Benefits, Do’s and Don’ts of Blog Commenting : Beauty Blogging Vol.3

In my point of view – A beauty blogger knows the value of comments than any ‘other niche’ blogger does!! I admit that every blogger expects her/his post to pull reader comments, but beauty bloggers are always one step ahead!

We write posts, publish them, share them on social media and wait for the feedback! As we do a creative work, feedback is one of the most motivating things to continue our blogging journey without lags. Be it a swatch post or a skin care post or just a review on that newly launched product – we want our readers, fellow bloggers to read them and share their views on the comment section. This makes a beauty blogger happy, confident and motivated to write more posts with interest! A post with no comments doesn’t mean that the post is not-useful or not up-to-the-mark, but it just means the blogger is not socializing! IT is not really a bad thing however interacting with fellow bloggers and leaving your comments on other blogs makes you an influential blogger and tells the world you blog about what, how and where!

Today, I am sharing few do’s and don’ts of blog commenting. (Especially for beauty bloggers) These ideas not only apply to beauty bloggers, but every other blogger out there! However, as I only do beauty blogging (other than my food blog where I rarely hit the publish button) the tips will be much useful for new beauty bloggers out there!

I am starting with the Don’ts! : Few below are my very own experiences (call them, mistakes). I’ve however successfully rectified them over the years. (And still figuring out new better strategies on blog commenting)

Previous Volumes :

Vol.1 : 3 Thing to Know Before Starting Your Beauty Blog

Vol. 2: How to Start a Beauty Blog in 5 Steps?

Note : Ideas mentioned below are purely personal and I don’t push them on anyone. You can follow your regular commenting way, however, I am just sharing my own views that I’ve learnt these years!

Don’ts.

1. Do not comment with a keyword! :

This may be very annoying to many bloggers who approve your comments (Including me!). Commenting with a keyword actually gets you a back link to your blog with your anchor text (the key word) but this makes the comment look very unnatural. Unless you are an anonymous blogger who hadn’t revealed your name on your own blog, do not comment with a keyword or even your blog’s domain. Pick a nick name to comment if you don’t intend to use your original name. Otherwise, I highly suggest you to use your real name to leave comments on the blogs. This way, you still get back links to your blog (either no-follow or do-follow) with your name as the anchor-text. Believe me, it actually helps your blog too! Anchor text is nothing but the word where the link is placed.

Leaving your original name on the comment section instead of keywords or other stuff makes your comment look valuable, personal and natural! It shows your identity to the blogger, other bloggers and the other readers who comment on that particular post. This also makes the blogger and the other commentators check through your blog clicking on your name! (The anchor text)

On the earlier days of my beauty blogging, I used to comment as ‘makeupandbeautyhome’ instead of ‘Lancy Cv’. I then came to knew how silly it was! It actually doesn’t do much SEO help boosting your blog traffic. Commenting with your name is much more better! Moreever, it drives proper traffic and benefits your blog the SEO-way too. Now I only use my real name to comment on the blogs I read!

 

2. Don’t leave links on your comments :

This is another annoying thing. Leaving links on your comment doesn’t help you anymore as it used to (the old-school SEO days). Most bloggers are not even going to ‘approve’ your comment if it has a link (either to your recent post or any other post). This clearly shows you landed on the blog only to leave a comment that is self-promotional. A comment you post should either do add value to the blog post, or express your doubts. It shouldn’t be promotional at all, especially if you are a regular commentator. Showing recent post through the Comment Luv plugin is a whole different story! It is a plugin that bloggers use and hence that won’t look unnatural at all. You can add your URL to the commentluv box to get a decent backlink to your blog whenever you comment. But just.. don’t.. add links on the body of your comment! Such comments, instead of pulling SEO value might sometimes affect your blog negatively. (As google considers such comments as spam when the count increases)

I used to do it too, when I was a newbie blogger! My goodness I got rid of this habit as soon as I read about it on some tech-blog. I used to place the link of my recent post whenever I commented on other blogs (years ago!). I did not do it intentionally though. But now I realize how annoying would had the bloggers felt!. (It spoiled my blog’s back link profile too which took me months to get it cleaned) On the recent years, other than leaving my valuable views on the comment section, I don’t add any other unnecessary things/links to it! Even today, I either trash or edit the comment before publishing to avoid backlinks on my comment section (Unless, otherwise it is through commentluv. I use it at times). It doesn’t mean I don’t want to give credit to other bloggers but it simple means links on the comment section look ugly, and I also doubt it affects the blog’s SERP (Search engine ranking position negatively).

 

3. Do not comment on spammy sites:

Are you trying to do a ‘blog commenting’ strategy to improve your search engine visibilty and traffic? Great thing! It simply isn’t odd as many bloggers do this. It is actually a good, white hat method however you should also keep in mind to omit those bad ‘spammy sites’. Commenting on such sites is going to add a negative impression – by affecting your back link profile! Hence, comment only on blogs with a personal touch, other niche blogs (most preferably beauty blogs, if you are beauty blogger). The blog should contain the details of the author etc. If it doesn’t, I doubt it may be spammy. Example : (Some random howtocureacnefast(dot)com) Such blogs are called micro-niche blogs that add no value to your blog if you leave your comment there. Most probably, there won’t be an admin/author who checks and responds to your comment. So whenever you read a blog and leave a comment, make sure it is not a spammy one! Again, in a long run, it may strongly affect your back link profile. (Blogs with a bad back link profile get easily affected by Google algorithms such as Penguin, Panda etc)

 

DO’s

1. Always reply to the comments on your blog!

This is the most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to beauty blogging! A beauty blog is a not a multi-niche site handled by writers, editors and seo professionals. Such blogs most probably won’t mind to respond to their readers and their comments. And hence, the commentators too won’t expect them much to respond unless if their doubts aren’t getting clarified. Things are different when it comes to blogs that cover beauty, food, recipes and stuff. Our readers have a personal bonding to our writings; they love it! Only because they like our writing and find the information useful, they spend their precious time to drop a comment. Hence, replying them is a MUST! I can understand the tight scedule we bloggers have. Unless you are a full-time blogger, it is hard to respond to each and every comment you receive. But, that really helps increasing your reader-count and of course, the reader-trust. There were times I don’t reply to reader comments properly. Only recently, I realized the importance and I will definitely make sure to respond to each and every comment!

 

2. Read the post before commenting:

‘Nice review’ and ‘Great Post’ are comments you should use as least as possible! If the reader has actually read the post and left a ‘nice post’ comment, it is not going to matter the blogger much! But commenting just to gain backlinks is not a good thing! And it will not help you as well. So whenever you go read a post on a beauty blog, take time to read what the blogger says.. Observe the post and then comment on it! This way, you not only leave a valuable comment (and gain a back link!) but you are actually learning new stuff! It can be anything like a new idea, writing style etc. Reading helps you a LOT when it comes to blogging! A good blogger should read as much as he/she can and write the valuable content they can! Hence, do read the reviews, posts and tidbits of other bloggers before submitting your comment.

If you don’t have the patience to read the complete post, do give a rough glance, go through the main points before commenting. Don’t EVER comment random lines without reading the post! Thankfully, I’ve never done this even in the past. I make sure to leave only my true views and comments on blogs, even if I don’t get to read them line by line. But these days, I am reading blogs WELL than I used to! This helps me learn new words, ideas etc!

Note : Not just the posts, sometimes I go through the comment section too, before commenting on a particular post to just join the discussion or to be observe the topic that is going on!

 

3. Respect the other bloggers who comment on your blog:

How many of you really receive 100s of comments on your blog? Unless you are one among the top 5 beauty bloggers in your country, you most probably won’t receive that much! But wait.. When you comment on another blog, the blogger usually checks your back link, reads what you write and leave their comment to express their friendliness. This happens! It doesn’t mean comment-exchange or something. But it just means you are developing a good relationship with your fellow bloggers. So whenever a blogger reads your post and shares her valuable comment, make sure to go to her blog and read hers. This not only makes the blogger happy, but it helps you both keeping in touch through comments – which is a good thing!. I usually read other beauty bloggers’ post and leave my comments when I don’t have any writing-editing work. This helps me a lot to learn from different bloggers! Whenever I receive a comment from a blogger, I get this curiosity to check out what she has recently posted. This is a good habit, especially if you want to maintain a good relationship with other bloggers and receive comments on your posts to stay motivated.

Conclusion: I am not sure if you are aware of me hiring new writers for the blog. Hence, I believe I can get that extra time to explore new beauty blogs. I will definitely make sure to reply to reader comments on MABH. I think I need a hour or two separately for commenting and responding-to-comments everyday. Lets see!

And whoa! The post has turned out super long. Sorry if I’ve non-intentionally killed your time. Now please take few minutes to share your views on blog commenting. I am all ears!

P.S: Do you have any ideas for Vol.4, too?