I want to introduce you to Michael Colemire, a Kentucky artist, and newly initiated asker of dumb SEO questions.
I talk to a lot of people about SEO and social media marketing. It is my job, so that makes perfect sense. I answer a lot of questions, debunk a lot of myths, and develop a lot of ideas. I brainstorm with industry know-it-alls, and I brainstorm with people who know little or nothing about these topics, but want to grow their business.
Something I found interesting while I recently visited on the phone with my friend and long-time reader of my blog was that he was afraid of asking dumb questions. His name is Michael Colemire, and he is a very talented sculptor and wood carver. He is not a marketing guy, but he has some great works of art to market, so he wants to learn.
Michael said that the reason he often hesitates to comment on my blog is that he didn’t want to bother me with dumb questions. Also, being such a nice guy, he did not want to feel like he was taking advantage of me. After I picked my jaw back up and thought for a moment, I realized that he had expressed a pretty common and legitimate sentiment. I want to shatter any misconceptions about this.
You see, I have a pretty tricky task of writing a blog about SEO and social media marketing. These are topics which reach people from every different skill level and many different schools of thought about best practices. I try to produce something useful that will cover many skill levels, and that is the trickiest thing.
Why I Want Your Dumb SEO Questions
Reader’s comments are very important to me, because they help me to understand what people already know, or want to know more about. Comments (including “dumb” questions) help to keep me sharp with an appropriate answer, and they give other readers opportunities to look at things from other angles, and cultivate their thoughts.
Let’s take a break for an Internet truth:
A sad truth of the Internet is that it is very easy for people to be selfish. A lot of people will not do something for other people “just because”. It is common that if people think it may benefit you, more than it does them, they will just pass on by. They won’t comment, they won’t retweet it, and they won’t share it on Facebook … unless there is more in it for them than for you.
Something I shared with Michael, and I’ll tell you, is that those “dumb questions” also provide other benefits to me, such as better ranking and recognition in lists that measure a blog’s value to readers. No, it doesn’t pay me money, but it does bring me a bit closer, and it is like a big warm hug and a pat on the butt. I think that every writer needs a pat on the butt and an “attaboy” now and then.
I guess you could say that your comments and dumb SEO questions directly benefit me in a lot of ways, but what about how they benefit you?
Afraid of a Dumb SEO Question or Comment? Think Again!
I know that a lot of people will totally overlook this, but when you add your comment to my blog, it will probably benefit you even more than it does me. This is because when you add your comment, you can add a link to your website, which can have a real benefit to your search engine rankings. It also comes with networking benefits as I described in a recent article titled “Why Disqus May Be The Best Social Network of 2011“,
Do you know what a link from a high-traffic and well ranked blog can do to help your search engine rankings? Well, I’ll just say that it is why I delete a constant flow of spam comments from people who want no more than a link from this blog. Yes, I kill the useless spammy comments, but the legitimate stuff stays here.
Your sincere questions and useful answers deserve to be rewarded, and that reward comes in the form of the number one highest valued SEO treasure there is … a link to your website. Not to mention a great opportunity to network with other readers who may decide you are pretty cool.
One more thing: If you are a super great person like Michael Colemire, I may even credit an article to you.
There are a lot of things which I may think are obvious, but then, this is the work I do every day to earn a living and feed my family. These things are supposed to be obvious to me, after about 15 years in the industry. Let me assure you that they were not always so obvious. I have worked hard and spent a lot of time to develop a solid understanding of my job. Practice makes a world of difference.
I can’t carve or sculpt like Michael Colemire, and I probably never will. If I asked him how to carve a piece of wood into an intricate design, my questions may sound really basic to him, but only because I don’t know the answers.
I guess my point here is that the dumbest questions about SEO are simply the ones you neglect to ask. I would love to say that there are no dumb questions, but I am not ready to commit to that, just yet. I have heard some pretty damn dumb stuff over the years. Most of the questions about the work I do, and the things I write about are just kind of like the questions I would ask Michael. Not dumb at all, just inexperienced.
On the topic of SEO questions, I have listed some of the most common SEO questions, created lists of things people should know about SEO, and have a pretty lengthy blog archive. I welcome you to read these, but in any case, I hope that you will never hesitate to add your comment or question about an article I write. After all, answering questions a primary goal of this blog.
So, what are your dumb SEO questions? Bring it on!
Blogging Tip on Posts Per Page
The question of how many blog posts to display on the home page of a blog is a pretty tough call for a lot of people. After all, it affects the page load time, the number of generated pages in your archive, the number of pages indexed by search engines, and most importantly, the user experience.
What is the best number of blog posts per page? The answer will depend on a number of things, but I want to offer some food for thought, and share what I have experienced.
If you don’t already have a blog, you may want to sit this one out, but if that is the case, I encourage you to read “10 Really Good Reasons to Blog“.
As an SEO guy, I am not always right about every SEO topic. I try my best to keep my percentage of being right pretty high, but even I can get it wrong sometimes. It usually happens because of overlooking the obvious things I should be doing, but conveniently neglect.
The reality about SEO is that sometimes the right answers take a little bit of testing. Some people may call it “tinkering”, but that implies doing it without forethought. My suggestion is to stop “tinkering”, but always be testing. In this instance, I do not suggest making frequent changes, so it is good to make your best guess the first time.
Changing Number of Posts Per Page: Think Ahead!
It was not so long ago that I faced the question of changing the number of blog posts per page, on this blog. I had previously displayed ten articles on the home page and on each archive page. It was not a good idea, but then, I get wrapped up in client work and forget about my own stuff. I am often like a cobbler with barefoot children. Once I got around to this issue of blog posts per page, I was really glad to finally address it. I know that others have this question, and in fact, a friend who writes “Social Media Philanthropy” recently had a poll of his readers to see what they think.
Depending on your blog theme, the number of blog posts on your home page will generally be the same number which will be listed in each of your archive pages, too. I don’t mean the kind of archive like my complete archive where I list all of my articles, but rather the pages that are generated for chronological archiving, tag archiving, and category archiving.
If you do not know exactly what I mean, just click on the “older articles” link at the bottom of this page, click on any tag (for example, SEO), or click on a category (for example Marketing). My blog presently lists a total of five articles for each of these types of generated pages, and then has a link to the next page of posts.
Changing the number of posts per page will change other factors of your website, so it is best to think ahead and not do it too often. I will tell you a bit about what it will change.
Changing Blog Posts Per Page Has Multiple Effects
Let’s think about how a change in the number of posts per page will change other things. When my blog displayed ten posts per page, there was the obvious outcome that each page was longer. It makes sense that the potential for keyword phrase matching in a given search engine index may be higher, because of the lengthier content on each page. It also took a bit longer for each page to load, so that was a downside. Plus, consider how daunting a huge long scrollbar can look to somebody just wanting some quick and easy information.
An even greater downside to having large numbers of posts per page is the much lower number of total pages of the blog. More pages can be a really good thing, but of course not just any pages. You can add pages just by adding a bunch of extra blog tags or categories, too, but it is not recommended.
I am certainly not saying that you should go and set your blog to display two articles per page just to bump up your page count. That could be a bad thing. After all, just consider how many times somebody will want to click to the next page, and how annoying that could be. The rule of thumb is that you have three clicks before you lose somebody. Certainly some blogs are much higher, and some are much lower, but it is really important to keep those readers happily surfing on your awesome wave. You do this by having everything just right … or at least as close as possible.
The most important factor is how it will affect the people reading your blog, and not the search engine indexing. If people like your blog, they are more likely to link to it, subscribe to it, and keep coming back. This should always be the primary consideration, but this really can make a big difference in search engine indexing, too.
Fewer Blog Posts Per Page Means More Indexed Pages
This is something I offer with caution. You do not want to aspire to a bunch of frivolous extra pages in search engines. You want search engines to index valuable, useful, and human-worthy content. That is what search engines want, too.
There is a lot of hype on one side or the other about allowing blog tag archives and category archives to be indexed by search engines. There are multiple easy ways to control this, and I use a (highly modified) WordPress plugin called “All-in-One SEO Pack” on this blog. Everything it does can be manually programmed into a WordPress blog, or any other website, but I consider it a handy tool.
A lot of people will argue about the perfect settings, and what to tell the search engines to not index. For example, in my category archive pages, I added the directive for search engines to not index the pages, but to follow the links found within them to other pages. It is in the header of the page and it looks like this:
Example of NoIndex, Follow Directive (click to see it applied):
Against some people’s notion of what works best, I have not included the content=”noindex,follow” directive in my blog tag pages (see example source code). This means that by default, my blog tag pages are being indexed. That is a lot of pages, and when you add up the differences in switching from ten blog posts per page to five blog posts per page, it multiplied the number of indexed pages in search engines. Best of all, it happened without any devious trickery or being spammy to search engines, and it simultaneously improved the user experience.
What About Duplicate Content Penalties?
I know that it is popular for people to wake up sweating profusely after having a nightmare about being penalized by search engines for having duplicate content. Search engines frown on duplicated content, because it has often been used in attempts to cheat rankings. It is the topic of many SEO discussions, and a fright to many bloggers and webmasters.
What is duplicate content? An easy way to describe this is by looking at two given blog tag pages. For example, if you seem my “SEO” tag, it may be significantly similar to the content of my “SEO blogging” tag. I also use the rel=”tag” attribute, but that is another article, and still relatively speculative in search engine recognition, and adherence.
If this gives you sweaty nightmares, stop freaking out, walk to the kitchen, and fix yourself a glass of warm milk (or better yet, Scotch). Then take a calming suggestion from good old Murnahan, and try to get back to sleep. Google and other search engines already have figured this out, and they know how blogs work. Yes, Google and other search engines have this under control, and they have indexed more than just a few other blogs.
It is extremely unlikely that you will be penalized for duplicate content, unless you are doing something to intentionally cheat the system. This is a topic for another blog post, but let me just stroke your hair and carry you back to bed. You will be just fine, and the monster under the bed will leave you alone until another time.
A Summary About Posts Per Page
Every blog is different, and some of us have really long and drawn out content, while others are much shorter articles. I also addressed this in a previous article about whether to use blog excerpts or full-length articles on your pages. The article is titled “Blogging Dilemma: Truncated Blog Excerpts or Full Blog Articles?” It is worth a read if you are on the fence about how to display your blog posts.
Because this can make such significant changes to the number of pages on your website, in your XML sitemap, and number of pages indexed in search engines, I suggest carefully limiting the number of times you change this.
I welcome your input, and if you found this useful or thought provoking, maybe your friends will, too. Please add your comments or questions and pass this along to other fellow bloggers.
I read a lot of blogs, and I gather a lot of great ideas from them. There is a lot of amazing talent out there on the Internet, sitting at their computer every day to blog about what they know, what they think, what they do, and what they sell. A few of those squillion blogs will become popular with readers, but how?
It is easy for me to answer why I read the blogs I read. They help me to keep my thinking sharp with new ideas. My brain needs a lot of daily exercise to keep up with my industry.
It seems easy to define why the popular blogs I read are successful at their mission, but harder when I turn it around and look at my own work. I hope you can relate to this. I find that it is always harder to scrutinize myself than to scrutinize others.
I have been a bit blessed with having a solid readership for my SEO and social media marketing blog. I appreciate that very much, because I work hard at it. Once in a while, I have to consider “What makes it popular, and why do people subscribe and come back?” Then, on a bad day, I find myself questioning “Why do I keep doing this?” That is when I have to go and re-read “10 Really Good Reasons to Blog” and I am back at it again, quick.
Today is a good day, so I am asking myself the earlier question. Is it because I am in a popular industry? No, because there are a lot of SEO and social media marketing blogs with just three readers (spouse, mother, and author). Is it because I take my shirt off to blog because the ladies like that? No, although it may not hurt, because I am yummy like bacon (I should post more pictures). Is it because I have a squillion friends who love me? No, I am generally a nice guy, but I don’t try to please everybody, and I piss a few people off, too (like this Bhashkar guy). Is it because I throw down a clever line here and there to be entertaining? No, because I will never be as funny as this cat video with 47 Million views (damn them cats).
When I begin to think about things which make a blog popular, it seems that my thoughts keep leading me back to “intent”. Good blogging tools, a lot of coffee, and just a slight touch of insanity can help, but it is not enough!
I know, I know … people say that “content is king”, or that “engagement” and “social equity” are important. Sure, we can throw a whole lot of silly buzz phrases on the table to sort through. It really does take a lot of things coming together just right to produce something that people want.
I think that in the end, even if you get every other piece right, but your intent is flawed, it is as fragile as a house of cards.
What is Your Blog’s Intent?
Let’s define this: Clearly, if you have a blog, you have an intent. Whether is just to pour your mind out to the Internet, or to bring more brand recognition to a product or service, nobody does this without something that drives them to do it.
I will share my intent with you, and I hope it will help you start thinking about yours. So, let’s see, why do I write this blog?
The focus of this blog is to help educate people about things which can help them. I like to help people think and create their own ideas. I like to teach people about things which they may find useful. I also like to dispel the many SEO lies which are common in the industry.
When I say that intent is important, here is how I look at it: If my intent was centered around selling something rather than educating and helping people, the direction would be totally different. The intent would show through, and the value to others would be far less.
Stop Seeing “Everybody” as a Potential Customer!
I hope that sharing my intent will help you think about yours, and your strategy. Here I go, trying to be helpful, again. Now, you may wonder “How is there any room left for a strategy, and how can a blog possibly be worth all of the headache?”
When I think about my intent, it is what I wish to provide for others. That does not have to mean there is no benefit in it for me, but when I focus on these things which benefit others, my work is far better and it makes me a swell guy.
The good news is that I don’t view you as my potential customer. Sure, maybe you are, but probably not. Most people that land on any blog are not there to buy stuff. In the case of company blogs, the smart companies already know this.
Pssst: Let me whisper a thought in your ear:
People know other people, and they communicate with them … a lot. If people like what you do, and they think highly of you, they will do the heavy lifting for you. They will share your blog with friends, and maybe those friends will share it with other friends. All of the sudden, you have your hands on something valuable. Somewhere down the line, there is probably a customer in it for you, and you didn’t even have to be pushy … just useful.
Keep Your Intent Dear to You
It can be easy to wander off the path of your intent, but don’t! Always remember the overall purpose of being useful, and know that it really will make the difference in reaching longer term objectives. If you have a very purposeful intent, it will be easier to stay on track.
My blog’s intent is sincerely focused on being helpful. I go out of my way to do that. As a benefit, it enhances my resume as a SEO and social media marketing professional and reflects my knowledge. A tiny percentage of people will contact me with an interest of hiring me as a consultant, or as their new Director of Marketing.
I ask myself:“What if somebody offers me a salary so big I can barely spend it all and puts me in a big shiny office building as their head marketing guy working 100 hours per week?”
My answer is:“I will still be right here to share what I know with others, just as I have been for years.”
That is how I know that my intent is right.
If selling something was the primary goal, I would not ask for your input, your brainstorms, or your time. I would also not expect anybody to subscribe and keep coming back. Although, I probably would still ask to pass my name along to somebody who may need me … but that is just my eensy little selfish side talking. (Hint: See sharing and bookmarking links below.) Hey, I have a family of five to feed, after all.
What is your intent, and how are you expressing it to others?
Even if you are the least tech-savvy person since my mother, it is clear that you will see this company popping up in more places during 2011. The name, “Disqus” (pronounced as discuss) is spread far and wide across the Internet, and its exposure is growing quickly as top tech and news blogs implement the service.
In November 2010 TechCrunch reported that there were over 500,000 communities using Disqus for more than 160 million conversations between 18 million profiles. According to Quantcast, Disqus is moving up quickly. Maybe you are not so sure about its importance just yet, but I am, and I want to share why Disqus is quickly climbing my list of favorite social networking tools.
I named Disqus a while back in an article titled “6 Essential Blogging Tools for Bloggers and Non-Bloggers” and that is certainly worth a read. Since the time I wrote that back in March 2010, my opinion of Disqus is better than ever.
The idea of using Disqus as a networking tool may sound completely off the wall to the many people who never heard of Disqus or took the time to understand its greater value. Likewise, sending a bunch of Twitter updates sounded pretty absurd in 2007, but we all watched how Twitter took off. I suppose I don’t need to say much about Facebook. The 650 million Facebook users pretty well sum up the public interest in that platform. So, how can Disqus be placed in the company of these massively adopted networks? I will explain, and I think you will have a much different view of the service by the time I am done.
Something many people may overlook about Disqus is how seamlessly it pulls together a broad picture of a user’s interests, and how well it can connect people.
Disqus will not become the next Facebook, threaten Twitter, or replace LinkedIn. What Disqus can do is to tighten people’s existing networks and create many opportunities for new and stronger network connections.
In the face of social networking becoming “looser” than ever for a lot of people, tighter networks of like-minded people are not only important, but something many Internet users are begging for. Disqus delivers on this need, in a big way, for people who choose to use it.
Let’s take an under-the hood look at Disqus for a moment. A lot of people may simply see Disqus as the commenting system on some of their favorite blogs, but completely overlook its best assets. First, let me explain what Disqus is, on the surface, for people who are unfamiliar. Then I will move on to the reason that Disqus is useful for networking, far beyond just its value to blog administrators.
What is Disqus?
Disqus is a service that is used by many blogs for moderating and responding to readers’ comments. It allows users to comment on blogs the “old fashioned” way, by entering their name, email, website address, and comment, or they can choose to use their photo and information based on a variety of other profiles, such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, OpenID, or simply their Disqus profile.
Optionally, readers can choose to share their comment, on a comment-by-comment basis, with their extended network. This is good for readers to share their point of view, and also good for bloggers who enjoy their work being shared. It is a win-win relationship.
Disqus provides for real-time updating of comments. In an active discussion, this allows readers to see new comments without even refreshing the page.
Disqus also provides options for users to receive updates of replies to their comments by email, or simply within their “Disqus Dashboard” where there is a section titled “Replies to you”. It makes blog commenting more interactive than ever, and opens a lot of possibilities for people willing to look three inches beyond their nose. It is a lot easier than other methods of subscribing to follow a thread, and much tidier for monitoring replies.
Disqus Dashboard is Easy and Searchable
Disqus Creates Deeper Conversations!
Maybe you have hoped that posting a link on Twitter or Facebook to an article that you read will give people a feel for what you like, what interests you, and what you read. The trouble with this is when it leaves them hanging without knowing what you thought of it. Believe me when I say that most people are not going to dig through the comments to see what you said about something. Most of the time, they will not even click to see the article, but rather draw conclusions and comment on the title.
Maybe you can add in a little bit of flair with your commentary, but then the conversation is all broken up between the article, the shortness of a Twitter post, and your Facebook comments versus the comments of the other people who read the blog. That all tends to create a lot of off-topic discussion, and dilutes what you and others had to say about the topic.
On the other hand, if somebody sees it in your Disqus profile and follows what you read and have to say on a topic, the whole character starts to change. Disqus makes it very easy to follow other people. It is a chance for others to be more involved in your conversations around the web. If they like communicating with you, it can give a good feel for who you are and your points of view. It can also help you to gain a closer relationship with the people you choose to interact with. For example, if you happen to come across my political views, you may find that I am feisty but fair. If you come across my business views, you may find that I read carefully, think a whole lot, and try to bring a my ideas to the discussion.
It is noteworthy that commenting on a blog article reflects a greater commitment than most other social networking quips and snippets that people leave behind. Blog comments are commonly lengthier and more thought out about a specific topic than comments elsewhere. It really does generally allow for a closer sense of a person’s views on a topic. I invite you to see an example of this in my Disqus profile. If you click on “Activity” at the top, you can scroll through and see comments I have made here and on other blogs.
Turn Any Website Into a Blog
I can point out a lot of reasons that Disqus is growing quickly, and this is certainly a big one. Disqus makes it simple to add commenting to any existing website. With their simple “Universal Code” Disqus commenting system can be added to any web page.
Let’s say you have a boring old static website and you want to add commenting to a page, or a set of pages. There is more to a blog than the commenting features, but many people would consider comments the most obvious feature of blogs. Disqus makes it simple to add their commenting system to any boring old website, and has excellent code and documentation for many popular platforms. They have made it extremely easy, even for a relatively novice web developer.
Disqus Security Considerations
You can certainly post on blogs using Disqus with an alias, or anonymously, but the things you have to say are the things which interest people. It is really not much fun to have people like you for one reason, but then find out they think you are horrible when they dig a bit deeper. If you posted it anywhere on a blog and somebody wants to find it, they will find it. This is the Internet, and most bloggers do their best to be sure a lot of people will see it. I think of this in a way similar to my article titled “Facebook Privacy Fears Are Absurd!“. Living in the fear of your own shadow is something that will be there with or without Disqus.
I guess this realistic view of the Internet and social media is why “social media transparency” has become such an overused buzzphrase.
Disqus and SEO
I know that a lot of people wonder about how Disqus affects search engine results, whether as a blog administrator, or as a commenter. I would stop at simply pointing out that I use it here on my SEO and Social Media Marketing blog, but that may not be enough to comfort you.
Many people who comment on blogs really love those links to their website they leave behind. After all, more links is a good thing. Disqus still allows you to leave your link, and it is still as valuable from an SEO standpoint as any other commenting system … perhaps even better. I may write about this at a later time, but I can tell you that the comments are well-indexed in search engines, and the links associated with those comments are also just as valuable as any other commenting system.
What I think sometimes confuses people about Disqus links is in the layout for non-logged-in “Guest” users. Disqus simply shows a “post as” link, but once you type your comment, you have the opportunity to add your website link and your Gravitar.
Disqus creates multiple links. If you click on the thumbnail picture of a user, it will show you their Disqus profile information, including their other communities and even their most recent Twitter update, if they associated their Twitter account. If you click on their name, it will link directly to their website of choice. If they have associated their Twitter account with their Disqus profile and you click to share your comment on Twitter, it will also send a reply to their Twitter username.
Disqus Signup and Other Links
If you made it this far, you are probably pretty curious to look a bit closer at Disqus. Here are some links to get your started.
I could keep writing all day to help you understand the ways to get the most from Disqus. There are a lot of excellent potential uses. For example, you can search with an email address to see what a person is saying on other blogs … did you know that? I wrote a 140 page book about Twitter, but I don’t plan to repeat that with Disqus. Instead, I will share what they say in their own words, invite you to discuss this, and happily answer your questions and comments. Here is what Disqus has to say:
What is Disqus?
Disqus (dis·cuss • dï-sküs’) is all about changing the way people think about discussion on the web. We’re big believers in the conversations and communities that form on blogs and other sites.
Now what do you have to say? Here is your chance to use Disqus and jump in the conversation. Please add your comments and don’t be shy. Another great feature of Disqus is that if you screw it up, you can go back and edit the comment.
I recently visited with a friend who is pretty aware of technology, but he still feels a bit awkward when it comes to blogs. He spoke of how subscribing, commenting, and joining into a discussion can feel a bit daunting if you are not sure how it all works. When I looked at it from his perspective, I realized how right he was. Perhaps bloggers don’t look at things from a new user perspective as much as we should. We should try harder to be more welcoming of the uninitiated, and that is what I hope to do here.
I am writing this for you, whether you are completely new to blogs, or an experienced blog owner who may have forgotten how lost you felt when you were just figuring this blogging stuff out for the first time. I also want to inspire you with some significant benefits of participating in blogs.
My friend mentioned how some people have their little picture by their name, and wondered how that happens. He really snapped me back to the reality that this whole blogging thing can be a little confusing to “ordinary” people (as opposed to “blog people”, of course). I intend to help clarify some issues of how to participate in blogs, how to find blogs worth discussing, and how it can benefit you even if you are one of those “ordinary” people.
I will begin with the very basics, so if you already know this, I urge you to be reminded that many others do not. If you have your own blog, it is easy to forget all that stuff you have learned about blogs and how they work. Here is a question I have heard more than a couple times:
How Do I Get My Picture to Show Up on Blogs?
I suppose I will begin with that little picture beside peoples’ name. No, it does not mean they are a member of some elite blogging fraternity. Having your own unique picture show up on blogs when you comment is as simple as creating an avatar. More specifically, a “Gravitar” which is a globally recognized avatar image that you can use in more places than a Visa card (that’s a lot).
Gravitar Setup: In order to set up your Gravitar, simply go to Gravitar.com and sign up. You only need to do this once, and it really is easier than you may expect.
There is a benefit to the image, too! A graphic along with your comments can be strongly identifying as people read through comments, and especially at blogs where you plan to return often. People will identify with your avatar faster than by reading the names as they read through comments. If you are interesting to them, they will be looking for your image.
They Want My Email?!
I am probably the most reserved person you ever came across when it comes to giving out my email addresses. In fact, I am borderline obsessive about this. I love having a clean inbox, and I hate when people clutter it with junk. This is especially true with some of my prized email accounts like my very special one that is only seven characters, including dots and the “@” (example: x@xx.xx). Yes, I hate giving out email addresses on websites!
Gravitars are based on the email address or addresses which you specify at Gravitar.com. Most blogs and forums use Gravitars to pull in your avatar, which is why they ask you to enter your email address. Of course, email addresses are also one way that blog administrators can quickly blacklist people who spam their community with useless or offensive comments. This is a good thing … a very good thing.
If it makes you feel any more comfortable about the matter of email, I have a specific email address which I use for commenting on blogs, and I receive no spam at that address at all. I really do feel totally safe on this matter. Additionally, many blogs allow you to use your image from other services like Facebook, Twitter, OpenID, Yahoo! or others, but don’t get flustered. I am getting to that part, and it will be easy … have a little faith.
What About Commenting Systems Like Disqus and Intense Debate
When commenting systems like Disqus and Intense Debate came along, I was really reluctant at first. I liked the good old standard system of entering my name, email address, and website address, adding my comment, and clicking “Submit”. That made sense to me, and it was so simple.
Now let’s have some “whisper time” while I tell you a little secret …
[Mark leans in close and screams into ear:] Disqus and Intense Debate Do Not Require a Signup!
This is the one thing that made me so frustrated when I saw these commenting systems gaining popularity. It appeared that I needed to sign up for more stuff. I already had my Gravitar, and I just wanted to add my two cents to a blog. Why did they make it so darn confusing all of the sudden?!
I am really glad that my buddy brought this to my attention, because I felt the same way. Somehow I had this misconception that because the blog commenting systems allowed me to log in, that I needed to log into something. This is not the case at all. You do not need to set up a new account to use either of these systems. If you want to make a comment on a blog using any of the popular blog commenting systems, you may comment as a “Guest”. You can still add your email, use your Gravitar, and add the link to your website. Let us end that confusion right now, and put a period after it.
The benefits of these systems are numerous, but optional. They allow you to click a button to use your Facebook, Twitter, OpenID, Yahoo! or other profile information, but it goes further. They also let you easily share the blog articles you comment on, along with your comments, across social networks. Sharing is still optional, even if you log in using these services, but there can be great cases for alerting friends on what you are discussing on a blog article and getting their opinions, too.
There is still more benefit! These services also aggregate comments that you make on different blogs into one place where you can go and see replies to your comments, and thus making it easier to respond to them, ask or answer questions, build rapport, build community, and etcetera. They also include profiles that you can use to follow other users’ comments and join in their communities of interest, too. Of course, I cannot give you my login to see all of the goodies, but here is my public Disqus profile which shows comments I make on other blogs which use Disqus.
In my opinion, these are some really useful tools, and more bloggers would probably adopt their use if they, and their readers understood the full benefit and usage. That means ending the confusion surrounding them, but I am trying! I use Disqus commenting system here on this blog. Try it out by adding your comment. It really is as easy as I said.
How to Find Good Blogs
Can you believe how many blogs there are out there on the Internet? There must be a squillion people blogging about everything from A to Z. Finding the good ones which fit your interests can be a lot easier with the right tools. Try a Google blog search (http://blogsearch.google.com/) for things which interest you. Try a Twitter search, and monitor it regularly! Even if you do not have a Twitter account, you can still find a lot of value in the search features. Get creative and try it out at search.twitter.com and be sure to try the advanced search. There are also a lot of blog aggregation services like Blog Catalog and Technorati, along with many which are targeted to specific interests or industries.
A great place to find useful blogs is by paying attention to what people with your same interests or in your career field read. You can often find that out by watching their Twitter, Facebook, Digg, or better yet, go look to see which websites are linking to their website by searching their web address on Open Site Explorer. If they leave comments on blogs, you can bet the links will show up. Just think of all you can do with that information.
Once you find some blogs you like, subscribe to them! You will really not get much benefit from a blog if you make it easier to overlook them. I use Google Reader to subscribe to many RSS feeds, but I subscribe to my favorite blogs by email and by RSS just to be sure I keep in touch with them. If you want to know more about tools to help with blogs, I strongly suggest reading “6 Essential Blogging Tools for Bloggers and Non-Bloggers“.
SEO and Blog Commenting
Why should you participate in blog discussions? Have you ever heard of WiiFM? It means “What’s in it for me?” You want to know the answer of what’s in it for you, right? After all, you are still human, even if you are one of those “blog people” I mentioned.
The benefits of blog commenting are not just as they seem. Certainly there is a strong benefit from a SEO (search engine optimization) standpoint, but let’s not get irritating with that! I will touch on this topic and then move on. If you take this as a suggestion to go out with a hope of leaving meaningless comments on a bunch of blogs to become popular, you will not be popular in the way you like. In fact, I consider it a horrible SEO strategy (but very common) to try and use blog comments to build up your incoming links. Sure, blog comment links can be quite valuable, but without being courteous and useful, you are just peeing down your leg. You will find a much more profound benefit by being useful, and I will explain that.
Think of it this way, if you try to use blog commenting as a tool for SEO, imagine how much greater value you will find if your comments make people like you and want to know you. If they come and read your blog, they may like what you have to say there, too. This is precisely the reason my blog here at aWebGuy.com is listed with a link from every page of a whole lot of blogs in their “Blogroll”. They are also more likely to reference you with a link in one or more of their articles. That seems a lot more valuable to me than the SEO value of links from a few comments I made. Wouldn’t you agree?
NOTE: To all of those who have blessed me with a link in their blogroll, or in an article, I truly appreciate you! I am still planning to add a blogroll here someday. In the meantime, I still try to write something about you whenever I can.
When you comment on a blog and include your URL (website address), it will appear as a link on most blogs. Those links are what search engines use to discover and judge the value of websites. More links means more value, but of course it is not that easy. More of the right links can add huge value. The SEO tactic of seeking blogs with great search engine ranking just to leave worthless comments misses the target in a big way. Just imagine if you said something funny, interesting, useful, or otherwise put your unique spin on a topic. People are more likely to like and respect you, and there is definitely a better chance that they will want to know more about you. I have gained a lot of readers because they saw my comments on another blog and liked my take on things.
An example I recently suggested to a client was to use blogs to learn more about her related industries. She just opened her second Pilates studio in Aventura Florida. We talked about how to book up her new location by looking at who wants or needs her services.
We discovered that golfers can benefit from Pilates. I suggested that she read more blogs about golfing and get to know the community. She also said that equestrian is another area she sees a lot of business. I suggested getting to know the equestrian community in her area. Just reading about these topics, alone, can help her have a better conversation when these people contact her, but also give her a lot better understanding of their needs when it is time to write about these things on her blog. If she choses to comment on topics in these fields with something useful, she could become a lot more valuable to the community. It adds up over time, in a big way. Now, imagine how nice it will be for her if her website lands in the blogroll of a handful of related blogs because they like her input.
Good Blog Commenting
What is a good blog comment? Sometimes it is perfectly fine to add a brief comment just to thank the author, but it is far better to say what you really think. “Thanks, great blog post.” is about generic enough that you may just earn the sugar-free cookie award for being boring. Step it up a notch and ask a question, answer a question, or do something more than look like you are just trying to get a link on their blog. Trust me on this … bloggers are pretty skeptical about those “Thanks, great blog post.” people. There are thousands of people in India (no offense to my Indian friends) who are paid about four dollars a year to sit and add “Thanks, great blog post.” comments to blogs.
You can do better, and it really does make a difference! Doing better usually means that you should slow down and participate. The scan-and-click nature of the Internet leads to a lot of waste. If you actually slow down and give your attention to the blogs you like, and the blogs where you find value, you can create more value for yourself.
I should note that bloggers love comments, and it validates their hard work. It makes sense for it to be really easy and inviting for users to add their input. I would probably have a lot more comments here, but I am just crazy enough to put my toll free telephone number all over my blog. I love having brainstorming calls from friends and strangers. It keeps me sharp. My phone rings … a lot! Since most bloggers probably do not want my telephone bill, a fantastic alternative is comments.
Stop and Read the Comments!
Once you find blogs that you like, be sure to read the comments. Those comments are written by other people who may have similar interests and you may find that you really like them. You may find a connection to your next great customer, friend, supplier, or job. If you do not slow down and pay attention, you will never know. If you don’t leave your comments, they won’t either!
