There are many plugins mentioned by many bloggers on how to reward your readers for leaving their comments on your blog posts. These includes, commentluv, keywordluv, dofollow and most importantly, Top Commentator plugin.

The fact that by climbing to the top commentator position, it allows you to build massive backlinks very quickly, is very motivating for readers to leave their comments. Well I know this for sure because I have been there and done that, and I still am following this routine religiously. But do you only comment for backlinks?

Here are some reasons why I would say NO to this.

1) Making Friends In The Community
Seriously, this is one of the happiest achievement I have had with blog commenting. I am pretty sure that my blog would not have grown in anyway if I had not visited other’s blogs (Well all of you guys are my friends now…) because nobody in the world will know who you are if you choose not to socialize. Just picture yourself with a group of friends and you chose to sit quietly in a corner, who would know whats in your mind, not even your best friend I guess. By the way, I believe that there are not strangers in this world, they are just friends we haven’t met. Right?

2) Learn From The Content
My friends, read Read READ! Be sure to give due respect to the blogger and finish reading the whole blog post before deciding to write your opinion. Sometimes these assumption can make you look stupid. Moreover, it is a good chance for you to learn from your fellow bloggers and who knows you may pick up a skill or two from there.

3) Build Up Activity Level On Your Own Blog
I can’t vouch this for all but I am pretty sure most bloggers will return you a favour by leaving comments on your blog as well, or at the very least, pay a visit in return! Isn’t that what you want? Building up traffic and branding yourself… Exposing your blog and name to as many people as you can!

4) Increase Your Subscribers And Twitter Followers
I have yet to try this method out but I am figuring that it might work. Instead of leaving your blog url in the comment box, you leave your RSS feed url or twitter follow link. If you’re using feedburner, they will see your posts anyway when they click on the link. This highly increases the chances of people subscribing and following you on twitter since they are exposed to more people.

Don’t bother about people who say “don’t leave one sentence comments, its like link farming!”. If you have to do it, just do it! What if you visit a blog that shares a post saying “Happy 2009!”, how long a comment do you expect? Nevertheless, I am not saying you should spam you comments!!! Leave constructive comments whenever you can, because this helps in your personal branding as well.

Last but not least, there are many blogs which offer incentives to readers who stay as top commentator(s) throughout the month. These incentives make up of paypal cash, free link love, ad spots etc… With all this attractive offers, can you say no? Do the right thing!

Speaking of which… My best comment award this week goes to *Drumroll*

Freddie Taylor’s comment on Make Money Case Study: FREE Stuff Model Part 2/5

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