Two Plugins To Increase Blog Comments
written by John Chow
I recently installed two new Wordpress Plugings designed to increase comments in the blog. It’s a bit too early to tell what kind of impact they will have but I think it will be positive, especially after I explain the benefits.
Subscribe to Comments 2.0
The first Plugin, Subscribe to Comments 2.0, adds a “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” check box below the submit comment button so users can keep track of the comments. When a new comment is made to the post, an email is sent to the subscriber notifying them. This is a much better system than subscribing to the individual comment RSS. I make over 70+ posts per month. That’s a lot of individual RSS subscription to manage. Only readers who have made a comment can use this feature. That in itself encourages comments.
The Plugin is very easy to install - just upload two files and activate the Plugin in the Wordpress Plugins control panel. If you’re running an older version of Wordpress, you’ll have to add a piece of PHP code to your template to call up the plugin.
Show Top Commentators
The second Plugin is call Show Top Commentators. This Plugin encourages feedback and discussion by rewarding reader for making a comment. The top commentators are displayed on the right sidebar (under Categories) along with the number of comments made and a link back to their site or blog.
Here’s the real incentive - unlike links in the comments, the links on the Top Commentators are full links without a nofollow tag. That mean you’ll get loved by Google as well as traffic! Over 60 bloggers submitted a review of my blog so they can get a linkback without a nofollow tag. This is another way to do the same thing, and on an ongoing basis. Just make sure your comment is a real comment and not spam!
To install the Plugin, upload the single file to the Plugins folder and
activate it in your Wordpress Plugins control panel. Then add <?php
ns_show_top_commentators(); ?> to the part of your template where you want the top commentators to appear. The sidebar would be the most common place.
Right now, the Top Commentators are reset once per month. I may change that to once per week depending on how things go. The Plugin gives you the option to adjust the resetting from a day, a week, a month, a week, or never.
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Well John, its working. You got me commeting already.
But one question will this not lead to comment spam? I mean what if people are just going to start leaving comments for the sake of it?
BTW, I got 3 referrals in agloco, and its currently in the top 37% of members if that helps with your equation in anyway.
Comment spam is something I already monitor quite heavily. If I feel a comment is spam, I remove it or don’t allow it to get posted.
BTW - The real top commentator is me. However, I disallowed myself from the ranking.
Heh, is there anyway to find out how many comments each person has?
Your right, this does work…comment comment comment.
Mubin: Well, that’s pretty much what the top commenters thing does, except it only shows the top 10.
The followup notification is really nice and I recently added it to all of my blogs as well. I wish more blogs had this as I tend to forget where I had left comments and so I rarely return to see what was said. I wouldn’t be surprised if your return visitor traffic goes up a little because of it.
I’ve been using Subscribe to Comments for awhile - it’s just necessary, and every blog should have it. I think I might consider adding the top commenters to a few of my blogs. Like you said - that link may be all the incentive that people need to comment more often.
wow, i noticed your rss subscribers dropped significantly! what happened?
Thanks again for always sharing great tips. I take special note of the plugins in particular as I’m hoping to launch a blog myself soon using wordpress. Also I’d say yes it is working. I feel suddenly compelled to comment more. Good job!
Those plugins seem to be quite useful indeed, I’ll install those on my other weblog as well, hopefully I’ll manage to port it to my favorite CMS later, if the authors allow it.
And like girlrobot (and some others) already mentioned; what happened to the RSS subscribers? Did Feedburner have an unannounced update in their way of counting?
hey john,
great blog. I am thinking of starting my own. I was wondering. where did you get the template from for this blog?? Also, is it powered by wordpress???
please let me know in an email. I knoq you are an extremely busy man, but for a 17 year old entrepeneur, this would be extremely helpful.
thank you
I think I just need to increase comments in general, as all the people commenting in my blog are people that I know personally. Very rarely is a random stranger. It could have a lot to do with the restrictive blog software offered for “free” by godaddy.
The top commentators system will certainly help to engage your readers in discussion, at least more frequently.
Girlrobot and Leftblank - I think John already explained in a previous posts comments that the drop in RSS subscribers was due to Christmas - less people online.
I wish I had something to offer people to comment on my blog
Wow, thats a great way to increase comments - I am going to install these on all my blogs
Thanks a Lot JohnChow
OK - I think I figured this out - thanks for the help over MSN John
Wow…
I’m your top commenter!
lol I was going to say you were the top commenter but you cant take part ah
Top Commentators are “reset”? I would think that right after the said reset, the list would be empty until 10 different people post a single comment each.
It would make more sense to have “top commentators in the last [time period of choice]“
YOu may have started a comment war here John.
well John you got me. I will make sure to add my 2 cents to every post you make.
WOOHOO! Hey John - I’m in your top commentators! Hopefully I say something worthwhile once in a while. But now I’m going to start having some serious competition for comments.
Thats no fun. But I’ll look forward to see what the increase in traffic looks like and whether my blog takes a jump up. Maybe Technorati will up my ranking b/c of you? Anyways, here’s hoping I can stay up there.
Also, wanted to note that the first plugin sounds okay, but not that great. I don’t usually followup on comments on a post. Its hard enough keeping up on the posts themselves. I think what we really need is something that threads posts, that it only sends you an email if a person directly responds to you.
I really like the second plugin. I wish there was a plugin like that for Telligent’s Community Server (what I use for my blog). Awesome feature and thanks for the link.
These are pretty cool. I was just about to post my review of your site based on how it has helped my blog in terms of SEO. I guess I have to add these two plug-ins to my list and into my review before I post it.
WoHoo! I am in the Top 3 and will continue to comment
Great Blog John!
That’s neat, and I can see the competition rising to be the top one. You are going to have trouble John. As for the person that made the comment on dropping comments, we won’t be able to tell until after the new year begins. Hope everyone had a great holiday and lasting memories.
John, loved the picture of your little girl.
john, please let me know about the template
The thing that some bloggers do not understand is that when a user leaves a comment they are making your blog better.
Providing a link back to them is the least you can do. It costs you nothing and it encourages them to keep commenting and adding value to your site.
true steve. . .its a very good incentive. BTW John, whts up with your Agloco referrals? I am kinda trying pretty hard, but then, no many takers. . .how about a post on how to increase affiliates? lolz, just some idea…
Real comments are unique content and therefore are excellent value for any blog. I like the top commentators is motivating readers to comment = good. Thanks for sharing.
Christoph
Nice idea with the top commentators plugin. That will definitely drive more traffic to your blog! The notify feature I think is super handy…nice picks!
I agree. This top commenters thing is going to increase traffic if only people want a linkback to their site via the sidebar.
Wow, great idea,
I see I am on spot 3
thats cool.. Might be thinking of installing it on my own blog to,
It’s features such as this that make me consider dropping Serendipity and going to WordPress.
The only problem is with the URLs.
My blog puts the entry number ahead of the title when generating a URL. If I went to a different blogging platform that did not follow this naming system I would lose a ton of linked traffic!
HMTKSteve, “I would lose a ton of linked traffic!”. I don’t think that’s really necessary, you could give the visitors are (301) permanent redirect by using a .htaccess file, I can’t help you much with that, but if theres always a number at a certain point in the url it shouldn’t be too hard to filter it out and send the visitors to the new place. I guess it’s worth looking into if you’re interest in switching.
Leftblank - True, I could also make up a series of redirect html files that have the same name as the current blog files and use them as re-directs.
I’m not familiar with using a .htaccess file for redirects on a per file basis. Is there a particular resource you recomend for learning more about this?
Thanks for the plugins John. Just installed them on my site and hopefully will help retain some commentors/readers.
FT
http://www.MillionDollarJourney.com
Does the top commentators work with Blogspot as well? Basically all blogs are generally the same whether one is through a major company like blogspot or one that is private made, correct?
SIK
http://www.studentinkorea.blogspot.com
I guess the proof of the pudding is in the tasting and since you integrated the commentators plugin, your comment levels have risen dramatically. Great idea - I’m considering it myself.
SIK - no, all blogs are not the same. John uses wordpress which is not the same as the software blogspot runs AFAIK.
@HMTKSteve - with Wordpress, you actually have an option to construct a custom URL format.
Actually it’s all redirects anyways, so it’s possible to hack WordPress / .htaccess to accept a dual format for post naming if needed.
@Tony - Thanks, I was unaware of that. I will have to look into that and see about changing my blog’s format and engine.
Oh cool, don’t know how I missed this post - good stuff John, I’ll be sure to keep bugging you with my comments
I’d noticed the Top Commentators plugin appear on a couple of other wordpress blogs I follow lately - is it a new plugin?
In any case, cheers!
Matt
I’m noticing a few “hey man this is great” short comments on the blog now. I think some folks might be trying to “game” your blog now John!
no offense, but it looks like your doing the same steve, you responded already 7 times in this blog post
Nomar -
My first comment “Wow… I’m your top commenter! ” could fall under that heading as it adds nothing to the blog or the discussion.
My second comment is completely on topic.
My third and fourth comments are off on a tangent and are not in any way related to the topic of the post they are comments under, they could be removed and I would not shed a tear.
Comment five is a response to a question asked in a previous comment.
Comment six is a thank you for information posted in another comment.
Comment seven can be deleted after it has been read as it is also off topic.
This is now comment eight and is written in response to your comment!
The real target of my comment #7 is that I have seen a sudden surge in comments being added to articles that are over six months old! Comments that add nothing to the old post, are not on topic and are nothing more than, “man, this is a cool post, thanks!”
I feel this is occuring because John has set up a reward system based on leaving comments. He has said he does moderate comments and he edits/deletes them as needed so I’m sure he is on top off all of this!
I get comment spam all the time on my blog, mostly from shady sites looking to get some linkbacks by going after old articles. That is why my blog is setup so that anything older than 30 days has to be reviewed before it will show up as a comment.
I completely agree with HMTKSteve
If the comment does not subtract value from the page (like those posts with liks to pill or shady finance sites I know many get) I don’t see a problem with it
John,
Now that my email box is being pounded with “new comment on xyz” emails from johnchow.com how do I unsubscribe?
There should be a “Manage Subscriptions” link under the Submit Comment button.
Nope, just a box to check for “notify me of followup comments via email”
I’m using FF2 if that makes a dif, is it an IE setting?
I assume you figured it out. I just check your subscription and it shows you’re subscribed to three posts and this is not one of them.
I never subscribed to this one… and all of the ones I do subscribe to offer me no way to unsubscribe!
HMTKSteve, hit the link at the bottom and delete the subscriptions you don’t like? Works fine for me.
Leftblank,
What link? Is it in the email notification?