Reading Blogs without a Blog

Smart bloggers know they need to read other blogs if they expect visitors to their own. Businesses with and without blogs that don’t visit other blogs live in a world like Rapunzel… isolating themselves (by choice unlike Rapunzel) and missing opportunities. Furthermore, businesses with blogs send the message they’re “too good” for other blogs. “We don’t have time to read your blogs, but you have to read ours.”
People who don’t have a blog and take the time to read blogs and comment impress me. They get it. They know that getting involved with the blogosphere is important even if they don’t have a blog. After all, those blogs could be talking about you or your business. Blogs writing about your industry are also valuable because they tell you how they view your industry or offer insight.
One expert suggests leaving comments on blogs with a Google PageRank (PR) rating of 7 or better. This means you get visibility on a popular site and your site could get traffic since since most blogs allow us to link to our blog or web site. However, this advice concerns me because you miss out on the high quality sites in your industry that have a PR of 4, 5, or 6. There may not be many in your industry that have a 7.
I doubt anyone is going to track all your comments down and report that you’re visiting only the popular blogs — but as long as you post meaningful comments and avoid the “I agree” type of comment, it should be OK and could very well pay off. Just remember those blogs with a lower ranking could be the 7s, 8s, and 9s of tomorrow.
Furthermore, when you comment on sites with less traffic, you’re more apt to get noticed. Popular sites can easily have hundreds of comments and some of us won’t bother reading the comments when we see an entry contains many comments. The popular blogger is already overwhelmed with emails and comments, and most likely won’t personally respond to your comment. She might read it (if there are over 50 comments… don’t know about that), but you’re forgotten as soon as she reads the next one.
Of course, some popular bloggers surprise you with a response. Steve Rubel, Joi Ito, and Seth Godin have been kind enough to reply. So some do make the effort to connect.
Two things to consider when commenting:
* Be genuine — so people don’t think you’re leaving a comment just to get your URL out there. Most bloggers consider a comment like “Great site!” as spam.
* If it’s a reply to a blog entry or comment about your business, comment ASAP even if it is to simply say that you’re looking into it. The point is to tell the blogger and commenter they’ve been heard and you’re on the case.
If you wait till you resolve the problem to leave a comment, it won’t have as big an impact as immediately writing a “looking into it” comment because bloggers and readers move on quickly to other topics. Think about a time when a company responded quickly and another when the company replied slowly. How did the timing impact your opinion of the companies?
Want to thank two non-bloggers: Joanne Lozar Glenn and Andy Mason for regularly visiting and leaving great comments.