This is a guest post by Tushar Agarwal from BloggersPassion.
Promotion is the only way to keep a blog alive. It is always said that good content is nothing without traffic. The quality of the content does matter but if nobody come to your blog, what is the use of that content. It will not get the laurels it deserves and this is sure to discourage you.
90% of the bloggers use free methods of promoting which sometimes work and sometimes does not.
But ask any seasoned blogger about the best way to promote a blog without spending a single penny and the most common answers you will hear are COMMENTING and GUEST BLOGGING.
These are the most used methods and often leave us with a debate on which is the best among the two. Both have its advantages and I am trying to find out the best between these two based on two common metrics.
1. Effort
Obviously, guest blogging takes much more effort than commenting. For promoting the blog through COMMENTING, you just need to go to a blog, click on the post that you understand and comment. Many “desperate for traffic” commentators do not even bother to read what is there in the post. They are more interested in leaving their link there and waiting for traffic.
On the other hand, GUEST POSTING takes a lot of effort, you have to be at your very best to deliver the best article and that require as much time as your own blog’s post needs. A bad guest post can very easily backfire because:
- The blog author can easily reject it citing reasons that you are just posting to get the visitors and the quality is missing. He might also not consider your future posts as FIRST IMPRESSION IS THE LAST IMPRESSION.
- Even if your bad guest post gets published, readers will eventually find out that this was nothing more than a guest post. Just 300 words of crap to get the back link and traffic can force them to avoid you, your posts and your blog in the future.
2. Result
When it comes to the end result you wanted, the traffic, guest blogging leaves commenting way behind. With a good quality guest post published in a blog with huge traffic, do not be surprised if you get few hundred hits in a day.
Commenting can never get you this much number of visitors even if you put in as much time as you put in your post. Moreover, if your comment is not in the first 5, you might not even get noticed and your little effort will go in vain.
Only guest posting can get you traffic that you want, all it requires is that little extra effort.
But as everything, guest blogging has some disadvantages. First, you have to write your best post to attract the traffic. This post could have been on your blog but it could not happen. Second, if you make a wrong choice of the blog where you will be posting, you might not get enough traffic and your effort goes waste.
Still, guest blogging is one of those ways that can get you tonnes of traffic. There is a merrier side of guest blogging. There are many blogs that offer revenue sharing i.e. you get Adsense revenue for the ads that are clicked on the page your post is displayed, provided you have entered your Adsense publication id.
At The End…
I encourage everyone of you reading this post to participate in this debate between commenting and guest posting. And do not forget to participate in our poll below.
[poll id=”6″]
I haven’t guest blogged anywhere yet, but it is on the top of my list. I totally agree that these two are two of the best free methods, other then that though…
Effort – I Subscribe to/read/comment on 50+ blogs so far. Yea, a whole lot more effort then writing an article. Even the best article ever written…lots less effort.
Having to be in the top 5 comments – a myth, and a big one. In fact, I’ll say you get better traffic not being in the top 5. I’ll be writing about that too.
With guest posting, I’d say making sure the targeted blog has a responsive audience is just as important as making sure it’s a superb article – otherwise, completely wasted wasted effort anyway.
Overall, there shouldn’t be an and/or scenario. A blogger should do both, and do both consistently. I have commenting down to a science, so I’m al over guest blogging nest. 😉
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Updated: Do You USE Aweber? I Want Your Affiliate Link. Part 2 =-.
Nice article.You can get some visitors by becoming top commentators on some big blog.Guest post is ideal both for traffic and backlink.Thanks for sharing.
I’d have to lean more on commenting even if I also guest post. Mainly because I like to interact with people on a variety of different topics and not just my own. Just my 2 cents into this debate.
I would prefer using guest posting to promote our blog and drive more traffic to our blog. In a post, there may be tons of comment from other blogger fellows and you’re hardly to be noticed by others. While guest posting, you’re writing for all the audiences in the blog, therefore you would drive more traffic to your blog and build your brand as well.
Nice post Tushar!
Regards,
Lee
.-= Lee Ka Hoong@Blogger Theme´s last blog ..50 Free Professional Blogger Templates =-.
For me, blog commenting is the right way to get more traffic and backlink. It not only on Commencting job, but we are also can get an information for the post that we are comment. But the comment must relevant to the topic. Do not simply spam. Be responsible even you are blog commentor.
.-= chuckiesd´s last blog ..iPad Bluetooth Keyboard by Brando =-.
To be honest, I do both.
I view Guest Blogging as out and out promotion, whereas Commenting is networking in the same vein as Twitter.
One confirms you as an expert, the other as approachable. It’s a great combination!
I say do all of the above, and then some. Guest blogging doesn’t have to be time consuming if you are ‘adapting’ an old post you have in your archives!
.-= Jorgen Sundberg´s last blog ..Bio: What it is, When it is Used, Why You Need One =-.
Guest blogging is really the way to kill it but you know what for me I do commenting because its something I enjoy doing and traffic isnt ever massive but at least it connects me to people on a closer angle. But if youre looking for growth first and foremost, guest blogging all the way
.-= Melvin´s last blog ..The *Only* Thing You Need When Starting an MMO Blog =-.
yep, that is very true, also the comment closest to the comment form gets visitors. Not if your last though.
.-= Peter J´s last blog ..Calculate how much advertisements on your blog are worth =-.
Well, I, for one, like guest blogging. When you post a comment, sometimes they don’t ever get seen. But, on the other hand, when you do a guest post, it’s put right up there with all of the other articles on the site. I just think the guest posts gain you more exposure and do more for your reputation than do plain comments.