{"id":8282,"date":"2015-09-18T08:41:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T15:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flauntmydesign.com\/?p=8282"},"modified":"2021-03-25T06:43:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T10:43:11","slug":"blog-commenting-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flauntmydesign.com\/blog-commenting-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Commenting Case Study: 26 Comments Drove 2,208 Visits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Exactly How Blog Commenting\u00a0Builds Traffic<\/h2>\n

A freelance creative “must” start a blog. Freelance sites and marketing coaches tell you it's\u00a0great for personal branding and generating inquiries. It's likely true, but what if no one ever sees your carefully crafted blog posts..?\u00a0Leaving comments on other websites can be a powerful way to drive targeted traffic to your own blog.\u00a0A comment a day can eventually mean thousands of monthly visitors.\u00a0Intrigued? Continue to read! Try the calculator too!<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Good Comment Linking Back to You Is Like Money In the Bank – Its Value Grows with Time<\/h3>\n

As an experiment, I decided to submit three comments every weekday for three weeks in January 2015. In total, I left 55 comments on design-related sites like Millo<\/a>, Creative Bloq<\/a>, 99designs<\/a> and 99u<\/a>. Out of the submitted comments, 26 were finally approved and published by the websites. Each comment linked back to a specific blog post on Flaunt My Design. I tracked the number of visits I was generating with Google Analytics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What happened?<\/p>\n

A Powerful Case Study: 26 Blog Comments\u00a0Generated 2,208 Website\u00a0Visits from Design Blogs<\/h3>\n

During 8 months (January 5 – August 31), the 26 blog comments\u00a0drove 2,208 visits to my website.\u00a0Some visits happened immediately, but 93% of the visits actually has actually taken\u00a0after<\/em> I stopped the\u00a0experiment. See below chart!<\/p>\n

\"Chart.<\/p>\n

I was surprised. For sure, I expected a temporary boost in traffic but the visits just kept rolling in. They still do.<\/p>\n

Is There a Diminishing Return? Yes, But 8 Months Later the January Comments Still\u00a0Produced 185 Visits<\/h3>\n

As a group, the 26 approved comments have generated an average of 9 daily visits. After\u00a0an initial burst in traffic, the visits start to slow down. There is a diminishing return.\u00a0In spite of that, those January comments still delivered 185 visits in August (eight months later).<\/p>\n

\"Average<\/p>\n

My Four-Step Approach to Blog Commenting<\/h2>\n

To start with, I compiled a top list of my 30 most popular articles. These were the articles\u00a0I intended to promote in my blog comments. On the first day of the experiment, I linked to my most popular article. The 2nd day to my 2nd most popular article etc.<\/p>\n

If you have a stockpile of popular blog posts, this is perfect. To get off to a flying start, consider commenting\u00a0often during an initial period. Then rinse and repeat for every new article you publish.<\/p>\n

Step 1. Search Google for Your Keyword<\/h4>\n

Do a search on Google for the keyword or key phrase your article targets,\u00a0e.g. “T-shirt design” or, like in my case, “twitter marketing ideas for freelance creative”.<\/p>\n

Step 2. Scan the Top 10 Results<\/h4>\n

When your goal is traffic, you want to post comments on high-traffic pages. About 70%<\/a> of all search engine traffic goes to the pages shown on the first page.\u00a0The\u00a0top\u00a0result alone takes more than\u00a0one-third of all the traffic. It's on these pages you\u00a0want your comments.<\/p>\n

Scan the Top 10 results for pages that may be a good fit for your content and your target audience. In the below search result “Creative Ways to Land Freelance Work from Social Media<\/a>” caught my attention. It listed 12 self-employed professionals' best tips. Like mine, this\u00a0site targets creative freelancers.<\/p>\n

The article I wanted to link to, 4 Twitter Marketing Ideas for Freelance Creatives<\/a>, had complementary content.<\/p>\n

\"Top<\/p>\n

Step 3. Can I Leave a Comment? Will They Approve It?<\/h4>\n

You don't want to waste time on reading\u00a0posts you can't comment on!\u00a0First, scroll down and\u00a0check:<\/p>\n