By far one of the best methods of marketing your blog for free is to reply to your comments and comment on as many other blogs as possible. Many bloggers have built their entire readership on good content and commenting on other blogs at opportune times that can be used to advertise your expertise or a specific article you have written. Granted, taking the time to comment on other blogs can be viewed as expensive, the man hours put in to do are typically a good return on their investment.

On some of my other blogs, I routinely get around 50% of my referrals from people visiting through a comment I left on another blog. This number can go higher or lower depending on how much time I spent commenting or how popular the article I commented on is on the other blog. Some articles end up being very popular posts for other bloggers, and if you are one of the top few comments and have some insight or an article to share that sheds more light on the topic, you will likely see a healthy stream of traffic for some time.

Commenting on blogs also has another powerful benefit. Most bloggers these days allow their comments to carry a “do follow” rule that essentially gives your blog credit with a backlink from the blog you have commented on. Over time, this free form of search engine optimization really pays off. Be sure to link your articles with anchor text keywords you would like to be applied to that article in search engine results.

Lastly, commenting on other blogs shows you are a responsible and social member of the blogosphere, a perception that should not be taken lightly. Gaining status as a good commenter builds long-term goodwill and inspires others to not only take part themselves, but perhaps even stop by your site just to see what you are about. If your content does what you crafted it to do, this may be all you need to gain a brand new customer. This essentially, is the power of blogs. Get out and comment as much as possible, just make sure you have something to add and aren’t just spamming your business name all over the place. It’s better to not comment than cheapen your business name just for the sake of commenting.