There is a lot of talk about how blog commenting can increase the traffic on your website and thus “should improve the value” of your blog. Dennis commented on my last post “Stop Thinking, Start Acting” and I am quoting his comment here on the part where I said that getting traffic from fellow bloggers isn´t the best way to monetize your site, because I don´t agree with what he says:

“If I may politely and ever so slightly disagree – Yes, that’s exactly what it could lead to. What do potential advertisers (assuming you’re looking for them) like to see more then almost anything else? Activity. If you’re not “out there” no one will be in here.

I agree 100% that social activities shouldn’t be the bulk of ones time, but on the flip I woud never advise giving it up altogether either. Article marketing and the like is an awesome avenue like many others, but if no one knows who you are, never sees you around, how long is that going to last?”

There are a few things I would like to say about this comment and to clarify, these are my personal opinions and every body is free to think otherwise:

  1. Fellow bloggers don´t bring in the money, especially not in the MMO niche
  2. Potential Advertisers look at ROI not at just “activity”
  3. Money comes from people searching for solutions, not from info addicts
  4. I prefer long term strategies over short bursts of traffic
  5. You don´t need to be a Big Name to get the Big Payouts

Yep, 5 reasons why I don´t agree with the above comment, sorry pal.

Fellow bloggers don´t bring in the money, especially not in the MMO niche

This one actually took me quite a long time to figure out *blushing here in shame*. Now anybody could argue and say but hey “look at John Chow” he is making tons of money off of “fellow MMO bloggers” but guess what, he is not your fellow blogger!

I mean, do you see him going round to other blogs and comment on everybody and their dog´s blog to get visitors in?? I bet he makes a lot of sales in the MMO niche because probably most people that find his blog are noobs that aren´t aware of the affiliate links placed everywhere.  But as soon as people start learning about the affiliate marketing structure, when buying any product I think that at least 90% will buy the product through their own link, not yours! And yes he probably earns big on advertising on his blog because he has a huge subscribers list.

Now anybody can argue with me that the “ethical way” to do things is to not steal affiliate links and replace them with your own before buying a product, but come on, be realistic about this. Your visitors don´t feel any fuzzy feelings towards any of the ads on your blog, so the chance of them stealing the affiliate link is much bigger, if they are visitors from the MMO niche.

Potential Advertisers look at ROI not at just any “activity”

This one is another thing I think one should really understand. Not any activity online is profitable, so you have to look at why a potential advertiser wants to buy ad space…

If I were to invest in putting an ad for any of my products or websites somewhere, I don´t look at the “front” activity in the meanings of how many comments there are on a particular blog. I mean, of course it looks fantastic, a blog with zillions of comments and such, but what if all of those comments are coming from other bloggers using blog commenting as a link building strategy? I bet at least a considerable percentage of comments are exactly that. I much rather advertise on a blog that can show me with statistics as proof that the bulk of their traffic comes from search engines, because those are the people actually looking for an answer, (after all, they did search for it, right?) and not regular fellow (info addict) bloggers.

So really, if you want to make money from your blog by getting advertisers to pay for your sidebar real estate and you want them to become long term investors, there should be a good ROI, in other words, the advertisement they put on your blog should bring in MONEY (not just clicks).

Money comes from people searching for solutions, not from info addicts

Another one that took me quite a bit to understand but now that I do, it just makes so much sense to me that I don´t get just why it took me such a long time to see the difference. All of the social sites like Digg, Tweeter and what not are full of people spending their time reading (and some researching), socializing and “staying on top of what is out there”. So yeah, these social sites can bring you a wave of traffic, but do you really think they are going to spend a dime on anything you are promoting?

They might, if you are lucky, but I bet there is a much higher probability that people who are looking for answers and solutions spend money than those who are just looking around, reading and socializing. Where do people look for answers and solutions? Do they go to tweeter to find a remedy for their blown up toe? Do they look at Digg to solve whatever problem they have?

……… Drumroll please…. they go to a search engine!

Ok, so you could arguee here that getting links from social sites is good too, but wouldn´t you prefer to be able to target potential buyers right where they start looking for their answers? And therefor spend most of your precious time actually focusing on getting the traffic that is looking for an answer with money in their pockets, willing to spend it?

Now it sounds logical to me -in hindsight of course- because my statistics are actually showing that it works better for me to get traffic through search engines instead of social sites and socialing on other blogs. And by statistics I mean ROI not just any activity!

I prefer long term strategies over short bursts of traffic

I will never say that people shouldn´t comment, socialize, digg, tweet or whatever to get traffic to their site. I mean, if you want to spend your time being sociable, please go ahead and do so. I did and boy was I excited in the beginning of this blog to see sudden bursts of 3, 4, 500 visits in a day. It would make my day, seriously.

And man it was wonderful to see some great comments and getting recognition from other bloggers, it sure did feed my ego. Did it feed my wallet though? Did the traffic continue at the same rate as soon as I stopped actively promoting a site? Guess you can tell me the answer yourself but if you can´t, I will tell you… as soon as I stopped spending hours commenting on other blogs, clicking entrecards and trying to land a few good Diggs, the traffic slowed down big time.

However, when putting out articles in different places, targeting my keywords on my sites, and actually seeing my search engine rankings go up for quality longtails, traffic started coming in and keeps coming in after only publishing a few articles per page.

You don´t need to be a Big Name to get the Big Payout

Now this might go against anything you have probably seen out there, after all, people only spend their money when they trust the source, right? At least, that is told on all the MMO blogs I have seen so far and in a way it makes sense if you are a MMO blogger yourself. So it is said that you should put yourself out there, comment on other blogs, socialize so that people actually get to know you, trust you and then buy your products, right?

I sincerely think this only goes if what you are trying to sell is your OWN product, or if you have a HUGE mailing list. Now, huge mailing lists aren´t build in a week, nor in a month if you don´t actually buy them or invest a ton of money in getting the leads or whatever. And please realize that I am not saying here that being a big name is bad, I am just saying that you don´t need to BE one to actually get money.

This realization actually came after I started using the One Week Marketing Plan by PotPieGirl and probably in the near future I am going to put up a review on that program (even though I realize that fellow MMO bloggers won´t bring me any cash ROFL), but I do feel it is important to break down the myth of “being a big name is the way to bring in big money”.

Just think about this one for a bit. Look at any of the marketers out there that are making it big time. They might have a flagship website that is attached to their name, but do you really think that is the only website that brings in the cash? Or could it be quite possible that they run numerous other sites without attaching their name to it?

And another thing to think about for a bit. If you really need to be seen out there to get somewhere, how come PPC is a huge market? After all PPC-ers don´t show their name or face, right? What they do is lead target traffic to a certain website that sells a product, without “them being seen in the scene”, right?

So basically, what I am getting at is that as an article marketer, you don´t need to become famous, you need to choose the product you want to promote correctly, make sure you target traffic that is looking for solutions and answers, willing to spend money and then lead them to that product. The one that needs to be “seen” after all is the product you are getting affiliate commission for.

My conclusion:

As far as article marketing and “how long it is going to last” I think the longevity is much higher than any commenting or socialization strategy ;)

Too many people are getting sucked into the MMO scene and what other MMO-ers are spreading out there and therefor are defying their own chances of actually building a real business online.

Too many people over estimate the value of social traffic and blog commenting, too many people underestimate the true value of search engine traffic. Too many people keep researching and try finding the “secret to making money online fast” without taking action.

You as a visitor can take these words any way you want, after all, who do I really think I am without showing a $36,000.00 monthly pay check?

Am I telling you to stop commenting, socializing and what not? No, not saying that you should, just saying that you should make sure you use your time wisely if you want to build a real business out of creating websites and affiliate marketing.

But please do yourself a favor if you want to build a business online, get serious and take action doing things that give you a good return on investment, whether that be time, money and/or effort.

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