I do admit, though, that I’m the type of blogger that many times will read blog articles and not comment. I suppose it’s not the best way to go about community and marketing building, but it’s what I do.

I know that it’s supposed to be ‘good’ for marketing purposes to find high PR blogs to comment on, or dofollow ones, etc. but I just can’t bring myself to be unnatural like that – base my decision to comment on that alone. When I leave a comment on a blog, it’s because I’m interested in the content of the post or the site overall. I’ve passed on leaving comments on high PR blogs many times because I didn’t like what I was reading on whatever site it was. That is a no-no according to some of the pros but I don’t care, I don’t want to be fake.

I usually find blogs to comment on quite easily – several a day – because I research many things, in many different niches, so I’m frequently searching for answers to things that interest me, benefit my business, etc. Commenting is therefore a natural thing for me to do – a way to say thanks to the blogger when I find helpful information on their site. It only becomes a time drainer if I feel like I ‘have’ to find a blog to comment on for promotional purposes because I haven’t done it for a few days. I will still be honest and not comment on sites that I don’t like, but searching for blogs when I don’t really have something specific to search for is draining.

A natural search for hard to find answers to a few questions I had is how I found this blog. Thank you again John.
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What I like about this post is that it makes me think. At the end of the day, we decide on which habits we develop and bring to the table. I am not sure that a medium can decide that for us.

I’v learned from first hand experience that offline marketing combined with a well-framed

online prescence can help you enourmously.

I agree, blogging (for most of us) is extremely time consuming.

Try to blend your blog time with other activities out the web space if you are in business.

If you get soaked up in blogging, you can lose your shorts; be careful and balance your commuincation activities out.

Mike in Las Vegas – one of the toughest markets to sell in North America.

Yeah it pretty much all boils down to what you want to do with your blog – generate an income or build a community of people who swap comments. Sure you can do both, but I doubt you could be highly successful in the profit area.

And yes . . . people always matter.

I have to agree with Jamie. People matter. My husband MATTERS. My children MATTER. Even my sleep MATTERS. Do other bloggers matter, of course! But this shouldn’t be perceived as High School – I called you last, so it’s your turn to call me next. That IS a way of building relationships – ones that tend not to last.

I agree with you and I agree with Cath. Blogging “returns” are multi-faceted. I just completed a seminar on SEO, and it will be changing my ENTIRE view of blogging.

Perhaps it is the people who are trying to “sell things” rather than offer blogging tips or good writing who wish to get into the “tag, you’re it” game. They should have websites, NOT blogs!

Rita

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WpBlogHost uses social media marketing – more so than I believe most other hosting companies do. We participate in forums, other blogs, I’m an active user of StumbleUpon, YouTube, run my own blog, etc.

I by no means am trying to make a point that one should avoid social media marketing and use traditional methods, far from it.

But I feel and know many entrepreneurs who rely on it solely, and that’s not good. Like I mentioned above, do you want to make $150k or $5 million?

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I know what you’re saying. Of course people matter. I too sacrifice to read and comment on blogs, it is something I do, just not as much as full time bloggers might and I continue comment on other blogs with no requirement that the other blogger comments on mine. That’s because their blog is more along the lines of my interests.

What really got me thinking about this was when the other night my wife told me while I was in my office stumbling and commenting on blogs, “Hey, are you gonna come in here and visit with me at some point?”

But the real question is, what are your goals? Can you run a full time business and afford comment swapping just for the sake of it?

Would those people be upset because they comment on your blog all the time but you don’t comment on theirs? Should they be?