Another great channel to learn more about you niche and network with others in your industry is to read blog posts and leave comments as you go.  I’m sure most of you read blogs, but do you leave comments?

Here are 3 reasons to comment on 5 blog posts per day:

1. Leaving a comment commits you to really think about what the author has said.  Rather than quickly skimming blog posts, take a few minutes to reflect on the author’s position and craft a meaningful response or question.  The benefit is that you can learn a lot about how you really feel about the topic and help determine your personal position on an issue.
2. Leaving comments is a great way to network with others within your niche.  If you’re reading a commenting about something that truly interests you, then this should be fun and rewarding.  Much like attending an endless cocktail party with others in your industry.  Very cool.
3. Finally, leaving well crafted comments can serve as a great source to drive off-page search engine optimization.  Most comment fields ask for your name, email and url.  Fill these sections out and don’t be afraid to include your keywords along with your name.  Also, use your keywords in the body of your comment and as anchor text should your include any links back to your site.  Don’t abuse this approach . . . make sure our keywords add value and don’t distract from your message.

Clearly, commenting has is benefits, but many people struggle to find content to comment on.  Personally, when I find an interesting blog (or anything with an RSS feed) I subscribe to it with Google Reader.

Each morning I spend 5-10 minutes scanning for intersting articles and comment on a few. I repeat this process in the evening.  Each day I learn something new and the traffic from these comments continues to grow weekly.

What’s your niche?  Would commenting on other blogs help you learn, connect, and drive traffic to your site?  What’s holding you back?

Related posts:

1. 3 Reasons Why You Should Blog
2. 13 Steps to Make Every Blog Post More SEO Friendly
3. 3 Reasons Why WordPress Blog Post Tags Are Important
4. Year-to-Date Blog Traffic Sources Analysis Illustrates Content Distribution Strategy
5. Leveraging events to drive SEO traffic to your blog (Audio)

These steps are considered white-hat and assume your blog is already setup with a structure (code, tags, plugins, etc) that facilitates SEO.  For example, you might consider WordPress with the All-in-One-SEO plugin, which helps you control meta tags, spiders, and rss to make the most of these SEO tactics.

13 Steps to Make Every Blog Post More SEO Friendly

Preparation
__ Identify your long-tail keyword phrase

On-Page Post Optimization
__ Include keywords in title
__ Include keywords in first 70 characters
__ Include keywords in at least one other place within post
__ Bold keywords throughout post
__ Include keywords in title, alt, and description of any images
__ Include keywords in tags or categories
__ Include keywords in Keyword meta tags
__ Include keywords in Description meta tags

Off-Page Post Optimization
__ Post to Digg with keywords
__ Post to Delicious with keywords
__ Post to StumbleUpon with keywords
__ Post to Twitter with keywords
__ Post 3 meaningful comments on other blog with keywords in your anchor text-based link

There is more you could do, but this is a good start.

What do you think?  What other tactics do you use to individually optimize your blog posts?

Related posts:

1. 3 Reasons Why WordPress Blog Post Tags Are Important
2. Leveraging events to drive SEO traffic to your blog (Audio)
3. How to generate inbound links with videos for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
4. Tactics to Drive More Targeted Search Engine Traffic to Your Blog
5. 3 Reasons to Comment on 5 Blog Posts Per Day