Why I Stopped Commenting On Your Blog

March 22, 2011 85 Comments

I’m known around these here parts as a commenting fiend. And yet -in the last few weeks or so- I’ve pretty much dropped off the face off the earth. Why?

Everyone knows –or at least, everyone ought to know- that commenting is a great way of building relationships with other bloggers AND driving traffic to your site.

However, in the anticipation of launching Triberr, I wanted to remove commenting as the source of traffic in order to better measure the impact Triberr might have on my traffic.

None the less, my traffic pretty much continued to resemble the wavy pattern seen above.

I did few other things to ensure I get as accurate results as possible; for example, I scheduled my RSS driven email campaign to run the day after the post has been published. This way, any traffic received is mostly due to Triberr.

Great Expectations

When we first launched Triberr, our tagline was Triberr: Double Your Traffic. Why?

I was convinced that Triberr had the power to double your traffic. Alas, that’s not what happened. Triberr TRIPLED my traffic.

On 3/15/2011 I published a post The Age Of Social Media Superstars Is OVER!!! The spike in traffic you see above is the result of Triberr spreading that post across all the members of my tribe.

Now, I’ll grant you. That headline is very much on code. It’s very attractive to people in the social media space and that –no doubt- had a lot to do with people clicking to check out the post.

Before I show you what happened the next day, let me share some other relevant stats.

As you can see below, the average time on that page is over 8 minutes. That is HUGE!!!

Also, the bounce rate is quite high. This tells me that most of the visitors got there for the first time, read the post and bounced. It takes repeat visits to make a dent in someone’s mind and make them stick.

The Day After

The day after, I published a very off code post. At least it’s headline was off code.

3 Master Tribe Strategies to Reach Multiplication. I mean, what the hell does that even mean?

So the traffic dropped off, however, it was still way better than normal.

The Day After the Day After

The next day, 3/17/2011 I published a guest post by Stacey Herbert.

5 Things You Should Do To Lose Your Blogging Virginity Like a Slut.

That headline hits all sorts of emotional triggers. If you need any proof of that, here is a comment from Francisco Rosales of Socialmoughts.com

Also, the traffic confirmed the headline’s emotional viralbility.

Thanks to the most excelent, human headline, amazing post by Stacey and Triberr, Thursday was my best traffic day ever.

Triberr Extends Your Reach Inward As Well

We changed Triberr’s tagline from Double Your Traffic to The Reach Multiplier. I think it better reflects its core functionality.

Sure, on one hand it extends your reach by tapping into the networks of other tribe members, but on the other, it does way more than that.

Connections are made amongst triberrs as well. Kazia Mullin -through serendipitous circumstances- ended up in the Mighty Jaffa Tribe with Gini Dietrich. Which resulted in a guest post offer on Gini’s highly regarded marketing blog.

So, I hope everyone had missed my insightful comments. I promise I will be back to comment on your blog really soon.
What will you say in the comments sections below?

As you read this post, I’m flying from the East Coast to the way back West. I will be landing in Tuscan, AZ and plan on having a fun filled few days. Wish me good luck.

Social Media Optimization

building relationships, Commenting, double your traffic, emotional, Gini Dietrich, Kazia Mullin, Mighty Jaffa Tribe, social media space, triberr, Triberr TRIPLED my traffic, viralbility

5 Things You Should Do To Lose Your Blogging Virginity Like a Slut

How To Download and Test ANY Premium WordPress Theme For FREE

http://live-your-love.com/ Brankica U

We all know and understand why and where you are going

And I know you will have fun!

Awesome stats, see ya when you get back. OOOOps I am having a crazy trip tomorrow, guess I’ll see ya when we all get sober!
http://twitter.com/thatIMthing Dahlia Valentine

Hey Dino… I’ve been a member of Triberr for a couple of weeks now. For the first week I kept seeing these spikes of traffic every now and then and I would wonder what was going on — forgetting that I was in Triberr. Then it dawned on me the other night when I saw a really huge jump in traffic… wait a minute… is that my Triberr?!? High five… that IS my Triberr! So Mr. Lousy Mixed Martial Artist… your creation is definitely making my traffic toes curl.

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

You are one of the early ones yes…one of the taglines we kicked around for triberr was Triberr: Quietly Effective

http://www.mypurplebutterfly.net Purple’S Theory

good to give it a try. and have fun!
http://www.thefriendlyblogger.com Lisa

Dino, I have so missed your input!!! However, much better things you have been creating as I LOVE Triberr. I forgot for a moment about my tribe and saw all these RT’s. Then I had the AHA moment and was like…ka powie this shiz works! Kudos to you my friend on a great product!

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Have you started building your own tribes yet?

http://www.thejackb.com/ The JackB

Triberr has had an impact on my traffic. I have only been a part of it for a few days now but I have noticed that the numbers are creeping up steadily. I think that you have found something special here and am grateful to be a part.
http://twitter.com/NancyD68 Nancy Davis

That is really great and very inspirational. I am really glad I saw this. Going to add you to my subscription list.

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Thnx Nancy. Lemme know if you have a blog, I didnt see one associated with your twitter account.

http://twitter.com/Faryna Stan Faryna

Good things.
Anonymous

To have temporarily lost you from my comment stream so that you could go forth and create Triberr is a sacrifice I happily make.
http://www.itinerantentrepreneur.com/journal/ Robert Dempsey

All the comments I got from you were mostly via Skype, and that hasn’t changed So I’m still a happy Rob here. As for the effects of Triberr – I got some numbers on that myself kind sir and will happily lay the groundwork for that here Comment takeover! But seriously Triberr is awesome, and the Jaffa tribe rules!
Sabjimata

so how do i hook up with a tribe?

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Lemme check out your blog and twitter. Leave the info right here in the comments section.

http://kevinekmark.com/blog Kevin Ekmark

This has got to be one of the coolest ideas I have seen in a long time! As a young social media professional, I desperately need to be critiqued to grow. This.is.awesome.
http://www.creativeflavor.com/ext/blog Janna Polzin

I’ve seen a sharp jump in my blog traffic since getting on Triberr. It looks to be about a 200% increase in Twitter traffic in the last 2 weeks. Bounce rate has crept up only slightly.

I’m interested to see how it helps when I actually start blogging more (I’ve dropped off in frequency a bit dealing with other things) and build up a tribe that is more tailored to my niche.

I love what you’ve developed here, Dino. It’s a great tool and I can’t wait to build up a couple good tribes.
http://markharai.com Mark Harai

Congratulations on Tiberr Dino – I’m going to get it figured out!

Cheers : )

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Do you have any tribes of your own? If not, no worries, we will be making them for you really soon

http://markharai.com Mark Harai

I haven’t gotten that far Dino… I’ve been a bit slammed with some deadlines the last couple of weeks. That would be really cool if you guys helped develop tribes.

One question – I obviously have some bloggers I preference over others. As well, I’m sure that most bloggers connected to you rock, but there are others I would really like to support. Am I asking too much to have the ability to choose my posse?

I hate even asking that man. I just need to dig in and learn more about the app and I will get that done by the weekend. Only problem now is I’m taking a trip to Nicaragua with the in-laws this weekend… another distraction to getting work done haha!

I’m looking forward to seeing what the Triberr crew serves up – cheers Dino : )

http://spinsucks.com Gini Dietrich

I’ve been trying to figure that out too, Mark. For instance, I have some really good friends who blog about law marketing. Which wouldn’t make sense for me to tweet about because it’d be totally out of left field. Sure I read their blogs and I comment on them, but I don’t always share with my networks. So I’m struggling with how to build tribes with bloggers that aren’t out of left field.

http://markharai.com Mark Harai

Ah, some good stuff to make Dino aware of… I’m sure there are some posts coming soon that will address these questions.

You certainly don’t want people to think you’ve lost your mind. Danny, Joey, Ingrid, Ken, Joe and the rest of the motley crew will have a hey day with that…

Ooh… that would be fun to watch Haha!

Make it a great day Gini : )
http://spinsucks.com Gini Dietrich

And apparently you too!
http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Excellent concerns you guys.

One way Ive been dealing with that issue is by having a transitory tribe. In other words, I bring people in and tell them to get the hell out (you can even remove them from the tribe yourself.) But at least this way they are in and they can start building their own tribes which is really the point of Triberr.

The other thing Ive been doing is connecting people from the outside with people on Triberr. Folks who fit well together, are in the same niche or whatever.

The third thing that Ive been recommending to people is to stop being so damn shy. The outsiders can view tribes and request to join whichever tribe seams to fit their niche. And if the blog doesnt suck and their twitter stream is not spammy, there is no reason for any Chief to refuse the entry.

Hope this helps.

I will try to think of other ways we can make this easier on everyone.

http://www.3hatscommunications.com/blog/ davinabrewer

You mean I have to learn something else?! Still not sure I know how AllInOneSEO works.These tools today, I tell ya. I still like good headlines mixed with a little natural SEO. And ITA with Francisco, that one headline rocked. That said your stats are impressive Dino, Triberr is on the list to check out. Wondering about traffic spikes, did it increase comments too? RTs? How does it relate to targeted audiences, strategy? Like I said, I’ll look into it. Thanks for sharing.
http://peggybaron.com/blog Peggy Baron

Hey Dino,
This looks awesome! Good work!
I want IN – will someone invite me to be in their tribe please!?!

Peggy

http://twitter.com/dancristo Dan Cristo

Hey Peggy. What sort of stuff do you write about? I’m sure I can help you get an invite.

http://peggybaron.com/blog Peggy Baron

Hi Dan,
Paul sent me an invite this morning. Thanks though!
Peggy

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http://twitter.com/bdorman264 Bill Dorman

Pretty impressive and it’s great it’s exceeding expectations. Are you going to be like the next M Zuckerberg and I can say I knew you when?

Goin’ global baby, keep on rollin’.

Good luck to you.
http://www.allisondevelopmentgroup.com Erica Allison

Thanks for the insights, Dino! Looks like you’ve made an impact for sure. I have to say I’m still getting used to my Triberr experience and while I’m rocking the RT, I’m not sure the comments are on the same level. Having only been at this less than a week now, I’m watching and need to do some of my own analytics (just checked out the Triberr page snapshot and that’s very cool – 191 clicks on my recent post).

I will say that my Tribe is the bomb…I have really enjoyed getting to know the members (didn’t really know ANY of them!) and their blogs. As I mentioned in an earlier comment/post, I was slightly freaking out the first day that my Triberr experience went ‘live’ because here I was RTing about all of these blog posts that I had not yet read. If you know me by now, you know I am a die hard read, comment if possible, then RT kind of gal. Summary point: you have to be comfy with your tribe and what they post or their style. Now that I know I can preview, I feel infinitely better!

All good, Dino. Enjoy your mad-cap adventure (whatever that might be!).

http://twitter.com/dancristo Dan Cristo

+1 for Erica’s thoughtful and insightful comment.
http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Hi Erica. Being a member of one tribe is nice, but things really start to happen when you have built out your own tribes.

Also, one feature we’re building right now is to allow or not explicit content. I have a post on my pile that is extremely explicit and I know some triberrs would likely lose followers because of its title. We want to make sure members have an option.

So for example, Im perfectly happy to lose few people because of profanity (I lost 2 subscribers because of the word “slut” in the previous post) which is perfect. People who stay are my kind of people

But at the same time, I wouldnt use that type of language on my dog blog. So diff strokes sometimes for even same folks

Long story short..we’re going to make Triberr really cool and get crackalackin on building your own tribes.

http://twitter.com/dancristo Dan Cristo

Fantastic results my man. And they’re going to be even better now that replay is here…

http://twitter.com/Faryna Stan Faryna

Replay? Tell me more.

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

See http://triberr.com/blog/how-to-breath-new-life-into-old-posts-with-triberr/

http://twitter.com/lavenderuses Patricia Millman

Hi Dino

Still figuring it out but sure I will see the benefits soon. Great idea Dino and yes you have been missed.

Patricia Perth Australia

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Hi Patricia. At this time, there is really only one thing to do on Triberr. And that is to build out your tribes. Being such an amazing connector, this should be way easy for you. I mean, if Im a commenting fiend then you are commenting super-fantastic-ubber-fiend

Anonymous

Dino

Still early days for me and using Triberr – but I’m really excited about the possibilities! Thanks for inviting me in – now I need to create my own tribe!

Paul

http://twitter.com/dancristo Dan Cristo

Hey Paul,
Good to see you on Triberr. You should have three fresh tribes ready to build up. Let me know if I can help in any way.

http://websitesgiveback.com/blog/ Elena Patrice

It’s a privilege to be on Triberr and I’m really just getting my feet wet. I think Triberr is a brilliant idea and the possibilities are exciting. Working on building my tribe right now. Thank you for letting me be a part of it! With kindness, Elena
http://www.getting-unstuck.com/http://fearlessdating.wordpress.com/http://www.getting-unstuck.com/ riley Harrison

Good luck Dino! Stacey got me to join
Riley

http://twitter.com/dancristo Dan Cristo

Glad to hear you’re on Triberr, Riley. How are you liking it so far?

http://spinsucks.com Gini Dietrich

You know, this makes me wonder how our traffic has been affected by this awesome idea of yours. I’ll have to look and do my own review of the stats. One thing, anecdotally you’ll be interested to learn, the entire world (OK, slight exaggeration) is asking me about Tribber.

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

I would love to see some stats for spinsucks as well. One unfair advantage I have over most is that I’ve built out all my tribes. While Jaffa is very powerful, its only one tribe. Having all 4 tribes filled with quality peeps -regardless of the number of followers- was paramount to my traffic increase (as well as comment.)

I checked stats for this post and they are way over the ones pictured above. 429 hits the day of. Just amazing. And we are only starting

http://www.kimberlygauthier.com Kimberly

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to checking out Triberr. The slut title got a lot of attention on my page when I shared it due to the title and the picture. Loved it! Glad it was a great post too
http://askaaronlee.com Aaron Lee

Must be because of the Jaffa tribe! muahaha! kidding!
Great job man! a lot of people are asking me for invitation code, i send most of them your way
http://twitter.com/ElisesReview Elise M

WHAT. I DEMAND that you go comment on my blog immediately, lol.

But wow, the stats from Tribrr totally blow me away. It’s actually insane and has almost completely changed my mind about this thing. I still hate automating things, but this is pretty awesome. AND I even find new blogs to read this way, because I’m tweeting other people’s stuff from Tribrr. Nice job, can’t wait to see it grow!

http://twitter.com/dancristo Dan Cristo

“almost”?

Melanie Parker

Dino, Love the post. I will be checking out Triberr. I love reading other people’s post and commenting. I hope someone will invite me to their tribe. Thx HealthyinNewyork
Karen Bice

Great post, Dino. Interesting stats and congratulations! I’m glad Triberr is going well. I’m not surprised the blogging virginity post got the attention it did. It sure got mine.Have a great time in AZ.
http://twitter.com/janetcallaway Janet Callaway

Dino, aloha. WOW! Thx so much for sharing these stats. So appreciate that you took the time off from commenting to be able to such what triberr is doing for us. Many mahalos to you and Dan for creating this incredible tool to help us multiply our reach. Aloha. Janet
http://www.mylifestylemax.com Stacey

Hi Dino, as someone who has not been blogging long at all, the first time, I saw my post being tweeted by so many other quality, respected bloggers, was yet another first for me, a real…OMG kind of moment.

I’ve yet to really take full advantage of building out my tribes. But I’m not in a rush…triberr…is here to stay RIGHT? So my plan is to take my time, start forming good relationships with people and take it from there. Triberr, shorted url’s are like the new b.itly, freaking everywhere. It’s awesome. Dan, and Dino you have done something really intuitive and ground breaking here, thanks a million for asking me to be apart of it..I’m truly honoured

stacey

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

My fav guest blogger checks in. Thnx

If I may make a suggestion. Dont wait to build your tribes. Build them now.

One of the main reasons Triberr has taken off the way it did is due to our focus on speed of implementation. We decided to build it now, make mistakes, forgive ourselves, and keep it moving. I want you to do the same.

In fact, I will help you get started. Email will follow shortly.

http://kpwriting.com/ writers job

really interesting info..
http://www.geekface.co.uk Geek Face

Dino, this looks awesome, what a great idea. When will this bad boy come out of beta?

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Dude…I love your blog…this baby doesnt have to come out of beta for you to get an invite. Just email me at dino.dogan at gmail ….I’ll hook you up.

http://www.geekface.co.uk Geek Face

Excellent thanks Dino, I’m sending that email now.

http://www.philz-corner.com Phil

I have been using Triberr for a maximum of a week maybe? And it sure has helped my traffic. Horray for Triberr! I still have some invites left too for my ‘Ctrl Alt Elite’ Tribe. =]

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Once you build out your tribes you will really start seeing increase in traffic. And its only the beginning..you will love what we have in store for you

http://clevermarketer.com Heather C Stephens

Hi Dino,

I need to focus on getting my tribes built…been a little sidetracked with my forum the last week or so. I’m totally pumped about it after reading your post here! Thanks for bringing this reach multiplier to us! I can’t wait to play with it more and see the results for myself!

Happy weekend to you!
Heather
http://plrarticlesnow.com Murray Lunn

I mean, when you think about it, you shouldn’t be using commenting as a form of traffic in the first place – it’s meant really to make connections with other bloggers. Your time is best spent developing content and your venture rather than trying to comment on as many blogs as possible ya know? If you spent 1 hour commenting on blogs than that could have been 1 hour of creating a new post

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

All of that IS true. But I cant deny that I get a lot of traffic because of the comments. So I figured Id make that clear.

http://twitter.com/YesVictory Edwin

Congrats with Triberr dude. Hopefully can grow even bigger and set up the potential of more traffic to its users
http://www.thelasthonestguy.com The Last Honest Guy

Hey Dino, that’s a pretty awesome concept you have there. Best wishes my friend. BTW instead of making it just to Arizona you should have made it all the way to Cali. Cheers!

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

You need to get on triberr and start your own relationship tribe….I tried contacting you but youve been mia lately…everything ok? Send me an email..lemme know whats been happenin with you.

http://www.thelasthonestguy.com The Last Honest Guy

Sure, let me know how…

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http://www.best-web-hosting-companies.com/ Kavya Hari

Now only i heard about Triberr. so, i have to try it out. But at the time, it’s one of the worthfull article without any mistakes.Thanks a lot for given your post on here:-)
http://www.uncorporateblogging.com Tia Peterson

How long were you in Tucson? That’s where I live. Did you have fun-filled days?

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Im still here in fact. We’re going to Bisbee today

http://twitter.com/Kiwes Kimberly Ranee Hicks

You are my hero Dino. Perhaps you can give me personal insight. Do you charge a fee for your professional advice?

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Hey Kim…you are making yourself at home on my blog today, arent you That makes me very happy.

I haven’t had time for a lot of one on one consulting in the last few months. And my rates are ridiculously high…so it really depends on how much consulting you need email me at dino.dogan at gmail, we can discuss what you need and take it from there

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http://www.nuwomb.com Scott Webb

Ah yes, this was the blog post I saw back in March that got me interested in Triberr. Very interested to see more as time passes

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Hey Scott. Welcome to Triberr…I saw you sign up.

Believe me…its been very interesting for me as well sitting in the driver’s seat lol

Anonymous

Dude your style of writing is extremely entertaining. I’m hoping Triberr really catches on as I’ve enjoyed using the service so far.

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Thnx Corey, much appreciated. Triberr is doing great….we facilitated over 60 thousand tweets in less than 3 months …not bad

http://twitter.com/cirklagirl Amy Putkonen

I might have to try Triberr. My new blog definitely needs some help with exposure! As long as I am selective with who I add to my network, I guess it might be alright to experiment with it. I just don’t want to rail my Twitter followers with junkie stuff.

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Hi Amy..I just noticed your comment…sorry for the delay

Triberr is designed to make those bootstrapping months shorter …so I hope you’re already on Triberr…if not, you can look for suitable tribe here http://triberr.com/ext/seek-tribe.php?cat=24&go=Find+Tribe

http://Social-Tango.com Billy Delaney

Triberr is going to be a very big part of my online experience. Thanks.

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

Mine too

Eric Brooks

haha… I now confess I am looking at your list here and have been tempted to click on “5 Things You Should Do To Lose Your Blogging Virginity Like a Slut.”. Several times now. It’s definitely an eye-grabbing headline that piques interest. Let me look at that Triberr thing you are talking about.

http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

dude…Im loving the fact that you’re making yourself at home here on DIYB

http://twitter.com/MissVersatile Noni Cavaliere

I’m still trying to get Triberr, I really want to love it cause I know it’s awesome. I just haven’t done enough I know on my part to make it awesome for me. Going to sit down and figure it out hopefully this weekend.
http://jong.my netster

that was awesome!