During the last few days I’ve made the decision to be a little more aggressive with generating web traffic to this site. Right now, I’m hovering around the 100 visitors a day mark. While this isn’t terrible for a blog that’s 6 weeks old, I know it’s time to get off my butt and take action.
Now as you’ve probably heard, one of the primary ways to drive traffic to a blog is to leave comments on other blogs. So here’s what I’m going to do…
5 Blog Comments a Day
In Jack Canfield’s Principles of Success book he talks about something we’ll call “The Principle of Five.” What he suggests is simple. If you have a long term goal (like building lots of traffic to a site), you do five things each day that moves you closer to this outcome.
So my new habit is to comment on five different blogs each day. I know this is a lot less than what’s recommended by others. But I figure it’s much easier to make the commitment to five comments then see if I can increase this amount over time.
But before I start randomly commenting on other sites, I do want to mention one thing…
Blog Commenting to Build Relationships
Many people look at blog commenting as a way to build backlinks to their site. I have a different viewpoint. In my opinion, you can get a lot more value by using blog commenting as a way to build a relationship with the owner of the site.
In the grand scheme of things it really doesn’t matter if you get a few clicks from your comment. What really counts is taking that first step towards forming a relationship with your fellow bloggers.
So as I comment on other people’s site, my goal is to see if I can add value or something interesting to what’s been written. Furthermore I want to focus on connecting with the owner of the blog… Maybe give him or her something thought provoking enough that they’ll want to work with me on a future project.
There’s a lot of value to accumulated effort. I figure commenting on five different blogs a day will eventually have a snowball effect where I generate more long-term traffic to this site.
Wish me luck…
Take Action. Get Results.
Steve,
Your idea sounds great; I’d love to know how you go on and what your results look like.
I think you’re doing really well to have approx. 100 readers per day after only six weeks.
Regards
Paul
A you sow, so shall you reap. Like you say, some people do more than five but I believe that a consistent plan will move you forward better than random bursts of activity.
I have implemented this recently and I totally agree with you! It is not just about the small traffic you will receive, it’s mostly about the relationships you can build. Great post, I’ll be reading all your future one 🙂
@Paul- I will definitely start talking about stats/monetization when things start rolling. Right now, I simply have to be more aggressive about generating web traffic.
@Ralph- Yes, it’s kind of sad to admit that I can only do five comments a day. But I know how much time I have right now and don’t want to get overwhelmed.
@Patrick- Welcome to my site. Like I said I got a kick out of your “business lessons from zombies” post. I definitely agree that blog commenting is mostly about becoming a recognizable face to the blog owner and primary readers.
Steve,
That’s great with me Steve, it’s were I’m up to at the moment.
Regards
Paul
Excellent idea Steve,
When I launched my blog I made it an effort to comment to help ramp up its initial traffic and during that time it’s basically became a good habit.
Not only do you always stay on the radar with other bloggers but they always come back to comment on your own blogs after some time – if you can put forth the effort, you’ll often be rewarded.
Five is a great starting point, it’s not too overwhelming and time consuming but can have some lasting benefits – especially with commentluv blogs!
Murray,
Yeah commenting is great to drive people. I am up to doing 20 a day, and yeah that is a lot and time consuming. (or I should say trying 20 a day) I went and checkout out you post too (and commented) 10 articles a day, wow…ambitious