Blog Commenting

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The First Step of Link Building For Niche Sites

Blog commenting is how I start link building and promotion for all my Amazon Affiliate Marketing and Niche Sites. It’s what I teach in my course Multi Profit Site, and it’s been repeated as a successful strategy again and again by my students.

Blog Commenting Myths

There are a lot of thoughts about effective link building: what works and what doesn’t. It’s been a heated debate for SEOs and niche site owners, Gray Hats and White Hats, since the inception of search engines.

Keep in mind, there are countless ways to do things – more than one way to skin a cat as they say.

Commenting on blogs isn’t the only way to build links, but it’s one way, and it’s the way I do it.

I’ll answer some of the objections now.

“But, Doug, blog comments are ‘nofollow’ links! So that means they don’t help my site rank in Google. This is a waste of time…”

That’s correct. If you’re just starting out with niche sites and SEO, regular links are so-called ‘dofollow’ links and Google effectively counts a ‘dofollow’ link as a vote for the page that’s linked to. It’s the best kind of link to have.

Alternatively, the ‘nofollow’ designation means that Google effectively discounts the link, i.e. it’s not a vote. Blog comments are ‘nofollow’ links by default on most all websites. This was done because the blog comments were used by Gray Hat link builders in the past, and the ‘nofollow’ designation helped to reduce the practice.

That said some ‘nofollow’ links in a site’s backlink profile are, indeed, normal. Look at some popular Internet Marketing and Content Marketing blogs and you’ll see plenty of blog comments written by the bloggers. It’s a normal thing to do.

Sometimes blog comments are ‘dofollow,’ and I show you how do find those in the video by searching for the plugin called CommentLuv. I’m not sure how to find the blogs that have the settings configured for ‘dofollow,’ but if you comment on a few dozen blogs, you will see them in your backlink profile.

“I want my site to rank, Doug. I heard that you can’t rank in the top 10 with blog comments alone.”

Actually, that’s mostly true.

If you’re targeting a high volume, juicy keyword that’s competitive, you won’t rank with blog comments alone. You need to do more than your competition. Period.

That makes total sense, too. Look at ranking your niche site as a competition, so you can imagine that you need to do some work to make it happen.

I want to point out two things:

  1. Blog commenting will lead to other backlinks – ‘dofollow’ backlinks – and I’ll tell you how in a minute.
  2. You can rank a page using backlinks but only if you are targeting the right kind of keywords.

You can rank fast, normally within 24 hours, if you use the Keyword Golden Ratio. (Watch the video explanation here on YouTube if you aren’t familiar. Opens in a new tab.) So go for low competition keywords and blog commenting can be effective.

“Blog commenting takes a long time. Can I automate this tedious, boring task with some tool or app?”

No. Next question.

Just kidding! Okay, here’s the deal.

You need to do them manually. You can effectively automate blog commenting.

It takes time to do manual comments. If you want the comments to be approved, then the comments need to be some what insightful and in the best scenario make sense.

You can, however, hire a VA to help you do the comments. I advise hiring a native speaker of the language you need to comment in. For me, that means a native English speaker and I would even specify “American English” since there is some variance in the the vernacular of English.

The fact that blog commenting is a good thing for those of us that are willing to do the work. If niche sites were easy, then anyone could and would build a niche site. (You are willing to put in the work right?)

Blog commenting is super easy, but it’s a little boring. However, that an advantage for you because it means most people won’t actually put in the work. If you do, you will be rewarded.

Getting High Authority ‘dofollow’ Backlinks Through Blog Commenting

In my link building and general promotion strategy, blog commenting is essential. Here is why:

Blog commenting builds relationships. Relationships lead to guest posts.

When you comment on a person’s blog, it’s an interaction. 99% of the time the blogger will read the comment. It’s one of the easiest ways to get in touch with a blogger, often times it’s better than an email. Let’s look at a quick example of that for Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income on a recent blog post.

I’m not suggesting that you can get a guest post on Smart Passive Income, but illustrating that one of the most popular bloggers in the internet marketing niche reads and replies to comments.

I talk about guest posting a lot elsewhere so you can check out these posts to learn more about how to do that.

Top 5 Tips

Here are some quick tips to keep in mind:

  1. Be sure to find active blogs. The best way to do this is by searching for recent blog posts, say published in the last 75 days, and you can use Google advanced search options to filter your results.
  2. Use your name in the name field. Do not put in a keyword in the name field – It screams “spam” and won’t get approved.
  3. Use your root domain for the website field. Do not put in a specific URL. Again, it seems spammy and won’t be approved.
  4. Be original and look up unique footprints. I shared a great advanced search strategy in the video. It’s the one I personally use. But you should think beyond the normal searches that everyone suggests – they are too generic. The biggest mistake is looking for your keyword. If you do then you’ll just find blogs that you’re in direct competition with so they will not approve your comments. Instead, try to look for the general niche, or even better look for a related, non-competitive niche. For example: if you have a niche site that reviews fitness products, then you could search for yoga blogs or health blogs.
  5. Be nice. That goes for comments and life in general.

Questions?

If you have any questions or comments just post them below!

About the author: Doug Cunnington is the founder of Niche Site Project. He shows people how to create Affiliate Sites using project management and a proven, repeatable framework. Doug loves creating systems, using templates, and brewing beer (but usually not at the same time).

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Dave Irwin

    Doug, amazingly helpful tip here. Thank you for putting this together. I need to make commenting a bigger part of my strategy; I know it works when done right. The benefit isn’t only in the backlinks, but also in potential relationship building within a particular niche.

    • Doug cunnington

      Thanks, Dave! Great point about the relationship building too.

  • Vytautas Paukštelis

    So simple, yet so powerful.
    . Thanks : )

  • Alzufri

    Hi Doug, now this is what I call quickly. Thanks for this tips.

    Niche related blog comment is powerful although we need to do diversification first, In my opinion.
    I tried to use Charles Floate tip here [godofseo.co/link-building/building-niche-relevant-comment-backlinks/] and it works well, Charles tips push Google to show us the most relevant SERP. Now I will combine it with your tips.

    By the way, this Bookmarklet save me a lot of time.

    Thanks Doug 🙂

    • Doug cunnington

      Hey, Alzufri. Thank you.

      Yes, when you add the advanced search strings like Charles notes, it’s really powerful. Thanks for the comment.

      What kind of search strings do you use most often?

    • Ken

      I tried to follow that link (godofseo.co/link-building/building-niche-relevant-comment-backlinks/) but it is not working. Was that the proper URL? I also tried it as a .com but still no joy.

      Any help appreciated.

      Thanks,

  • Doug cunnington

    A reader emailed me this question:

    Question:
    I am confused though as to how one gets two links. Can you clarify that?

    Answer:
    Sure. You get one link to your url from your name – just like a normal comment.

    Commentluv adds a link to your latest blog post at your url. The anchor text is the title of the article.

    If you want links to various articles, just alter the “published” date for your post in wordpress. 🙂 Then, you can get links to all of your articles!

  • Kent F

    Thanks Doug – really appreciate the helpful video. Do you need to have the premium Comment Luv plug-in for this to work?

    • Doug cunnington

      Hey Kent – thanks for the compliment.

      No, you don’t need to have the plugin yourself. It’s just the site that you’re commenting on – that site needs to have Commentluv.

  • Karl Steinmeyer

    Nice one. Gave it a quick spin and built 5 great links to a niche site I made 2 months ago. Thanks for the the nice rundown.

    • Doug cunnington

      Hey Karl – Awesome! That’s really great. I need to get back in the habit of commenting a little bit each day. It is good to have fresh links popping up slowly over time. Thanks for coming by.

      • Karl Steinmeyer

        Thank you for putting this little tip together. “Coffee and 5 blog comments everyday keep the penguin away.”

        • Doug cunnington

          Thanks, Karl!

          That’s a good motto. I think I go through a pitcher of coffee a day. 🙂

  • Digital Ready SEO

    Just listened to your appearance on the niche pursuits podcast. Good stuff you have it going on there. Simple yet powerful!

    • Doug cunnington

      Hi – Thanks for checking out the podcast. It was very cool to talk to Spencer!

  • Crystal Foth

    Great little video – love the bookmarklet tip! Used it today!

    • Doug cunnington

      Hi Crystal – Thank you!
      The bookmarklet is a huge time saver.

  • cswin

    Thanks, Doug. I always had a difficult time coming up with blogs to comment on. This should help out greatly!

  • John Paul Paquibot

    Doug,
    This is just my idea, actually negative idea (i always create over-thinking and nega ideas)..
    I noticed you save the links to G Docs spreadsheet, so google knows you are link building, then when you click those links, google knows its coming from their docs from the same i.p. add … can these help google find your links easily or tag you as spammer ?

    just my idea though ..

    • Doug cunnington

      Hi John Paul – That’s true and technically it’s possible.

      I consider it low risk…plus, I believe the process that I outlined is not inherently spammy.

      I encourage people to take risks that they are comfortable with… 🙂 For me, I don’t mind using google spreadsheets.

      • John Paul Paquibot

        hi Doug,
        Actually, i was just asking since me too have all my LB resources in one place which is Google Docs spreadsheets…

  • Janis Gricenko

    I have built 10 links using this method, and I noticed that all these links are nofollow. I am wondering if it is necessary to look for dofollow comment link sources? What is your opinion about dofollow/nofollow link value?

    • Doug cunnington

      Hi Janis – Good question. There is still very good value in nofollow links, plus it adds a nice diversity to your backlink profile.

      When you can get dofollow links, definitely go for it! dofollow is certainly more powerful.

      For this activity most all of the links will be nofollow.

  • Roque

    Doug – you can import the list using the export to csv feature of Mozbar, then right click the file and use “Open with” MS Excel. . This way you can sort the PA and DA easily.

  • Tom Martin

    Thanks Doug – thought the podcast with Spencer was super useful too.

  • Corbin

    Awesome, concise video. Going to integrate this into my routine for a few weeks to build about 10 blog links/day. Thanks for sharing this Doug

    • Doug cunnington

      Hi Corbin – Thanks for the compliment. I’m doing the same commenting exercise myself. 🙂

  • Reinaldo Miguel

    Awesome! Heard you on the podcast with Spencer and came over. I’m a PM by day and and a Niche site builder by night so I love the mash-up. Thanks Doug.

    • Doug cunnington

      Hey Reinaldo – Thanks!
      What kind of PM work do you do? The PM skills seem to be very helpful for any kind of complicated set of task.
      Cheers!

  • Joshua Kearns

    Thanks for the video Doug. I first came over here when Spencer ran your success story, and have appreciated your insights. This will make my life a little easier for commenting and hopefully finding a few sites that I can focus on for other outreach.

    • Doug cunnington

      Hi Joshua – Glad you like the video.
      Good point on the outreach. Consistent commenting on a blog is a great way to break the ice for outreach…of course, you may be able to get some actual dofollow links with a stronger relationship.
      Thanks for coming by!

      • Joshua Kearns

        This has made my life so much easier Doug! I especially like the CommenLuv portion. I started commenting yesterday, never really went into it too much, and this morning I woke up and have had 30+ people go to my site, and it’s only 6 am! I’m sure it’s not from blog commenting entirely, but I can’t help but see results thanks to your video. I now have a revitalized effort to get back to trying to get my first niche site earning some money.

        • Doug cunnington

          That’s great! Thanks for letting me know. I have been commenting a lot lately myself. 🙂

        • Wes Davidson

          Hey Josh,

          Great minds think alike – great to find you here. I hope the niche site is going well, I have also been inspired to get mine back on track from Spencer Haws interview and hearing what Doug has been able to achieve.

          Thanks Doug for this info!

  • Karen

    Hi Doug, thanks for this! When I drag SERP Redux to my bookmark bar, I get an error message. Any alternatives?

    • Doug cunnington

      Hi Karen, Thank you for coming by!

      You may be able to save the link as a bookmark rather than dragging it to the bookmark bar.
      If that doesn’t solve the problem, let me know.

  • Agha Raheem Khan

    Hey Doug, thank you so much for this guide. I’m so glad that finally someone is truly helping newbies.

    Keep up the good work, subscribed!

  • Avi Lang

    Hi doug i know this was a while ago but i have a question is there other strings to put in google to look for commenting?

    thank you

    • Doug cunnington

      Hey Avi – how’s it going? Yes, but I don’t know off the top of my head. I can check my notes later – I think quicksprout.com has some posts on the topic.

  • Petar Bogdanov

    WOW, Doug I am reading one year later and it’s still great advice! Thanks for simplifying the comment building part!

  • Andhy Fathoni

    Hi doug,
    thank you so much for the commenluv tips.
    it is a really great tips and i will experiment using it for my niche site!

  • James Dooley

    Is there any other commenting platforms like commentluv which allow follow links? Also i have added a link to this page on my seo 2016 blog commenting article pal – http://www.fatrank.com/seo-2016-blog-commenting-advanced-guide/ How come you do not use commentluv on this site??

    • Doug Cunnington

      Great guide, James. I am not sure of any others that have dofollow links.

      I don’t really like commentluv on my sites…just a personal preference.

  • Sonia

    Very nice blog, thanks for this post..it’s been good reading this.

  • Sokaj

    Very interesting article, i will try it on my website 🙂

  • Attila Cibulya

    Yeah, I found this helpful, you believe or not, that, this is my third blog comment and I want to say, It’s nice how the time goes while you exercize the commenting. Thanks.

  • greensoftwaretech

    very good article…i will use it for my websites

  • ichapps

    Awesome article.

  • santosh

    It’s very helpfull article. i’ll try to use my site

  • Munyole

    A good site to learn and acquire new knowledge in this digital economy

  • Arthur

    simplified.its only recently that i got to understand the importance of commenting thanks Doug

  • Andrew

    I must admit at first I rolled my eyes a little bit (seeing that shitty tool straight out of 1996) but gave it a try. Holy shit! This is AMAZING. You, sir, can have my email. Going to sign up for your newsletter right now.

  • Shiv kumar

    Wow, great Work. thanks

  • Sai Bharath

    Hi Doug,

    Nice tip for getting the niche site for commenting, do we have to check the quality(DA/PA) of the blog to comment on? or is it fine to comment on the niche which is related but less DA and PA

  • panneer

    Thanks to sharing A good site to learn in this digital economy Awesome

  • Khan

    This is really helpful for me.

  • Ken

    I tried this for your site in the security guard niche and the google search came back with a very short list and none of the sites even seemed to be in the same niche. Mostly spammy type links to “make money at home” etc.

    What am I doing wrong?

    Thanks for a great post.

    Ken

    • Doug Cunnington

      Ken, go one level up…Like career type websites. Keep googling and trying to get more results.

  • Ken

    One more question:

    Do you want to link back to the “money site” or link to some web 2.0 sites that then point back to the “money site” or should we be doing both?

    Thanks,

    Ken

    • Doug Cunnington

      I just do the money site links, but don’t do that in the comment. It looks spammy unless it addresses a specific question. But if you want to do the web 2.0 links, that’s up to you – it isn’t necessary for the link building that I do.

  • Sharon

    Blogging is great fun. Come on…..join in….

    Sharon Banfield

  • Vince

    I have been reading your blog for a while. Today I read it for an hour after work, and I found your “blog commenting” post. Long story short, I followed all the instructions, and I am happy to say I just commented on five sites tonight. Thank you for the info!

  • Zuban

    Nice blog !! Thanks for Sharing

  • Ravi S

    doug nice job thanks for sharing

  • Nate

    Hi Doug, thanks for the updated post on Blog Commenting. I have really been going after it recently and have found it to be a great way to warm up the bloggers for a guest post.

    I do have one question. I recently got an SSL certificate and switched the site to HTTPS and now whenever I try and use the CommentLuv plugin it gives me an error message for my HTTP site URL (CommentLuv plugin doesn’t allow https). Any thoughts on getting it to work with https?

    Thanks for your great content!

    • Doug Cunnington

      Nate, hmmm… Great question. I have no idea about the https aspect. I didn’t realize that was the case.

      Does that apply for every site with comment luv that you’ve come across?

      Thanks for asking…

      • Nate

        Hi Doug, yes it does. I have tried fooling around with it quite a bit to see if it would work, but I eventually just gave up and don’t use the CommentLuv plugin anymore.

  • Ken

    Great post.

    I wish I had been doing this earlier. I have just started to do commenting on blogs and while it is too early to see any results (only been doing this for 2 days now) I have faith that this will make a difference.

    Thanks for sharing.

  • Kevin

    Great post, however I’m finding that newer blogs with commentluv are nofollow links. I’ve found old/inactive blogs with dofollow comments- are these worth posting on or could that negatively affect my site?

    • Doug Cunnington

      Kevin, good point.
      There shouldn’t be an issue with posting on older blogs, other than the webmaster may not be approving new comments.

      There isn’t an SEO issue though – that’d be fine.

  • Jackie

    Blog commenting is indeed boring and tedious, but I try to power on with 20 or so of them almost every day. I did have a VA doing it for a while too which worked well.

  • Mark Oscar

    Great Blog! thanks for sharing this blog 🙂

  • Lester

    Hey Doug,

    Great article. Been following your blog for about 2 months now. I’m in the process of creating my niche site. I’m just curious, what SERP Tool do you use? The one that can check the progress/rank of your keywords….

    Thanks and keep up the good work!

  • gohil sagar

    thank you so much.
    keep up the good work

  • Kevin Brand

    Thanks for the tips! I will test these out!

  • Jack Klinnon

    great write-up Doug. I’ve been using your tips to rank my website (US immigrations related, think online green card renewal). So far, haven’t ranked well, but I’ve been trying the approach you recommended with blog commenting. Hoping it works out!

  • allinonescripts

    Great post! Blog commenting is an acquired skill which depends on a couple of factors which are very well explained and articulated especially favorable circumstances to comment on blogs. Thanks and cheers!

  • Kartik Kumar

    Thankyou So much It helped me Understand Blog Commenting Better

  • Anant Khurana

    great post. just saw your youtube video and your blog, you have done an amazing job

  • Zain Malik

    Wow!

    Amazing post, Doug.

    I launched my blog a few weeks back and was searching for such valuable suggestions that could help me with link building and traffic improvement simultaneously.

    Apart from guest posting, blog commenting seems the right tactic to do so.

    Thanks for this masterpiece!

  • Arif mondol

    Thank you Doug,
    It is really helpful and amazing blog post. I’m happy to read. I’m read this A-z. Now i’m understand blog commenting better.

    I have a question. When we going to blog commenting in WordPress site Then if we double click on “comment” button it show spam. Why?

  • tech norton1

    Thanks for sharing this list. Above links really helps us to create quality backlinks for our site. I need more links for blog comment.

  • Rabbi Hossain

    Thanks for Sharing this valuable content. This was very useful and i learned a lot form this information. keep posting like this.

  • Mercy

    Hi, very useful post. This is one of the best link building tactic to get quick backlinks from nofollow links. Thanks for helping me how to comment on blogs. Keep sharing.

  • asd

    nice blog about backlin

  • Prolonged Fasting

    Thanks, bro now I know how to create backlinks. Keep Sharing.

  • Sergey

    How do these tactics work in 2019?

  • muhammad ibrahim

    Thats very good neiche.

  • Shoaib

    Amazing….!!!!
    Thanks, Doug
    A few days ago I make a website now I am continuously trying to find that type of helpful material that helps me for link building and now I am able to find it here.

  • Mike

    Thanks Doug. Even though it is a hotly debated topic I have seen positive results from recent blog commenting. It is good to hear your insights on it!

  • yunier gonzalez

    Hey Doug, awesome training here but what if in my niche people don’t really use comment luv. Any other alternatives ?

  • Umair Ahmad

    Thanks Doug. Even though it is a hotly debated topic I have seen positive results from recent blog commenting. It is good to hear your insights on it!

  • Roshan

    Hi Doug,
    I have a page where we promote kitesurfing and its a niche. Loved reading this article. For sure learnt few things

  • Madz'

    Hi Doug,
    I’ve been commenting on different blogs on my niche in the past week and I try to be as insightful and appreciative in my comments but I don’t think many of my comments are being approved. How can I improve at this and is there an easier way to know if your comments are being accepted?
    Thanks in advance.

    • Doug Cunnington, PMP

      Are you making sure it’s an active blog?
      Are you inserting a link in the comment?

      Those are the most common issues.

  • George Gibson

    Great article, Doug!! I didn’t know the real insight of dofollow or nofollow links. Your article helped me to clear things, what these links are, and the differences between them.

    Sharing about the plugin “commentluv” was also great. I felt the need of such tool for long but wasn’t sure whether it exists or not.

    Lastly, I have a question, quoting a portion from the article above

    “You need to do them manually. You can effectively automate blog commenting.”

    You suggested doing the blog commenting manually but right after you told that I can automate blog comment. It was somewhat exciting for me. But I couldn’t find the method to automate the commenting. You told to hire a virtual assistant to do the commenting a bit later. Did you indicate this hiring as ‘automating the blog commenting’?

    Again, great work!

    • Doug Cunnington, PMP

      Did you indicate this hiring as ‘automating the blog commenting’?

      No. There are tools that will automate, but I don’t recommend that.

  • Miss Aushini Das

    Hi Doug,
    It took just few seconds to picture out your passion for writing. I too fall in that niche (as you told to use the right keywords :P). Great article. Just one query that I’ve is that what is niche directories then? Is it something different from blog commenting in niche sites?
    Kuddos!

  • Marvin

    Hi Doug,

    I have watched your Youtube video on how to find blogs to comment on and also read this post. I am glad I have found you and this post.

    I agree with what you said that a lot of people find blog commenting boring and tedious. But I like it when you said that if it’s easy and fun, then everybody would have done it.

    I also learned something new in here which is the bookmarklet. This is awesome and thank you for sharing this information.

    Sincerely,
    Marvin

  • Dost Muhammad

    Hi Doug, I always love the insights you share. This is one of them too. Maybe i am wrong but one of the biggest problem you face while blog commenting is you have to be super familiar with your niche and language mistakes. As a newbie its a shit for me because i have been trying commenting on blogs since 1 month and none of comment is getting approve. Although i have done a pretty good research on commenting and trying to implement these.