Visiting blogs and leaving comments on those blogs, especially those that are within your same niche, is one of the most popular and efficient methods to promote your website or blog and can often yield a nice return in the form of visitors. Some bloggers, however, prefer to leave their blog name in the NAME field of comment forms as opposed to leaving their name or pen name.
You will find many bloggers have grown a bit lenient with their comment policies and allow the use of blog names – but personally, unless the blog name is the same as a “Brand” – I find it just a bit on the annoying side.
I confess, when I started blogging I used to do that as well, because I thought people were more likely to click on the “obvious” keyword or title then on MY “name” – It was when I actually discovered my own habit of mousing over names, blog names and keywords in those links.
The problem with the logic of using your blog name or keywords is that many readers will likely assume you are just spamming the comment section. Some may click the comment with the blog name, but in the long-term it may very well hurt your reputation.
The whole blog concept of establishing relationships and interacting with other bloggers is to lend value to both blogger and visitor. Comments and trackbacks are supposed to generate conversations, and conversations must be personal if they are to be valuable.
As with any practice, there are always exceptions for that rule. If your blog is named after yourself (e.g. gaylabaer.com) or if you are speaking on behalf of a blog entity you could possibly leave the blog name and not your personal name – much like I did in my days of running MomGadget.
A personal habit I’ve often seen and find respectful is if you really want to leave your blog name, try placing it inside brackets following your personal name.
What are your thoughts on comments using blog names and keywords? Are you more or less likely to click the link of a name or a keyword?
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