DISQUS

Tibi Puiu · 2 years ago

Those are some excellent plugins i use the first two, the third one is a little spammy.

Bull3t · 2 years ago

I thought that the third one only sent an email the first time a user posted a comment, so it shouldn't be too spammy. It should be just a single email, do you get more than one?

Tibi Puiu · 2 years ago

You get only one, for the first time you make a comment. But it kinda buggs me, but that's just me.

Inner Space · 2 years ago

I like the top commentators plug-in. I don't know how effective the first one would be though, and the third seems a bit spammy.

It seems to me that the best way to get comments is to give the readers some kind of reward for further interaction. The second plug-in does that in one way. Another way would be to respond to comments in some way, and to encourage dialogue between the commentators. joshreads.com and passiveaggressivenotes.com are good examples of that.

Bull3t · 2 years ago

Okay, maybe the last plugin is a little spammy then, never really thought about it, but it is just a pointless email really. It is supposed to encourage readers to re-visit your blog and leave more comments - maybe it doesn't work.

I always try to encourage comments here and if you look at all of the posts, they all have an even number of comments. That is because I try to reply to every single comment I receive. Hehe.

TheBlogJoint.com · 2 years ago

Great Tips, I especially like the 'What Would Seth Godin Do' plugin I think I will give that one a try on my own blog.

Bull3t · 2 years ago

Yeah, that plugin is really quite helpful. It makes new visitors feel welcomed. As does the WordPress Landing Sites plugin, I may add that to the list and explain it a little. It basically just shows a message to your visitors who have landed on your blog from a search engine. It will then suggest other posts for them to look at, specifically to their search term.

Jon · 2 years ago

I use CommentRelish to thank first time commenters for taking the time to comment. It's usually met with favorable response.

To manage a LOT of comments I use Better Comments Manager. That's a great tool to let you respond to comments with an AJAX reply window. That keeps you right on the page and eliminates that annoying researching the page to see where you left off when you were last commenting.

Some great ideas here, I would like to incorporate them in a post - of course providing proper reference and linking to you. Well done!

Jon

Bull3t · 2 years ago

Thanks Jon! Sure, go ahead and incorporate my ideas into your post - I don't mind so long as I get link-love, heh.

That sounds like a good little plugin, I will give it a shot, cheers.

Nath @ Reformed Geek · 2 years ago

Bull3t, some great tips. It's funny how trying to get people to comment is really difficult. It is almost as if once someone has read your post and they have 'got what they wanted', they then can't be bothered contributing back. Oh well, that's life. :)

Jon, that plugin sounds great, I am going to go check it out now. I love waking up to several comments (or a discussion) scattered around different posts, BUT it can be a bit of a nightmare responding to each comment. You've saved the day.

Nath @ Reformed Geek · 2 years ago

All, I kind of agree that the email thing could be a bit spammy. That's why I have not used it 'yet', as I am able to reply to all of my commenters personally. I think when a blog grows though, and there are so many comments done each day, it would be better to use an auto message and try to personally reply in the comments section if you can than to give no feedback at all.

Sus · 2 years ago

Brilliant post - thanks for sharing. Some good constructive comments here that everyone can benefit from. I've been having problems too - although visits are growing steadily. Funnily enough I wrote a post on the same subject today on another plugin that really is ingenious - I think you and your visitors will like it too. Not spammy - just brilliant. Here's the link to my earlier post: Need more exposure for your site?
Your blog has been noted. Thanx

Darius · 1 year ago

Man, you saved my life!

I had the comment relish problem but I didn't know. My blog had frozen, saying the damn thing about not sending the email. I couldn't do anything, even login to the admin panel! All the bad words crossed my mind, thinking how many hours I have to spend erasing wordpress and building the blog up again (I have over 15 plugins installed and tons of custom php modifications!)

Thanks again. May the coding goddess bless you :)

Bull3t · 1 year ago

Glad I could help a fellow WordPresser out with their problems - it is quite a weird problem though.

Annie Maloney · 1 year ago

I personally do not like to use the "U comment, I follow" images. Reason being is that anyone can do a Google Image search for that exact phrase and viola, all the dofollow blogs you can get your hands on then guess what....spam city. I know there are many different custom beta searches out there that find dofollow blogs, but why make it any easier than it has to be.

Another good plug in is the "CommentLuv". Check it out...

Bob Tampa · 1 year ago

Another good way to encourage comments is to write interesting or thought provoking blog posts. I like to read real estate related blogs and sometimes I have a hard time getting involved if the poster only talks about subdivisions or things going on in their area.

Jason · 1 year ago

Seems to have worked on this page :)

I like the, what would seth somebody do idea, you could easily make a veiled sales pitch there. Very cool.

Bloggista · 11 months ago

Two other methods that can help to encourage comments are allowing DoFollow links (removing default nofollow attributes so that "link juice" is passed to the sites) and installing the KeywordLuv plugin, which significantly helps commenters with SEO because it allows them to choose the anchor text for links.

Overall, it is a good thing to encourage comments because the extra content provided by other people adds more keywords to your posts, which in turn brings in more traffic from the search engines without costing you any more time than it takes to write the original post.

mikenew · 11 months ago

This is very helpful for blog owners who are looking to attract more comments on their blog posts. Some of the best action I have ever received is when I discuss something a little controversial. It seems to get people's opinions going.

WI Designer · 11 months ago

Mikenew hit it one the head. Stirring up controversy, taking an alternate or unpopular point of view or taking a very strong opinion gets attention. If you attract too much attention or the wrong attention, can you stand the heat from a flame war that might ensue?