Do you have a new blog?
It’s frustrating isn’t it?
You’re putting out all this great content, you’re involved in Facebook groups, Twitter and Pinterest and still no one is coming to your site.
How come it’s easier for other people? They start a blog and in three weeks they have 100 subscribers and about a million comments. What gives?
TwinsMommy is a new site for me. I have another blog where I’ve built a good following, but I wanted to create TwinsMommy so that I can learn how to make money blogging – and also teach others.
I’m a freelance writer so I never went the whole affiliate marketing/ads/sponsored posts route. I figured I can give that a go on this blog. You can follow my blog growth if you want!
But, wait! Do you have a blog?
Before we get into the nitty gritty of this post, if you’re reading this and don’t have a blog, but want to start one, I have an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to start a blog using SiteGround!
Even though I have a following, my target audience on that blog isn’t the same target audience for TwinsMommy so I had to develop a new strategy for generating traffic.
One thing I started doing – which I haven’t done in a while – is blog commenting on blogs in my niche.
Why Blog Commenting is Important
If you have a new blog then no one knows you exist! If you want to build a strong network and connect with other bloggers in the same niche, you need to make it a habit to comment on their blogs.
I started going to other mommy-business blogs or money-making blogs to contribute to the discussion and hopefully bring traffic back to my site.
Some of the blogs I’m going to are:
At first nothing was happening.
All that work I did commenting on 5 blogs a day wasn’t bringing traffic back to my site. Some had CommentLuv, others used Disqus, but still no traffic.
And it wasn’t like I was leaving a comment like,
What a great post. I’ll have to bookmark it for the future.
A comment like that can be cut and pasted to any blog post. It’s not personal or relating to the actual post.
No.
I write comments like this:
The blogger responded to my comment, but no traffic resulted from that comment. Now, I know not EVERY comment you write will result in traffic, but I found one easy way that increases your chance by like – I don’t know – 500% or something.
It’s Not CommentLuv
What’s great is that this traffic generator tip works for commenting systems without CommentLuv!
See, before I started TwinsMommy and started my other blog, I only commented on blogs that had CommentLuv.
I figured it was a sure way to bring traffic back to my site. And it is! I mean I have this plugin for TwinsMommy too!
But, for some reason, many of these mommy/work-at-home type blogs don’t use CommentLuv.
I needed to find another way to pique a reader’s interest enough to click on my name and go back to my blog.
And you know what? It was staring me right in the face.
Moms Comment Differently
I’m a freelance writer. Most of the blogs I go to are blogging or writing sites:
And you know how “those” people comment?
Nothing fancy. It’s all business and nothing more.
So, when I started going to work-at-home blogs I started noticing that these ladies jazzed up their blog comment.
Here’s Sarah Brooks from The Frugal Millionaire’s comment on Embracing Simple Blog:
And here’s Jenn of The Art of Better comment on Start a Mom Blog:
It wasn’t until I noticed something on these “mommy/work-at-home” blogs that I’ve never seen before.
Can you spot it out?
The One Simple Thing to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
These smart cookies are putting their blog in their name!
So, it looks like this:
Elna @ TwinsMommy
Or I can do:
Elna | TwinsMommy
or even:
Elna at TwinsMommy
I don’t suggest you put the “.com” in the name as this can trigger the spam filter and you don’t want your comment going there now do you?
I would also suggest to keep it as short as possible. If your blog name is four or five words long, consider a shortened version.
How easy and simple is that?
What’s great about doing this is people are more interested in checking you out when they actually know what your blog name is.
If you only used your name and nothing more, then you’re banking on people reading your comment. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t read everyone’s comments before I comment.
I’m sure the blog owner is about the only one that will read anyone’s comment, right?
But, if you were scrolling the comments and saw a URL next to a name, wouldn’t you want to see what their blog is all about?
Once I put two and two together, I started adding my domain name when I left a comment.
And you know what? It worked. Here’s my analytics for referrals.
I don’t know about you, but doesn’t that kick ass?
Okay, the numbers aren’t huge, but still. All I did was put TwinsMommy in my name when I left a comment and people clicked on the link and went to my site.
What’s nice is that these people – whether it’s the blog owner or visitors – are my target audience.
I’m not going to just any old blog and leaving a comment. I’m strategically going to blogs in my niche and now that I know certain blogs – Single Mom’s Income and Embracing Simple Blog – generate traffic, I’ll be commenting on those blogs more.
What About Disqus?
Disqus is a popular commenting system many bloggers use. You can create a profile with Disqus or just log in with your social media information.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of blogs that use Disqus. For some reason, I have a hard time commenting on them!
I’ll type up my epic comment then fill in my login info, hit submit and my writing disappears!! grr…That’s happened to me more than I’d like to admit.
But, it doesn’t discourage me too much. I still visit blogs that use Disqus.
Since they use your social media login info, how can you add your URL to your name?
I found some people use a signature when they leave a comment on Disqus.
So, I’ll be sure to do this next time I run into Disqus!!
Did I Blow Your Mind?
Maybe I didn’t. Maybe this “trick” is old and nothing new. But, for me, it’s totally new. I’ve been blogging for over a year and I’ve NEVER seen this.
I suspect you see this in the lifestyle/mommy niche. But, that’s not to say you can’t use it on a blogging site or a food blog!
Before you send off your next comment, put your URL in it! I’m sure you’ll get traffic back to your site. And if you want to capture this new traffic, make sure to have a lead magnet or content upgrade!
Over to you – do you have any other blog commenting tricks to generate traffic? Share them here!
And remember to Pin me!