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How to Get More Comments On Your Nonprofit Blog

Problem!

Nobody knows about you, yourblog, or who you are.

You need to createrelationships with people inyour niche.

You also need to buildbacklinks to your site to comeup higher in search engineresults.

And you want more commentson YOUR blog.

AND you want to drive people who are looking at sister nonprofits to your site.

How do you do all of this?

Commenting!

Commenting on other people's websites happily combines all of these goals into one series of actions. Namely, commenting every night on different blogs in your niche.

How do you find blogs to comment on?

Comment on the blogs you find most interesting, and also on blogs with the most incoming links. You can start to find these blogs by going to

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http://alltop.com and looking to see if there is a category for your niche. If there is, see who is listed there.

Also, do an internet search for the keywords for your niche and the wordblog and see what comes up. Do a search for a typical question in your cause area. You can find websites people go to frequently for answers to their questions.

How can you find out which blogs have the most incoming links?

Install SEOBook.com's toolbar for your Firefox browser. Just go to http://SEOBook.com and sign up. Then you'll be able to see how many incoming links the website has. Here's what it looks like.

There are lots of different numbers in the SEOBook toolbar, and I like to look at the MajesticSEO number of links (circled above), as well as the age of the site. There is a big audience if there are a lot of incoming links.A big audience means a lot of people will click on through to your website if you make a useful and thoughtful comment.

What makes a good comment?

Something 2-3 paragraphs long that shows that you really thought about the article, and also, that you took into account other commenters' view points. Don't just skip to the end (unless there are tons of comments). If there are 10 or fewer comments, take some time to see what other peoplethought.

For example, let's say you've written a long post about how to increase your blog readership. I have something to add to that. I might write:

“Dear Blog post writer,

Thank you so much for writing about getting more readers. It's not just about posting a lot though, it's about writing in a compelling way. And the only way to write better is to practice! I started out writing blog posts 5 days a week, and now I've gone to 2 days a week. I do a weekly e-newsletter though, which really helps people come back and read my blog.

Another thing I like to do is pick out pithy and illuminating sentences out of my blog post, and shorten the URL, and set up those sentences in Hootsuite for my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, especially in the

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morning. I've found that scheduling my updates for the morning, during the week, is the best.

I'm definitely going to try a couple of the methods you suggested though. This was helpful. Thanks again!

Mazarine”

Do you see how I offered two ways to build blog readership? And how I complimented the author as well? This is a good way to get people to seethat you have something useful to say. With some blog commenting systems, you can enter your URL and people can click your name and go directly to your website, or if you have a relevant blog article about the subject, you can link to that at the end of your comment as well. If you have a post related to the post you are commenting on, you could write, “I would like to continue the conversation here: http://bit.ly/ty” and link to your RELEVANT post.

Here's another example of a good comment.

This comment is in response to an article about universities trying to make nonprofit MBA programs. The post finished up with some resources people could use to do proper HR practices, as most nonprofits do not have an HR person. I wrote:

“Thanks for helping people feel a bit better about these tricky HR pieces of the nonprofit world. A lot of nonprofits could be more effective if they followed proper hiring and firing practices. I used to work with an orchestra board that thought if someone played a musical instrument, that was a good enough job qualification to be marketing director.

Thanks again for writing this.

Mazarine”

Here's another, shorter comment, based on a blog post at http://ReadWriteWeb.com. This blog post was an infographic about when it's best to send emails.

“I send a lot of emails and I've tried sending them at different times of day, and different days of the week. This infographic confirms my own experience, that the majority of times people open emails is between 8-9am on a weekday.

Thanks for sharing this fun infographic!

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Mazarinehttp://wildsocialmedia.com”

Remember, when you start to comment, don't just say “Nice post.” Say, “Dear <name of blog writer> and then a thoughtful opinion on their post,whether agreeing or disagreeing. Sign off with “Sincerely” or another respectful sign off, and put your name at the bottom. If you've really gotten into the whole comment process, and you've written something longer, consider copy-pasting your comment and making a whole blog post about it, linking back to the blog post that inspired you, and creatinggood will with that blogger.

How can you keep track of the blogs you want to comment on?

Use an RSS Feed Reader. Wha?

What is an RSS feed**? RSS stands for ReallySimple Syndication. This means that you cansave any search you do online, such as Craigslistsearches, SimplyHired.com, Google searches,and more. You can also save news websites,blogs, humor sites, whatever you like, as long asthey have feeds. A feed can be delineated with anorange symbol like the one on the right.

If you can't find the feed link on the website itself, then you can search for the website name plus the word “RSS feed.”

If you want to save a RSS feed for a Wordpress blog, try the name of the blog plus the word feed, at the end. So, for example: http://wildwomanfundraising.com becomes http://wildwomanfundraising.com/feed.

What is an RSS feed reader? An RSS Feed Reader is a place you can keep all of your internet searches saved, as well as a place to check your social networks, or your email if you like.

Would you like to learn more?

Check out Charity Blogging Gold!

What will you learn in Charity Blogging Gold?

** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

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Week One: Why and How to Get Started with Your Nonprofit Blog

• Why you seriously need a blog – aka “content to contact to cash”• How content marketing builds brand affinity, drives SEO and traffic,

builds awareness and credibility and turns ideas into action• 8 most Frequently Asked Questions about getting started• How to persuade the ‘powers that be’ of the importance of blogging• Going from Zero to Sixty with your website and blog + 30-day checklist• Getting your domain and hosting• Picking a wordpress theme• Learning how to use Wordpress

BONUS: Top 10 Checklist to Simplify Nonprofit Blogging by Claire Axelrad

Week Two: Create blog posts that rivet your reader

• 3 little-understood factors affecting blog readership• Discover the content your audience wants• Build a blog content editorial calendar + sample templates• Topics, titles and intros, oh my! How to get your content opened and

read• Where to find constituent-centered content: stories; hot-button issues;

entertainment and more!• Write your first ten posts + sample post template

Week Three: Engage Your Readers to take action

• How to create engaging content worth sharing• How to write so people will listen and act• How to get people to sign up for your e-newsletter and/or blog• How to find your natural influencers and advocates• What’s in it for your constituents if they answer your call to action?

Week Four: Promote Your Blog; Track Your Progress

• How do you inspire digital word of mouth?• How to optimize for search + keyword checklist• How to report progress to your boss?• How to get more comments on your blog

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• How to get people to share your posts• How to get people to donate• How to find public domain images that boost sharing• How to re-purpose blog content for other communications• How to take your blog to the next level

BONUS Materials include:

BONUS: “Wildly Successful Nonprofit Blogging” (webinar recording by Mazarine Treyz)

BONUS: Blog Content Checklist (Claire Axelrad)

BONUS: 100 Blogging Ideas (Mazarine Treyz)

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BONUS: “The Keys to Nonprofit Blogging that Drives Engagement” (webinar recording by Claire Axelrad)

BONUS: “How to do Social Media for Your Nonprofit in 15 Minutes a Day” webinar recording by Mazarine Treyz

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BONUS: “How to Get People to Click “Donate” on Your Nonprofit Website (webinar recording by Mazarine Treyz)

What is an E-course?An e-course is written material, sent to you every week, in a printable format. It will also include a recorded webinar. We created this format so that you can go at your own pace, and fit the e-course into your busy schedule.

Is it live?One person asked, is it a live webinar that I’ll need to login to attend? It is not alive webinar. Because of everyone’s busy schedules, we are making this e-

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course of written material, plus a recorded webinar, so that you can learn this information exactly when it is convenient for you.

How long will the course take me to complete?The course will take roughly 2 hours a week. There’s also a recorded webinar that may take a little more time.

Will there be printable materials?Yes! Every week you will get an email with an attached pdf that you can print and put into a binder.

Will there be any opportunities to ask questions?Absolutely! You can email me unlimited emails for the duration of the course.

Will there be practice exercises to complete?Yes, there will be practice exercises to complete. Iinclude worksheets and templates in all of my webinarsand e-courses. I believe that if you apply your learninginstantly, then it sticks!

Is there a money-back guarantee?YES! If you are not satisfied for any reason, I offer a 30day money-back guarantee.

Click here to learn more about Charity Blogging Gold

or visit this link: http://wildwomanfundraising.com/product/charity-blogging-gold/

About the teacher:

Mazarine Treyz, BA, (Bard College), is theauthor of the popular Wild Woman’s Guide toFundraising. Her book was named as one of theTop 10 books of 2010 by Beth Kanter, CEO ofZoetica and author of The NetworkedNonprofit.

She currently has 40,000 monthly readers of herblog, WildWomanFundraising.com, and getsthousands of dollars a month through her onlineefforts. Her book, The Wild Woman's Guide toSocial Media, received the highest rating, 5 stars,from Nonprofit.About.com.

In 2003 Mazarine Treyz wrote her first grants

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for Indonesian nonprofit Yayasan Emmanuel. In 2005 she co-founded a nonprofit called “The Moon Balloon Project” on the south shore of Boston, MA. Since that time she has raised over $1M for various local, national, and international nonprofits with appeals, emails, grants, sponsorships, and more.

Speaking engagements include:

• Association of Fundraising Professionals (2014) • Blackbaud (2013-2014) • Volunteermatch.org (2013-2014) • GuideStar (2013-2014) • 4Good.org (2014) • National SBA Small Business Week (2013) • Oregon SBDC (2013) • Willamette Valley Development Officers (2013) • Scleroderma Foundation National Leadership Conference (2012-2013) • Meals on Wheels National training seminars and conference (2012-2013) • University of Portland’s Master’s in Nonprofit Management program

(2012) • Center for Nonprofit Organizations, (2011) • Young Nonprofit Professionals Network in Austin (2011) • Texas Association for Nonprofit Organizations (TANO) (2010) and

more.

Ms. Treyz has taught thousands of national and international nonprofits how tofundraise since 2009. Ms. Treyz created the first Fundraising Android Apps in 2010. In 2013 she published Get the Job! Your Fundraising Career Empowerment Guide, which also got a 5 star rating from Nonprofit.About.com.Click here to learn more about Mazarine

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