There are many benefits to blog commenting. However, it is often misused and it's annoying for bloggers to deal with spam comments. It is an undeniable fact that most of us comment on other blogs for SEO purposes. Some of us do it for networking purposes. Most of the blogs have comment moderation enabled. This means that the bloggers behind these blogs have to manually approve the comments made on their blogs. So how do we comment on blogs properly without being considered as spammers? First let's check out the benefits of blog commenting:

• You get backlinks. do-follow or no-follow they are all beneficial to your blog.
• Your blog gets more exposure on the Internet.
• You pass on the message to the bloggers about your existence, increasing the chances of networking opportunities.
• You will know what other bloggers in your niche are doing and what their readers are communicating between each other.

Aside from all the benefits above, blog commenting can also be very damaging to your blog. Each comment that you leave represents yourself, your brand. Keep in mind that comments can be tracked!

When you are leaving comments on blogs, make sure that you stay on the topic and don't forget to enter in your blog website address. You can either choose to respond to the posts themselves or respond to the post comments. Either way, make sure that your comments are educational and add values to the posts.

Be explicit on what you have to say. If you agree to the post write a sentence of two explaining why. If you don't agree with the post write a few sentences to back up your point of view. When you want to ask a questions, make sure that they are relevant and insightful. In general, your comments should be:

• Relevant
• Insightful
• Constructive
• Without grammar errors

If you keep the above in mind when you make comments, your comments will look professional and, more importantly, will draw attention from other readers and bloggers. When people read an insightful comment, they are more likely to be tempted to click on the comment author link, your blog link. quality comments are "bridges" for new readers to reach your blog.

Tip: Even though using your keywords in the name field when commenting on other blogs is better for SEO, sometimes using your real name can add some "personal touch" to your comments. People are more interested on the person who left the comment, rather than seeing a generic company name.

Forums commenting works very much the same as blog commenting, with the only differences that you can actually start a thread by yourself, and that you can add your personal signature to your comments. When adding your comments onto a forum, the same guidelines also apply - make sure that your comments are relevant, insightful, constructive, and have no grammatical errors.

Target established blogs and forums

When you make comments on blogs and forums, you want to make sure that your comments stay on the blogs and forums. Don't go for new blogs or forums that might shutdown in the near future, even if they offer do-follow author links. Target high quality and established blogs and forums, these are the places where your will get the most out of your efforts.

Avoid these blog commenting mistakes

• Adding an URL within your comment - When you post comments on blogs, there is usually a field for you to enter in your website if you have one. That is exactly where you should include your website URL without looking like a spammer.
• Double-posting - Double posting is simply not cool for anyone to see. Never hit refresh or back after you submit a comment.
• Pretending to be someone else - Did you know that IPs are tracked? If you are thinking of adding hostile comments and trying to get away with it by hiding your real identity, trust me, everything is traceable.
• Lying - People can often tell if you are being dishonest with your comments. In fact, most dishonest comments sound "spammy." Comments like "Yes, I agree, very nice post" do not provide any values at all to readers. Be honest with yourself and explain your point of view.
• Having grammatical errors - Grammar erors, not profesional at all. Make sure you double check before you hit the submit button!
• Commenting on the wrong post - If you have already read a couple of posts and have all the comments / feedback in your mind, make sure that you post your comments on corresponding posts. This happens sometimes and it just looks very funny.
• Thanking the wrong person for a "great post" - This happens a lot when people don't realize that the post they just read is a guest post, and they thank the author of the blog for writing such great post.
• Ignoring what the author said - Don't go straight to the comment box after reading the first paragraph of the post. Be patient and carefully read through what the author is really saying before you proceed to provide your feedback.
• Asking people to link to you - When people feel you are worthy for them to link back, they will. Asking for links simply make you look desperate. SEO is a long term thing and requires a lot of patience to see the results.