Dennis Edell is probably a name you have heard or seen on this and many other blogs. He is the king of commenting as far as I am concerned! Not only does he leave comments, but he leaves good ones that ask questions, he replies to other commentators, and his comments are always a welcome part of this community. Dennis writes a blog about direct sales and marketing, and lately he has been moving his site to a new domain. I have watched as he has slowly (and I am sure painfully for him at times) went though this whole process, with his readers getting to watch as it happened! That is what I call thinking outside the box!
Anyway, Dennis is having a commenting contest, it pays cash right into your Paypal account, and all you have to do is make it to the top 10 on his commentor list. I know what some of you are going to say about this as I have been ranting about comment links and such recently, but hey, this is for cash right? Besides, it sounds like fun and Dennis is always a great contributor when he comments, so it would be like giving something back to him as well.
I know I swore off commenting for a month only a week ago, well I didn’t make it but a few days. I am commenting here and there, but a lot less than I used to. The funny thing is, since removing do-follow comment links from this site (and I have noticed several of you have as well) my comments have gone down, the quality of them is better, and my traffic is still going up! The way I see it, the ones that flat out stopped commenting, were only here for one reason… a link. I don’t really want that kind of traffic here anyway. I would rather have 5 readers that want to learn from/with me on this site than several hundred or thousand readers here for do-follow comment links anyway.
So, you will probably see me lurking around, commenting a little less, spending more time on Twitter (which I have found a new found love for) and trying to enjoy my life as an internet marketer a little more…
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I have seen Dennis everywhere. He has been a very active commentator! Great to see you promoting his contest, and I might just have to jump in there and see if I can get on the top commentator list.
That is really interesting about your experience. While I expected the quality to rise, I also expected a drop in traffic, so that is good to know!
.-= Tom@Build That List´s last blog ..The 4 Reasons People Unsubscribe Mailing Lists =-.
@Tom@Build That List, It just shows that content is more important in driving traffic than whether or not the comments are do-follow, at least on this site….
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..How To Leverage Video Marketing – Become a YouTube Partner =-.
That is encouraging to hear that your blog is increasing in traffic, even after adding the nofollow code on comment links. I am going to do the same on my blog.
I also wanted to say that I really like your site. I just subscribed to your RSS feed.
.-= Chris Roane´s last blog ..Code Formatting and Coloring in WordPress without a Plugin =-.
@Chris Roane, Thanks, I think that gives me 2 subscribers now! LOL
That’s okay, Keith. Even though your comments stat dropped, what is important is your content has something for your readers to learn…checking out dennis’ contest…
.-= Bert@Webthesurfi Rugs Webdesign´s last blog ..Webthesurfi Rugs Webdesign =-.
It is true that to get more comments you do need to give them something back. When my site was getting too many spammy comments I turned off do follow and the spam stayed but the good comments left. Needless to say I turned it back on.
Giving a link back is worth the conversation that can go along with your post.
@sally@bad consolidation credit debt help, I don’t know if I agree with you on the “It is true that to get more comments you do need to give them something back.”
I think it is more valuable to have quality comments than to have massive amounts of comments. If someone is strictly posting a comment to get a link back to their site, I’m not convinced they are interested in the conversation. In fact, I think this takes away from the people who really do want to add to the conversation because it adds a lot of comments that wouldn’t be there otherwise.
Now with that said, I am not speaking from experience as my blog does not get very many comments. But this is the approach that I am taking. My reasoning for my blog not receiving very many comments is because I don’t get enough traffic, but that is changing.
.-= Chris Roane – MontanaProgrammer.com´s last blog ..Code Formatting and Coloring in WordPress without a Plugin =-.
@Chris Roane, I do believe you need to give back also, but I feel a return comment is worth more then a backlink as it builds the relationship – the whole point to blogging.
“My reasoning for my blog not receiving very many comments is because I don’t get enough traffic…”
I gotta say, personability (is that a word?) and content are equally important if not more so. If you’re personable and make people really want to see the next thing you write, they will return and comment, but you also have to have readable quality content.
These two things combined will bring in direct word of mouth traffic; the best kind.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $100 – 10 Winners – Comment Contest! ‘Till Months End… =-.
Interesting to catch the counterpoint about dofollow and nofollow. I am just getting to the point where I begin to form my own thinking about what I do with my blog. Not there yet with the follows. Paying for comments though is an interesting idea. I am curious to see how that works out for Dennis.
@Ralph, Whoa, please don’t look at it that way, although I may be riding the line there.
Please read the “why” for having the contest.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..How Do You Cover SEO *Per Post*? =-.
I just joined the contest, thanks for writing about it.
.-= Onibalusi Bamidele´s last blog ..7 DAYS TO ONLINE SUCCESS 3 =-.
@Onibalusi Bamidele, I sent you an email, you might have big problems.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..How Contextual Links will Open On DEDC – My Setup FINALIZED! =-.
Duuude, THANKS! I know, real bad timing with your commenting issues, huh. LOL
Great job on my anchor text btw, I haven’t even thought up what I want yet! LOL Thanks for the idea.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Blog Feed Subscriptions – The Methods to My Madness – Part 1. =-.
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@John Sullivan@The Blog No One Reads, Oh yea? Where you at?!
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Must You Title Your Titles? =-.