Blog Commenting and Forum Posting
Blog Commenting
Having a blog, updating it regularly and optimizing it for both human readers and the search engines is not enough. How do you gain traffic if no one knows about your blog or website? One of the touted most effective in directing attention to your blog is through blog commenting.
Blog commenting requires that you as a blogger or webmaster should socialize with other bloggers or webmasters, visit their sites often and contribute your own opinions whenever there is an open discussion on a topic you find relevant to your niche.
The more relevant the topic, the higher the value your link has, and the better your online reputation becomes. This only works if your comments add value and are relevant to the post. Otherwise, you will just be hurting your reputation when you post irrelevant and insubstantial comments.
Here is a video from Darren Rowse, the founder of Problogger.net, one of the foremost sources for blogging and earning money online. He expounds on the importance and effectiveness of commenting on other blogs in driving traffic to your blog or site.
He has also written some DONTS on blog commenting that you should read before doing any blog commenting yourself.
Some blog platforms, however, automatically insert a NOFOLLOW attribute in links found in blog comments. There are other blogs and websites who do not place such attributes and these we call DOFOLLOW sites/blogs.
To find dofollow blogs to comment in you can choose any of the following methods:
- Find the Niche-Related blogs!
- Search for dofollow blogs in a DoFollow Blogs Directory
- Do an image search on the “U Comment, I Follow” badge on dofollow blogs. Here’s a post on this method: Finding DoFollow Blogs The Easy Way
- Go to Google and enter: your target keyword +”Remember my personal information” +”Notify me of follow-up comments”
- Just open Google, and then type in your niche keywords and the blog script name. The format is:
“[Keywords]” + “powered by [blog scripts]”
Examples of blog scripts are Wordpress and Blogger. As an example, we need some “Dog training” related links on Wordpress blogs, so here we search:
“dog training” “powered by Wordpress”
- Use the following free search tools to find blogs that DoFollow:
- Courtney Tuttle’s List of Blogs that DoFollow – scroll down to see the list
- CommentHunt.com search engine for searching blog posts with dofollow links
- Jerry’s Search Engine – Search for dofollow blogs
- EZ Business Needs Free DoFollow Search Tool
- DoFollow Diver Search Engine
- If you have administrator rights in your PC, you can download a free software to find blogs to comment in:
- Comment Kahuna free download page – totally free
As with all link building activities always check for the Page Rank of the page you will be commenting on. PR 4 and above pages are excellent places to leave your comments in. PR 1 to 3 pages are good enough if there are no more pages available.
Instructions for This Task
Using any of the methods mentioned previously, find at least three blog posts related to your blog’s niche and comment on each. You might encounter blogs that moderate comments and will not see your comments published immediately. To provide proof of your comments, please copy the URLs of the blog posts you have commented upon and the comments you have made. Store them in a text file with the name
blogcomments.txt
under your folder.
Forum Posting
Similar to blog commenting is another link building method called Forum Posting. Both methods employ effective communication skills and requires relevancy in the topic with your blog’s niche. For example, if your blog explores the ways and means of internet marketing, commenting in a video games forum will not help you at all. However, if your blog does talk about video and online games, that gaming forum will be a perfect vehicle for you to promote your blog or website.
The issue with forum posting is less about dofollow vs nofollow links and more on whether they do allow you to place either text or image links in your forum signatures. A forum signature is a small area provided to each forum member to place either image or text links which will appear every time they post a reply or start a topic in the forum’s threads.
How To Create A Forum Signature
Creating a forum signature would require some basic knowledge of BBcode in formatting your links. To create a link in HTML, we write thus:
<a href=”http://www.agentsofvalue.com/”>Agents of Value</a>
What the readers see is this: Agents of Value
But to create a link in BBcode, we write it this way:
[url=http://www.agentsofvalue.com/]Agents of Value[/url]
And yet what the readers see is still the same: Agents of Value
The usage format of the BBcode depends on the type of forum you are in. Just like blogs which have platforms like Wordpress, Blogger or b2b, forums also have different platforms. Examples of these are Simple Machines and phpBB.
Some forums will allow a new member privileges to create a signature and even provides a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor in creating their forum sigs. This makes it easier for newbies to format their sigs without memorizing BBcode tags.
Instructions For This Task
You have to find three forums to become a member of. After registering and checking your email for verification, login and go to your user control panel (User CP) where your profile can be edited. Look for the menu found usually on the left side and click on the Edit Signature link. If there is none, you can click on the Edit Profile link.
If you are able to access your forum signature box through the Edit Signature link, you will usually encounter a WYSIWYG editor. Type in the text you want readers to see and then click on the globe icon on the buttons above. This will open up a pop up window which requires you to input the URL of the link.
When you are ready, preview your signature to see how it will look like and to check for errors in formatting. And then click on the Save button. Once saved your signature will show up every time you post a reply within a discussion thread or when you post a new topic for other members to participate in a discussion.
Participate in at least 3 discussions and copy each thread’s URL. Along with the URLs of the three discussion threads, paste your forum messages for each thread into a text file and save it as
forumposting.txt
under your folder.
How To Hyperlink Your Forum Signature
Table of Common BBCODE Tags
SEO Benefits of Forum Signatures
Learn Forum BBCodes Secrets
How To Create Forum Signatures Using BBcodes
Glossary of Terms
Internet Forum – An Internet forum is a discussion area on a website. Website members can post discussions and read and respond to posts by other forum members. An Internet forum can be focused on nearly any subject and a sense of an online community, or virtual community, tends to develop among forum members. (From WiseGeek)
Moderated Forum – A moderated forum refers to an online forum for discussion in which all posts are pre-approved by a moderator before being posted for the group. Some people prefer a moderated forum to an unmoderated forum, as the moderator can not only keep out spam, but posts that are inappropriate, rude or offensive, or that wander off topic. (From WiseGeek)
Forum Avatar – Websites that offer chat boards or forums often allow members to upload an avatar to represent themselves. The avatar can be a real-life digital photo of the person using it, but is more often an image intended to be a creative alter ego. This might be a game-rendered snapshot of a beast, hero, or heroine; a humorous picture of a pet or cartoonish character; or a design that makes a statement. The avatar appears alongside the user’s posts, easily identifying the author for others at a glance. (From WiseGeek)
Forum Signature – The forum signature is a block of information automatically appended at the bottom of each forum post. That block usually contains links for sites owned or favoured by the post author. (From LinksonForums.com)
BBcode (or vBcode) – BBcodes, or sometimes called vBcodes, or forum codes, are a set of special tags different from HTML and are used specifically for forums. They are used for formatting text and embedding images or videos into forum posts and and inserting images, text or links into forum signatures.
Thread – Messages are usually grouped visually in a hierarchy by topic. A set of messages grouped in this way is called a topic thread or simply “thread”. (Wikipedia)
Sticky Post – A sticky post or sticky topic is a type of entry in an online forum that is “pinned” near the top of the forum index, enhancing its visibility and preventing it from being buried by newer posts. On blogs it refers to a blog entry that remains on the front page while others around it change.
Sticky posts (or simply “stickies”) generally contain information that a discussion group administrator or moderator believes to be of critical or ongoing value to users of the forum. There may be one or several such ’stickies’ at the top of any one forum section. (Wikipedia)
Trolling – An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion. (Wikipedia)
Banning – In internet forums, the forum administrator sometimes has the power to ban members who do not follow the rules. When banned, the user is unable to participate anymore. Sometimes they might make alternate accounts to continue breaking rules, and in this case, the IP address may be banned from connecting to the server.
Forum Administrator – A forum administrator typically has the ability to edit, delete, move or otherwise modify any thread on the forum. Administrators also usually have the ability to close the board, change major software items, change global skins, modify the board, and ban, delete, or create members. (Wikipedia)
Forum Moderator – Forum moderators, or known as mods, have a subset of the powers accorded to forum administrators, which may include editing, deleting, and moving threads, mass pruning, warning members for offenses, and changing minor forum details. It is often possible for moderator privileges to be delegated to other forum members. (Wikipedia)
Other Forms of Internet Forums
Message Board – An Internet forum is also called a message board, discussion group, bulletin board or web forum. However, it differs from a blog, the name for a web log, as a blog is usually written by one user and usually only allows for the responses of others to the blog material. An Internet forum usually allows all members to make posts and start new topics. (From WiseGeek)
Chat Room – Chat rooms are designated areas where people with similar interests can come together to talk. The conversations happen in real time. By simply typing with your keyboard, you can talk to someone on the other side of the world. (From WiseGeek)
The Most Common Internet Abbreviations
