Well, it seems I have created quite a stir with my Why I No Longer Link To The Likes Of ProBlogger And John Chow post. I know this to be true because in a matter of a few days it’s become the most popular post on this blog. The poll on whether or not commenting can harm your blogging success so far seems to be favoring the no it won’t side, but I will leave the follow up post for when I have accrued more votes.

I sort of wonder from some of the comments left on David’s post, how many people actually took the time to actually read my post? I got the impression that people thought I was attacking the Probloggers of this world for not replying to any of my comments. How stupid and arrogant  would that make me, to presume that just because I left a comment they were obligated to return the favor.

Nope, what I was saying was that as far as I was concerned my time would be better spent to associate with people who thought the same way as I do, who thought so highly of their commentators that they interacted with them. Seeing as how some of the Probloggers pointed out that time was money and all they would appreciate that line of thought.

Also I don’t believe that I ever said that they had to reply to every single comment. Heck even I don’t do that, although I do answer most of them. Yet a lot of the comments insinuated that was exactly what I said.

One guy even implied that I did the post as a form of link bait to get the attention of the Probloggers, when in actual fact there were no links to any of them. Man, the purpose of the whole post was why I wasn’t linking to them, and linking to them in the post would be defeating the purpose.

Still, it was an interesting exercise, and I still believe in the stance that I took. I understand the time argument, as I know all about the lack of time, seeing as how I run a successful offline business, have to allow time for my family as well as maintaining seven blogs. When things are tough I simply have to be careful how I allocate my time and the less important blogs are the first one to be put aside.

One thing I have learned is that the unwillingness, or inability for the Probloggers of this world to give commentators their proper due, leaves emerging bloggers with an advantage. When there is more than one business in the same niche trying to compete for a particular market, what they do differently is what can make them successful.

As bloggers we are up against a sea full of competitors. Perhaps taking the time to interact with our readers, as well as providing good content and service will help us to stand out from the rest. And, if we were to link to others who also believed as we do, perhaps we would be starting a new era of Probloggers?

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I’ve been blogging for several years now and I thought it might be interesting to see exactly how many posts I managed to come up with in that amount of time. I’ll start with the oldest blog and finish with the newest.

• Well Blog Me: The first post was dated 16th April 2005 and to date has 1429 posts with 749 comments.
• Blogsire: This was my first serious blog, and the first post is dated 16th Nov 2006. The tag line ‘Blogging The Money Way’ was actually no. 1 on Google for ages but now sits at no. 2. It has 871 posts and 1,103 comments
• SbizzTech: I started this blog to try and get the business and technology tasks offered by the paid to post sites. I started it April 12th 2007 and it has 106 posts and, strangely enough 106 comments.
• Load Of Bullshit: First post on this blog was on 24th Jan. 2008. This site is about exposing all the BS around the globe and gets quite a bit of traffic. It’s got 180 posts and 905 comments. One of my favorites, I’m only sorry I don’t have the time to update it as often as I should
• Scenic Adelaide: My first photo blog was born on 28th of Jan 2008. Even though it’s only got 69 posts it has 309 comments.
• Photos 2 Blog: The first post on my second photo blog took place on 25th June 2008. While Scenic Adelaide has photos of Adelaide and surrounding districts, I use this one to post any photos that I find interesting. It has 30 posts and 130 comments
• Wassup Blog: Well, what can I say about this blog. It has to be my favorite. The first post was on Aug. 1st 2008, and although it’s not quite a year old it boasts 148 posts and 3,997 comments.
• Top Software Online: My newest blog has only 2 posts and no comments to date. I’ll be using this blog to test some of the software that’s for sale on my online Top Software store. First post dated June 5th 2009.

So, in total I have posted 2835 articles that have amassed 7299 comments. As you can see the bulk of these comments are on this blog, and I attribute that to several factors.

1. It’s a DoFollow Blog
2. The Top Commentators plugin
3. My reciprocating all comments policy, or at least those I feel are worth reciprocating, which is most because I delete the really bad scammy ones.
4. Using this blog’s link when commenting on other blogs

This naturally does not include the hundreds of comments that I have deleted because people have not been following the Comment Policy.  If nothing else this should highlight the importance of a good commenting regime, not only in answering those who comment on your blog but returning the favor by leaving a comment on their blog.

The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is!

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!

First let me say that this technique will only work if you are using Andy Bailey’s commentluv plugin. If you are not using this plugin, you really should as I believe it will increase the amounts of comments you receive on a blog and it’s one of the best ways to reward your commentators. I’ll let Andy himself explain exactly how it works;

The CommentLuv Wordpress Plugin will visit the feed of the comment author and attempt to scrape the last post they made and display it under their comment, this way you can encourage people to join in the discussion of your posts and give something back straight away.

The plugin looks for a feed at the site given in the URL field of the comment-form, if you have an auto find feed then it should find it.

The plugin retrieves your last post at the time of the comment being entered and appends the extra text just before the comment gets saved to the database, this way it doesn’t put any extra load on the database or server other than the effort required add another 60 or so characters to the comment content.

When commenting, the only time you get any real SEO benefit is when you comment on a dofollow blog as these comments can be ’seen’ by the search engines. Blogs that have the commnetluv plugin also display your last post thereby rewarding your commenter. To pick up your last post it needs you to fill out the url to your blog in the comment box. This is gives you two links, one to your blog, and one to your post.

The thing is that I really wanted to promote my new Top Software Online store but using this link in the url meant that I would lose the link to a post, until I happened upon the following method.

• First you type in the url of your blog as you would normally do
• Then you write your best comment, not only because you don’t want to spam the blog you are commenting on, but because a good comment is more likely to lead to people visiting your link.
• Lastly, before you press the submit button you paste in the new link to the second url you want to promote substituting the original url that you had typed in. This could be a link to another post or another blog / site entirely.

That’s it, you now have a comment that is doubling your presence on the Net.

Whether you treat your blog as a business or as a way to express your thoughts the most important aspect of your blog is your reader. The way to keep your readers returning is to make sure that your blog is continually updated with new material, whether it be thought provoking or merely for entertainments sake.

A blog’s success can be determined by the comments that people leave and replying to them in such a fashion that shows you are interested in what they say is another important aspect of blogging. It is important that you treat all commentators with the same respect that you would treat a visitor to your home. This can sometimes be a little difficult especially when you have those obnoxious commentators,  but treating them civilly will only improve the way others think of you.

Actually this is no different than the way you should act when you are in the real world and there can be serious consequences when you forget this, especially if you are in the position of some power. I want to share a story with you that I feel should punctuate the importance of treating others the way you would like to be treated. It all began when;

A Missouri Sheriff stopped at a ranch in rural MO to talk with an old farmer. Rather abruptly he tells the farmer, ‘I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs.’

The old farmer says, ‘Okay, as long as you don’t go into that field over there.’

The Sheriif verbally explodes saying,  ‘Mister, I have the authority of the Sheriffs Department with me.’ Reaching into his rear pant pocket and removing his badge. The officer proudly displays it to the farmer.  ‘See this badge? This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish..on any land. No questions asked or answers given. Have I made myself clear? Do you understand?’

The old farmer nods politely and goes about his chores.

Later, the old farmer hears loud screams and spies the Sheriff running for his life and close behind is the farmer’s bull.With every step the bull is gaining ground on the officer. The Sheriff is clearly terrified.

The old farmer immediately throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs….. ‘Your badge! Show him your badge Smartass!’

There are many types of commentators, but for this post I want to discuss two of them, those who tell you how it is and those who tell you what they think you want to hear. I reckon the latter would be those who in the real world would be called brown-noses. Their comments don’t really reflect their true feelings as they figure that this wouldn’t win them any brownie points thereby costing them a possible reciprocal comment on their own blog. There could possibly be some who may fit into this category that refrain from total honesty because they are afraid they may hurt your feelings.

The fact is you aren’t doing anybody any good by refraining from telling it how it is. Where the latter does not supply any additional content, the former, if done correctly, can enhance the post as well as give you added incites into the topic being discussed. The key is in the way in which it is done.

Let’s say that you have just read a post and you totally disagree, the wrong approach would be to tell the blogger that they are a bloody moron who wouldn’t know if their arse was on fire. Unbelievable as it may sound I’ve seen a few take this tact. The right approach would be to tell them nicely that you disagree and then list your reasons why. If the blogger has any character at all he will enter into the discussion and a nice informative dialogue will ensue. This is a great positive if that particular blog has the top commentator plugin as it will enhance your chances of getting listed in the top comment bracket.

Personally I don’t try to crawl up anyone’s arse when commenting, and there are a lot of posts that are so informative that I can’t offer any sort of comment that will add anything new to it; This is an important lesson for bloggers, leave a little leeway for commenters to add something to your post as failing to do so may drastically reduce the number of comments that post will receive. On those occasions I read other comments to see if they allow an opening for me to add to the conversation and if it does then I try to leave something of value.