Are You Using Blog Comments To Promote Your Music?

Posted In Promote Your Music | 11 comments

Many people look down on blog commenting as a way to get new fans to a website, because this is a method so often used by spammers to unnaturally build links.

…I hate that kind of pond life music marketing! BOOOO

But for branding yourself as a thoughtful musician, and connecting with music bloggers who may help you in your career, this is an extremely powerful tool.

Below you will find a few tips to go about commenting so that you will build a steady stream of hits to your site and also gain the respect of your music niche.

Let’s look at why you should be using this method in the first place?

Branding and networking – the first great thing about blog commenting is that it will get the blog author to visit your site, and get your music on his or her radar. A very important first step.

The second thing is that readers of the blog will start to see your Avatar (which is a little image posted with each comment) on a regular basis. So if you make good posts your name will become synonymous with good musical insights.

Getting fans to your site – most blog comments will allow you to leave a link back to your own website which is very cool. If the article becomes popular you can expect your link to bring you visitors for years to come as long as your comment is enticing and adds value.

Search engine love – as I said a second ago; most blogs will allow you to leave a link back to your own website, and as well as being a good source of traffic this will also increase your reputation in Google.

The more links Google see going to your site the more “authority” you will have. In turn this will lead to your own blog posts ranking higher and faster in the search engines.

Now we have established that blog commenting is “all good” it’s important to look at how we can do this in an effective and ecological way, rather than damaging our reputation.

Tips for your blog commenting

The first thing you need to do is make a list of the top 20 blogs in your music scene and then subscribe to them using the method I teach in this video.

Each time they post you want to follow the tips below, to make sure that your comment is seen in a good light rather than labeling you as an evil Mcspam burger!

Research – if you find a great new blog to comment on HOLD YOUR HORSES. You need to read a few of the latest posts first and get a feel for the author. That way you will be able to add more value in your own comment.

Read what others are saying – once you have read a few posts on the blog it’s time to actually read some of the comments that others are making. This is important because you need to know the standard of contribution to the blog, so that you can up it slightly and stand out from the crowd.

Write your comment – you should think about this like writing a short blog post of maybe 250 words, that continues the conversation started in the blog article. Take care, because a couple of good comments will get you much more traction than just posting a bunch of crap.

Think about links – in some cases you can leave a highly relevant link back to your own website in the comment main body, but most of the time this will mean that you get deleted. The best idea is to place your link in the name/url field.

Be human – use the Gravatar service to make your picture show up the same across all the blogs that you comment on and use a nice photo. This will help build trust with the blog author and get music fans thinking, “I know that dude”.

Promote your comment - this is a great way to build a strong relationship with blog authors. Because if you make a comment and then tweet about the post you will be not only sending traffic to their site, but you will also be providing good content for your own fans.

Bloggers will love you for this!

Link to somewhere cool – if you make the best comment in the world, but link back to a website selling weird porno dolls, then your comment will definitely not be approved. The moral of the story is to make sure that the site you link to is relevant and that it looks like somewhere that the blog author would not mind sending his people to.

I look forward to hearing how you get on with this fun way to drive new fans to your website.

Feel free to leave me a nice thoughtful comment below and let me know what you think. ;-)

- Chris

Watch The Video Podcast Version Below…

Download

Tags:

Leave A Reply (11 comments So Far)

  • Anonymous

    I just started using blog comments for my band. Unfortunately, there’s not much relevant to that I can comment on for any of the local music blogs. Really strange considering I live in Seattle. I even have google alerts set up for new news and blogs for music. Nothing relevant to the shows I go to or the bands I like.

    So I’m expanding out to other blogs outside of music. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

    But, the few comments I have posted have all generated traffic back to my band’s website. Not much traffic, but better than none. I see the advantage being name recognition.

  • http://www.facebook.com/pow121 Andrew Frickin Muller

    Really simple, really well set up. I’m going to RSS this and start reading more of your posts.

  • http://twitter.com/atlumschema Andy Mort

    Good post Chris. Comments are really important not least from the perspective that I come at much of my ‘marketing’ – the golden rule of do to others as you would have them do to you. It is great when people comment on your blog – it makes you feel appreciated, so rather than go to other blogs as means to drive traffic back to mine, I like to see them for what they are and appreciate them because I know how nice it is when people do that to mine. So consider this a comment of appreciation for all your efforts, Chris! It is also often easy to differentiate between needy posts and authentic posts :)

  • http://www.promoteyourmusic.net Chris Rockett

    Hey Chris, have you tried interviewing the bands in your scene?

  • http://www.promoteyourmusic.net Chris Rockett

    Thanks man, good to have you here.

  • http://www.promoteyourmusic.net Chris Rockett

    Yeah good point, it’s best to think about this stuff as adding to the conversation rather than driving traffic.

    Like the old saying goes…if you haven’t got anything nice to say don’t say anything at all.

    - Chris

  • Anonymous

    Not yet. I was considering starting a local music blog and doing interviews. Not sure if I’d want something like that for my band’s site, even though I like helping out other bands when I can.

  • http://weddingbandsmelbourne88.com.au/ Wedding Bands Melbourne

    Thanks for a very
    informative article. Thanks for posting this useful tips and if it is possible for you to share me
    more about it that would be definitely great.

  • http://www.gypsyjazzschool.com/ Yaakov Hoter

    I am a member of Gypsy Jazz band and yes I do promote my music through blog comments. I am not shy on what am I doing because my band performs great and in fact, we have made a Gypsy Jazz School because of this band.

  • http://musicrocknation.blogspot.com/ Music Nation

    thanks for this amazing article 
    keep up the good work

  • http://www.azduilaw.com/ Phoenix Divorce Attorney

    Well smart shared tool.I really liked it a lot man.Thanks for sharing such tool with us and updating as well man.Keep sharing as like this always in future too.