are irrelevant, useless and are stuffed with links. The expectation is to get a few backlinks. There are numerous tools today to stop these spammers, but one drastic step that bloggers took to stop them was to put a “no-follow” on their comments. This means you have lost valuable backlinks that you could have got.

In spite of the fact that the tools stop spammers, there are quite a few spam comments that get approved in many of the blogs and the more valuable comments gets lost in these spam comments.

Commenting is no more a way of getting traffic to your website. At least that is what I feel. What is your opinion? Don’t forget to let me know about it.

The obvious question, when you start – “How do I start”? If you have just joined the blogging caravan, then this question is the one which is most difficult to answer for you. When my blogs punchline said, “Making money online – the novice way”, the first few readers which obviously were my friends and colleagues, asked me a question: “What is the easiest way to make money online and which a novice can start off with”? My response was – “BLOGGING”.

So you are one of them who has just decided that you want to start a blog to make money online, then let us start by answering the obvious question.

Types of Blogging platforms -

There are numerous blogging platforms out there and a few of them are Typepad, Mashable, Blogger, and WordPress. The first 2 platforms only let you host a blog at their hosting but the other two have multiple options.

WordPress gives you 2 options. You can either use the WordPress hosted option or, a Self-hosted option. At the WordPress hosted option or, for that matter all blogs that are hosted at their own hosting servers, your blog name would be something similar to http://yourblogname.wordpress.com or, http://yourblogname.typepad.com etc. You can read more about this option or, start a blog at http://www.wordpress.com.

At the self hosted option that WordPress offers, you will have to buy a hosting account, and a domain name. You should also know a bit about hosting servers and ftp publishing, though these days all hosting plans come with control panels that give you an easy option to install WordPress.

At Blogger, you can host the blog at their servers and yet have a domain name of your own. So that means that you would not have to live with the blog name like the one that we discussed above. You can choose to have a blog like http://www.yourblogname.com. They also give you an option of hosting your blog on your own server. The best thing about this is the fact that you don’t need to fiddle with your hosting server a lot in case you go for this option, because Blogger provides an easy ftp publishing option.

There are 2 situations that we would assume which would be the prime considerations in deciding where to start -

1. You want to start making some money soon.
2. You want to make money only after some time – about 2-3 months down the line

You want to start making some money soon -

This is how I am and I can go to any extent to learn and research in order to do that. So if you are one of them, then we assume the following -

• You have a bit of knowledge about html and websites – If this is so, then you should start off by using self-hosted WordPress. This is because WordPress has a lot of enhancements available through the numerous plug-ins and you can give your blog a personal touch and feel. Also advertising on your blogs would be in your absolute control and after some time when you become a successful blogger you don’t have to change servers and domains. (This is the worst thing to do ever). You can download the WordPress installation files here at http://www.wordpress.org.
• You have no knowledge of html and websites – In this case the best place to start is “Blogger”. You don’t have to worry about html and hosting servers. They allow advertisement even on their hosted blog and advertising is very easy at Blogger if you know how to drag and drop and copy and paste. Later when you are successful at blogging you don’t need to shift the entire server also. You can run the same blog from your own server with you own domain name. Check out Blogger at http://www.blogger.com

You want to make money only after some time -

If you want to start a blog to get the feel of it and have set a target of making money only after some time, once you get acquainted with it, then the best option for you is WordPress hosted blogs. It is easy to start, configure and run and you can take your own time to get used to all the features of WordPress. Later on when you are ready for your money making blog, you can choose any of the other options.

But why would you not want to make some money while you get acquainted with “Blogging”. My advice would hence be to start off with a Self-hosted WordPress blog right away.

I should tell you that WordPress is amazing. I started on WordPress about 2 years ago and today am running almost 11 blogs successfully.

In case you want help in installing a blog for you on any of the above platforms, my friend can do that for you while you sit and relax. The charges are nominal -

You get a free “Complete manage your blog” guide with all of these.

Blogger hosted blogs – $20.00
Wordpress hosted blogs – $30.00
Self-hosted WordPress blog – $50.00 (You get your hosting space for life, a domain name of your choice paid for the first year and the blog management guide)
Other blogs – $35.00 (No guide available)

Just comment on this blog in case you would like to opt for one and we will get in touch with you at your email address.