One known link building strategy is leaving comments on other peoples blogs. After all, it is free and easy to leave blog comments and thus it is an easy back-link. But easy should not be confused with simple and free should not be confused with free-for-all. There is a wisdom and etiquette (or should we say netiquette) to leaving comments online. Like everything else marketing related, quality is the key - you want to make sure that your comments add value to the posts that you are commenting on. However, “value” and “quality” are rather vague terms. What does it mean to add to the value of the post? Furthermore, where should you post your blog comments? Are all blogs created equal, or are some blogs more equal than others?

These questions and more are addressed in an excellent post and video tutorial by Amy Gahran of Capture The Conversation (www.capturetheconversation.com). In these posts Amy offers a number of helpful suggestions such as:

• Figuring out who you want to engage with your comments
• How to find blogs which relate to your target audience
• How to make strategic comments
• Following up your comments with posts on your own blog

And more…

The short of it, comments should be taken seriously and that is exactly what Amy has done. I recommend that you check out both her blog entry and the video tutorial (which takes, by the way, a little while to download, so be patient).

Amy’s blog post can be reached here.

Amy’s video tutorial can be seen here.

What I find particularly intersting about Amy’s post and video tutorial is that it shows us how even the (seemingly) simple things need to be done right. As I keep repeating over and over again, the key to marketing success is to offer your customers (where ever they may be) something which they need and currently do not have - in other words, value. Don’t think that your comments (or anything else seemingly small) should be any different.