Blogging Tune

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In the previous article on what everybody ought to know about blog commenting, I mentioned that useful comments only get noticed more and will also get clicks. But what makes a comment useful? And do all the good comments get noticed and get clicks? The answer for it is Yes and No. YES, if you had commented in a “Not so very popular” blog. NO, if you had commented in a very popular blog like Problogger, Doshdosh, DailyBlogTips and few more which gets many comments for every post. So what’s the secret to get your comments noticed and get clicks to your blog? There isn’t any big secret actually. It just depends on the way how you do it.

Winners and losers do the same thing. But what winners do at first, losers do at last.

So whatever you do, do it quick and do it in a creative way to that you will get noticed.

Image Source: MegElizabeth_

1. Kick Off the Comments

Being first to comment has its own advantages. If you stay at the top of all the commentators, yours will be seen by every other commentator and also by the blog author. When a reader reads the post, he will also look at the comments. He will read the first few comments without missing a single word. He will skim the next few comments and the comments after that won’t get read. If 80 people see your comment, then surely 4 people will come to your blog, assuming there would be a 5% conversion rate. Darren wrote a post on 10 ways to hurt your blog’s brand by commenting where one of the points he mentions is “Always Being First To Comment”. But if you read the point fully, you will see that your blog’s brand will be hurt only if you hurry to make the first comment and post useless info in the comment.

2. Make A Lengthy Comment

This is just to get the attraction of the comment readers. If your comment is big, they will read it thinking that you have something very useful to say. You have to satisfy their expectations. When you make lengthy comments, you should have good info in it. Lengthy comments don’t mean writing an essay or a blog post in the comment. Maybe a couple more lines than normal comments would be best.

3. Make It Easy To Read

If you are going to follow the above point, then you have to make your comment easy to read. Don’t express your views in one single big paragraph. Split it into two or more paragraphs or make a list of points and post it. This will make it easy for others to read your comment. After all they are going to read your comment only if it is readable. One more reason to split the comment into two or more paragraphs is to get 90% people’s attention to your comment.

4. Add Points To The Post

Almost every blogger posts list posts. These posts get huge attention and the comments also get significantly more attention. If you read the post thoroughly, you will be able to add points to the list. Say you read a post titled “10 reasons why you should try blog commenting”, you can add the 11^th, 12^th and so on. Read the comments and see if anyone has already added points to the list. If Yes, continue from the number where they have left. If there isn’t any comment adding points to the post, you kick start it. I have tried this method and yes, it has worked for me.

Image Source: deanj

5. Humor And Controversy

Using humor and controversies are the one of the best ways to get attention to your comment. But first to get your comment read, use on of the above method. To keep the comment reader to continue reading your comment, you can either add humor or controversy. But I suggest you not to you the later (controversy) unless you know how to do it.

6. Present The Comment With Quotes

Adding quotes to the comments you make can be really worth. While many bloggers advice you to add quotes to the post, adding quotes to comments can be equally good. Read books that have quotes and present it in your comment. If you are good in creating your own, then don’t feel shy and give your quote related to the post. Maybe you will become famous for your quotes in the comments.

7. Unique Avatar

This single tip does not suit for all the blogs but it will produce great result in many blogs. Many popular blogs show your MyBlogLog avatar near your name in the comment. Create a very unique or interesting avatar. Though this may not really get more readers, it is still a good technique. If you have your own picture in the avatar, it is well and good. If you don’t want to have your picture, try to select a funny and interesting avatar. You can also try using an avatar that reads your blog name. This can also be very effective. The reader might type your blog url manually later and visit your blog. If you are not there in MyBlogLog, I suggest you to register there with your blog. This creates a community around your blog, a bunch of regular readers.

One more basic tip is to read the content and then comment. Without reading, please don’t comment because it will show very well that you have not read the post.

I have tried every above technique and have found it to be working. As I said, it is not what you do that matters but how you do matters. Be unique. Be creative. Try your best to come up with new ideas to get your comments noticed. Every click you get from the comments on other blogs has a great conversion rate. You can convert many of those one time visitors to subscribers. Install the What Would Seth Godin Do Plugin and also subscribe remind plugin to have much more conversion rate. What do you do to get your comments noticed by others?

This is the second post in the Blog Commenting Series. To know more about the series, see here.

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This is the first post on the “Blog Commenting Series”. To know more about blog commenting series, see here.

Commenting in blogs has its own advantages. It has been used by many bloggers to get things done. Commenting in blogs is not only followed for getting traffic but also for various other reasons which will be discussed in this post. When you go to a blog and read a post, the best way to tell the author what you feel is by using comments. By telling your views, you get traffic and a couple more things. So without any delay, let me take you to the post and explain you what the 5 reasons are to comment in blogs.

Image Source: 708718

1. Quality Traffic

You get quality traffic when you leave a good comment. When commenting on other blogs, make sure you give your best in the comment. Just don’t say “Good post” unless and other wise you are out of words and yet you want to encourage the author for the post. Add value to the post using the comment. A thought provoking comment or at least a meaningful comment will get you good traffic than the two word comments. Also don’t be controversial when it is not needed, else you will get negative impact. But that doesn’t mean you should not tell your views. Just tell it in a polite way because everyone is going to read it. So make a good valuable comment in a blog post on any blog, be it a famous one or not, you will get quality visitors to your blog and surely at least one of them is to subscribe to your blog.

2. Popularity

When you post a comment, you get your name seen by many other bloggers across the word. You get popularity and your blog gets it too. As I said above, if your comment is very valuable, then the chances of getting popular among other bloggers are more. This is the main reason why I don’t recommend you to comment with a keyword in your name. It doesn’t show the world who you are. Also It is a good idea to comment with new blog urls than you old ones, because it is the new ones which need more exposure.

3. More Comments In Your Blog

When you take the initiative to post valuable comments in your blog, then you will receive valuable comments in your blog. More the number of blogs you comment in, more is the number of comments in your blog. To tell it in a more technical way,

Number of comments you make in other blogs is directly proportional to the number of comments you get in your blog

So try to make more valuable comments in other blog, and you will start to receive comments.

4. Back Links

Few blogs have Top commentators list and this will help you a lot in getting back links. Most blogs refresh the Top commentators list every week. So the chances are more for you to top the Top commentators list. You back links increase easily. You get a higher technorati ranking. Also when you comment with your blog name and get into the top commentators list, you will have more chances of appearing in the front page of Google results for your name. But please don’t spam other blogs which have top commentators list by posting unwanted or unimportant comments. There are also bloggers who link back to their regular commentators every month. So you might be one of them for few blogs and you might get a link back.

Image Source: *Solar ikon*

5. Improve Relationship

By commenting on other blogs, you can improve relationship with the author of the blog. By commenting regularly in famous blogs, you can even form good relationship with the A-list bloggers. Though it is a little tough, you can get to know them well by commenting in their posts. As I said before, make thought provoking or useful comments, and the author or the A-list blogger would be happy to reply to your comment and hence form a relationship. Once you get yourself known to the author, then you can send a mail to them saying a HI or appreciating their new post.

Blog commenting can prove to be really worth if you can make valuable comments. It is better to make 5 valuable comments than to make 25 unimportant comments. How do you comment in blogs? Do you add value to the blog post by commenting? Share it in the comments.

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Now I hope you have found what I’m going to tell in this post. Yes, I’m going to start a series of posts on Blog Commenting. As you know, blog commenting is a great way to get traffic(without spamming) and also is a good way to get our name famous. I have tried blog commenting and it has been very helpful for me.

What Is The Main Aim Of This Series?

This series will help you to know how blog commenting can help your blog grow. I will emphasize on how to do the blog commenting efficiently. In this series there will also be other bloggers views. So don’t forget to post your blog commenting experience in the comments of the posts.

When Will You Be Starting It?

I will be kick starting the series by posting the first post tomorrow. The series will go on for a week or 10 days with informative posts(I’ll try to make every post as informative as I can). I will also update this post with the link to the posts in the series as soon it is posted.

Here are the list of posts:

1. What You Ought To Know About Blog Commenting

More Coming….

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Bookmark this post using the options at the end of the post to promote the series or tell about it in your blog. Thanks. Meet you with the first post of the series tomorrow.

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Have you ever wanted to cloak your affiliate links and struggled to find a way to do it? Then, here’s 3 ways you can use to cloak your affiliate links. Affiliate marketers and also bloggers tend to cloak affiliate links so that more people will tend to signup or buy whatever you are offering. Though there are bloggers who don’t link to cloak affiliate links, many of them cloak their affiliate links.

For those who think for why you should cloak links, take a look at the below two urls.

http://www.productdomain.com/cbi-ref=1203847&aaskdj

http://www.yourdomainname.com/productname.php

Which one looks good? Which one will you click first?

Here’s 3 ways to cloak your affiliate links:

1. Link Cloaking WordPress Plugin

WordPress is a platform that has plugins for almost everything. There is a plugin which can cloak your affiliate links. What you have to do is:

• Download the plugin
• Upload The Plugin to “/wp-content/plugins/”
• Activate it
• Go to Options->Link Cloaking
• Update Permalinks

You can check this post for more information.

2. Use A Free Service

There are websites which gives you a short url when you enter a long url. Tinyurl is one of the famous link cloaking services. Though it shortens the url, the final link still looks like an affiliate link. There are few other websites that offer shortening of urls making it look like a sub-domain. The main advantage here is that you can also choose the name you want. Your affiliate url will look like http://www.thenameyouchoose.servicedomain.com

There are few websites that offer this kind of service. One such website which I use is Notlong.Com.

Here’s how my affiliate url looked at first:

http://www.ondemandprofits.com/?cb=ramkarthik

Here’s how it looked after link cloaking using this kind of service:

http://ondemandprofits.notlong.com/

3. Buy A Software Product

Though there are many ways to clock affiliate links, the professional softwares are the best. If you don’t have a WordPress blog or if you want to be a professional affiliate marketer, then the professional products designed to cloak affiliate links is the best option for you. There are many products in the net, and one such product which is really good is Affiliate Link Cloaker (aff).

Do you cloak links? What method do you use to cloak affiliate links? Share it in the comments.

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I have mail IDs in Gmail, Yahoo, and few other sites. I use the Gmail ID for contacting and official purpose. I also use Yahoo sometimes for registering at money making programs. There are cases where I use my mail ID, which is not official, to download e-Books
that require email ID. When you register at these, you will get mail to your spam/bulk folder. Though many people don’t check these, it has become my habit to check them every time I check my mail. I don’t recommend you to register at what ever those mails say. I’m telling you just to give it a read. I go through every mail in the bulk folder.

Here are three main reasons to check your spam folder when you have time:

1. Write Attractive Headlines

I’m not kidding y saying this. You can indeed improve your headlines writing skill. The headlines which I get in my spam folder has made me to think. Sometimes I also get attracted at the headline and cannot stop myself from clicking it. These headlines have also inspired me to write headlines. In fact I have taken ideas from those mails and also got content ideas from those mails.

2. Know Which Sells And Which Don’t

Reading these mails which educate you on which type of products sell and which don’t. It is very good for young and newbie affiliate marketers. Few of the products which the people send to your email will be best sellers. There has been days when I used to receive the same product from many affiliate marketers. Two such products were Mike Filsame’s Butterfly Marketing and Joel Comm’s e-Book on Google AdSense. These books were good and also got many sales. The affiliate commissions were also good for those two products.

3. Don’t Miss Any Important Email

Due to some reason, your important mails could go to the spam folder. So be sure to check the spam folder in your mail as and when possible. Though I have a separate email for official use, I send mails to few of my readers with other IDs. There have been instances where few of my important mails got into the Spam folder. Since I read my spam folder, I was able to reply quick. So don’t miss any of your important mails by not checking the Spam folder.

Do you read your spam folders or bulk folders regularly? Have you found any important mail going into the Spam folder? Share your views in the comments.

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