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People say that to make an impression, you’ll have to open your mouth.  While that is physically impossible in the virtual world of the Internet, saying your piece is not entirely difficult to do.  Thanks to forums and discussion boards, you can leave a comment or start a discussion thread about virtually any topic from anywhere in the world.  And yes, you can even leave comments to drive traffic to your blog and increase your readership.

Leaving effective comments

You’re probably old enough to know that not every comment that gets thrown into an opportunity for interaction creates the desired effect, much less become appreciated by those who hear or read it.  If you don’t use this technique carefully, you will either waste the opportunity or simply allow it to create the wrong impression.  Here are 7 ways you ought to do it:

Choose the sites you leave comments on

Ever wondered why Tiger Woods is great?  Because he chooses his battles well.  You’ll never find Woods swinging his club at a lesser known tournament – not because he’s a snob but because he focuses on the games that truly matter and on being on equal ground with other greats.

Keep this in mind before you leave comments on a website.  Just because you have the burning need to drive traffic to your blog doesn’t mean you can just drop by a site – any site – and write there.

Choose the sites and blogs whose forums you participate with.  Find out if the site deals with a topic or subject related to your very own blog.  Practice only purposeful commenting – the kind where you leave only well-crafted comments on sites that will help build the buzz about your blog.

If the site is completely irrelevant but you have the urge to leave a comment, do so only during your spare time.  Otherwise, focus your energies only on more productive activities.

Know what you’re saying

Before you leave a comment with the purpose of driving traffic to your blog, at least write one that is useful.  Your goal is to be noticed AND respected for your opinions so leaving useless and dead end comments such as ‘Cool!’ and ‘Way to go!’ just won’t cut it.

If this is the best you can do, forget about leaving comments right now and focus on other strategies to drive traffic to your blog.  Better avoid this technique than be embarrassed or be viewed as lame or mediocre.

But if you can write and have something meaningful to say, by all means, do so.  With every comment you have, make sure you keep it short, concise, to the point and useful.  Talk about relevant topics and avoid those that will do nothing for your purpose.

Avoid strong language

Of course, some sites will probably allow you to leave comments that are strongly worded or at least camouflaged as symbols such as !#$%&*, but there are ways to get your point across, regardless of how angry, upset or argumentative you are.

Furthermore, majority of sites and blogs impose certain regulations that restrict the use of certain words.  Try to rephrase a sentence without losing its main thought.  Use an online thesaurus, if necessary.  Remember that once a comment is posted online, there’s no way to get it back especially if it’s not your site.  You can leave that comment there to rot but you can never take it back.

Do not be rude

Have a sense of humor.  The Internet is a vast expanse of space, currently limitless.  In fact, it’s a whole universe unto itself.  If people leave comments on your post that seem to insult you or argue with you, don’t fight back without thinking.

First of all, we are a democracy and people have every right to their own opinion.  Second, firing back with the same kind of idiotic language will not be a good reflection on you.  Third, you’re way better than that.  If you must defend your stand, do so with class.

Calm down

Please, if you must drive traffic to your blog by leaving comments on other websites, keep it professional and tone it down.  DON’T LEAVE MESSAGES LIKE THIS ONE!!!!!!

A good rule of thumb is to follow accepted structure of the English language or whatever language it is you’re using to post.  If you must use exclamatory points, make sure they are truly needed.  Otherwise, avoid them.

Leaving comments written in purely bold or capitalized letter smacks of desperation and unprofessionalism.  It’s hardselling and makes people stay away in droves.

Check replies to your blogs

Maximize commenting on other sites and drive traffic by frequently checking back on the forum you participated in to see if there are any replies to the post you left.  This is a good way to build buzz and network.

Check your facts

If you will be quoting someone or citing a certain study, make sure your facts can be corroborated.  Don’t use make believe or newly invented figures and statements or even half-truths and try to pass them off as legit.  You will be exposed.  If you want to drive traffic to your blog by leaving comments, make sure you don’t tarnish your reputation with the effort.

Branding is big business.  Companies actually use a significant amount of their budget simply to build and fortify their brands.  Brands identify a product and are used by consumers to associate a company with a specific business or service.  When you’re marketing online to promote your blog or your business, easily one of the most effective means to build your brand is using an e-mail signature, one that will identify you and associate you with a specific type of service or information.

What exactly is an e-mail signature?

An e-mail signature is an identifier that you will usually include at the end of every e-mail message, article, post or thread that you send or publish online.  It includes your name, your company, the title of your blog or website, its address and other contact information about you.

The e-mail signature is equivalent to a real world business card – its main purpose is to introduce you to visitors and readers and to provide them with a means to get in touch with you or find their way to your blog.  It’s easy to set up and better yet, you can use it a thousand times each week and still not spend a single cent.

How important is an e-mail signature?  Consider the posts in blogs, articles and comments that marketers and bloggers often leave online and on all those e-mails you receive.  At the bottom, you’ll find the ubiquitous e-mail signature with a short description of the blogger and their contact information.

Click on the link provided and you’ll be brought to that blogger’s little space in the Web.  Without a signature, it will be difficult indeed for anyone to locate that blogger’s URL or at least go through the trouble of seeking him out actively in search engines.

Writing a good and effective e-mail signature for your blog

Promoting your blog can be done in small yet effective steps.  One of these is by using an effective e-mail signature.  Here’s how to write an e-mail signature that will work for you and create buzz for your blog at the same time:

Check the e-mail application or program you’re using

Most e-mail applications popular today have a tool that allows you to set up your own e-mail signature.  This tool will then automatically add your signature to every e-mail you send out.

Check your e-mail program for this tool.  In Windows Mail or Outlook, for example, writing a good e-mail signature can be performed in just a few minutes with a few simple clicks.  Use the signature editor on the program in case you want to make changes or use the signature only on specific e-mails you want to send out.

Include carefully chosen keywords

Other than your contact information, consider using keywords in the text link that are related to your blog’s subject.  This will help increase that link’s relevance and popularity, promoting your blog in the process.

Keep it short but informative

Think about all the important information you’ll want to include in your e-mail signature – your name, contact information, blog title, address, etc.  It’s a free country, so you pretty much have a choice on what you want to include but it’s best to stick only to the kind of information that will bring you the best results and promote your blog.

Keep your links minimal.  One or two will do.  Most readers find multiple links to different URLs a bit suspect, so it’s best to use only links to the blog where information related to your entry will be found.

Be prepared to be flexible

If you will be submitting some of your blog entries or e-mail content to article directories, find out if these directories have any submission guidelines you will have to comply with.  Generally, you’ll find that directories or databases prefer plain text formatting and specific rules regarding placement, length and structure of your byline.  Tweak your e-mail signature just a bit and you’ll be refused.

Since these aren’t your rules to bend, you’ll have no choice but to follow these submission guidelines so you can get back to the business of promoting your blog.  To solve this, write multiple e-mail signatures and use these templates as needed.  Then update these should changes occur.

This is also a good idea in case you will be sending out e-mails with a different theme.  Changing the keywords on your text link will help increase its relevance and promote your blog.

Tags are generally ignored by site owners and bloggers in terms of potential. They’re small, for one and very often easy to overlook. Furthermore, those who do not understand their use or significance or at least why and how they work may not often appreciate their value. This is unfortunate because tags can help increase the traffic coming in to your blog from blog directories. Learn what tags are and how they work so you can maximize their use.

Tag – you’re it

A tag, also referred to as a meta tag, is a keyword that is used to label specific information found on a web page. A meta tag uses HTML tags that are hidden from plain sight but clearly ‘visible’ to web crawlers.

A tag functions mainly for identification of an article, for example, or a title, subheading, site description or image – hence the name ‘tag’. They are often used as tools to ping multiple search engines, create a presence for use in social bookmarking and to drive traffic to your site, especially your blog. With tags, it will be easier for your site, article or web page to be found in search engines where they are supported.

Put simply, a tag is a small piece of identification on your blog that informs a search engine bot or spider what your site is about and how it should be indexed. If you can choose and design the right combination of tags for your blog, you will be able to manipulate the number and type of traffic that reaches your site from blog directories legally.

Using tags on your blog to drive more traffic

Blog directories are repositories of information and news regarding the types of blogs available for a particular topic or subject. As such, they can be very useful sources of highly targeted traffic for your own blog. To maximize the use of blog directories for this purpose, consider doing the following:

Choose your words carefully

Keep in mind that your blog is just one of millions out there vying for attention. Even if you’re trying to build a reputation within a relatively smaller niche industry, you will still be competing with at least a dozen others in your market segment. Careful consideration in choosing the specific keywords (or tags) to use with your blog will help you stand out in blog directories.

There are three important tags that you should focus on when designing your blog for traffic increase from blog directories. These are the title tag, the description tag and the keyword/s tag.

The title tag. The title of each blog entry you have should contain the most essential keywords that appear in your write-up or are relevant to your content. This will help optimize your entry and make it easier for search engines to find and index.

Prospective visitors who perform a search using Google, Yahoo! or MSN Search, for example, will be able to reach an optimized blog, since it’s more likely to appear in a search engine list. As a result, you drive more traffic to your blog.

The description tag. Although description tags are ignored by some search engines, adding this to your blog can help influence how your blog (or at least its web pages) is described.

The keyword tag. The keyword tag is the word or phrase that you will repeat within the content body or web page in question. Used strategically, these keywords can help increase your blog’s results in search engines and bring in more traffic to your site by allowing visitors to easily find you.

Don’t be afraid to combine keywords, though. That’s how you will be able to create highly targeted key phrases to optimize your blog. Three- to four-word key phrases will do. Multiple word tags are advantageous to single word searches as well. If you use a keyword phrase tag that says ‘rock paper scissors’, for example, your blog still has the potential to show up in case someone uses only the word ‘rock’ or ‘paper’ in his search.

Don’t overdo the use of tags

If you don’t watch out, tags can be addictive. It could reach a point where you might find yourself using tags that have little relevance to your blog. This usually happens when you try too hard to make sure that your blog or web page appears in more listings.

Although it may seem like a good idea to help increase traffic to your blog particularly as a means to shine in blog directories, overuse of tags can be counter-productive. Try to be careful in choosing only the kind of tags that your blog truly needs. Leaner but highly targeted tags are much more effective than generic ones.

Follow through

A good tag can gain initial interest in your blog and increase traffic coming from blog directories. However, it can only do so much. Now that traffic is beating at your door, you should be able to throw a real party thereafter. Make sure that the content associated with your tag/s is well worth your visitor’s click. It should offer specific information for a specific purpose and should include the content that you so readily promised in your links.

Otherwise, you won’t earn the trust of a loyal readership or following. A baited title that lacks the backing of useful content will be viewed as a cheap trick and won’t earn you a lot of respect – or traffic.