Image Credit Jon Swift
For those who blog in unique niches, particularly outside of the realm of “blogs about blogging,” starting out can present several challenges. Fasten your seatbelt and strap on your helmet if you’re just starting out because you’re in for a pretty rough ride.
With the heavily debated “Google Sandbox Effect,” you can probably forget about your blog generating very much search engine traffic for the first two to four months. If you’re not dedicated as well as persistent, you might like most bloggers, throw in the towel before the first six months is up.
Aside from overcoming the litany of challenges involved with generating traffic for your blog, the other problem involves growing your blog community. Ever visit a blog that has zero or one comment on every post? Can you hear an echo in here?
Nothing screams out “dead zone” like a blog that doesn’t have an active community of people who leave thoughtful comments.
At one point in time, I can remember almost enjoying receiving spam comments. Why? Spammers were the only ones who left comments at my blog.
What’s the secret of highly commented blogs?
Without citing any statistics, I can attest to the secret that most heavily commented blogs share is that they have built relationships with their readers who come back, again and again. In contrast, the vast majority of people who visit your blog the first time probably won’t drop a comment particularly if it’s going to be the first and only comment on that particular post.
Building a CommentLuv community around your blog niche?
If you’re still reading this post, you’ve probably already heard of Commentluv. I’m not going to start from square one with a detailed description of the Commentluv plugin, so read: How Commentluv Works. However, what I am going to tell you about are some tips about how to build a Commentluv community around your niche.
Conquering your fear of CommentLuv?
First, before I get to that, the first issue to address is the “fear of Commentluv / dofollow comment links.” Be afraid, be very afraid! I’m only playing you, so relax.
Before I first started using Commentluv, I, like many others, had visions of my websites hemorrhaging Page Rank, Google penalties, and my posts falling rock bottom to the pile in Google.
Fortunately for me, I was just starting out a new blog that wasn’t getting much search engine traffic anyway. Sometimes in life, opportunity knocks when you have nothing to lose. I thought, “what the heck,” this particular blog’s search engine traffic is so low, it can’t get much worse anyway, so ahead I went.
After that, everything was just rosy, comments started flying in and my traffic increased ten fold! Well, actually not. What really happened? To be honest with you, very little if anything. I waited, and waited, and waited some more… What then? Nada!
After my patience was exhausted (it took about a month), I threw my arms up in the air with frustration and I complained to Gail who first told me how CommentLuv grows blogs and businesses. I remarked to Gail that Commentluv seems to work great in some niches like blogs about blogging, but it’s not well-recognized in my niche.
Me:
Gail, Commentluv just doesn’t seem to work well in my niche, but I did give it a try. It’s probably because most of my readers don’t maintain blogs.
CommentLuv doesn’t work in your niche either?
A little while later, Gail suggested to me, this from my vague recollection alone, something along the lines of new niches needing a leader to promote Commentluv for it to work. Wait a minute here, Gail. I installed Commentluv because I wanted it to effortlessly increase my traffic and comments, not because I want to spend my free time promoting a WordPress plugin…
Why do you comment on blogs?
Taking a step back now, if you want more comments on your blog how would you go about it?
Ask yourself: What type of situations encourage you or make you more prone to leaving comments yourself?
In many cases, you can generate a tremendous amount of comments by writing something controversial that aggravates people. When people disagree with you or are mad, sure they’ll probably tell you off in a comment, but don’t expect them to become regular readers of your blog either.
Aside from that, I myself am more likely to leave comments on blogs if I know the blogger, find the post interesting and engaging, or if I’ve just visited the blog more than once. At times, Commentluv is enough to push me over the edge (hey, we all love links). Lastly, if I take the time to write a thoughtful comment on a blog and the post author / blog owner doesn’t reply, the chance that I’ll comment on that blog again drastically decreases. Sound about the same experience for yourself, or not?
How to grow a CommentLuv community in your niche!
- For me, I installed the plugin on all of the niche-related blogs that I maintain.
- I politely asked bloggers in my niche to consider installing it themselves–after I told them the benefits that I experienced.
- I started a niche-related Commentluv enabled blog list in a blog post. Nothing complex, I just told readers that if they had a decent-quality blog in the health or fitness related niche, all they had to do was leave a comment in the post. In return, I would give them a dofollow link and put them on my list.
- For those who don’t have the plugin yet, the post is written to both encourage and incentivize them to try it out.
- I’ve politely asked, but not required those who want to be on the list to help promote it by retweeting the post.
- Getting a little help from your friends… I did ask for some help with promoting this list from Gail and my other friends who blog in niches that are more Commentluv friendly.
- Guest blog post: Here I am! Guest blog posting has too many benefits for the scope of this article but needless to say, I’m using the opportunity to promote my Free, health and fitness, dofollow, and Commentluv enabled blog list.
- Other plans include continued promotion of the list and to continue to encourage bloggers in my niche to try it out.
- Support those who’re on my list. I leave a comment on everyone’s site who’s been added to the list.
Click the image to Learn More About CommentLuv + Videos and Best of CommentLuv posts +
Benefits of CommentLuv that I’ve experienced:
- Helps encourage not only more comments, but also better-quality comments since most bloggers know that Commentluv blogs are typically more discerning for the quality of comments that they allow.
- Helps to connect you with other bloggers in your niche with the benefit of encouraging comment reciprocity on each other’s respective blogs.
- Stimulates active discussion and engagement of readers.
- Though an increase in spam is a common fear, I haven’t seen an increase. Most of my spam comes from bots and I don’t think that they’re able to exploit Commenluv.
- Increase in web traffic from commentluv–both from the comments getting indexed in search engines as content, but also from people returning to reply to responses.
- Get to know your niche’s blogging community better through all of the above!
This won’t work, bloggers don’t read blogs in my niche…
One of the biggest benefits that I’ve experienced with Commentluv is that it helps to build communities. In the health and fitness blogging niche, many bloggers seem to have a solo mentality. Bringing them together to form a more cohesive community has innumerable benefits. I’ve seen this first hand in the other areas of blogs with the interaction and support among bloggers.
Why do I want bloggers to read my blog anyway?
In my niche, very few bloggers actually read my blogs. This is fine in some respects, but there are several advantages to having bloggers read your blog. It might surprise you that even people who blog about WordPress, Tech, or blogging have interests outside of their own niche. 🙂
To start off with, bloggers are more likely to promote content that they like with social media, are able to provide you with needed backlinks, and often leave great comments. On top of that, bloggers are more likely to have the Alexa bar installed, so they help improve your website’s Alexa traffic ranking.
Regardless of your blog niche whether it’s about real estate, knitting, sports, hang gliding, or whatever, promoting Commentluv in your niche can help you grow a community and connect with other like-minded bloggers. At the same time, connecting with other bloggers can have tremendous impact on improving your presence and traffic on the Internet. Either way, it sure makes these tremendously more fun than feeling like you’re blogging in the dark or in a vacuum.
Jarret Morrow, M.D., has been a published author and researcher for the past 10 years. You can read more from him at the Hive Health Media blog network site, or at his dietary supplement blog.
Addendum by GrowMap: Besides growing your own traffic, building relationships in your niche and having more fun bloggin there is another very important reason to work on growing your blogging niche with CommentLuv. Niche Marketing will continue to grow in importance and niche bloggers who position themselves will be of interest to businesses interested in advertising and reaching your audience. Read more about how to position your blog where the money is.
54 comments on “Grow Your Blogging Niche with CommentLuv”
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Hi Jarret & Murray,
I Love CommentLuv! To tell you the truth I haven’t been here for a while and it was the post title in my google reader that caught my eye! 😀
The plugin is awesome. I actually have commentluv, keywordluv and dofollow installed on my blog. And to tell you the truth I actually go looking for blogs that have commentluv installed when I want to go blog hopping and meet new people.
I often find myself going through peoples comments on a post. Reading the commentluv titles of posts and if I like what I see I go exploring.
I have met some amazing people doing this over the last few months.
I wish more people knew about the benefits of this little plugin! I recently operated a blog commenting challenge and having the commentluv plugin installed was one of my prerequisites.
Awesome post. See you back here soon! 😎
Cheers
Jacinta 😀
one of the best commentluv benefits articles I have seen in a long time.
I luv that you came to understand that CommentLuv is a tool to add to your blog rather than a solution. Just adding the plugin wont solve your no-comment issues just by itself, you actually have to go out there and interact with the kind of people you want to read your blog.
Once you do that, having Commentluv installed will make it oh so much easier to :
a) build a community
b) see what your community is talking about
c) give them a reason to come back and comment again
well done for figuring it out! great post.
Hi Murray
I am glad I have commentluv and keywordluv installed on my site cos I do believe it is getting traffic to my site. As I am a newbie blogger, I quickly found that there didn’t seem to be many bloggers I was connecting to in my niche but since I installed commentluv and joined the bloggerluv community I get more visitors to my site and many stay and comment. Some have helped me out with techie problems as I truly don’t have a clue in that area. I return the luv by visiting their site and commenting too. I was pleased when Jarret announced he is now commentluv. I was already visiting his site as one of the areas on my blog that I do posts about are healthrelated too.
Hello Jacinta,
I suspect Jarret will be along to reply to comments between appointments. (He is a Doctor with a family practice.) I wanted to offer that Jarret and I know many, many bloggers who love CommentLuv and I have a DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv blogs list.
Leave me a comment in the post I’ll share in CommentLuv in this post and I’ll add your blog and the blogs of any others you know. And if you know any in Jarret’s niche do please let them know about each other.
Hi Patricia,
Murray is probably getting caught up from last week’s Social Media Marketing event in San Francisco and the SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING ADS, APPS & INCENTIVES London event is today so I thought I’d better answer even though you addressed your comment to him.
Thank you for adding your testimonial to how CommentLuv and BloggerLuv are working for you. As you know I am a huge fan and recommend them both regularly.
You and Jarret can be leaders in identifying and growing the CommentLuv health blog community.
Great tips!
Andy definitely did a superb job with CommentLuv plugin and I have been advising my customers to use it, especially on Niche blogs.
Jacinta, I also often find some very interesting posts and information from clicking on Commentluv link from within comment threads.
I’ll take a look at your blog commenting challenge, it sounds like a great idea.
I’ve met some pretty amazing people over the past few months from Commentluv as well.
Thanks again for sharing your experience here!
Andy, wow, thanks so much for your kind feedback on this post.
To be honest with you, I have to credit my friend Gail with the idea for writing this guest post as well as for helping to accelerate my learning curve with Commentluv.
I’m sure that you know this already, but Gail’s been a huge supporter of your awesome plugin.
It took me a little time and prodding, but I’m glad that I’ve now figured it out. Commentluv along with guest blog posting (and accepting guest blog posts) have been two of the best techniques for growing a blog that I’ve found over the past several years.
What they both share in common are they’re both a great way to grow communities, get to know people better and for sharing ideas. Thanks again!
Hi Patricia,
One of the lesser known benefits of Commentluv is that it encourages people to also read more blogs about blogging. It’s great to learn from and connect to bloggers in other niches as well, so I agree with you about that.
Thanks again for adding your blog to my still growing list!
Gail, I noticed your addendum. For bloggers who’re involved with affiliate marketing, I would imagine that there would be tremendous benefits to expanding their network, growing a community of active users around their blog, and establishing trust with their blog readers. In that sense, Commentluv would have several benefits for bloggers who’re focused on marketing opportunities.
Thanks again for this guest post opportunity and everything else Gail. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… You rock!
Very sound advice. It getting harder and harder to get people to comment on new blogs, CommentLuv is really helping. And I often go through the CommentLuv enabled comments on site just to see what people are writing.
Actually it’s quite short-sighted to not read other blogs in your niche, since you might be missing the big news.
This is a very resourceful guest post Jarret 🙂 I can say it’s a linkable material. Gail also taught me a lot of great stuff about Commentluv, and I was actually surprised with its power. It has so many advantages, not only to search engine rankings and traffic, but with community building as well.
If you can notice my “commentluv” link, that’s the one thing that I’m so thankful that I got to talk with Gail about it 🙂 I’ve started recommending this plugin to my own network, and I’m sure we can still grow further.
Regards,
Jason
Thanks so much for starting this list. I have loaded and activated the sem-dofollow, keyword luv, comment luv, and top commentators plugins on my wordpress blog. Top commentators is a plug in that rewards frequent commenters with a link on your home page. The whole thing can be set to reset every month.
Hey Jarret – You make some really good points here! I am still not convinced that Commentluv is good for every blog but I’m encouraged with how it’s working for you in a niche not dominated by bloggers.
My hesitations: CommentLuv attracts bloggers like sugar attracts flies. Bloggers can come (I’m one of them, so no offense to anyone) and literally take over a blog, and new bloggers sometimes start writing to appease the bloggers because comments are so addictive!
What I like about what you’ve done: Installing CommentLuv is a great way to get a few comments and a few is all that’s really needed to make a blog look lively. Installing a twitter button of some sort for social proof has a very similar effect. So long as the blog remains on topic, so when target readers really do show up, there is something there for them, I think it’s a great strategy.
This is a great post and I’ll make sure to reference it for new niche bloggers whose readers are not bloggers.
Cheers,
Tia
Tia,
I think two of the key components for Commentluv to work in terms of expanding into new blog niches are the following:
1. It’s important for for there to be other blogs in that niche to form a community with.
2. The niche has to have some general appeal to average readers–not just those interested in a focused topic.
For my case, health and fitness, both have a broad appeal, so it’s worked out well at our Hive Health Media blog.
Thanks again for all of your support and kind feedback!
What a good idea comment luv could make my blog go sky high. I will be adding this great tools to my blog and hopefully bring in a few hits my way, It sounds like it is re-energizing the blogging community and rewarding readers who help add value to blogs. I couldn’t be happier to see it really catching on. Thanks for all the great information
Interesting, I never considered comment Luv to be such a big deal just something I had on my blogs as a neat little feature. I have also seen Keyword Luv which is nice but I haven’t added that one myself.
CommentLuv is the way forward it includes the person commenting and rewards them, I hope to add the plugin to my blog pretty soon- just getting into it at the moment- I have noticed that some commentLuv sites ask to add your name followed by @ and any company details. Is this standard as on some sites it all becomes one keyword and on others it links after the @- Thanks Grant
Hello in London,
The blogs you see that use your name @ keywords have the KeywordLuv plugin installed. That is separate from CommentLuv and you can read about it at by clicking on the words KeywordLuv plugin.
CommentLuv has a similar way you can link your keywords called default links explained at that link.
Hi Tia,
Could you elaborate on what you mean by bloggers taking over a blog? I’m not sure I understand your concern.
I am just learning all about this comentluv business at the moment! It is fascinating how it all works, and I’m willing to give it a try to encourage people to visit my blog. I will keep you posted on how it all goes, and I am keen to hear about how it is working for other people!
What an excellent idea i will be adding this to my blog and hopefully i will get some well deserved viewers. It is very hard now to get alot of views with everyone using blogs. Hopefully i will stand out from the crowd with this luv app. Thankyou for sharing best of luck witht the blog.
Its just simply great. Dofollow, KeywordLuv and CommentLuv all are plugins and these plugins are most important for the niche blogs. The information which has been posted in the post are surely helpful for everyone.
I too am fascinated by commentluv and think it could be beneficial to add it to my blog. Not only does it help bring people that are interested in your choice of topic but also helps on the link building side of things which could also be a good benefit to your blog
Very informative post on the CommentLuv plug-in and the DoFollow attribute. Thank you for providing this service to your readers. Great website!
Encourage a community and discover new posts. with commentluv you provide visitors a nice place to build backlinks to their sites. this is like a two way growth you help them gain links but they also help increase traffic to your site as well..
I have added the luv add-on and i have recieved over 45 extra viewers and commenters a day, WOW This is a powerfull add-on i recomend everyone to use this. Also my blogs have been coming up insearch engines for comments left by others I can not believe it thanks.
I came across CommentLuv a while ago, but for some reason I can’t get it to work properly once installed. Tried on numerous occasions but same result everytime. Maybe my theme doesn’t allow it or something.
According to your article, it sure seems like a good plugin to have.
Gonna have to give it another go.
Thank you so much for this great blog. I have been trying to articulate these same thoughts to members of my newly formed back link club.
I have one of those “dead zone” blogs and am trying to build it up slowly. Unfortunately for me, it is not a well defined niche, it is more of a smorgasbord of my thoughts and opinions.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I apprecite this blog.
Great read! I am just learning the ropes, so to speak, of CommentLuv. So far so good! There is a little work involved, but the work will be worth it. I have been working online for almost 3 years now, no plans on quitting, just to continue learning and implementing what I have learned. Take one program and one day at a time! Thanks for this post! I hope it will give encouragement to other bloggers!
Hi….a very nice and informative post….my problem is that i maintain my blog to show my poetry to the world, and with it i also want to make a few bucks….something like $50 or $100 a month….i love my work and my blog is only 1 month old, it has no1 position on google for the keywords i have targeted….after reading this post i have been discouraged a bit…..maybe i need to wait and see, but Thank You anyway!
I’ll show you support. I think CommentLuv is a great idea – adding it to my blog soon.
I’m pretty close to brand new in this business and just learned about commenluv yesterday. This is great info to me because I’m getting zero traffic and a friend of mine, who started her business the same time as me, is about to throw in the towel after a few months of nothing going on.
Thanks for the info!
You know comment luv is very cool tool for blog commenting. It blends well with the page. However, I didn’t know that comment luv doesn’t build community to all blog niche.
Great tips, I agree with you and use this plugin on all of my wordpress blogs.
Hi Shoaib,
CommentLuv WILL build communities in any blog niche. Wherever you comment regularly becomes your community. As more and more blogs use it we will be able to focus on those that are most relevant for each of us.
Hi Steve,
Go out and start commenting in blogs related to your interests and business. Check out the list of blogs in the post I’ll share in CommentLuv in this reply.
Definitely go visit Good Millwork and connect with the bloggers who comment there. Since they are a custom mill and connect with the bloggers who comment there. they will have archictects, contractors and home improvement related businesses as commentators.
Hi Arslan,
What discouraged you? It always takes time to build a business of any kind – even a poetry blog. Have you used the CommentLuv search engine to seek out other poetry blogs and commenting in them? That is the fastest way to get more traffic.
Remember that being number one in search engines only works if people are actually used those keywords when they search. Drop by my blog if you could use more tips on what else you can do.
i was looking for new ways to improve traffic on blog, here goes very interesting idea.. thanks for giving detailed information about it
I can honestly say I’d never heard of commentluv before now. This seems like an excellent tool to use, and something I’ve been looking for without knowing it.
This is great plug in. It can really help for backlinks, I will use commentluv for my blog soon.
Nice one you guys. I think CommentLuv is a great idea – I will definitely be adding it to my blog soon.
I had never heard of CommentLuv before. I will totally start with this on my personal and professional blogs.
Thanks 😀
I will also start using CommentLuv
Great tips !
Thanks
Great sharing your thoughts in this article about commentuv plugin. This article is so useful to readers like me, it explains and easy to understand. Thanks for sharing.
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