From Casual Reader to Strategic Commenter: How a Spreadsheet Can Boost Your Blog Engagement
Many new bloggers need to pay more attention to the power of commenting on other blogs.
However leaving thoughtful comments can be a great way to connect with other bloggers in your niche, establish yourself as an expert, and drive traffic to your site.
Here is an example: Imagine you commented on a blog post about the latest social media marketing trends.
You could share your own experience with a specific tactic mentioned in the post, or ask a relevant question to spark further discussion.
This kind of engagement can help you get noticed by the blog owner and their audience.
However, simply commenting for the sake of commenting can be ineffective.
The key is to leave valuable comments that contribute to the conversation.
Avoid generic phrases like "great post" or "thanks for sharing."
Instead, take the time to read the post carefully and formulate a thoughtful response.
Here's an example of a generic comment vs. a valuable comment:
- Generic comment: "This is a great post!"
- Valuable comment: "This is a great post! I particularly enjoyed your point about using social media stories for engagement. I've found that using polls in my stories has been a great way to get audience interaction."
The Problem with Unstructured Commenting
In the past, I left generic comments like "thanks for sharing" on other blogs.
I also was not quite organized about tracking my comments.
I could not remember which blogs I'd commented on, how many comments I'd left, or whether they'd been approved.
This lack of organization made it difficult to track my commenting progress and measure its effectiveness.
For instance, if I left a comment on a relevant blog but it never got approved, I wouldn't know to follow up or try commenting on a different post.
The Spreadsheet Solution
To address this challenge, I created a blog comment tracker spreadsheet.
This spreadsheet helps me keep track of the following:
- The blog post title I commented on
- The link post I commented on
- The date I commented
- The content of my comment (optional)
- Whether my comment has been approved
This allows me to focus on leaving high-quality comments on relevant blogs and following up on any that have not been approved after a reasonable amount of time.
The Benefits of a Spreadsheet
Using a blog comment tracker spreadsheet has several benefits:
- Improved Organization: It keeps track of all your commenting activity in one place, allowing you to see which blogs you've interacted with and where you may want to focus your efforts.
- Targeted Strategy: By keeping track of which blogs approve your comments and generate engagement, you can focus on building relationships with those bloggers and their audiences.
- Increased Engagement: This helps you track your progress over time and see what kind of comments generate the most discussion and clicks back to your blog.
By using a spreadsheet, you can move beyond generic commenting and develop a more strategic approach that can help you build relationships with other bloggers, establish yourself as an expert, and grow your audience.
Bonus Tip: You can copy and reuse your spreadsheet yearly to stay organized and improve your blog commenting strategy over time.
As your blog grows and your niche evolves, you can adapt your spreadsheet to track new metrics or target different blog communities.
About This Post
This blog post represents a collaborative effort between myself and Gemini. While the initial draft originated from my creative mind, Gemini contributed its expertise to enhance the content for better clarity and understanding. The final edits and revisions, however, were made by me once again. If you happen to notice any grammatical errors or other issues, please don’t hesitate to reach out – your feedback is truly invaluable! 🙌📝