Blog commenting is mostly not worth doing (from the SEO perspective), but not because it doesn’t work; it’s most likely because there’s no way of getting the value of it.
That’s why we decided to build an initial MVP named CMNT.ai.
At first, we tested the CMNT.ai product privately, using it on our own websites, but after we started brainstorming all the topics we could add to our database, we just didn’t have websites in all the niches we found.
So, let’s take a look at what we achieved in our initial product validation.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The author couldn’t manually test their idea of posting hundreds of topically relevant comments daily for extended periods, so they built a custom solution.
They conducted successful test campaigns in the Spirituality, Clothing, Beauty, and Pets niches, receiving backlinks at the cost of less than $1 per approved comment (backlink).
The quality of comments generated by their tool was generally positive, and they received some positive responses and potential partnership opportunities, making CMNT.ai an affordable way to obtain backlinks, connections, and referral traffic.
Product Validation – Do People Still Approve Comments?
We could never properly test the idea manually. It’s impossible to post 100, 200, 500+ topically relevant comments daily for 30 or 60 days.
So, we decided to build a custom solution.
After scraping and building a small database of websites we could post comments on, we built the first three campaigns in the Spirituality, Beauty, and Pets niche.
Each of these niches had about 10x fewer websites in the database, as it is now, but it was still enough to do a proper test (about 3k websites in each niche).
Here are the results:
Ignoring the design, take a look at the Approved column (column starting with the number 54), which shows how many comments were approved, meaning how many backlinks we received.
These campaigns ran for about 30 to 45 days (100 campaign frequency means 100 comments per day).
Calculations
You may think, “Only 40 approved comments, while you’ve made 3000 comments.”
You’re right; it doesn’t look amazing, but let’s dive deeper.
Less than $1 per Comment
First, let’s mention that the Essential package (3000 comments package) only costs $20 per month.
So, getting about 40 approved comments (backlinks) for $20 is pretty neat.
Set & Forget
The next thing that should be mentioned is that after we created all the campaigns (all together, it took us 5-10 minutes), the only thing we did was check them every day, to see what comments looked like, and if we got any approved comments.
We didn’t have to hire another freelancer who had to check all the posted comments daily to see if any got approved.
Also, imagine checking 3000 websites for approved comments. That’s an impossible and pricey task.
Our Verdict: Calculations Make Sense
Quality of Backlinks
Everyone who knows a bit about blog commenting knows that these backlinks provide less value than, for example, in-article backlinks, or Press Releases, but to have a healthy-looking backlink profile, it doesn’t hurt to have blog comment links as well.
Clean Websites
99% of all websites in our database aren’t selling backlinks, so getting a backlink on a website like this doesn’t raise any alarms.
White-Hat Approach
Blog comments are simple, and people have been leaving comments on websites for decades.
Backlinks Are Crawled
Most approved comments are immediately visible in Semrush and, of course, on Google since articles are already published.
First Real Example – Beauty Niche
This is a screenshot taken from the Semrush. There are a few on page two, which I didn’t include here.
As you can see on the left side (column Page AS, which is Authority Score), we’ve got links on decent websites, even though they’re nofollow.
Some domains do repeat, but this doesn’t exactly mean that it’s bad. Articles on these domains are unique, meaning, comments are unique as well.
Second Real Example – Animas / Pets Niche
This is a screenshot taken from the Semrush. Again, there are a few on page two, which we didn’t include here.
In this case, our comments were approved, but at least on the first page, most approved here are on one domain. However, there are other approved comments on other domains on page two.
Did you notice, tho? All except one are do-follow backlinks, which is amazing!
Our Verdict: Not Bad, Could Be Better
Comments, Quality, Branding
We wondered how people would like our comments and were positively surprised by the initial test.
Besides a few responses to our comments:
We also received this email:
Of course, most approved comments didn’t get any response, but getting feedback like these two could mean potential partnerships.
Quality of Comments
Comments are written with ChatGPT’s API, meaning every comment is topically relevant to the blog’s topic.
We’ve checked hundreds of comments we’ve posted; every single one is relevant and makes sense.
Our Verdict: CMNT’s Comments Make Sense & People Appreciate Them
To sum up the product validation, from our initial test, CMNT.ai isn’t some groundbreaking tool that will change the world.
However, for the price per written and submitted comment, you can get very affordable backlinks, new connections, and referral traffic – just as we did!
Frequently Asked Questions
We’ll try to answer as many questions as possible and add new ones when we get them.
Can a new website use CMNT.ai?
Yes, even if you don’t have any organic traffic, comments serve as a great foundation for your website.
Are websites in your database in the English language?
In 95% of cases, they are. The rest (5%) we’re actively trying to delete on a weekly basis with database cleanup. We’re posting these weekly cleanups on our Twitter account.
Are there any limits when using CMNT.ai?
We don’t support dangerous / malware / p*rn websites being used in comments on normal websites, so we manually check every website before running a campaign for it.
If your website isn’t within our standards, we’ll cancel your order and give you a refund.
Should I avoid doing any other backlinking technique?
Put yourself in the shoes of big brands. They’re doing Press Releases, connecting with other brands (backlinks), social media, podcasts, interviews, etc. So our answer would be “no”.
Do as much as possible to get noticed by Google.
Who needs CMNT.ai?
Smaller websites that don’t have the budget or time to do the abovementioned things and bigger websites with hundreds of backlinks would want to have a balanced backlink profile.
Besides the common backlink-focused approach, CMNT.ai also helps you with branding, since your name/business would be visible on relevant and new websites.
How is it possible to write and publish 20,000 comments for $80?
ChatGPT’s AI helped us with countless tasks, and this is just one of them.
Can we guarantee approved comments?
Sadly, we can’t because we aren’t the owners of all websites in our database.
That’s why we’re working on getting as many different websites into our database to increase the chances of getting your comments approved.
How do you deal with Akismet? Are comments going into the spam?
We’re doing our best to keep our technology ethical and safe. While we strive for a white-hat approach, please note that there’s a chance some comments may still be flagged as spam.
