Blog commenting stands out as a very useful strategy for promoting your site’s name on the Internet, for getting a substantial number of quality back links and for boosting web traffic to your blog. To get the most out of the practice of blog commenting, you need to ensure that you have an effective plan for it, which should be created based on a prior analysis of your site’s strengths and weaknesses, and only after writing down the exact actions you are about to take.

In order to identify the approach that is most suitable for you and the site you are running, it is important to define the main goal you are trying to achieve with blog commenting. This goal can either be increased number of links, more traffic, or better personal branding, with the latter being the most tangible objective attainable through implementation of blog commenting.

Considering everything you say in blog posts is reflective of your personality, moral make up and way of thinking, be careful to project a favorable personal image. While paying attention to what you say and revising your comments every now and then are necessary, try to avoid the pitfall of overanalyzing things, as this will only drain you mentally and suck up more of your time.  

In most cases, the best thing you can do is be yourself and let your ideas flow naturally. Honesty also pays, but try not to overdo it – in the end, the whole point is to get people into thinking and doing what you want them to, and this may require throwing in a little innocent lie occasionally in the picture. 

For improved personal branding and to snatch more targeted traffic with blog commenting, you will need to place the emphasis on three main aspects:
-    Submit relevant and interesting comments
-    Be among the first visitors to comment
-    Focus your commenting on fresh and highly popular posts

When you submit quality comments and add to the value of that particular post, you get more credibility from readers and encourage them to follow you up via the links you provide. Leaving early comments is also very useful in reaching a wider segment of readers by means of increased exposure.

Considering older posts don’t usually get much attention, set these aside most of the time and focus instead on leaving your comments on newer posts. Although some old posts may also prove useful in attracting visitors’ attention and therefore you shouldn’t overlook them completely, for best results you should channel your efforts on blog topics that are already in the spotlight. 

So there you have it – whether you are turning to blog commenting for personal branding reasons, for collecting quality links or for getting more traffic, if you follow the advice presented herein it will be easier for you to achieve the goals you set. However, keep in mind that blog commenting alone can’t do wonders. If you are after quick results and want sensible improvement in all the said areas, then you should also consider backing your blog commenting with other useful methods such as guest blogging and article marketing.