The truth is blogging takes time… a lot of time. You need to start your blog, consistently and frequently update it, and then have the time and money to promote it. And what if you have a business to run in the meantime? Not to mention, you may not even be a good writer!

Don’t get me wrong, there are many benefits to writing a blog. Namely, you can establish yourself as an expert, educate prospects on your business, and create a dialogue with your customers. Plus, the search engines will love all that blog content… so it can help drive traffic to your website.

But there’s that time commitment again. Figure you’ll put in eight to ten hours a week if you want a successful blog that keeps readers coming back for more. And you may not have much interesting stuff to write about (this is more common than not). Why not take a better approach which offers many of the benefits of blogging without the big time commitment.

Become a blog commenter instead of a blogger.

What’s the difference? You let someone else do the heavy lifting of writing and promoting their blog while you just comment on what they’ve written.

Here’s how to get started:

• Find blogs that your customers read. Target three to five blogs that cater to your customers… and which you’ll enjoy reading and commenting on. Where to begin? Go to blog search engine: www.technorati.com and search keywords you care about.

• Sign up with your real name and URL. Register for each blog using your real name and website URL so readers can get to know you. And guess what? They’ll read your comments and also check out your website.

• Create value for your audience. That’s right. You now have an audience of prospects willing to read your comments. So please make a good impression by writing smart and helpful comments… go ahead and show off your expertise!

• Comment often. Post comments at least once or twice per week (or more!) for each blog you read. Sure, you’ll spend a couple hours every week reading blogs and posting comments… but remember that’s a lot less time than writing your own blog!

• Build relationships with your favorite bloggers. They’ll appreciate your comments and be open to learning about you and your business. So make friends by offering them blog post ideas, feedback, and encouragement (c’mon we all need it!)

Are you ready for the added bonus? Bloggers who get to know you will write about your business… especially when you have interesting news to share. Or said another way… what a wonderful source of free advertising for your business!

So don’t worrying about blogging and start commenting instead.