How 30 minutes a day can result in 250 inbound links


Written on January 7, 2008 – 2:11 pm | by oldschool

First, know that the 250 links will come over time – it’s not a one time event. It is actually a pretty simple strategy and will have more benefits than just getting inbound links. I am referring to the practice of strategically commenting on blogs. Sure, it’s been talked about, but the question is are you doing it? And if you are, are you doing it effectively? How do you know if it’s working for you or not?

It shouldn’t take you more than 30 mintues per day to find a new blog to post a comment on. I recommend starting in your niche with the goal of attracting similarly minded subscribers to your site or blog. In the process, you will learn of new blogs in your field, find complementary blogs closely related to your field, and get to know more bloggers in your niche, which could lead to guest blogging on their blogs. A great way to find bloggers in your niche is through StumbleUpon, and blogging guru extraordinaire, Darren Rowse (a.k.a. ProBlogger) just wrote a great article about this.

In your quest to comment, I suggest subscribing to a few blogs and really getting involved in the community aspect by becoming a top contributor as this can lead to others eventually subscribing to your blog (and that is one of your goals right?) Also, help promote those blogs by Stumbling, Digging, or whatever flavor of Social Media Marketing you utilize. As Darren points out, they will take notice.

And of course, who says you need to only post one comment per day? The more you comment, the faster you will see results. Try kicking it up to 4 a day and see what happens.

Of course, some bloggers will use the (evil) “no follow” tag which will reduce the effectiveness of this tactic, but it will still get your name out there and may even solicit a few clicks, especially if you use a unique name as opposed to “Mary”… you know, something like “Old School: :-)

I have made a goal to do this myself and in fact even have a spreadsheet where I am tracking it (what a geek!) so I can make sure that I meet my goals. In a year, I almost guarantee that you will make huge strides in the blogging community if you practice this daily.

That’s me for now, but stay tuned for more hot blogging tips!

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  1. 81 Responses to “How 30 minutes a day can result in 250 inbound links”

  2. By Todd Mintz on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    People forget how easy it is to get links through blog comments…thanks for reminding folks.

  3. By oldschool on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks Todd. We all need a reminder from time to time and going back to the basics, not just in business, but in other aspects of life (at least I do)

  4. By Dr. Pete on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    Great, now I’m wondering if you’ll think I have ulterior motives for commenting on this post :) I’ve also had solid results from cross-commenting, not only for blog readership but getting to know and learn from great people in my industry. One of my 2008 resolutions is to do a better job of thanking those people, by participating more on Stumbleupon, etc.

  5. By shana Albert on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    Great Post, OldSchool!! Leaving comments is a wonderful way to get incoming links to your website or blog. Plus interacting with other people… isn’t that what social media is all about? Thanks for reminding us of that, OldSchool!!

    Shana

  6. By oldschool on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    @ Dr. Pete – Good point on remembering to thank people; it’s easy to forget one’s manners in the online world. So thanks for commenting and feel free to Stumble (for which I’ll thank you again) :-)

  7. By oldschool on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks Shana. After starting to get a few comments, I realized the irony that everyone who comments here gets a link which is inline with the post itself, so congrats on claiming yours.

  8. By Link Building Best Practices on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    How can you read this post and then NOT leave a comment with a linkback? Now the goal is to get on your blogroll ;-)

  9. By oldschool on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    @ Arnie – Thanks for stopping by and picking up your link. Also thanks for mentioning the blogroll. If the folks on my blogroll don’t come by and comment it may open up a few slots :-)

  10. By Sandra Niehaus on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    Following your wise advice, Arnie! –S

  11. By Get More Traffic on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    That sounds pretty good, more comments equals more links. How about actually spending money on advertising and promotion? It’s like everything has to be done free or something!

    If you spent $100 today to pick up an extra $3/month from here on, would you do it? When I get that $100 I’ll give you the answer to that. :)

  12. By oldschool on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    @ Get More Traffic – To answer your first comment, it’s not that everything has to be done for free, but this is one of many effective strategies to incoporate into an overall marketing plan.

    To answer your second question – heck no. That would be a horrible return on investment. Basically, you would invest $100 so than in 33 months you could break even? Clearly not worth it. Now would I invest half hour a day to build my brand – absolutely (out of pocket cost = $0)

  13. By takeabreak on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

    Great article, I now know how I am spending tomorrow.

    Thanks!

  14. By Kimota on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    Funnily enough, although I also try to leave comments as much as possible, I usually assume any links will be no-follow. I leave comments as the best way of building that sense of community. If I leave what I hope is an interesting or insightful comment, I hope people will be curious to follow the link, especially if they see me crop up more and more often.

  15. By Eish_dude on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    This comment here is step 1 to get into the blogging community. :D step1 complete, comment has been made.

  16. By Caravan on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks, there’s some good advise there. Sometimes when you are busy it’s easy to miss the wood for the trees.

  17. By Simon Dance on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    I was pleasently refreshed when I read your post and saw it not to be an automated black hat link gathering tools, but I think you’ve got to be careful with blog comments, particularly when linking.

    I think, and what I imagine you meant, is the benefit of users visiting your blog or website as a result of reading your comments. Surely, and correct me if I’m wrong, but people (and customers) are not going to respect you if you do not demonstrate an authority in how you communicate. Simply posting ’short’ replies with an URL on a blog post is hardly going to add value?

    How many comments do you imagine you will attract that are simply after a link as opposed to actually wishing to comment or contribute to the argument?

    I am all for networking, both offline and on – but it takes me back to something my mum would have said to me “if you’ve got nothing nice to say… don’t say anything at all’.

    Simon Dance

  18. By SpostareDuro on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    Great post Anthony!
    I tried to Stumble it through your bookmarkers but I received a 404 message. You may want to check that out.
    Mark Dykeman just went through the same hassle a day or two ago because he moved his site.
    It’s Sphunn though! :-)

  19. By Gripper on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    It Works!

    I came across this strategy late last year and contributed to a few industry related blogs. I saw an immediate result in my in-bound links from the log files on my server, it can only have positive results and good Karma for your SE listings.

  20. By ASAP on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    You make a great point with this…Thanks

  21. By SEO Rob on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    “Of course, some bloggers will use the (evil) “no follow” tag”

    @oldschool http://www.semiologic.com/software/wp-fixes/dofollow/
    ( Hint Hint )

  22. By Free Music on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    This is a very alluring post – makes you have to leave a comment.

    And your name can not only be interesting it can be good anchor text, right?

  23. By oldschool on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    @ takeabreak – all you need is a half hour, but more is always better. I think I did about 10 yesterday myself.

    @ kimota – I am not sure what the percentage of no-follow vs. do-follows are out there buy as SEO Rob pointed out, I myself, failed to implement the dofollow tag. I am humble enough to admit, I don’t know it all.

    @ Eish_dude – Your link will follow

    @ Caravan – I’ts also easy to miss the simple things like adding the do-follow plug in to your blog. :)

    @ Simon Dance – no black hat here and I agree with your mum – words from the wise.

    @ SpostareDuro – thanks for the info on the Sociable links. I will check into that.

    @ Gripper – good karma = good links?

    @ SEO Rob – you get the award for making realize that I failed to implement the do-follow plug in on this blog. You are the man, and I will update this as soon as I get out this meeting, where people think I am taking notes, but I am really updating my blog :)

  24. By oldschool on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    @ Free Music – yes on the anchor text, and I was pleasantly surprised when I visited your site. I guess I thought I would end up at a “made for adsense” page with free music info and AdSense links. So, I guess it can work against you too, depending on the anchor text used.

    @ everyone – I have updated the site with the dofollow tag and again, thanks to SEO Rob for pointing that out before it made national headlines :)

  25. By Ahead Directory on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks for the advice. Just one question . Will the link will have enough juice to help SERPs. ? I think G can easily identify the links coming from comments. So its not a link one getting from other webmaster.

    I will highly appreciate your answer

  26. By TPapi on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    Excellent reminder of best practices and comment chum!

  27. By Chip Arndt on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks for the post and helpful advice.

    I created eTaildTail almost a year ago to help small to mid sized online merchants with their marketing needs and helping them with their data feeds to shopping comparison sites. I am also co-founder of http://www.MerchantAdvantage.com which helps companies with data feed management tools, check us out and maybe we can help.

    Have a great 2008!

    Chip Arndt
    Co-Founder of http://www.MerchantAdvantage.com
    Author of http://www.eTaildTail.com

  28. By Larry Dunville on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks for the reminder. BTW, how can you tell if the blog you are commenting uses “no follows”?

    Larry

  29. By Mike Munz of Higher Images on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    I comment alot and write even more but just haven’t seen that kind of result. I have started to cite other articles on my blog out of frustration. I often end a comment with a “check me out @” and leave my url, this works sometimes. I think I may need some blogging science dropped on me?…

  30. By Wailea on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    Awesome! I agree… there is so much benefit it blog commenting, and it gets a bad rap among my seo “expert” friends.Nothing is worse then recommending a blo commenting in a seo strategy meeting and everyone become akwardly quiet as if i just yelled “black hat tactics”… its outright silly its legit, as long as you are particpating in the convo and not spamming the comment section… Anyways wanted to show you some love- nice that there is a conscious minority — and blog linking is underrated yet effective within a diverse link strategy

  31. By The Geek on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    A great tip indeed. I’ll be featuring it on the next episode of my geek culture podcast. thanks!

  32. By ATX Traveler on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    As the others have said, great post. Always nice to have a reminder to concentrate on the basics.

  33. By Oneunder on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    Old School-Thank you for the post and the opportunity to leave a comment it is much appreciated. It is amazing what happens when you simply keep applying the basics of SEO and linking practices.

  34. By oldschool on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    @ Ahead Directory – Any link from a trusted site feeds into the inbound link equation. There are different levels of trust and link value, however. For example, a link from my site is not as valuable as a link from Yahoo (yet) :)

    @ Tpapi – Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

    @ Chip – Thanks for the commercial :) Sorry, I couldn’t resist, but I was in a good mood, so I left it as is, well, I did change it to open your URL’s in a new window. Don’t anyone else get any crazy ideas. But really, thanks for your comments, I will check out your sites.

    @ Larry – I linked to Jennifer Laycock’s post where she discussed this, but also SEO Rob mentioned you can use the SEO for Firefox plugin and it will highlight them. One quick way is to view the source code and search for “rel=nofollow” in the code as Jennifer points out.

    @ Mike Munz – I suggest checking the sites you are commenting on to see if they are no-follow. They may not even know it and you may be able to shed some light. Other than that, keep on doing it, it works.

    @ Wailea – It is scary when people are put in charge of SEO or asked to play a role in discussion that are CLUELESS about the subject. It is frustrating, in my in-house SEO roles, I have sometimes had to back up my recommendations with documentation from others to prove a point. I am humble enough to do it and it usually gets my point across, and proves that I knew what I was talking about.

    @ The Geek – Thanks in advance for featuring this. I will look for the trackback.

    @ ATX – Thanks for visitng and commenting.

    @ Oneunder – Amen!

  35. By j. bruce on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    SEM Basics rule. Thanks for the post.

    j. Bruce
    Advertise on Google, Yahoo and MSN now. All budget sizes welcome. (link removed)

  36. By Barry Welford on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    Irresistible! A most useful reminder. BTW do you have an Old School Tie. In my younger days that was the quick way of spotting whether someone was from the old school. :)

  37. By oldschool on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

    @ J Bruce – Thanks for visiting and commenting.

    @ Barry – Do you mean the really thin ties? I used to, but I got rid of my 80’s attire, although I wish I still had my high school jean jacket… did those come back? Thanks for visiting.

  38. By Tema Frank on Jan 9, 2008 | Reply

    This is great, but it adds to the challenge of sorting out the wheat from the chaff. If you have to read through dozens (hundreds?) of comments to find the one or two that have something real to say, instead of doing what many folks have done here — posting for the sake of posting and hopefully getting links — the Web loses much of its value.

    I think the next big step is when the Internet becomes the “Infonet” — when a Google equivalent can automatically sort out the real, new, original content from the repetitions and cross-links for the sake of cross-links.

  39. By oldschool on Jan 9, 2008 | Reply

    @ Tema – That’s what comment moderation is for. Many bloggers will not post useless posts in the spirit of providing good content. This blog post is unique however in that the topic is commenting on blogs, so all have been allowed.

  40. By Arnie on Jan 9, 2008 | Reply

    What NO follow plug-in did you decide to use? I use LinkLove and it works well. Just wondering if there is another good choice out there.

  41. By oldschool on Jan 9, 2008 | Reply

    @ Arnie – I used this one sent to me by SEO Rob

    http://www.semiologic.com/software/wp-fixes/dofollow/

  42. By Joe Cheray on Jan 9, 2008 | Reply

    I am a firm believer in practicing the Golden Rule. If I find a blog that I really like or I know the blogger I try to make it back to their blog as often as possible to see what is going on and if they have anything that I should lend something of value to the conversation. I don’t get huge comments on my blog but I do get the hits. I know that if I were to implement this strategy that I would get more traffic over time and also more comments, I am however pleased with the hits at the moment and will just continue to implement traffic building techniques as time goes on.

    Thank you for a great article I will be subscribing to your blog. I will also spread it around in the social network sites I belong too as well.

  43. By Good Point! on Jan 9, 2008 | Reply

    Good point!

    I have been using this tactic for over a year, and it has worked wonders for me.

    I do, however, agree with some comments that have stated you must post GOOD-QUALITY content; such as the ones in this blog!

    If you make the mistake of posting short (or useless) comments you might be seen as a spammer, and your link loses value.

  44. By Sean Henri on Jan 9, 2008 | Reply

    Good advice, and something I’ve been meaning to do more of! Thanks for the reminder.

  45. By oldschool on Jan 9, 2008 | Reply

    @ Joe Cheray – The Golden Rule is the only rule. I’ll now put you higher up on my “to contact” list.

    @ Good Quality. Overall I am pleased with the sincerity of the comments here. Haven.t had any spammer even.

    @ Sean – You are welcome. Keep us posted on how you make progress.

  46. By Simon Heseltine on Jan 9, 2008 | Reply

    Well, since you’re threatening those of us on your blogroll with removal if we don’t post ;)

  47. By oldschool on Jan 9, 2008 | Reply

    @ Simon Heseltine – I couldn’t live with myself if I took you off my Blogroll, you are probably the one who motivated me to start this blog more than anyone else (without even saying to do it). And then there was that glowing reference for my current job… and let’s not forget the SEM Analyst Job you hired me for previously..

    I guess my next goal is to convince you to add that email subscription so I can subscribe to your blog (now the whole group will be watching for that). :-)

  48. By John Holsen on Jan 13, 2008 | Reply

    Great post! In fact, I liked it so much I submitted it to our readers at
    bizSugar.com. ;-)

  49. By oldschool on Jan 13, 2008 | Reply

    @ John – Thanks for posting it on your site, I really appreciate it.

  50. By Jason on Jan 14, 2008 | Reply

    Nice article. Starting in your niche is key, and I think it’s important to not stray *too* far afield. It’s easy to find a bunch of random blogs to comment on, but relevance counts as well. Plus, comments are really all about fostering discussion and community, so IMO it’s important to actually make a contribution beyond “IAWTC.” As you point out, there can be a lot more benefit that comes from participating than just getting a link…

  51. By oldschool on Jan 15, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks Jason. I agree that staying in your niche is helpful, given that those viewing your comments will be more likely to visit your blog since they are interested in the topic. I guess having your name or your URL branded with a term from your niche helps to so that at first glance people have an idea what your site is about.

  52. By Cocoliso on Jan 20, 2008 | Reply

    Hmm, I suppose what your saying makes sense. I still think that unless the “no follow” tag is turned off, it’s a waste of time. It would be much better to work towards quality as opposed to quantity.

  53. By oldschool on Jan 21, 2008 | Reply

    @cocoliso – The reason it’s not a waste of time is that it helps you to network with others interested in your niche and gives you exposure that you may not otherwise get. I don’t worry so much about whether or not its nofollow, because I trust that the those worth following and networking with will come around eventually if they haven’t already.

  54. By Carrie on Jan 28, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks for the post! As we are constantly learning about SEO techniques for our company, blogs like yours are priceless.

  55. By oldschool on Jan 28, 2008 | Reply

    @ Carrie – I am glad you enjoyed it, please subscribe to our blog to keep current and also let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

  56. By Money Never Sleeps on Feb 6, 2008 | Reply

    Great post…I found your blog on Google! I plan on reading all of your previous posts tonight! After reading this I had to comment! I think if you setup a system and work on it daily, you will see results with this marketing method. There are some blogs that live by this strategy! Thanks again for this!

  57. By Idaho Writer on Feb 13, 2008 | Reply

    Please don’t laugh! I’m a real newbie to blogging – I have two of my own, but didn’t realize that posting on other people’s blogs was a benefit to me – so I’ve only done it if I had an answer to a question, etc.

    How does this create a link? I don’t SEE any links in the above comments.

    Second – I’ve never heard of a “do follow” tag. Is that something you can only do if you use some kind of blogging software that would scramble my mind? I use Google’s blogger and the GoDaddy program. Have I overlooked something I should be doing?

  58. By oldschool on Feb 13, 2008 | Reply

    Hi Marte, now that the comment is approved, you will see that there is a link to your web site.

    Regarding the no follow tag, it is a default on most blogs, and there are various methods of removing it depending on the platform. For blogger, you would need to go in and modify the template, and I am not familiar with GoDaddy’s blog platform. For WordPress blogs, there are plugins that accomplish this pretty simply.

  59. By Kirsten Wright on Feb 21, 2008 | Reply

    I realy appreciate your advice. We have just started our own blog, and are still picking up the ‘tricks of the trade’. Always nice to add something!

  60. By Jack Kennard on Mar 15, 2008 | Reply

    It is important to be involved in your community by leaving comments and (this maybe another topic) making it easier with clicklet for viewers to add you page to their social list(s). Some pages include a whole slew of links, but I like to keep the list to under 7.

  61. By Jenny on Jul 9, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks for this great article. Does anyone know if there is a way to tell which blogs use rel=nofollow and which do not? I know that we do not on ours at mailboss.net/resources, but of course we are smalltime. As a general rule of thumb can I assume that the bigger blogs use it?

  62. By JohnnyBoss on Jul 9, 2008 | Reply

    I am new to this format. Saying that, I think sharing opinions with others who may be interested in the same types of things is great. If in the process you expose your site to more people…well then all the better.

    After reading these responses I feel kind of out of touch because I actually learned something from this article. Thanks!

  63. By oldschool on Jul 9, 2008 | Reply

    @ Kristen – Good luck with the new blog.

    @ Jack – I agree and use the Sociable plug in to allow people to add the posts to Social media sites.

    @ Jenny – I usually just “look under the hood” and peek at the source code, if I am really curious. For the most part though, I just comment regularly on blogs that interest me and I know I will hit some nofollows and some dofollows. There are some tools that can help you find dofollow blog as well and here is a link that shares a few:
    http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=868500

  64. By oldschool on Jul 9, 2008 | Reply

    @ Johnny – What you described is the essence of building community online and the foundation of Social Media Marketing. Glad you enjoyed it.

  65. By Jenny on Jul 17, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks for the info! I found this firefox plugin that highlights nofollow links in red and dofollow links in blue, you turn it on/off via right click in any browser, its great:)
    Check it out: http://www.zacharyfox.com/blog/free-tools/nodofollow-a-firefox-extension

  66. By Cashflow420 on Jul 25, 2008 | Reply

    I’m starting my 30 minutes now! lol I hope this is a dofollow blog, or else I can’t start my 30 minutes yet.

  67. By John McCollum on Jul 27, 2008 | Reply

    This is something that I should really be more proactive on…Is it too late to start a new year’s resolution?

  68. By Cre8tiveMedia on Jul 31, 2008 | Reply

    Great idea to get inbound links! I guess this post would be one more for me. kudos.

  69. By Mike on Jan 13, 2009 | Reply

    Thanks for the excellent post. Its a good way to get incoming links!

  70. By Tech News on Jul 4, 2009 | Reply

    I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more articles from you in the future.

    - Jack

  71. By Annabelle on Jul 29, 2009 | Reply

    this is indeed a good way to get alot of incoming links

  72. By Mike on Sep 5, 2009 | Reply

    awesome tip…time to start link building and the clicks will come…..i hope!!

  73. By webmarketing on Sep 29, 2009 | Reply

    Good stuff! I think Search engine marketing makes it easy to target potential prospects while they are actively engaged, looking for your products and services. Search marketing cuts the fat out of your marketing budget becasue it is the most inexpensive mode of advertising.

  74. By HargateHall on Dec 10, 2009 | Reply

    Not only is commenting good for obtaining links it can be great fun and a good way to pick up tips. I started out 10 mins ago looking at info on H1 tags on the SEOMOZ site and have now found myself here after reading various posts and comments and following the links on them!

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