How to be consistent with blog commenting?

By now, as a blogger, you must know the benefits of blog commenting. If not, I will write a post about it – don’t worry.

Nevertheless, I must say that the benefits are valid only if you do it consistently.

Not just with blog commenting, but with anything related to a business, a random action here and there won’t get you remarkable benefits – benefits that you can scale.

Only with consistent efforts, you will be able to reap long-term benefits.

And with blog commenting consistency is a must. With just a handful of comments here and there you won’t be able to see any benefits.

The purpose of blog commenting is usually multi-fold. Reaching out to new people, building relationships, building your brand, and for some, building links.

Whatever be the case, only consistency will help you get what you expect.

Before jumping into the details of how to be consistent with blog commenting, let me make a confession here.

I used to be very consistent with blog commenting before baby #2. I used to have a strict schedule every week solely for blog commenting.

Now after baby #2 (currently 10+ months) the word “schedule” has no meaning – all mothers will certainly know what I mean – and fathers too.

So I try to leave comments on other blogs here and there – whenever I get 15 minutes of peace to do something solid!

Having said that, I still have not completely let go of commenting even with a baby in my schedule (and a hyperactive toddler #1) – I leave a handful of comments every week for sure.

But the confession here is that I am not currently practicing what I preach in this post.

I used to follow this system myself, and I will use it in future once I get back myself after this funny (yet enjoyable) phase passes.

Let’s get to the meat of the post.

Overcoming the biggest challenge with blog commenting

What stops you from consistently leaving comments on other blogs – even if you want to do it so much?

I am pretty sure the answer is this: I am unable to find blogs to comment on!

I used to face this big hurdle. When I make up my mind to go ahead and comment on blogs, I wouldn’t know where to go.

Should I search in Google every time to find a handful of blogs?

What keyword to I put in the search box every time so I get different blogs to comment on? Using the same keywords will result in the same set of results.

Before I come to a page where I can leave a comment, I would have already been mentally tired, and it would have been the end of the day.

And, it is at that point – blog commenting would feel like a chore.

I would feel pushed to somehow leave a comment because I spent a lot of time finding that blog post to leave a comment.

Ridiculous.

An important point to note here:

I always insist that you should do blog commenting only if you enjoy it. You should not push yourself to leave a comment on a blog.

Only leave a comment,

• if you feel compelled;
• you liked the post;
• if you really have anything to say on that topic (even if you like a post, you might not always have anything to say);
• when you are not pushing yourself to do so!

Let me share a fact with you – one of the things that I enjoy the most in my business is connecting with new people. I simply LOVE it!

And blog commenting is a great way to connect with new people – only if you enjoy doing it.

If you force it, you won’t be able to make genuine connections or enjoy doing it.

And in order to be able to enjoy it, you must make it easy and NOT tedious.

Finding the right blogs to comment on can be a tedious process if you don’t have a system in place.

Which is why I have a system in place – almost automated. Almost.

So how do you find blogs to comment on?

Alltop is a great place to start! You can browse through their categories to find blogs in your niche.

The best way to make the most out of Alltop is to create an account so you can have your own customized collection.

In order to create an account, click on MyAlltop and click on Create account.

You will get a drop down from the top where you can enter the username and password of your choice to create an account.

Once logged in, you can browse through your favorite categories and then just click on the “+” symbol next to any site’s feed to add them to your personalized list!

Or you can also use the search box on top right and search for sites in your interest.

Next, comes social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

With Twitter, you have the handy search option.

Go to Twitter (or you can also do the same inside your favorite social media dashboard like Tweetdeck).

In the search box, enter “HTTP your-keyword”. For instance – HTTP content marketing.

You will get a handful of links related to your keyword which you can visit and comment.

The same applies to Facebook too. Just search for “HTTP your-keyword”.

Note that not ALL results can be useful but you will be able to collect a decent amount of blog posts/blogs from this exercise.

For instance, some results may be too old – take a look at the above results from Facebook – they are quite old. But still, I get to visit that website and check out the latest blog posts.

The next on my list is blogging communities like DoSplash. I love blogging communities which is why I own one – DoSplash.

Just visit DoSplash, and click on the Recent stories. You will be presented with the latest submissions to the site which you can click on and leave a comment.

Or you can browse stories by categories to find one in your niche.

A system to help you do blog commenting consistently!

Alright, I hear you – so far I have given you a few tools/tips to find blogs/blog posts in your niche.

This is not an exercise that you do every time you want to do blog commenting.

You identify blogs to comment on once in a while to collect new and fresh blogs.

But when you are about to leave comments on blogs, you should have blog posts ready to comment – you must not be hunting for blog posts at that time.

That’s the whole point of this process – to have a system in place.

Tools. I use Feedly to catch up with everything in ONE place.

Whenever I find a blog or blog post that I love, I simply subscribe to that blog’s feed via Feedly.

A free account should suffice. Be sure to categorize your collection so it is easy for you to browse through appropriate sections when you are ready to comment.

For instance, I have created Content Creation, Marketing, Blogging, Health as basic categories.

Whenever I find a new interesting blog, I just add it to Feedly and either assign one of the existing categories or create a new appropriate category.

The best thing about the app is that I have it on my Mac as well on my Android phone. I can catch up with articles on the go.

On my Mac, I keep it on the dock always so I get notifications whenever a new item appears.

This helps with commenting as early as possible for maximum benefit!

I also use Pocket.

I know – using too many tools is not a good idea!

But I use one more – Pocket – to save some of the hand-picked pieces. This way, I use those posts as motivation for new pieces of content or for sharing in my social feed.

Being consistent with blog commenting – Conclusion?

That’s it – that’s the system I use to stay consistent with blog commenting (again I would like to remind you here that I am not consistent with blog commenting *now* – that’s because of baby #2, and this phase is temporary).

This system has helped me all these years to be consistent with commenting and I have reaped a lot of benefits – the major benefit is being able to connect with a lot of awesome minds.

This helped me build my brand, and also to spread the word about my blog!

Surely blog commenting takes time – but it is totally worth it.

Bonus tip:

Using this system, I have also developed a relationship with bloggers that lead to guest posting.

As you know, finding a good quality blog to guest post is a challenge in itself.

The second biggest challenge is to get your guest post pitch accepted (emailing blog owners out of the blue is SO old fashioned and doesn’t work anymore).

Using this system I find blogs I like, I consistently leave comments on them, build a relationship with both the bloggers as well as their audiences, and then it becomes a lot easier for me to pitch a guest post idea and get it approved!

Go ahead give this method a try – both for blog commenting and guest posting – after sharing this post on your favorite social media platform and also after leaving a thoughtful comment!