Post-It Notes – 28th October 2011: Being YOU & Commenting Correctly

Photography Credit: Nathan Russell Photography (full wedding to come next week)

I’m keeping it simple this week. You know this already but I do like to reiterate and repeat the fundamentals of the Rock n Roll Bride’s ethos occasionally.

Plan your wedding your way and forget what the rest of the world is saying you should (or shouldn’t) do. If you like something that’s ‘trendy’ in the wedding scene, who cares – rock it out. If you like stuff that would freak out most of the population then hell yes that’s got to be in your big day. If you don’t like ‘stuff’ at all then forget it.

Be you.

Innit…

If you have a website or blog which you link to your business, then commenting on other people’s blogs is a great way to make connections, get involved and (hopefully) drive people to check your site out too.

However there are certain unwritten do’s and don’ts when it comes to blog commenting and it’s sometimes hard to keep up. Apart from people purposely spewing out spam comments (luckily most of which get caught by anti-spam plugins) many of the ‘rules’ that are being broken are done so by people who simply don’t know any better. So here are a few simply tips to get you started…

♥ Using your vocation instead of your real name is a big no no – logging in and commenting as ‘Wedding Photography London’ for example. Not only can your comments get accidently picked up as spam but it’s rude (if someone does this on my site constantly I’ll end up deleting their comments because it’s obviously they’re not wanting to add to the discussion, they’re simply wanting to generate some Google juice) annoying and really doesn’t help your SEO or Google rank (imagine how many other people have the phrase ‘Wedding Photography London’ in their website metadata! Google algorithems are constantly evolving and quite simply it’s nigh on impossible to ‘cheat’ your way to the top of Google by using tricks like this.

Be genuine with your comments, and if people are interested in what you’re saying, they’re likely to check out your site eventually. Your blog traffic will grown organically. I promise.

♥ Do not add a link to your own site within your comment – again it’s rude and can get picked up as spam if done over and over. Also most people won’t click it. Instead, add your blog url into the log on form and your name will become clickable through to your site instead.

♥ Don’t be rude or mean! Debate is good but out and out meanness is not. The blog owner has the right to publish or delete any comments they wish. My blog is not a democracy, it’s mine – and if your commnets are unnecessarily defamatory they ain’t getting published. No question.

♥ Sign up for Gravatar -  a globally recognized avatar system. It’s easier for people to appreciate and be familiar with a photograph of someone’s face rather than just text.

Hope this helps and happy commenting!