Make Mad Money by Leaving Comments on a Blog?
I’m going to start off by actively apologizing to Eric. I was a doubting mustafa and I was wrong.
In my 10 steps to generating new business, I stated the number one key to success was to get out of your house. What ensued was a calm debate between Eric and I on whether or not you can network and build a viable client base without leaving your house through the medium of communities on the web.
My (old) stance: All REAL project deals happen offline.
Eric’s stance: Online networks are a viable source of projects.
Fast forward a few months. One of the goals of our blog was to create a place where people (including ourselves) could learn about the journey from independent contractor to entrepreneur and meet other peers in our industry. I’m surprised by how successful it’s been so far. I mean, there are 400 hundred subscribers who actually read what we have to say (thanks for coming – it means a lot to us). To top it all off, we’ve found three great contractors from our blog in the last few months.
Being the single minded dope that I am, it never occurred to me that if we are finding good people we’ve never met before through comments on our own blog, then for Tea, Eric & Naomi, the fact of the matter is that you can network online and find clients. Heck, we turn away a fair bit of projects, so maybe getting to know our crew is not a bad connection to score.
A Personal Challenge
That makes me wonder, how many of you out there have gotten good paying gigs from leaving comments on someone’s blog?
Has anyone tried that as a specific strategy? Like finding the blog for the head of user interface for Coca Cola and making friends? I’m going to think about this and give it a shot. I will report back in a few months with my experience and some tips on how I made it work, if it did. I though I was being all innovative until my Dad mentioned that people have been joining country clubs and the like for generations to meet specific people and close a sale. New space, old paradigm.
I decided to start with a bit of research and saw that Darren over at Problogger had a great post on getting your comments noticed on a popular blog. First, I need to identify my key prospects. Target for 2008, we want a gig with Adobe & a gig with Apple. I’m off to search. BTW – if you work for either of these, drop me a note and suggest some good blogs.
So, what do you all think? Is it a legitimate strategy? Success stories? What is the most you have made this way? Anyone made any significant dough – like landing a project or relationship worth over $50k?
Someone once wrote that if you are going to take the 10-15 minutes to read a blog post, you should put in the extra minute of effort to add a comment. That extra minute of time has many benefits:
* You show the author that you enjoyed the post
* You have the opportunity to start a conversation, with the author or even other commenters
* You get your name and URL noticed
* (My favorite) Taking time to think up a comment, actually makes you remember the post and information contained in it.
Eric you are so wise.
So have you actually landed projects with anyone else doing this?
It is a legitimate strategy as long as it doesn’t result in a bunch of useless responses like:
“Great post Shane”
“Excellent Point”
“Buy Viagra”
or
“Exponential noodles are lolluping soft pages cialis crash”
Though, i might concider giving a job to the person (or bot) who wrote the last one as a copywriter
@shane: I have not landed any projects from it yet, but over the past 5 months I have gotten requests for at least 5 projects. They were not a good fit for my skill set or experience so I had to pass on them. It’s a numbers game.
@peter: I agree with the spam comments but I think it is helpful to hear from other people. I would rather have 10 people say “Excellent Point” on a post than to have no one comment at all. At least with the 10 comments, you know that people are actually reading, and not just subscribed.
My two cents…
While I haven’t landed a gig with Coke, I’ve gotten some very good gigs from interacting with other bloggers. I see your interest in high dollar figure deals, but I think for the majority of soloists, that’s not the goal.
Up until this year, $50K would have been my entire year. For most people in most parts of the world, landing a $5K gig is very major. So I think “major” is in the eye of the contractor.
Along the same lines, for a lot of us, one huge gig means no other clients. I read (somewhere) that if you can be severely financially hampered by one client bailing, you don’t have a client, you have a boss. And that’s really not what I want.
Like you, Shane. If you fire my ass, I want other stuff to fall back on, so if you offer me $50K, I’m not taking it.
I’ve lucked out on finding jobs via online. Naomi and I have managed to lean on each other if we’re in a time crunch and need help, and she’s referred me before to other people if she didn’t have the bandwidth. That may be rare, I dunno. Maybe we’re just incredibly cool people. (I tell myself that’s what it is.)
Hell, I just want to break $50k total for 2008 since it’s my first year freelancing.
Unlike what I read on other sites, I’ve had great luck with craigslist as well because my local area is too small. Sure, they say they don’t want telecommuters, but that usually doesn’t stick if they like my experience enough.
@Naomi & Susan –
you ladies make a great point – major has everything to do with the size of your business! When you are solo – as in just you – 5k can be a Major deal. When you lead a team like we do, that starts being as small as we go.
That wasn’t exactly my point though. Amazing how 1 sentence can derail a whole post! I am learning so much about communication through blogging.
I’m stoked to hear that both of you have been landing gigs through building relationships from blogs. I wonder when they will start teaching this in MBA school?
Blog stalking 110 MWF 10:00 – 11:40
Anyone else use this?
=)
I can attest that it’s not part of the curriculum yet. I am finishing my MBA next moth with an e-commerce concentration, and blogging didn’t exist, even in a passing comment.
Give it time, though.
Er, month. Not moth.
I is a writer.
haha .. yes u r. They really don’t mention the power of a blog as a marketing tool in an e-commerce concentrated mba? Thats surprising.
Here you go, I’m off my lazy ass and commenting…
This is funny because my very first official web design gig came out of unusual circumstances – being a senior member of a FAN FORUM.
No shit.
It has all progressed from this in one way or another, which is why I struggle internally for feelings of “legitimacy”. I feel like a Idol finalist in a room full of established singer songwriters…
I don’t know whether online relationships are easier or harder. They are certainly a whole lot more fickle!
OK Shane. I’ll take your challenge. I need an ally in a project. You know the project: a web based service for realtors that utilizes a specialized search engine to generate sales from easily available but normally untapped information. I’ve posted a detailed explanation at
http://realtorlattice.blogspot.com/.
I’ll report to you if anyone responds.
I don’t spend a lot of time commenting on blogs, so it’s not surprising that I haven’t gotten any gigs from that. But, I did just get my first contract where someone found me via Facebook. That was surprising. They found me because I joined the neighbourhoods application and they wanted somebody local.
Oh, and I’m not as picky as Naomi… if you want to give me 50K for a project I’d enjoy working on, count me in
Oh, Tzaddi, you’re so EASY! Don’t just take $50K! Make them work for it. Make him buy you dinner first.
So here’s my update – not about commenting, but about online networking. Signed off on four deals today – they all came to me via Digg. Net $14K. Yay me.
I can’t say blog comments specifically, but a solid online presence has netted me many a job. Right now a good 1/3 of my income is random inquiries from folks online.
LinkedIn.com for example though…many a job offer and project through there. Much more suited to professional skill seeking.
And Naomi – holy crap. Congrats!
@Tea – thats a great question. Are online relationships easier or harder? I’ve been finding they have their own quirks, but the number of miscommunication seem to be about the same. Though I have to admit that lately I spend more time talking to me online crew (cuz you all on IM all the figgen time like me) than my local crew.
Oh and Tea, I’m so proud of you. You are the real deal. And even through you are a pain in my ass, you made a tough call today. I’m in your corner.
@Marvin – you get em!!!
@Tzaddi – Facebook huh. Thats pretty cool! I never though of that. Wow gig really come from all over. Welcome to our blog.
I don’t know anyone that got a 50k project to themselves (you are probably way cooler than we are). Our 50k projects feed about 5-6 families for little while. Heck our coders make more than we do if we mess up, which happens a little more often than I’d like, but I guess we are learning.
@Naomi – Thats so cool! Wow, so do Jon & I get a commission? =)
First – great article, excellent mind food for considering freelance strategy.
It strikes me that leaving blog comments isn’t the *only* way to interact online though. Humor me by reading my story:
A long time ago (6 years?) when I first began getting into design, I joined the rather dubious online community Deviant Art (www.deviantart.com). Over the course of the interactions that I had there I actually made a number of friends that were in the same position as myself: young, aspiring, inexperienced, but incredibly driven. We all lived at least 500 miles apart, and yet we collaborated on a number of digital art projects that would eventually build into a rather respectable body of work. No Picasso’s mind you, but the skills that we honed (both design and communication based) were meaningful. As my own freelance work began to pick up, I spent less and less time at my account there even though I had a respectable 30,000 pageviews and some 2,000 comments left on my work (www.escapepodone.deviantart.com). Now I visit the page about once every 3 months and mostly for nostalgia’s sake than interaction.
The relationships I built there though were meaningful. Namely, I had the chance to chat with young designers that would eventually becomes the likes of Chuck Anderson (www.nopattern.com), many of the KDU (http://thekdu.com/), Computer Arts magazine staffers, and other notable global designers like Pete Harrison (www.desktopography.com) that would even begin dropping my name when they got into magazine features. Financially I can’t say that I made 50k off of any one project, but the network that I built off of this low-time, low-energy online interaction had profound “social” worth in the long run. I did actually pick up a couple paid gigs from the site, but more than anything, the “online community” fostered an encouraging, learning environment for me to build my long-term professional strategies.
So, I’ve gotta side with Eric on this one big time… and one up that vote by saying his idea of taking 5 mins to read and 1 min to comment is pure business gold (and heck, its just fun now isn’t it?).
Excellent post as usual!
@Naomi – Congrats on the gigs. You are officially my hero.
@Shane, I’m really not, and would work up a good sweat-of-fear if I actually got a 50K project to myself! I’d like to live in a world where I’m actually cool, though
@Tzaddi – I hope to get to know you better – never having been cool myself – I’m an awful judge. But I relate to the desire.
From Eric to me .. I though I would share it:
———————————————
“So, what do you all think? Is it a legitimate strategy? Success stories? What is the most you have made this way? Anyone made any significant dough – like landing a project or relationship worth over $50k?”
Since you guys are counting as a team and are in such a high cost of living area, I think it might be easier to talk about revenue in terms of x months of income. Say 2 months of income etc.
On the other hand big numbers can help people think larger than smaller projects.
On the other other hand, large numbers might demotivate people.
Example:
Shane makes $50,000 a month but am having trouble making $2,000 a month. Maybe I suck at this freelance thing and should quit.
I think it would be a good time to write about relative value of a dollar and cost of living.
”
———————————————
So, in response to great wisdom from nice people:
Please don’t let that number bum you out!!! I started by making 22k m first year and being thrilled at a 2.5k site. Like I wrote to Tzaddi, that number represent a bunch of families.
That said, it is an amazing thing to be able to help other people support their families. It makes it all worth it. Its a worthy goal for an entrepreneur.
Thats said, its kind of cool that it is possible.
Thinking of months of income, our mortgage is 5,700 / month. other expenses puts us about 7500 (we are pretty careful).
Out of a 50k project I might take home a months to a month and a half’s livings, maybe. Or nothing at all. Or even sadder, loose money on it.
What metric do most of you use when thinking of $?
Buy Viagra
Wow this one’s getting a great debate. To throw in my quantifiable 2 cents. I’d say the biggest gig I landed from purely online means (no real person contacts at all) was a 3k website that turned into about 2 years of work and referals that totaled around 10k. Nothing major, but as you’ve pointed out, based on my monthly expenses it was a relatively huge land for me at the start.
@shane “What metric do most of you use when thinking of $?”
Our monthly living expenses range from $3 – $3.5k based on my ATT bill that month and how much I’ve gotta drive. My business expenses are null aside from buying stock/books/fonts/hardware/etc. which I usually only buy as a percentage of my income now… so a 2 month project that nets $5-10k on the side of the more regular hourly billed projects is usually something that I’ll consider staying up late for. Having said that, the longer I freelance the more I recognize the power of A) waiting for the 25K project and B) turning down smaller “potential” projects to focus on the sure-things. We’re just now finishing paying off cars and school stuff, which means that we’re transitioning to down-payment-savings mode, so that metric will obviously scale itself up in time.
I’d venture to say that there’s definitely a lower conversion rate when you’re working with online networking/sales, but again, the metric that’s not here and is hard to quantify is the value of the networking activity itself. You might not land the 50k job online, but through the collective networking activities you might gain the skills and savvy that you need to tackle the 50k job that you get in real life.
Brandon makes a great point. It’s hard to qualify the networking aspect, and to be honest, even pursuing something that might seem like a one-off project can be surprisingly lucrative.
Case in point: I had talked with a guy here and there a few months ago about some potential help he needed. It didn’t really go anywhere, and I forgot about it. Yesterday he called, and is ready to go, advancing me $600 to get started. It was worth the 1-2 hours I thought were “wasted” on the phone with him a few months ago, because now I’m getting steady work.
Just goes to show you never can tell…
I’m one of those that rarely leaves the house – and that’s because 100% of my business has come from meeting people online! As far as comments go… I absolutely believe that this is one of the very best ways to meet people ever. I have met so many incredible business contacts through blogs – it’s awesome.
I did an interview with Jordan at Marketing Pilgrim a few months ago and asked her what was the best way to get noticed on a popular blog like MP that receives tons of comments. Her advice was to continuously be one of the first to comment on every blog post. If I were trying to make a contact with a big name company/blogger, I would subscribe to their blog by email and be the first to comment as many times as possible. After they know who you are, it’s easier to start an offline conversation.
My 2 cents
Christine
Thanks Christine. I’m glad we caught your attention. Welcome to our blog!
So does most of you online business come though blogs, forums, social community tools or …? 100%, that puts us all to shame! So when do we get an article on filling your sales pipeline through online networking? Or do you already have one (link welcome)?
Well I haven’t made any big money yet from leaving comments, but I know some of our customers have found me and my blog from comments I’ve made or posts made about us. The problem is that it can be a full time job to leave comments all over the blogosphere on relevant parenting job sites…there are oh so many of them!
I think though that you can build rapport and as they say ‘mind share’ in a potential prospects mind especially in the contracting world. When a company realizes they need help in an area, then if you are commenting on their blog(s) they are more likely to think of you as someone who can help.
@Aruni,
Welcome to our blog! I think you have it right. The issue is one of top of mind awareness. Any method that brings your firm or your name up in relationship with a potential solution to a problem is an important part of getting the gig.
Why not hire an intelligent intern who can stalk all the larger parenting blogs and point back to your blog / product?
-S
Hi Shane – I have thought about hiring an intelligent intern but it’s hard to find those interns who have babies who can intelligently post about the topic at hand. Plus I think there is a fine line…people will see through you if you are not being genuine and I definitely don’t want people to think we hired spammers!
Once the funding (knock on wood) comes in then we can afford to hire some other help (so I don’t have to do as much software testing) and I can spend a bit more time in the blogosphere.
Glad you saw the light Shane
In all seriousness, the web is an AMAZING tool that does in fact lead to business. I started feelancing 5 years ago. I joined a pretty big web development forum to get help on a .net application I was building (worked for the army at the time) and I saw all of these people talking about working for themselves using these skills. I always knew I wanted to work for myself and have my own company, entrepreneurship is in my blood, I just thought I would be flying private jets for people and on the side running a skydiving school with my husband in Monterey
. That was a turning point for me. I loved developing as I really enjoy solving problems and just seeing that other people were doing it and were successful at it intrigued me and gave me the hope that I could do it as well. a year and a half ago, I took my freelance full time and left the corporate world.
I haven’t gotten gigs because I have commented on people’s sites, but I have had work come because I blog myself. It’s a wonderful world we live in right now where opportunities are abundant. You just need to grab them and hold on for the ride!
Excellent point, everyone!
I haven’t made any big sales directly from posting comments on blogs either. However, I have had positive feedback from the authors and other readers from looking at my linked website.
In fact, a good amount of traffic to my site comes from surfers clicking on my link from blog comments. So that’s worth something!
Well, with nofollow on all links, including attribution links, you lose my contribution (except in cases of education,like this one
Many people still don’t notice that you are blocking their links from counting in Google, because nofollow is invisible. But once you choose to do that (as you have) you not only take away some of the benefit that comes from commenting, but you show that you are actively and knowingly TAKING from your participants without giving back.
Yes, it’s tough to “dofollow”, but it’s not unmanageable. I think it is especially important to allow attribution links… if I comment meaningfully, why not credit me with my own link? Hiding your choice to restrict that credit leaves a bad taste…
Hi John, i assure you that taking credit away is not our intent. In fact, I’m not sure how to change the nofollow attribute. Could you please educate us as to how to allow following and what side effects or risks that may carry?
Thanks!
@Peter
To disable nofollow in your version of WordPress, use the following plugin: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/wordpress-15-plugin-strip-nofollow-tag-from-comment-urls/
The drawbacks: you have to monitor your blog comments closely. If someone posts a comment with a link to a website that is not reputable, it could devalue your site.
The benefits: people like myself will feel comfortable posting tidbits like this on your blog because they know they’ll get a bit of credit for it!
- James
Kinda funny – we got Peter, James and John… hmmm.
“If someone posts a comment with a link to a website that is not reputable, it could devalue your site.”
Well, that’s Google propaganda actually, and part of the problem. By accepting the “nofollow” as a standard, you grant Google permission to act according to that propaganda. Truth is, it seems Google knows very well how to value comment links these days. A better question is… if no one “nofollowed” links, then what would Google do? I bet it would be better for all of us than the nofollow status quo.
The downside is…. spammers try and drop links in meaningless comments. Handle that with moderation or a good plug in like WP_Spamfree http://www.hybrid6.com/webgeek/plugins/wp-spamfree