I wrote this article a while back that was pretty popular and wanted to share it with everyone here, especially the SEO minded newbies...feedback welcome.

"Blog commenting has long since been a highly used method for building backlinks to your website. Actually, it has been used and abused in the past so much that most blogs and search engines have completely discounted the value of comment links in terms of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) value. Many blogs do not link out. Most have the nofollow attribute applied to comments and a great number of bloggers have turned off commenting all together.

Still, however, commenting on blogs can have great value if a blog visitor uses it for what it was intended for, as a means to encourage dialogue and idea exchange. Here are some steps that will help you to get your comments approved if you are a blogger or webmaster looking to comment so as to drive traffic and grow your indexed backlink count.

Find The Right Blogs. What good is commenting on a blog that doesn't teach you about your niche or is not related to you niche in a direct or supplemental way. The purpose of commenting on blogs is to interact with both the blogger and their visitors. If you have a website about a certain subject, find blog about that same subject or related subjects. By doing so, odds are you will find targeted, search-engine-driven traffic consisting of like-minded surfers looking to learn and interact. This is a great way to draw visitors to your own site and build your reputation.

Alexa Rank. Finding blogs with high levels of traffic is very important. One metric that you can look at when looking for blogs with high levels of traffic is it's Alexa rank. Simply go to Alexa Internet - Website Information and enter the URL of the site in question. Do this for all of the sites you are researching and comment on the ones with the lowest Alexa rank. In this case a low Alexa rank is a good thing because it means more traffic.

Use Your Real Name. The days of spamming blogs with keywords are over. There is really no need to use keywords in your comment or as your name when commenting. Visitors who read your comments should know your niche simply by the genre of blog that you are commenting on. This is not a complicated point. Just use your real name.

Add Value To The Article. If you want to get your comments approved, you have to add value in one form or another to the article. This means, of course, reading the article and learning something from it, provided there is something to be learned. Think of an insightful comment that actually adds to the discussion. Or, if you have a question about something in the article, ask it as your comment. This is a great way to get comments approved and solicit interaction.

Use Proper Grammar, Spelling And Punctuation. Nothing be-speaks a lack of professionalism more that poor grammar, spelling or punctuation. When you comment on blogs, you are not texting a friend on their iPhone, you are acting as an ambassador or representative for your company or website. These types of things stand out and can make the difference between getting the click and just getting skipped.

NoFollow Or DoFollow? As mentioned before, many blogs have added a nofollow attribute to comments on their blog. This has been an unfortunate necessity due to the massive amounts of spam comments that have over-run the internet. However, there are many blogs that have removed this now-default setting so as to encourage dialogue and reward legitimate commenters. I have done this to my own blog and have been happy with the results. Do spammers attempt to comment on my blog? Absolutely. Do they succeed? Absolutely not. Probably 90+% of the comment attempts on my blog are spam. Almost all get blacklisted, never to have the privilege opened to them again. With respect to the nofollow/dofollow debate, of course dofollow is better because your site receives search engine trust and reputation but do not avoid commenting on blogs that have the nofollow attribute applied. A nofollow link is far better than no link.

Be Wary Of Outsourcing and Software. Many of the comment attempts on my blog have been made using automated software. The bottom line with respect to commenting software is this. It is nothing more than an arms race between those who use it and search engines. There is a race between the software that spams unprotected blogs and the de-indexing of these blogs by search engines as well as blog owners who have given up and thrown in the towel by turning off commenting or deleting the blog entirely. At the same time, comments placed by software are almost never related to the subject, even when commenting by keyword. They stick out like a sore thumb and are a great way to get blacklisted as well as ruin your site's reputation on several fronts. Much of the same can be said about outsourcing comments. Remember this. No piece of software or hired commenter can or will give comments linking to your business, website or blog the care and consideration that is required by this SEO and networking tool. You can use a hammer to hit the nail on the head or break a windshield. The choice is up to you.

Bonus Tips On Finding Blogs To Comment On. You can use Google to find related blogs. Below are few examples:

"Add comment" Your Keywords
"Post comment" Your Keywords
“Write comment” Your Keywords
Your Keywords “leave a comment” / “leave comment”
Your Keywords “Notify me of follow-up comments?"+"Submit the word you see below:"
Your Keywords “Remember my personal information" + "Notify me of follow-up comments?"
Your Keywords "Notify me of follow-up comments"
Your Keywords “This site uses KeywordLuv"
Your Keywords "Enable CommentLuv"
Your Keywords "You can use these tags"
Your Keywords “Powered by BlogEngine.NET"
Your Keywords “Allowed HTML tags:"
Your Keywords “top commenter"

Blog commenting can be a great way to drive traffic if it is done correctly. The benefits of networking and building your reputation conceal great rewards that are discovered only if you play by the rules."