The beauty of blogging is that, by its nature, it allows you to network very easily with other blog owners in your domain and create a relationship with them. Yeah, I know, the first question you might ask yourself is “Why would I want to comment on my competitor’s blog?”. Well, first of all, I wouldn’t say that commenting on other similar blogs is helping your competition, but instead is giving mutual benefits to both blogs (yours and the one you’re commenting on), because, let’s face it, the car audience is so large and there’s roomo for everyone. And it also allows you to create a relationship with other blogs in the car niche, relationship that could help you a lot in the future. Not to mention that it’s easier for someone else to notice you after you commented on their posts, which increases the chances that they’ll subscribe to your blog and maybe give you one or more links in the future (if you have quality content, of course).

So, where to comment?

I see a lot of novice bloggers going straight up to the big blogs in the niche and start commenting there. If you ask me, that’s a big mistake. First of all, if you take a look at the big car blogs, like Autoblog or Jalopnik, you’ll notice that their comment system is not like the one you’re used to on most blogs. First you have to create an account and only after that you’ll be able to comment. So, no link for you. Yeah, I know, usually the comment name links are rel=”nofollow”, so worthless for SEO, but saying interesting stuff will make people click on it and maybe they’ll like your blog and also subscribe to it. Though there are only a few that do that, usually they’re valuable, because they’re genuinely interested in the domain (and who knows, they might be other bloggers).

But the biggest problems about commenting on the big blogs is that there are close to zero chances of the blogger noticing you. If you look, you’ll see that the big blogs get tens, maybe hundreds of comments for each post, which makes you almost invisible.

Instead, you really should focus on commenting on smaller blogs. I’m not talking about commenting on every blog out there, but instead choose about 5 or 6 medium blogs and comment frequently. Because they get a smaller number of comments, you’ll be noticed for sure, so it’s only up to you to make and keep the blogger interested in you. Also, it will be easier for you to push some stories to the blogger, without sounding like a spammer. Auto Unleashed, eGMCarTech, Carscoop or BMWBlog are only a few examples. Usually, these medium blogs are being followed by the big blogs, so this will also increase your chances of getting a link from Autoblog or Jalopnik.

How to comment?

First of all, read the posts carefully and choose only the ones that you find interesting and where you really have something to say. No one will care about you if you start dropping comments like “Thanks for the news”, “Didn’t know that”, “That’s great” or “Oh, that’s cool”. No! Write a comment that brings something valuable to the conversation, or something funny, or anything that will make you stand out of the crowd. And don’t drop only one or two comments and then just wait for the links to rain on you. You should do that frequently and you’ll definitely see results. Maybe not in one day, week or month, but trust me, you’ll see the results.

Second of all, don’t drop links. Or at least, if you decide to do it, make sure it’s something related to the subject or something that brings new info. Don’t just say “I wrote about this too, check it out here”. That’s a big mistake. Usually you’ll get you comment deleted or, if approved, it won’t get you the blogger’s interest.

Top Commentators plugin

There’s a very interesting plugin, called Top Commentators that allows Wordpress based blogs to display, in the sidebar, a list with their most active commentators. And…this is where it really gets interesting…the links are without the rel=”nofollow” tag, which means search engines will love them and you’ll be rank higher in Google, Yahoo, etc. Unfortunately, though very popular in some blogging areas, in the car domain they’re pretty rare, so if you come across one, make sure you subscribe or bookmark that blog. You’ll notice that we don’t have that on Auto Unleashed, but here on Blogged in Traffic we have it, so feel free to comment

Conclusion

So, the conclusion is that if you didn’t comment on other blogs before, it’s definitely time for you to get started. Because, if done properly, commenting on other blogs can bring huge benefits to you and your car blog.