At the beginning I utilized this strategy for good results. The problem is that it's a constant effort. Even back then, and especially now, I only leave comments when I actually have something to say, not so much “leave a comment to get …”.

For link building, blog commenting is one way, not very good one, and I'd focus on DoFollow blogs when doing that.

As for relationship building with other bloggers, there's no better way, period. Each and every blogger reads all (or very close to it) blog comments on their blogs. Make those comments count and you will get noticed.

Of course I’m not replying to each and every comment, especially as the number of comments go up, but I think it’s important for a blogger to reply on the comments and questions. Like I’ve said, that author-reader interaction is what makes blogging so much fun!

This has got to be one of the most thorough blog posts I’ve seen in a while. Not only that, but you actually take the time to reply to your comments, which speaks highly of you.

I had never heard of disqus so I’ll be checking it out…

Thanks,
Jorge
.-= Jorge’s Opinion’s last blog ..A Quick Easy Way To Drive Traffic To Your Website Through Other People’s Blogs =-.

Being a blogger, I do like to hear if someone has liked my post (or not), and in one way any comment is better than no comment, but a comment that “proves” the someone has actually read the post means a lot more to me.

Well, this is really a great post and being an outsourced link building company we understand the importance of making sensible posts. If you need to get 10 backlinks for a client you would probably need to try 1000 hopeless comments to obtain these which would well take over 2-3 hours.

However, if you spend a few minutes actually understanding, analyzing what the topic is about and adding actual value the approval rate would be significantly higher.

Just my 2 cents :)

I tried IntenseDebate on my blog for a while, but it didn’t co-operate well with my set of plugins, thus I dropped it. At the moment, I’m very likely to switch to Disqus because of the good things I’ve heard about it

I didn’t include IntenseDebate to my list, as I haven’t seen it used in that many blogs, although I have an account there too. I think Disqus has become the popular choice (at least right now) as the integration is easy and it has proven to be SEO-friendly and all that.

And good commenting system can increase traffic in many ways, but I think the primary reason (at least for Disqus) is the easy ‘subscribe to comments’ option as by default it sends a notification when someone replies to your comment. This not only increases the discussion, but naturally increases the returning traffic as well.

I totally agree with providing additional value when commenting on other blogs – Something other than ‘Great Post’.

It’s also an interesting concept of being amongst early contributors.

I am also happy you emphasize the fundamental reason for commenting – to participate in a discussion.

I have just signup for a BackType account.

Brilliant work Antti
.-= Johnluffa’s last blog ..New eBook Survey =-.

I recently signed up for Disqus because I wanted to post a comment on a blog that used Disqus as it’s commenting system. And I had forgotten all about BackType!

There is another such system as well, IntenseDebate which Auttomatic (makers of WordPress) have recently bought. I was reading an article last week about how you could get more traffic to your blog by using a commenting system such as IntenseDebate or Disqus, I was wondering if you have any thoughts or experience on that?
.-= Donna | The Healthy ‘s last blog ..Apple Cinnamon Chia Pudding =-.

To me the greatest benefit to leaving comments is the networking opportunities it can provide. It is such an easy way to connect with like-minded people.
.-= Paula’s last blog ..Top 10 Tips for Writing Blog Posts =-.

Thanks for the great step by step instructions. Be looking for a feature/link on my blog to this post very soon!!
.-= Erica Mueller’s last blog ..Defining WordPress Terms, Part 1 – A Glossary for Beginners =-.

And like I said on the post, it’s usually better to make the comment longer and more detailed than usually (this also adds credibility for the link you are including)

I’ve chosen not to leave links on others blog post, although the opportunity has been there quite a few times, simply because It feels a little awkward and I wouldn’t do anything to disrupt the discussion.

Never developed a blog action list, so I’ll use the excellent one you’ve provided.

Thanks for sharing, Antti.
.-= Jimi Jones’s last blog ..RSS Feeds, What are they? =-.

Those “great post!” comments are an interesting topic, as a blogger, I like to see those if the other option is no comments at all. But for getting someone to click back to your site and/or get interested to find out what else you have to say, you have to “work it” a bit.