Wow, 30 days is really really short sometimes.

It’s been an enlightening experience trying to build up a traffic flow using just comments, but one that was definitely worth the time and trouble. I have made some great new friends, read a lot of excellent information (and some not so great) and learned more about Google and how they rank blogs.

A couple of notes before I publish the final results.

• Commenting is a strategy that can start some movement, but takes dedication and a willingness to read what other people are doing and add something to the conversation.
• Google Page Rank status is more than 3 months behind at any given moment.
• Connecting with other bloggers in your niche is a great way to find people to challenge you, force you to extend yourself (there’s a peer-review kinda thing going on)
• Don’t give up.

This experiment started as a result of moving from one blog to another (http://www.CenayNailor.com to http://www.BehindTheCurtain.byCenay.com), but I was hasty and moving for the wrong reasons. Well, okay, they were the right reasons to me, but I should have looked at other options first!

In my "absence" from the first blog, something amazing happened. That blog achieved a Google Page Rank of 1/10. No, it’s not enough to "retire" on, but it sure does feel good.

As I mentioned before, the sad thing is that the ranking are so far behind, I had gotten there BEFORE I moved, and just didn’t know it. So, 4 months of inactivity will catch up with me shortly, which will probably drop the hard won ranking.

But, now I know it can be done.

I am exploring new ways to improve my site, my ranking and my value to you, my loyal readers. But for now, here’s how the rest of the case study shaped up. I don’t know how you, but these number speak volumes to me.

Days 21 - 30

Actually, since posting nothing but the case study would be boring, I gathered the final week+ activities into one list (below). And please note, that this was so much fun, that even though the experiment is over, I will continue commenting on the excellent blogs I have found.
Day 21 — May 26th, 2008 Alexa: 632,058

• Blog 1: Alexa: 920,054 Google PR: 3/10 - added one comment
• Blog 2: Alexa: 3,428,239 Google PR: 2/10 - added one comment
• Blog 3: Alexa: 876,760 Goole PR: 2/10 - added one comment (deep link)
• Blog 4: Alexa: 2,029,278 Google PR: 3/10 - added three comments (2 blog + 2 deep link to another blog)

Day 22 — May 27th, 2008 Alexa: 631,992

• Blog 5: Alexa: 876,760 Goole PR: 2/10 - added one comment (deep link)
• Blog 6: Alexa: 2,029,278 Google PR: 3/10 - added one comment (deep link)
• Blog 7: Alexa: 241,563 Google PR: 4/10 - added two comments (both deep links)

Day 24 — May 29th, 2008 Alexa: 602,773

• Blog 1: PR 5/10 Alexa 400328 - added one comment
• Blog 2: PR 5/10 Alexa 638219 - added two comments (two different posts)
• Blog 3: PR 3/10 Alexa 1712797 - added one comment

Day 30 — June 4th, 2008 Alexa: 585,933

• Blog 1: Alexa: 128,335 Google: 4/10 - added one comment
• Blog 2: Alexa: 2,449,059 Google PR: 0/10 - added one comment (affiliate link)
• Blog 3: Alexa: 3,004,776 Google PR: 0/10 - added one comment
• Blog 4: Alexa: 20,991,548 Google PR: 0/10 - added one comment

Today’s Alexa score: 545,945
Google Page Rank: 0/10 (up from "unranked")

Just to recap, I started with an Alexa ranking of 987,533 on May 6th, 2008 . After thirty days (more or less) of commenting on blogs in my Niche, my Alexa ranking is 545,945 . That’s a drop of 441,588 . I can live with that.

I just did a "count" of the total number of comments… only 46 (plus or minus a few I might not have recorded). As I mentioned throughout this study, real life often intruded, and since "commenting" isn’t what you would call a "money activity", client work frequently came first. Imagine if I commented on 10 blogs every single day!

Give it a try. I promise it is a really revealing and rewarding process.

If you really want to crank up your skills, try a case study!

There is something about being held accountable, publishing results and a sort of peer review that forces you to look deeper, probe the inner workings and find real results. I highly recommend it.

That being said, it’s Day 21 (already) and although I took 5 days off to go camping (you really gotta love a work from home job that means you can take time whenever you want), I have, over the last few days continued with my experiment.

Before I post the numbers though, I want to reiterate one important point. The education I am receiving is priceless. I didn’t have to buy an eBook or home study course to get it either. I only had to be willing to put myself out there and study what I came across.

Day 21

Alexa: 632,058 (that’s a drop of 355,475 in 3 weeks!)
Google: Unranked (in other words, ZERO)

Day’s Activities

Remember, this is real life. I spend a little time each day looking for or commenting on blogs. Sometimes it’s only one. I skipped 5 days while camping over Memorial Day weekend (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday)

• Blog 1: Alexa: 128,335 Google: 4/10 - added one comment
• Blog 2: Alexa: 12,344,831 Google 0/10 - added one comment
• Blog 3: Alexa: 5,832,199 Google: 2/10 - added two comments
• Blog 4: Alexa: 36,439 Google: 3/10 - added one comment
• Blog 5: Alexa: 9 Google PR: 0/10 - added one comment
• Blog 6: Alexa: 907,288 Google: 4/10 - added one comment (no live link)
• Blog 7: Alexa: 9,668,413 Google; 2/10 - added one comment
• Blog 8: Alexa: 199,433 Google: 3/10 - added one comment

One other note about my commenting.

I mentioned in a previous post about Comment Sniper and how well it was working for me. Unfortunately, I expanded my "tool set" to include web design with PHP and MySQL, which required me to load some new DLL’s and libraries. These libraries conflict with Comment Sniper, so I get errors every time it tries to connect to the RSS feeds for the blogs I am watching. =(

If you have been following along on the Google Page Rank case study, you know that I have been seeking and commenting on popular blogs, especially those that have a higher Google PR than mine.

That isn’t hard to do since I am a ZERO and means there are a LOT of blogs out there to comment on.

Now, I have to tell you that finding, rating and commenting on blogs manually has presented it’s challenges. What time of day do you do it? How much time do you spend? How do you know the rankings and ratings of the blogs/posts you are spending your time on.

These are just a few of the challenges.

And since I also want to "entice" new visitors, I don’t just dash off a quick … "Hey, great post" kinda note.

I actually read the post. I think about the post.

I comment only if I can add something. I have read many more posts than I have commented on. (By Product=Great Education)

Hard work, but worth it. My Alexa rating has fallen (this is a good thing) from 987,533 to 722,250 in the two week(ish) I have been doing this.

I think I would be getting better "traffic" results if I were one of the first to comment on a new post. When someone reads the post and then my comment (which hopefully added something to the readers experience), then they just might take that extra click and stop by.

My regular readers know I am a computer programmer, and therefore, inherently lazy. It’s a personality trait that is preferred for this job. You have to WANT to find an easier way, one that takes less work - in order to really succeed in this business.

So, I have been looking for a way to make the commenting easier and take less time, and allow me to be one of the first to comment on a new post.

I Think I Found A Better Way

You will remember I downloaded and tried out Comment Kahuna . Interesting piece of software, but wasn’t really getting the job done. There is a bug in the "send my comment over" function, and it requires you "prewrite" your comments to be included. This doesn’t work for me since I am reading the post and adding to it.

Then I discovered Comment Sniper. (No, this isn’t a pitch and no, I am not an affiliate)

This little jewel allows me to search for (or add) a blog I want to "monitor", and when a new post is made, it notifies me! I click the handy popup alert down in my task bar and I am taken right to the post in question.

I am just getting started with it, but love it so far.

I will report back how it goes and if it makes a difference in my "commenting strategy ". But the ideal of the my computer telling ME when it’s time to comment is preferable to trying to figure out when on my own. I am juggling 14 balls at once, and the commenting has slipped some.

There’s that real world thingy again.

So, stay tuned, more on Comment Sniper soon.

Wow, what an educational process this has been. I highly recommend you perform your own study just for the fringe benefits.

Did you know that Google’s Page Rank as shown on your page is between 3 and 5 months out of date!?! Yeah, me either. Which means, I might not "see" the results to my Page Rank until sometime after October. So, I need another metric to help me determine my success or not.

Well, traffic is one. This is where FireStat’s comes in handy. I am literally watching new visitors arrive daily, which is a bit of a rush. Still no increase in commenting though, so it still feels like talking to an empty room.

(Come on, don’t be shy… I would love to hear your comments)

Alexa is another tool to help, since they measure traffic. I am not yet sure of exactly how they "rate" the site, but I do know that a high number is low traffic (tell me how that makes sense?)

And, here’s the good news. My Alexa rating has decreased! (That’s a good thing). My previous rating was 987,533 and I am down to 722,250! Whoo hooo.

I have also learned some great info on SEO and optimizing your Wordpress blog. I will be sharing the details in upcoming posts, but here’s a take away for you today. Use your H1, H2 and H3 tags liberally, and bold keywords within your posts.

This helps Google, Yahoo, MSN, and ASK "understand" your intent with the post and sorta preclassifies your relavancy for those words.

Day 8 through Day 11

Alexa: 722,250
Google Page Rank: Still zero and likely to be for months to come

Daily Activty

(Obviously, posting this every single day has been a challenge (can you say "real world"), so I will be recapping multiple days here)

I want some traffic to some of the "deep links" within my site (rather than just the home page), so I focused on SEO and Keyword research "searches" for these days and posted a link to one of the posts I put out there about SEO, Tags and Keywords)

• Googled "seo", "keyword research" and "site optimization" to find blogs to post on.
• Each of these blogs had at least a 2/10 Google Page rank, though the Alexa rating varied a lot!
• Blog 1: added two comments
• Blog 2: added one comment
• Blog 3: added one comment
• Blog 4: added two comments
• Blog 5: added two comments
• Blog 6: added one comment
• Blog 7: added one comment
• Also installed Comment Kahuna and tried it out. Kinda buggy, or I didn’t manage to get it installed correctly. Will give it one more shot before moving on.

So, anyone have any suggestions?

Don’t let anyone tell you a "cool computer" isn’t a requirement. As I recently discovered, overheating can cause a multitude of problems!

I have managed to get back online again, after more than 3 days of fighting, swearing, crying and begging the computer gods for a little relief. Someone finally heard my prayers.

Going through a little bit of blog withdrawal here so I went and found 4 blogs to comment on today. I still haven’t been able to reload my Google and Alexa ranking addon’s for Firefox (version 2.0.0.14), so I don’t know their current rankings. I will update the post when I get that tool back!

I will tell you each of the blogs came up on the first page of Google search results.

Day 7

Alexa Ranking: prev: 987,533 now: unknown

Google Page Rank: prev: A big fat ZERO now: unknown but pretty sure ZERO

Day’s Activity:

Googled “blog traffic techniques” to find blogs worth commenting on

Blog 1: - added one comment

Blog 2: - added one comments

Blog 3: - added one comment

Blog 4: - added two comment (two different posts)

Began web search for a way to speed this process up. Found a couple of free tools I will be evaluating. After looking both over and choosing one, I will provide links to where I found it.

Read some really great content in looking for something I could contribute to. You guys should try this just for the education!