In Episode #367, Eric and Neil discuss whether blog commenting is dead. Tune in to learn why blog commenting is NOT dead in Eric and Neil’s opinion. They’ll list the reasons why they still do it and explain the benefits you can gain from interacting with your audience.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 00:27 – Today’s topic: Is Blog Commenting Dead?
- 01:05 – Nowadays, blog commenting still drives traffic, but not as much as it did before
- 01:13 – For niche blogs, blog commenting will still work
- 01:17 – What works is that people come to your blog and you build a rapport with them—because of this relationship, they are more likely to convert
- 01:45 – Some big publications have shut off their blog comments
- 02:00 – For Neil’s blog, which has educational value, people leave productive comments and build a relationship with him
- 02:15 – Neil has dedicated time to respond to the comments
- 02:42 – Even if there’s only one person who leaves a comment, you still have to respond
- 03:00 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year subscription to Crazy Egg which is a visual analytics tool
- 03:45 – Go to SingleGrain.com/giveaway for multiple entries
- 03:54 – That’s it for today’s episode!
3 Key Points:
- Blog commenting STILL works when it comes to driving traffic to your site.
- Build a rapport and relationship with your blog followers by responding to their comments.
- Blog commenting is NOT dead; in fact, it’s a tool that will help you increase your conversion rates.
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Full Transcript of The Episode
Automated: Get ready for your daily dose of marketing strategies and tactics from entrepreneurs with the guile and experience to help you find success in any marketing capacity.
You're listening to Marketing School with your instructors, Neil Patel and Eric Siu.
Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.
Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.
Eric Siu: And today, we're going to talk about if blog commenting is dead. So, back in the day, a lot of people would actually engage in comments if they read a good post. You'll see them writing constructive things. I've seen this on a lot of different blogs including, Neil, your blogs like Quick Sprout and Neil Patel. So, maybe you can shed some light around this.
Neil Patel: So, with blog comments, there's two aspects. One is driving traffic and blogs like [Meshville 00:00:50] grew through leaving comments on TechCrunch, Solution Watch which is no longer out and about, and that's how Meshville grew during the early days.
Nowadays, I found that leaving comments on other blogs, it drives some traffic, but not as much as it used to. For that reason, I don't do it as often but it still somewhat works especially if their niche blogs related to yours. But what does work is when people leave comments on your blog, responding to them helps build a connection, a rapport, and you increase the likelihood that they're going to convert into a customer.
We found that it was something crazy like 3.7 or 3.8. It was somewhere a number like that. It's like 3.7 times that someone is more likely to buy if they leave a blog comment, at least that was on our blog.
Eric Siu: So, I find that ... I mean, personally, when I look at some of the big sites out there ... We used to work with some big publications. We actually shut off the blog comments because the conversations weren't productive. So, when you're talking about gossip, when you're talking about news and things like that, perhaps the comments aren't that useful and so, your mileage may vary.
But Neil's stuff, he's actually teaching people how to make more money at the end of the day and most people are leaving productive comments, and then he's starting to build relationships with them. So, I think from Neil's perspective, blog commenting still isn't dead. I think you actually have someone dedicated to it, right? How does that look?
Neil Patel: Yeah, so either I'll respond or someone on my team will help here and there, but mainly, I would say 80% to 90% of the time, it's actually me responding. To the basic ones that are like, "Thanks, good job. Love the information," someone else responds because you don't really need much. You just respond back with, "You're welcome," but any time someone asks us a question or makes a point, it's I who go in and respond.
Eric Siu: So, I think for most people listening to this, you probably don't have a lot of traffic. If somebody is leaving a comment, it's worth your while to at least respond because it's giving you a chance to engage. If people are leaving a comment on your Instagram or they're leaving a comment on your Facebook page, you're going to respond. So, it's the same deal here. It's just another opportunity to build a relationship.
Neil, any final thoughts?
Neil Patel: Nope, I'm good on my end.
Eric Siu: Great. So, today's giveaway is actually a tool that is Neil's. It's called Crazy Egg. Neil, what is Crazy Egg?
Neil Patel: Sure. Crazy Egg is a visual analytics tool. Google Analytics shows you numbers. With those numbers, you're making changes to your website. The problem with numbers is they don't tell you everything. Crazy Egg is a visual analytics tool where it'll show where people are clicking, where they're not. It'll show how far people are scrolling down. Are they even seeing your call-to-action button? You can even look at mouse recordings and see how people are using and navigating your website. From there, with our WYSIWYG, you can make changes to the site and with a few clicks of the button, you can run A/B tests.
Eric Siu: So, to get access to one, we're basically giving away a one-year annual subscription of Crazy Egg every single week. If you want to get another giveaway, you can actually get multiple entries. All you need to do is go to SingleGrain.com/giveaway and you can learn more about it.
That's it for today. We'll see you tomorrow.
Automated: This session of Marketing School has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics to help you find the success you've always dreamed of and don't forget to write and review so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow right here on Marketing School.
You're listening to Marketing School with your instructors, Neil Patel and Eric Siu.
Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.
Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.
Eric Siu: And today, we're going to talk about if blog commenting is dead. So, back in the day, a lot of people would actually engage in comments if they read a good post. You'll see them writing constructive things. I've seen this on a lot of different blogs including, Neil, your blogs like Quick Sprout and Neil Patel. So, maybe you can shed some light around this.
Neil Patel: So, with blog comments, there's two aspects. One is driving traffic and blogs like [Meshville 00:00:50] grew through leaving comments on TechCrunch, Solution Watch which is no longer out and about, and that's how Meshville grew during the early days.
Nowadays, I found that leaving comments on other blogs, it drives some traffic, but not as much as it used to. For that reason, I don't do it as often but it still somewhat works especially if their niche blogs related to yours. But what does work is when people leave comments on your blog, responding to them helps build a connection, a rapport, and you increase the likelihood that they're going to convert into a customer.
We found that it was something crazy like 3.7 or 3.8. It was somewhere a number like that. It's like 3.7 times that someone is more likely to buy if they leave a blog comment, at least that was on our blog.
Eric Siu: So, I find that ... I mean, personally, when I look at some of the big sites out there ... We used to work with some big publications. We actually shut off the blog comments because the conversations weren't productive. So, when you're talking about gossip, when you're talking about news and things like that, perhaps the comments aren't that useful and so, your mileage may vary.
But Neil's stuff, he's actually teaching people how to make more money at the end of the day and most people are leaving productive comments, and then he's starting to build relationships with them. So, I think from Neil's perspective, blog commenting still isn't dead. I think you actually have someone dedicated to it, right? How does that look?
Neil Patel: Yeah, so either I'll respond or someone on my team will help here and there, but mainly, I would say 80% to 90% of the time, it's actually me responding. To the basic ones that are like, "Thanks, good job. Love the information," someone else responds because you don't really need much. You just respond back with, "You're welcome," but any time someone asks us a question or makes a point, it's I who go in and respond.
Eric Siu: So, I think for most people listening to this, you probably don't have a lot of traffic. If somebody is leaving a comment, it's worth your while to at least respond because it's giving you a chance to engage. If people are leaving a comment on your Instagram or they're leaving a comment on your Facebook page, you're going to respond. So, it's the same deal here. It's just another opportunity to build a relationship.
Neil, any final thoughts?
Neil Patel: Nope, I'm good on my end.
Eric Siu: Great. So, today's giveaway is actually a tool that is Neil's. It's called Crazy Egg. Neil, what is Crazy Egg?
Neil Patel: Sure. Crazy Egg is a visual analytics tool. Google Analytics shows you numbers. With those numbers, you're making changes to your website. The problem with numbers is they don't tell you everything. Crazy Egg is a visual analytics tool where it'll show where people are clicking, where they're not. It'll show how far people are scrolling down. Are they even seeing your call-to-action button? You can even look at mouse recordings and see how people are using and navigating your website. From there, with our WYSIWYG, you can make changes to the site and with a few clicks of the button, you can run A/B tests.
Eric Siu: So, to get access to one, we're basically giving away a one-year annual subscription of Crazy Egg every single week. If you want to get another giveaway, you can actually get multiple entries. All you need to do is go to SingleGrain.com/giveaway and you can learn more about it.
That's it for today. We'll see you tomorrow.
Automated: This session of Marketing School has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics to help you find the success you've always dreamed of and don't forget to write and review so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow right here on Marketing School.
