Comments are one of the most important aspects of blogging, and something that all bloggers appreciate. And yet, comment areas are a typically boring affair.
By making commenting a more enjoyable experience, you will encourage more commenters to return to your blog to check up on previous comments, and to leave new ones.
Use A Visual Text Editor
The default comments field is boring, and quite limited. It is possible to write your own HTML tags in the comment, but that’s a nuisance that you won’t do often. It’s usually easier to just leave out the formatting, isn’t it?
NicEdit is just 30kb in size, and gives a full featured text editor. Check out the comments field of this post to see it in action. It’s much easier to format a comment this way.
For anyone; NicEdit.
Let Users Edit Their Comments
We all make mistakes. Most of us like to correct those mistakes though. Give users the ability to do so, so they aren’t annoyed at their comment (At you!), and also so that you don’t have users making double and triple comments to fix those mistakes.
The Edit option is a necessity for code blogs in particular. Anyone who has ever written snippets of code into WordPress knows how many mistakes you (or it!) makes.
For WordPress users; AJAX Edit Comments.
Subscribe To Comments
It’s hard to keep track of all the comments you leave around the blogosphere. Subscribing to comments lets you keep track of the most important ones. At the very least, this is a good way of bringing people back to your blog.
For WordPress users; Subscribe to Comments.
Publish The Commenter’s Latest Headline
Being honest, we’ve all left comments hoping that someone will notice it and click back to our blogs. Why not encourage this with your readers?
CommentLuv tries to find the commenter’s RSS feed, and from that it will post their latest headline underneath their comment. Readers will see that their blog gets more exposure on your site, and they may take note of that.
For WordPress users; Comment Luv.
Threaded Replies
When you get a large number of comments, it can be hard to keep individual conversations straight. Threaded comments let you leave replies directly underneath others, so conversations are much easier to have. A good conversation is one of the best ways to win a person over to your blog.
For WordPress users; Brian’s Threaded Comments.
Post Comments Via AJAX
When a user posts a comment, they’re more-or-less finished with that particular page. AJAX allows the comment to be posted without reloading. It saves the reader time, letting them head off to other pages on your blog before they get bored.
For WordPress users; Moojax Comment Posting.
List Recent Comments
A sidebar widget listing the latest comments on your blog can be a good way of showing that your blog is alive, but also that you take the time to interact with your readers (Try to get your own name there as often as possible!). A reader will always respond well to seeing a blogger take an interest in their readers.
For WordPress users; FreePress Recent Comments.
Offer Customised Clickable Smilies
I think smilies are under appreciated in the blogging world. They’re a fun way of showing your mood while you write, and they let you make a joke and show that what you said is actually a joke.
Or perhaps I just overuse them?
For WordPress users; WP-Grins.
DoFollow Back To Their Site
Stop worrying so much about Google. Your readers are more important. DoFollowing back to their site is not about the tiny amount of link juice they might get. It’s about showing that you appreciate their comment and their time.
Update: I don’t use NoFollow on this site anymore, but CommentLuv instead. See this post to find out why.
For WordPress users; NoFollow Free.
Add User Avatars
Amidst a long list of comments, a single comment can get lost quite easily. Avatars add distinction between individual comments, and it will make you smile when you start seeing faces you recognise. You might even consider having the image link back to their blog as well (Remember how the readers love that little touch of publicity?).
For WordPress users; MBLA.
As an inspiration to us all, have a look at regular commenter Pelf’s blog. She has 7 different comment enhancements installed! And you notice it.
What have you done for your blog’s comments, and what more could you do?
Here on Pro Blog Design, I’ve always had DoFollow and Subscribe to Comments, but only recently added the visual editor, AJAX comment editor and avatars. I’m thinking about adding threaded replies as well because I do respond to every comment. Would you prefer that?
NB – I’m a WordPress user, so WordPress plugins are the only ones I know off-hand. If anyone knows Blogger equivalents to those mentioned below, let me know and I’ll add the link. Sorry!
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milo (72 comments)7 January 08
Interesting, I’ve added gravatar support by one line of code to the comments template, under
< li class = " < ? php echo $ oddcomment; ? > ” id = ” comment- < ? php comment _ ID ()� ? > ” > ”
(without obligate spaces) add this:
< ? php
if ( ! empty ( $ comment -> comment _ author _ email ) ) {
$ md5 = md5 ( $comment -> comment _ author _ email );
$ default = urlencode( ‘PATH to default image’ );
echo ” < img style = ' STYLE IT ; ' src = ' http : // www . gravatar . com / avatar.php ? gravatar _ id = $ md5 & size= 20 & default = $ default' alt = '' / > ” ;
}
?>
(again without obligate spaces) or take a look here
c template.
EDIT: Sorry Michael, code kills the code.
Charis (1 comments)7 December 09
Good and relevant post. I’m been looking for topics as interesting as this. Looking forward to your next post specially on Student Discount Cards.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)7 January 08
Thanks for sharing Milo. That way probably works with less bugs than my current setup!
But with the plugin, it looks for a Gravatar, and then a MyBlogLog avatar if it can’t find one. That way, it doesn’t matter if a person only has one or the other.
At least, in theory…
milo (72 comments)7 January 08
Your PI should work without flaws, ain’t? Take a look at your previous post comments…
Michael Martin (1319 comments)7 January 08
I know, it’s a mess (Hit “View Image” on one of the missing ones. You’ll laugh!).
I think it’s a cache problem though. It only started when I refreshed the cache manually. For now, I’m just crossing fingers that it won’t keep happen on a new post.
David Airey (55 comments)7 January 08
Hi Michael.
I gave threaded comments a shot, but didn’t like how it kept pushing the text further and further to the right. I know you can set a limit on how many threads it takes, but I just didn’t like it.
Some great suggestions here though, and I’ve thought for some time now that ’subscribe to comments’ shouldn’t have to be a plugin, but should be as standard with WordPress.
Oh, My Babycakes! (1 comments)28 December 09
Hi David. I agree that too many nested comments becomes over-indented to the right and visually unappealing. I believe you can edit these settings to limit the number of thread comments nested. Go to “Settings” and “Discussion” or you’ll see the setting under “Thread Comment” if you have the plug-in active.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)7 January 08
David,
So it was the presentation of it that annoyed you, more-so than the functionality itself? I wonder if that is something that could be improved by a better design.
I agree with you about the Comment Subscriptions, but I suppose the plugin is so good that WordPress couldn’t do much to improve upon it?
It may even be somewhat of an advantage to them to have such popular plugins in the community; merely because it encourages people to dive into that community, and find other plugins as well.
There probably is some point where they will include it though (Like tagging), even if it’s just to add it to the feature list for a certain release.
Sue (3 comments)7 January 08
One of the best plugins to encourage comments, especially used in conjunction with a do follow plugin, is Comment Luv. When a commenter hits submit, the plugin seeks out the feed from the URL left in the field, and displays a link to the last post and title. You’re giving link love in the best way possible, and of course, more people will click on a catchy title from your blog than just your name. You can download it at the WordPress plugins, or get it direct from his site. He’s recently updated it to include it in your feed if you want.
http://www.fiddyp.co.uk/commen.....ss-plugin/
Another plugin I use rather than DoFollow is No Follow Case By Case. If you’re unsure of a trackback or ping being spam, or for whatever reason, you can make the individual link nofollow. I’m just happy to get any comments (my audience doesn’t usually add comments) so anything I can do to encourage them is great.
David Airey (55 comments)7 January 08
That’s right Michael, it was the presentation of the threaded comments rather than the functionality. It’s a great idea, in practice, but I didn’t like the end result.
Going to give the commentluv plugin a shot now. Thanks for the heads up!
jsanderz (6 comments)7 January 08
Michael,
Thanks for the list, I personally like comment love, I have been meaning to put it on my site for a while. There are a few blogs I comment on with this plugin, I think it encourages bloggers to comment.
Regards.
Sly from Slyvisions.com (18 comments)7 January 08
Thanks for this! I’ve been looking all over the internet for the plugin about being able to edit comments.
David Airey (55 comments)7 January 08
The comments I’ve received today since installing CommentLuv have prompted me to visit the blogs of my readers, so it’ll be great motivation for keeping my commenting levels up.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)7 January 08
Sue – When using CommenutLuv, have you ever noticed comments taking some time to post? I haven’t used it too often before, but it’s something that I do wander about.
The NoFollow plugin sounds great. The plugin I use here is Link Love. It only removes the NoFollow from a comment link if the commenter has already left 2 comments previously. It helps weed out the spammers a little.
David – Okay. I think I might try playing with the comments design here, to incorporate threaded comments well. It might work, or it might now work…
And does this make us even now? You showed me Link Love, I showed you CommentLuv?
Jsanderz – Cool. I always liked the plugin, but it really does seem to be the one people are noticing out of this list. Perhaps it’s even better than I thought?
Sly – No problem. You’ll love the one I linked to. It’s an edit comments plugin of course, but it’s also a fantastic admin tool. You can Edit/Delete/Spam a comment using Ajax, right from the actual post page!
Michael Martin (1319 comments)7 January 08
David – That’s a good point. A headline is definitely more clickable, and would help a blogger “return the comment” a little more. It looks great on your blog.
David Airey (55 comments)7 January 08
Yep, that’s us even. Just.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)7 January 08
Haha, cheers! That was a few months in the making.
redwall_hp (139 comments)7 January 08
Yeah, Gravatars!
Nice list of plugins, Michael. Expect a link in Saturday’s BlogBuzz.
EDIT: Are you using the AJAX comments plugin now? Firefox is freaking out when I comment (it froze-up for about 30 seconds).
Marco Ruelicke.net (43 comments)7 January 08
I recently added gravatar support to my blog, now I just need to get more articles done and more visitors on the page
I’ll give some of the other plugins you listed a shot sometime later as one or two of them truly caught my interest…
Sue (3 comments)7 January 08
Michael, you can set the timeout on Comment Luv if it seems to hang. Part of the problem is locating the feed, if it’s not in the usual spot, then it checks the header. And truly, it’s not much slower than some sites that seem to hang while Akismet decides if you’re a spammer or not. ProBlogger comes to mind with that one.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)7 January 08
Matt – Cheers! But no, just Ajax for editing comments. I was playing with the text editor earlier though (Turns out there is a bug in Safari
). Perhaps that was the problem?
Marco – Cool. Gravatars are great, and they’re the plugin newest to me. What ones were you thinking of trying out?
Sue – That’s great! Thanks for letting me know. I have a lot more confidence in it now.
redwall_hp (139 comments)7 January 08
Maybe. Because when I added my comment, the text editor wasn’t there.
EDIT: I guess it was ,because there wasn’t a problem this time.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)7 January 08
Redwall,
That was probably it then. Thanks for letting me know it worked this time.
Mark from MyTropicalEscape (2 comments)7 January 08
Hi Michael – this is a tremendously helpful post!! Funny, I came over just to make sure I had the spelling of your website right for our interview next week and I come across a really worthwhile post
Brad Nay (4 comments)8 January 08
Hey Michael,After reading this post, I was considering the following delema about this ajax editor inside of comments.The first is all the options to edit your text inside the comments. Usually when I leave a comment, I wouldn’t bother to create a numbered list or strike-out certain phrases.The second is that wouldn’t all the editing (Colours, Lists, Bolds, etc) distract from other posts that the reader could come by?Anyway thats just my two cents..I like all of the other plugins, thanks for helping me out. Brad.http://daily-rambler.blogspot.comhttp://bradblogging.com
Michael Martin (1319 comments)8 January 08
Mark,
Haha – If you can spell Michael right, then you’re already ahead of about 50% of the people I know. xD
Michael Martin (1319 comments)8 January 08
Brad – That’s trye. Some of it is just a gimmick (There are more options that what I’ve shown here), but I do like using the bold, italics, underline and link options.
I’m not so sure how many others feel the same though… It could be because this blog has a more technically inclined audience than normal?
Robert Irizarry (6 comments)8 January 08
Great list and the first time I’ve heard about Comment Luv. I’ll have to consider it.
So far, I’ve experimented with a few things including comment editing, live comment previews, gravatars and smilies but the only� things that stuck throughout are Brian’s Threaded Comments and� Subscribe to Comments.
David isn’t the only design person I’ve heard criticize the layout of Threaded Comments but I accept it because of the functionality it provides. I try to reply to each and every comment on my blog and this makes it loud and clear that I’m responding to a particular person. I compromise on the layout concern by limiting the number of nesting levels to 2.
As far as Subscribe to Comments is concerned, I consider it a big success. A number of readers use it to track comments on their favorite articles. I personally use it whenever I comment and see it available.
And while, gravatars are interesting and I appreciate them in theory, my audience isn’t big on their use so I don’t use them. I also appreciate that they can make the author’s comments stand out more but in my case there are cleaner ways to do this that don’t result in a bunch of anonymous gravatars and my lone real one among them.
Having recently redesigned my site, I decided to focus on clarity in my comment section so I tweaked the layout of the threaded comments code. Some changes included getting rid of the ability to collapse comments (I didn’t see the point), either eliminating or replacing all the small text descriptions and changing the layout of the comment input fields. Overall, I’m pleased with the results.
However, I recognize that my comments section can stand a bit of pop so my next comment related tweak will be to highlight author comments. For those of us with audiences where gravatar isn’t widely in use, I think it’s a better choice.
pelf (32 comments)8 January 08
OMG Michael, I didn’t know that I have 7-freaking-comments-enhancement plugins running on my blog! Now, is that TOO much?
kristarella (141 comments)8 January 08
Good post!
I used to use threaded comments, but there was a time that it fell behind the WP updates and I got tired of being dependent on something that didn’t work properly. It mut be better now since it’s still going and seems a fairly popular.
I saw a plugin that allowed you to quote another comment as you would in a forum. I thought it was on Moshin’s blog, but it’s not there now. That would be a good alternative to the styling and dependency issues of threading.
At the moment I use Subscribe and AJAX Edit. I’ll look into MBLA and AJAX post. I also use Custom Smileys rather than WP-Grins (hadn’t heard of that one actually).
Jacob Cass (4 comments)8 January 08
Thanks for the list
I will be adding a few of them.
Marco Ruelicke.net (43 comments)8 January 08
Michael, I thought about trying the commenter headline, ajax posting and smilies plugin.
Maybe I also give the editor a try although I’m not a big fan of visual text editors.
Listening recent comments has no real use for me until I see more visitors and commenters on my blog.
well, before I even care about installing new plugins I’ll have to fix an odd issue with my CAPTCHA…
Robert Irizarry (6 comments)8 January 08
@Kristarella – You’re probably thinking of Quoter. I played with it a bit as well but found it just a bit cumbersome in practice. Your results may vary.
@Michael – The more I look at this visual editor, the more I like it although I’m not sure I want to permit image posts. I suppose there’s a way to disable it so I guess it’s time to go investigate.
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio (4 comments)8 January 08
Michael, I’m glad David started using that CommentLuv plugin, because the title of this post made me come visit (it’ll make us think twice about our headlines now, won’t it?). Excellent plugins here and I haven’t heard of most of them. Bookmarked in del.icio.us!
This visual editor is neat, but it’s different than commenting on other blogs and I find myself having to delete extra returns. I think I could get used to it though! It would really give the visitors a way to make comments more interesting (colors, images, bulleted lists, etc). Very cool!
Have you seen a plugin in your research that will automatically put the “http://” if the user tabs to or clicks in the Website field? Or maybe that’s just some code? I like that one. I believe I saw it first on Randa Clay’s site (oh I especially like the link function of this visual editor!!! Links are such a pain to enter via code)
I’ve read we need to be careful about how many plugins we install as they can increase bandwidth and load times. How do you find these working out for you?
kuldeep (10 comments)8 January 08
i was looking textedit like urs. Thanks for a NicEdit, thats a very good digg.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)8 January 08
Robert – Good to hear someone sticking up for threaded comments! They look good on your blog. Gravatars do make the blogger stand out a little more, but that’s not why I added them. My comments were already styled differently, and still are. The Gravatars are more for my readers.
Pelf – No, not at all! I said that as a complement. I think that the commenting on your blog rocks.
Kristarella – That happens to too many plugins sadly. I haven’t used it yet, so I’m not sure what the general state of it is like now. (Don’t try the Ajax posint though. It’s not compatible with Ajax editing.
)
Jacob – Cool. Glad it was useful to ya.
Marco – Now that you mention it, I didn’t think of Captcha. I suppose that with Akismet being so good, I’ve never needed it on a blog before. The others sound good though (The smilies in particular
)
Robert (again
) – Yep, you can pick and choose what you want to use. You just list the buttons you want (Have a look at the <head> of my page source if you want to see, or just read the “Examples” page on the NicEdit site)
Lauren – I’m glad as well then! And adding the http:// could be done with a little JavaScript just. Have a look in your comments.php file, there should be a line like this:
<input type="text" name="url" id="url" value="<?php echo $comment_author_url; ?>" size="22" tabindex="3" />Replace that with:
<input type="text" name="url" id="url" value="<?php echo $comment_author_url; ?>" size="22" tabindex="3" onfocus="if(this.value=='')this.value='http://'" />Try it out and let me know how ya get on.
Kuldeep - No problem. Glad you liked it as well.
WAH(web)Mommy (3 comments)9 January 08
Wow! Thanks so much for the great list! I recently re-designed my blog and am now on a constant effort to improve upon it.
One thing that really bugs me is when I post on other blogs and can’t edit my post.
I’ll be adding this plugin for sure. I like the mini editor and avatars you have here, too. I think I’ll be adding at least these 3 features, if not more.
I can’t wait to get started on it (hopefully tomorrow, if time allows).
Michael Martin (1319 comments)9 January 08
Wah(web)Mommy – Cool. Your blog looks great, and I’m glad you’ve found something here worth adding (You’ve picked out 3 of my favorites as well
).
WAH(web)Mommy (3 comments)9 January 08
Thanks for the positive comments on my blog, Michael!I’ve just installed the edit comments one. The visual editor isn’t working for me (I’m not seeing it in the list of plugins in my WP admin?) I’ll have to come back later today to try to figure it out.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)9 January 08
NicEdit isn’t actually a plugin (It’s the only one of the list that isn’t). You just have to upload the files somewhere, then add a line or two of JS to your header. Have a look at their examples (And even the source code of this page if you want) to see how exactly.
WAH(web)Mommy (3 comments)9 January 08
Oooh! Duh! LOL. Thanks for the tip, Michael. I’m excited to try it out and get it working now.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)9 January 08
Haha, no problem. It’s always the little mistakes that frustrate us, isn’t it?
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio (4 comments)9 January 08
Michael, thanks for that bit of code. I shall have to try it out! It’s a nice little feature that’s not a big deal, but I appreciate that bit of thought on other blogs
redwall_hp (139 comments)9 January 08
Wow. If I’d known people wanted a WYSIWYG editor so much, I’d have added NiceEdit ages ago…
Marco Ruelicke.net (43 comments)9 January 08
I’m not really a fan of WYSIWYG editors, as I said already, but I’ll give it a try for the comments on my blog based on the responses on here…I’ll see how it will turn out
Michael Martin (1319 comments)9 January 08
Lauren – No prob. Little touches always stand to make a big difference.
Redwall – Hehe – That’s why experimenting with things rocks!
Marco – Cool. Let us know how it goes.
How to Sell on eBay (4 comments)10 January 08
Some great suggestions, Michael!We use some of the plugins you recommend on one of our blogs. We do like how your comment text box, so we might just do some changes!
Michael Martin (1319 comments)10 January 08
Cool. It’s easy to install, if yous do decide to go for it.
Tay - Super Blogging (4 comments)11 January 08
Thanks for the great article, Michael. I definitely need to give my comments area more of that “special touch”. I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and all of these great tools.
Rafael (2 comments)11 January 08
Great tips, you think comments in blogger is hard ?
pamQ (13 comments)11 January 08
You don’t even need a plugin for dofollow. XDYou can simply hack your WordPress wp-includes/comment-functions.php file and you’re all set.I don’t know if this works on WP 2.3.2, though.As for Blogger, well they don’t have plugins. They have “Blogger Hacks”. Visit this site for cool Blogger comment hacks.
Useful article, as always, Michael. I have the AJAX comment preview on my blog. I plan to start on those gravatars as well, when I finish my blog site revamp. 
Michael Martin (1319 comments)11 January 08
Tay – All the credit goes to the creative plugin authors who came up with it all.
Rafael – I suppose so, yes. It is possible to customise Blogger a lot, but it’s just not as easy as a self-hosted blog, and the “hacks” tend to feel messy after a while. I just don’t like it very much, and have never had to work on it so I don’t know it too well.
Pam – Thanks for sharing, but you would have to remember to do that every time you upgraded WordPress. The plugin is less hassle because you install it once and that’s it done. (Until it breaks at least…. xD )
The Blogger link was great though. I’ve bookmarked that for the next time I’m stuck on a Blogger question! Thanks.
Robert Irizarry (6 comments)12 January 08
@Rafael – I have to agree with Michael on both his points – Blogger doesn’t provide the flexibility of WordPress and hacking the WordPress files directly requires you to now migrate changes every time you upgrade.
I started on Blogger so I went through the experience of working through it across various template changes and Blogger hacks. While interesting, it lacked the power and flexibility of WordPress. After being on it for about a year, I finally made the change over to a hosted WordPress solution and haven’t looked back.
I’m big on tweaking stuff but hacking the WordPress files directly is a lot of effort to go through when a plugin can solve the issue without requiring you to track your changes as you upgrade WP.
That said, I do have a couple of plugins that I’ve hacked a bit and thus require this sort of tracking. However, I’ve taken some additional actions to mitigate this. Many plugins simply give you a static call to include in your templates. For example, (used only as an example) Wasabi’s Related Posts tells you to include the following:
related_posts () ;
If you suddenly disable a plugin with a static call you break your site. A better choice is to test for the plugin’s availability before calling its function:
< ?php if(function_exists('related_posts')) { related_posts(); } ?>
If I mess up migrating changes, suddenly find that a plugin is causing a problem or that that it’s incompatible with the latest WordPress version, I can disable it without concern that my site will break.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)12 January 08
Robert – I hate it when that happens. The if statement is such an easy thing to add, and yet it helps your blog so much. Definitely a must-use for all plugins.
Satish S (1 comments)21 January 08
Excellent find!!!
Andrew Kelsall (1 comments)21 January 08
That’s a great list. I have installed Subscribe To Comments, but leave to box unchecked a s not to ‘trick’ any commentors on my posts. think I’ll try CommentLuv and ‘Offer Customised Clickable Smilies’ next…
Michael Martin (1319 comments)21 January 08
Andrew, that’s a good policy. I agree entirely with you there. Unknowingly stepping into email subscriptions does nothing but annoy people.
Gunady (5 comments)22 January 08
I’ve tried some plugins you recommend. They are really useful and look awesome! thank you verymuch for the post, ya
CarpetGuy (1 comments)23 January 08
I’m not sure just how many I have now, but there are some of the “do follow” typ plugins that are the same, just different names, I got on a rol and downloaded three of them before I saw that they were basically the same, but my favorite is the “commentluv” plugin, great job, keep it up!
Michael Martin (1319 comments)23 January 08
Gunady,
No problem. It’s good to hear someone else liked them.
CarpetGuy,
Haha, yes, I can see that happening easily. There are a lot of similar plugins out there!
Shayon (1 comments)1 February 08
Hi, just checked out NicEdit. Unfortunately I use the blogger platform and NicEdit doesn’t seem to support Blogger. Or does it?
Michael Martin (1319 comments)1 February 08
Shayon,
It might. All it actually needs is a regular old <textarea>. The platform will only matter if it means you can’t edit the HTML. I know that blogger isn’t great with its comment forms, and it definitely won’t work on the pop-up comment form.
But can you get blogger comments inline? If you could do that, you might have a chance. No guarantees though.
Webdesigner (4 comments)4 February 08
Thanks for the list! Found some very usefil wordpress plugins. I became your rss subscriber.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)4 February 08
Cool. Hopefully I’ll see you around then
Piyo (1 comments)10 February 08
Thanks for the nicEdit info, I love to use nicEdit, but it isn’t working on my blog and nicEdit still has a few bugs under Opera.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)11 February 08
Piyo,
Yep, there are still a few kinks, but not many, and the developer is really working well at them.
tintin (1 comments)13 February 08
Dear Michael ..what plugins comment that u’re using now ..??i’d love too ..
i want to put it in my website .. 
thanks b4 
Michael Martin (1319 comments)13 February 08
Tin Tin,
I’m using NicEdit, Subscribe To Comments, Ajax Edit Comments, Gravatars, NoFollow Free and Recent Commenters.
Marco Ruelicke.net (43 comments)14 February 08
Michael, just a comment as you just mentioned NicEdit again:
As you possibly know there is an odd bug with linebreaks. You can now find a solution to this problem on my blog.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)16 February 08
Marco,
Yep, I had heard about that error (Kristarella mentioned it a while back). It’s a strange fix though. Have you noticed any drawbacks to it yet?
Edwin Joseph (3 comments)6 March 08
It is really good that the commentators will see a different kind of commenting styles.. And yes, its may encourage the commentators to post if their RSS feed will be listed below their comments
Richard Butler (1 comments)6 March 08
Great list of plugins. I was using the ordinary commeting plugin and this would be a valuable list for me.. Might as well upgrade my commenting plugins now!
Michael Martin (1319 comments)6 March 08
Edwin,
I like the sound of that one as well.
Richard,
Cool. Which ones were ya thinking of using?
PublicRecordsGuy (1 comments)11 March 08
This site is an absolute godsend. I am new to wordpress and had my site designed and coded, but I’m still learning how to tweak it to just the way I want, and learning this is SO MUCH. Thanks for simplifying some of it.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)11 March 08
Public Records Guy,
Glad I’ve been some help. There is no end to what you can do with WordPress. Just try not to let the vastness of it all swallow you up! xD
jhay (1 comments)11 March 08
Nice touch with the comments field here. I never thought that formatting comments much easier would be possible.Kudos to you!
Michael Martin (1319 comments)11 March 08
jhay,
Thanks. NicEdit is buggy on Opera still, but when it works, I love it!
Tom Ross (5 comments)12 March 08
Great post, thanks for sharing the links
I feel like I’ll try to follow as many of these points as possible with my next blog.
Joel (3 comments)12 March 08
I have never commented on this kinda text editor…thanks for the information…It looks awesome….
Michael Martin (1319 comments)12 March 08
Tom,
Cool. There are some really great plugins about.
Joel,
No problem. I think it’s a nice step up from a plain old text box.
moserw (2 comments)12 March 08
Great article. Much appreciated.
Missy (2 comments)13 March 08
Ooh, i like NicEdit. Very cool plugin. Will add this to all my blogs. I strongly believe every WP blog should have the “Subscribe to Comments” plug-in, as sometimes it can be hard to recall blogs comments have been left at. I know when i first started blogging, and would leave comments, i would constantly forget where i had left it. This one is a must have.
chandan (1 comments)13 March 08
Perfectly written.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)13 March 08
Moser,
Welcome!
Missy,
The Subscribe plugin is fantastic. I’m a little wary of using it on more popular blogs/posts (e.g. Anyone who subscribed to this post at the start has had 80 emails so far! xD ), but on smaller blogs (The ones you’re most likely to forget about!), it’s perfect.
Chandan,
Thanks.
Missy (2 comments)13 March 08
Michael: Yes, one must just go back and unsubscribe from the post.For example, whenever i leave a question on a big or popular post, once i receive my answer, then i will go back and unsubscribe from post. Still a very useful plugin.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)13 March 08
Missy,
That’s true. Forgetting to unsubscribe is one of the things that caused me to use it less and less these days. Still a great option for a blog to offer.
Samsul (2 comments)15 March 08
Good thing, people will go back to our blog to unsubscribe
BTW, my blog supports DoFollow to attract people coming to it.
*EDIT*
I have gravatar, but it din’t show and my link not followed
Stephen Hopson (4 comments)15 March 08
Hi:
I noticed you don’t use Brian’s Threaded comments. How come? I was about to install it when I learned that changes to the database was no longer necessary (as was with previous editions). But just as I was about to upload it, I got nervous and decided not to go through with it for fear of it messing up my current comment system.
The reason I got nervous was because in the read.text file, the author (Brian) said the comment.php file was designed so that it would fit with the default Kubrick theme; however, I’m using a different theme (XMark). It makes me wonder about compatibility issues.
Does anyone here use the XMark theme with the latest Brian’s Threaded comments plug-in? If so, please let me know if you had any trouble with it or whether you had to make some specific changes to make it compatible, etc.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)15 March 08
Stephen,
It’s unlikely you’ll find someone who has tested it on your exact theme. Just save a backup of all your theme files to your computer, and then go ahead and try it. If things don’t work, then just overwrite the files with your backups.
I don’t use it here because I’m not sure just how much benefit it would give. It’s hard to tell. Perhaps I should try it as well someday? xD
Stephen Hopson (4 comments)15 March 08
@Michael Martin: I received notification with a response from you to my comment above but I don’t see it here but I will respond back to you anyway. You said I should make a backup copy of all my theme files to my computer and if things don’t work out, just overwrite them.
I understand – thanks. However, in Brian’s Threaded comments txt file (where he gave instructions on uploading to your server), he said to make a backup copy of the comment.php file. I did that but I noticed that when i saved a backup copy to my hard drive, the file size increased from something like 3800 to 4200. Why? It’s supposedly the same file yet when I backed it up, the file size increased.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)15 March 08
Stephen,
I don’t know why that happens, but it’s completely normal. That happens with all of my files as well, so don’t worry about it.
I’ll ask a few friends to see if anyone knows. I’d sure like to, now that you bring it up!
Stephen Hopson (4 comments)15 March 08
Well, Michael, thanks for telling me that downloading a file from the server to my hard drive always seems to make the file bigger. I’m glad you’re going to check it out with a few of your friends as to why that happens. Seems strange. I am still subscribed to these comments so if you find out and you write in this comment section, I’ll be able to get your response back.
Uri (3 comments)16 March 08
Great post. Really, REALLY useful. I’ve been trying to get more comments on my blog… this is exactly what I need.Thanks.
james of littlenomads (1 comments)17 March 08
some really good advice, fantastic post, will take note to publish commenter s headlines now. cheers
Michael Martin (1319 comments)18 March 08
Stephen,
Sorry, but no-one seems to know! And I haven’t even managed to find that answer through Google. It’s bugging me now! xD
Uri,
Cool. I hope it works out for you.
James,
Cool. That’s the plugin which could well have the biggest impact I’d say.
Stephen Hopson (4 comments)18 March 08
Michael:
Well, I find it rather interesting – don’t you? The funny thing is when I upload from my hard drive to the server, the file name stays the SAME. Yet when we download from the server to the hard drive, it seems to get bigger.
STRANGE! But apparently that’s “normal.”
Michael Martin (1319 comments)19 March 08
Stephen,
Yes, and I wish I knew now! If I ever do find out, I promise to email ya.
AJ (6 comments)22 March 08
Hi, I’m using the WP Premium theme which has Tabber(DOMTab clone) on it, but it clashes with NicEdit (doesn’
t show when NicEdit is enabled). How would I fix this? Also, How do I make the note on the AJAX edit comments plugin show on my site?
Michael Martin (1319 comments)23 March 08
AJ,
Sorry, but the 2 scripts clash, I think the only way to solve the problem would be for one of the script authors to edit their script, which isn’t very likely to happen.
What AJAX Edit Comments note do you mean though? The little countdown timer you see when you post a comment? Go into your WP admin panel > Options > AJAX Edit Comments. Turn the “Show a Countdown Timer” option to yes.
Mark (13 comments)5 November 09
Michael, what is the plugin you use (or how did you do it) to show the number of comments a commentator has made next to their name? I can’t find it on any of your lists but I see that your site supports it. Please email me if you get a second as I’ve been looking for this functionality for awhile now.
Thanks,
Mark
AJ (6 comments)23 March 08
Oh ok thanks =/. I’ll try DOMTabs then.
Edit: Nope, no luck either
Michael Martin (1319 comments)24 March 08
AJ,
Are you sure about that? I’m running both DOMtabs and NicEdit here on Pro Blog Design, and they work.
Richard H (2 comments)26 March 08
Great list – thank you Michael!
sarah (7 comments)27 March 08
great site , hopefully you get alot of visitors
Pete White (6 comments)3 April 08
Have you seen the CommentLuv plugin http://www.commentluv.com its a great way to get more people to post comments on your site.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)3 April 08
Pete,
Yep, it’s a great plugin. I mentioned it as part of the list above, and definitely recommend it.
gareth (2 comments)3 April 08
hello testing the edit function
Uri (3 comments)4 April 08
I’m reading this post again because I am creating a new blog and I can’t believe how usefull this tips are. Thanks man.
PS: Wordpress 2.5 already has the “avatar functionality”
Michael Martin (1319 comments)4 April 08
Uri,
Yep, it does. I’m going to look into upgrading to WP2.5, purely to get that functionality. As you might have noticed, the avatars plugin here has completely stopped working over the past few days…
Maik (2 comments)8 April 08
Hello,
To the first plugin: I hear that Hackers often hacks a wordpress site over the visual text editor, so i delete this plugin on my page, is it right what I hear ? …
greetz
Crystal (3 comments)10 April 08
For me, it’s the top commenters widget that’s attractive. I often slowly work my way up to the top.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)11 April 08
Maik,
I’m not sure (I’m not a security expert), but I think it would depend entirely on the visual text editor script you’re using.
The one mentioned above is still very new, and I’m yet to hear of it being hacked. I doubt that you would have heard much about that script in particular.
Also, other text editors involve plugins (Which people could get into WP through). This one has nothing to do with WordPress. It’s not a plugin, which I think should make it completely secure.
Crystal,
Thanks for sharing. That’s a great way to promote your blog; you get the link, and the blogger will appreciate it and take special note of you.
kalapacengkir (1 comments)15 April 08
hi guys..
a simple hack in replacing default Wordpress editor with Nicedit.
frankly, just to show a “how to”. it’s you who would develop a better one. let me know when it’s done
here it is:
http://www.4shared.com/file/44.....press.html
greven (2 comments)14 June 08
Nice log you have here. Thanks for the tips, I use them on my blog too.
Manuel (4 comments)4 July 08
Thanks for the great tips! The plugin “Subscribe To Comments” sounds really promising.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)4 July 08
Manuel,
It’s one of the best. You’ll start noticing it on a lot of blogs, now you know what it is.
Miss. Cute (1 comments)9 July 08
Nice great tips. Very usefull. How about joomla?
where is seo friendly joomla or wordpress… I heard that many joomla based web migrated to wordpress… I don’t know why?
brajesh (2 comments)13 July 08
hi
great List.After looking at your list the name of nicEdit.I started playing with it.
so I just came up with a plugin named Wp NicEdit,with this plugin you don’t have to do anything manually.just upload the plugin and activate.It will turn your comment text area into visual editor(using NicEdit).
You may check it here
http://geekytalks.com/2008/07/.....press.html
Regards
Brajesh
Michael Martin (1319 comments)13 July 08
Miss Cute,
I’ve never used Joomla to be honest. I’ve heard good things about it, but I’ve never heard of it doing something that couldn’t be done with WordPress somehow.
I’ve no doubt that Joomla makes certain things easier (And vice verse, WordPress makes other things easier), but once you know how to use one really well, you don’t feel the need to use another. That’s why I haven’t done anything with Joomla.
Brajesh,
Sounds cool. I suppose that will make it even more appealing to some people.
brajesh (2 comments)13 July 08
Thanks Michael
,great tips great work.
I do believe in the technology for making life easier
I had stumbled to your blog,just a few days ago using google and now I am visiting it regularly
keep it up
Karl Hardisty (1 comments)18 July 08
A great article. Thank you.
I – like many others I’d hazard to guess – installed a number of plugins when first setting up our blog, and have added ones we come across that appealed. However, we’re currently building a Wordpress driven website for a client, and it has motivated us to go back and look at the plugins we have installed (activated or not) for our own.
It’s interesting how much easier it is to look at a blog from a user perspective, when it’s not your own!
Prepaid Tarife (1 comments)20 July 08
Hello,
i use the Plugin for my own Site and it´s realy helpfull
Greetz
moserw (2 comments)22 July 08
I have moved to Disqus which I find enables all the points you have mentioned and also now has video blogging with the addition of Seesmic.
Luis Gross (2 comments)23 July 08
Hey sweet plugin list. I’m thinking about adding the avatar plugin but I’m not too sure. I would like to use the comment love, and the nofollow plugin as well.
Is it as good as they say it is? Some people say it drastically increases comments on your site.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)23 July 08
Luis,
The nofollow plugin only helps if you point out somewhere that you actually have it enabled (See how it says “We DoFollow” on my comment form?), otherwise, most people won’t even realize it’s installed!
The avatars are my favorites. I would definitely say that those help.
John McCollum (1 comments)27 July 08
Great article, and it’s obviously working, given that this is comment #123 on the article!
My blog is pretty much brand new, and I’m still pondering the dofollow issue – should that fact that my blog is new affect my decision one way or the other?
Michigan Divorce Lawyer (2 comments)9 August 08
Does anyone know how to make a blog in Joomla a dofollow blog? I want to create more interaction and my blog currently is nofollow by default.
Commerce Township Real Estate Blog (2 comments)9 August 08
This is a great article and a very good idea, it only takes a couple minutes to moderate a blog for spammers. I guarantee you will get a lot more interaction if you make it a dofollow blog. A lot of people only comment on dofollow blogs.
Srijith (1 comments)10 August 08
Wont DoFollow attract spamers?
Michael Martin (1319 comments)13 August 08
Srijith,
I don’t think so. A spam script may as well attempt to post it’s comment anyway, and DoFollow stops the first comment from a person being DoFollowed, so the spammers will have to leave a load of comments in order to get the link juice anyway.
Diseño de sitios Web (1 comments)31 August 08
Top commenters plugin is awesome for getting your visitants to participate. Specially if you configure it with dofollow attribute.
aaheroe (1 comments)3 September 08
i found funny and cute smiley plugin,
paopaobing smiley, download link
http://dailyfreeware.net/plugins/
Serge (1 comments)11 September 08
I will definitely add some of these plugins to my sites, I’m not getting many comments…
Ruthie (1 comments)12 September 08
Hi! Found this list via Google looking for a particular plugin. I already have some of them, but there are a few I had never heard of before, so thanks!
Isn’t there one out there that saves your commenter’s info, so they don’t have to re-enter it when they return? I can’t remember the name of it. If anyone knows, that would be great! Thanks!
Las Drogas (1 comments)13 September 08
I work with joomla and I haven´t got all this stuff to the comments, they are very poor. I dream with something like this in Joomla
I agree with you but the the dofollow atribute attracts lot of spammers
my english is not good
David (16 comments)16 September 08
How do you format your comments to have callouts? Is their a standard plug in for this or is it all customized? I love that style.
masterza (1 comments)23 September 08
Very interesting information necessary to verify and try all, thank you!
evertt de sousa (3 comments)30 September 08
very nice
Firebubble Design (2 comments)2 October 08
nice tips, have been looking for a visual text editor for my blog.
Donace (3 comments)2 October 08
very useful plugins indeed; I have enabled the majority of those on my site; now all remains is cranking out good articles :p
bhothay (1 comments)4 October 08
nice tips, Thanks for sharing.
Carlee Potter (2 comments)4 October 08
This is a GREAT post. As a novice online publisher I’m only just beginning to realise the frustration related to people’s unwillingness to leave comment. I will definitely be trialing one or more of your suggestions, I mean, DEFINITELY asking my web developer if I can incorporate them and if so, how? So wish i could learn how to do it ALL myself overnight.
Speaking of learning, and this has nothing to do with the topic of this post but I’m hoping ANYONE can point me in the right direction.
I need to learn how to make email newsletters to monthly-update my slowly-growing list of subscribers. It has to incorporate links/pics etc. I have ZERO clue where to start but want to teach myself, not rely on my web developer/designer. I have novice Photoshop skills and, er, a lot of enthusiasm… haven’t even attempted a google search yet, cos I’ve wasted many hours following my own wrong leads for self-education before.
Hoping someone has been here, done this before… knows the perfect start-point?
Tyler Banfield (1 comments)10 October 08
Your link under “Add User Avatars” leads to a 404 Not Found page. I would suggest updating it to Automattic’s “WordPress Gravatar Plugin.”
Manuel (4 comments)12 October 08
Good tips, thanks for that! With “Subscribe To Comments” I have already made good experiences, now I will test “AJAX Edit Comments”. Best Regards, Manuel
Spedition Berlin (1 comments)20 October 08
Thank you for your tip and your publish.
LG
Solent Blue (1 comments)7 November 08
Nice article, there are definetly some good points worth looking into. I think the fact that you have so many comments rather proves your points for you. I will have to do some experiments and see what effect they have on my blogs.
Cheers
john - laptop (8 comments)27 November 08
i agree with your opinon. thank you for this post. very intresting. i like it.
Diane (2 comments)3 December 08
Quite nice suggestions actually but I would not agree to the idea of using a visual text editor because it will create user created content that might not look very good inline with your site’s design. I also don’t like the threaded view of comments becasue I must say, if this is what we want, we should rather stick to forums to give everyone a bit better opportunity to participate with a feature rich set of tools.
the Blogoholic (1 comments)8 December 08
I’m just commenting to see how this Ajax plugin works…
Clubit.tv (3 comments)17 December 08
I hope i get more comments!! Thanks for this amazing list
Oleg (1 comments)24 December 08
I’ve implemented a few of these on some of my blogs and have seen a slight increase in blog comments.
I think a call to action is what really get the comments flowing. Write an article and end with a question to the reader.
Bloggista (1 comments)31 December 08
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.
Summer Fisher (1 comments)4 January 09
Great tips, can’t wait to incorporate some of these into my own blog.
Snake (14 comments)12 January 09
The users avatar and the AJAX Comment are interesting i will try it on my blog. Great Article!
used motorhomes (1 comments)13 January 09
Thanks for informative article its good thay you are promoting do follow. Its apity that most blogs are now no follow even for quality comments. The do follow plugin will certianly help.
Farid Hadi (15 comments)17 January 09
Nice article. I think Avatars is a must and the least you can do for your readers.
Anh dep (3 comments)6 February 09
Great article, I think that Dofollow back is good way to attract more comments
Supermance (5 comments)11 February 09
im only use commentluv plugin, i think that effective so far …
Sanjay (1 comments)26 February 09
I used these plugin and worked good but in my blog spot.I didn’t tried in my sit now i will.Thank you for this post.
sarah (7 comments)3 March 09
this is a great reference!
but any of these or similar apps work in blogger???
Web Design Blog (2 comments)3 March 09
This is a great list. Readers that interact on a blog are more likely to come back. Anything you can do to get more comments, short of holding a gun to someones head, is worth the work.
Windows How To (1 comments)5 March 09
Thanks for this informative article and this post is very helpful to newbie bloggers.
I think making our comments Dofollow, drives a lot of comments………..
Derek Heck (1 comments)10 March 09
Thanks for the great list. I have already added a couple of them to my site. I have also been using
comment relish http://www.justinshattuck.com/comment-relish/ on my blog. Basically it just sends the reader a nice little email thanking them the first time they leave a comment on your blog. A good opportunity to add extra value and maybe get them on a list.
Cheers
Anita (1 comments)21 March 09
Great tips!
Zaldy@DeViLnoAnGeL InFo (2 comments)24 March 09
Does any other do-follow plugin ? just in case it’s not compatible with my wordpress or maybe screw up my site. Probably you should make a 2 option for every plugin.
rismaka (1 comments)13 April 09
I use commentluv, and it’s more effective than dofollow plugin.
IMO dofollow plugin was not a good idea, coz more outlink is bad for Pagerank. CMIIW
Tips Blog (2 comments)26 April 09
How about used noexternal-link plugin? Is it can solbe the problem?
Tips Blog (2 comments)26 April 09
Great list! I think the must have comment plugin is nofollow free, It will encourage the reader to leave some comment. Then an email responder comment plugin is also need too, It will keep up discuss with commenters
Any idea?
CAMS (1 comments)3 May 09
Thanks, good tips
CAMS’s Latest Post: Redesign Soon
CT (1 comments)20 May 09
Thanks for this great overview of comment plugins.
Annuity Rates (1 comments)23 May 09
I think more information should be provided in the blog!!
Josh (3 comments)23 May 09
I don’t understand, you say not being nofollow makes no difference, but all of your comment links are nofollow?
Michael Martin (1319 comments)23 May 09
Hey Josh,
Sorry, I should update this post now. Check out this post to see why I changed how things are done here: http://www.problogdesign.com/w.....ommentluv/
Lorraine Ball (1 comments)24 May 09
Thanks for the tips. I have just started working on a redo of my site, and have been looking at plug ins and templates, I will definitely consider some of these features.
Conrad (1 comments)24 May 09
I’m using Intense Debate. Not sure if I can add other plugins on top of this. Will give it a try.
Conrad’s Latest Post: WordPress GreetBox Plug-in
Richard Brian Penn (1 comments)30 May 09
Some of these are great plug-in ideas that I hadn’t even thought about. I’m going to incorporate some of the above ideas on my site today. Thank you for adding value to my web development – RBP
Richard Brian Penn’s Latest Post: Do You Call Your Friends Bro?
owner icakicik.com (1 comments)15 June 09
Salam kenal.. Wah, nice tutorialnya.. Bisa link exchange?
thorsten (1 comments)24 June 09
ich daisfsldfkm mfmfmfm
Internet Blogger (1 comments)8 July 09
Wow, this is a pretty comprehensive list. I’ve added CommentLuv and dofollowed comments already, but will be adding subscribe to comments and edit comments now that I’ve found the appropriate plugins.
I will say if you do decide to dofollow comments, you should really filter any spam out which means comments or links to blogs in the comments that don’t add value.
The only thing I can add to your list is putting a ‘Most Popular Posts’ widget in the sidebar, in order of the number of comments. People like to comment on posts that already have lots of comments.
Regards,
Omar
.-= Internet Blogger´s last blog ..Top 10 Web Analytics Blogs =-.
Samsung ML 1610 (1 comments)13 July 09
moderation is the key!!!
.-= Samsung ML 1610´s last blog ..Top Samsung Office Printers =-.
Jason Carr (1 comments)20 July 09
Lots of good info; I’m especially benefiting from your HTML-formatted comments, threaded comments, and comment modifying suggestions. Thanks for the tips!
Rosario (12 comments)27 July 09
This is a great list . Thanks
maskoko (3 comments)29 July 09
^_^ nice post..!
LoveGuru (4 comments)31 July 09
I didn’t know you can post comments through AJAX.. will give it a try.. Thanks!
.-= LoveGuru´s last blog ..The Five Love Languages: Overview =-.
iskandarX (1 comments)1 August 09
Thanks for this tips I even dont know about this plugin use. Thanks anyway
Meervasia (1 comments)2 August 09
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Web Development Company New York (2 comments)5 August 09
Good list….thanks for sharing this info post.
הכרויות - Love (1 comments)18 August 09
Damn !! You are the best…
Nice source to learning from
Thank you
Israel Love (1 comments)18 August 09
Great website man ! Great source to follow
Thank you
Symbian4Hackers (1 comments)22 August 09
Great blog keep up the good work. Please Visit me @ symbian4hackers.blogspot.com
James Howard (1 comments)23 August 09
Great post, I have not long had my latest blog up and running. I use comment luv and show latest comments so far but by the look of it I could do with a few more.
Great tips thanks,
James Howard
sanket chauhan (1 comments)25 August 09
thanks for the infos! It really helps
Sandeep@Coupons (2 comments)25 August 09
Very useful list i found here. Before this i only used commentluv and keywordluv for searching the dofollow blogs. These two are also very effective but after visiting this blog i have many options and my efficiency to find the blogs have been 30 to 90 per day.
Sandeep@Coupons (2 comments)25 August 09
Before visiting this blog, i only used commentluv and keywordluv for searching the dofollow blogs. These two are also very effective but now i have many options and my efficiency to find the blogs have been 30 to 90 per day.
Tanay | TJDzine (4 comments)26 August 09
A great overview of plugins. I am currently only using a couple of them, I might install more later.
Which plugin do you use to control the number of comments someone must post before his links become Dofollow?
sambootech (1 comments)28 August 09
Nice Post !
Thank !
Please Visit my Blog :
http://www.sambootech.com
Best Practices Technology Blog
Meena (1 comments)31 August 09
I admire commentluv plugin and use it on my main website.. Atleast it gives a reason to users to add comment …
Though new Google announcement of following nofollow links making me to remove it.. What do you suggest??
I go through all the comments and see which ones deserve to be there and which ones don’t. I must say that after installing it
my comments have increased and interaction with some commentators have also increased.
Avery (11 comments)31 August 09
Do follow back to their site,that will get my wordpress banned.
Durkin (1 comments)1 September 09
Hi there, thanks for the help. Gave me a good few ideas for helping my community!
Edwin Joseph (3 comments)9 September 09
Thanks buddy for the comment resources
sooran (2 comments)17 September 09
tancks
this post very very helped me !
Good Time
Rhea-UK Recipes (1 comments)17 September 09
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Thanks for sharing this post.
Littlest Pet Shop (2 comments)18 September 09
Excellent information in this post, this blog is very easy to read and I have bookmarked it, I really enjoyed “Setting Up WordPress after an Install” also keep up the good work
Littlest Pet Shop (2 comments)18 September 09
Excellent information in this post, this blog is very easy to read and I have bookmarked it, I really enjoyed “Setting Up WordPress after an Install” also keep up the good work.
TJ
Martin (5 comments)18 September 09
Great article. I dont know why ppl dont take a bigger interest in getting comments to their blogs. As you say it really makes a blog look alive.
You should consider writing a follow up article to this one with newer comment plugins (if there are any).
/Martin
Ken @ Mens Pocket Watch (2 comments)21 September 09
Thanks for all of the information and plugins to help encourage comments. I have added CommentLuv and KeywordLuv to my site, but still can’t seem to get any comments. I will definitely try the plugins and tricks that you have outlined here. I also agree that your comment box is much more attractive than the out-of-the-box comment sections.
Madi (1 comments)21 September 09
Wow, I’m really gonna put a few of these plugins on my new blog. Thanks alot!
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טכנאי מחשבים (2 comments)25 September 09
Wow, I’m really gonna put a few of these plugins on my new site
W3Poker | Free Online Poker Games (1 comments)30 September 09
Fantastic list of plugins, im a big fan of the ajax plugins for sure
Daniel (10 comments)30 September 09
Thank you for this great plugin list. I’ll try WP-Grins and Comment Luv. This two plugins seems to be great.
Greets
טכנאי מחשבים (2 comments)1 October 09
123
driver76 (1 comments)10 October 09
It may also give the military authority the power to act in place of civilian authorities, if a decree specifies it explicitly. ,
Free Download (3 comments)13 October 09
Have been using the standard comment since the first time, have no idea there is such plugin like this, I will surely try some of them
This is really interesting post, thanks
A.R Zico (4 comments)27 October 09
These Plugins are really very useful.
לעשות כסף באינטרנט (2 comments)28 October 09
Thank you very much !
I think you are right ! The users are more importent !
i WILL FOLOOW !
לעשות כסף באינטרנט
Squidge (2 comments)30 October 09
Thanks for the post, it’s a great list. I’m definately going to have to try a few out. I’ve always found getting people to comment is the hardest part of blogging, so hopefully this will help things along a bit. Whoop!
julie green (1 comments)30 October 09
google is not everything, use nofollow free
aki76 (1 comments)14 November 09
Hello Michael,
Thank you for list of so useful plug-ins. I didn’t know most of them.
You do a great job,
Warmest wishes,
Alex
Samantha Jo (1 comments)16 November 09
http://www.campusgirlsusa.com/.....39&i=1
Hi everyone! I am in this contest for campus girls usa and all the proceeds go to breast cancer research and i need 2000 votes to win!! all you have to do is click the link and scroll down and post a comment!! Thank you for your support it means alot to me!!
God bless
-Samantha Jo
satrap (1 comments)16 November 09
Thanks for the post, i enjoyed reading it. blogging is not as easy as many think it is, it’s hardwork. any how thanks.
Roman (2 comments)25 November 09
Absolutely great list!
I’m bookmarking it!
Gidin (1 comments)30 November 09
I think you are right and good works!
Rick (2 comments)7 December 09
Thanks.Installing the KeywordLuv plugin, which significantly helps commenters with SEO because it allows them to choose the anchor text for links.
Reihel (1 comments)7 December 09
Thanks,very good!
Sanny Rizky Jatnika (1 comments)15 December 09
Worthed Post, nice to meet this blog…
Mukundan (2 comments)20 December 09
Very useful in improving my blog. I like this blog design very much. But some of the plugins are not suitable for wordpress
Reza (4 comments)21 December 09
Thanks for the great plugin. Its one of my favorites.
Beck (1 comments)28 December 09
Thanks for the Ajax edit comments, it seems to help with the quality of spelling in the comments! I am thinking about removing the built-in nofollow attribute from my WordPress sites. Having a nofollow simply kills many potential comments.
Autai ptfe (17 comments)30 December 09
Great Poster !!
Federico (1 comments)31 December 09
Thanks for the great list! I have downloaded and installed DoFollow and threaded replies in my travel blog http://www.maitravelsite.com. Not easy to keep up when on the road, but I hope this will help. Keep it up!
Aashish (3 comments)11 January 10
Gr8 post, Just installed threaded comment plugin for my site
jess (1 comments)11 January 10
I’m currently using the Gravatar and DoFollow plugin, nice to know about the other plugins available.
Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella (1 comments)11 January 10
I wish there were more plugins available for people who don’t use WordPress blogs. I was interested in the only one you listed for us non-WP, NicEdit. Not sure what it does, but I will check it out. I am still struggling to install coComment on my blog as well.
Being a rebel is so difficult.
Maik (2 comments)15 January 10
Thanks Michael
I do believe in the technology for making life easier
Dallas Wedding Planner (1 comments)15 January 10
Thank you, Michael, for taking the time to compile and share this list of WP plug-ins. We were already using Avatars on the Dallas Wedding Planner Blog, but we’ve implemented a few of your other suggestions including CommentLuv. In the process, we also found Twitterlinks Comments (which was created by CommentLuv’s Andy Bailey) and so far we’ve found our readers/commentators enjoy adding their Twitter usernames to their comments. Doing so adds just one more dose of link love. Thanks again. Your blog is an excellent find, and look forward to staying tuned for more practical, helpful articles like this one.
Jannelle Zawaideh (1 comments)16 January 10
Michael,
I love your blog, please don’t stop writing. There are not too many informative blogs out there, that give genuine information. Keep up the great work and I wish you the best success.
Yuriness - Yuri and Shoujo-ai (4 comments)17 January 10
Thanks for the tips, I’ll download some right now!
“NicEdit is just 30kb in size, and gives a full featured text editor. Check out the comments field of this post to see it in action. ”
Guess you removed it? Because the comment field seems normal to me
Forex (5 comments)21 January 10
I got really helpful information from your website. I recently start my own blog and I will try all these plugins in my new blog. I appreciated your hard work and informative website. Thank you
Codesquid (14 comments)8 February 10
Thanks for the list! Just started using commentluv! Managed to get it working when I comment on someone else’s blog but not for others when they post on mine! Will keep trying!
Net Success (2 comments)11 February 10
Good post! Thanks for the link to the wordpress plugin that allows my site to post comments via ajax. You have a good point there also, i do not like how the sites have to re load after commenting.
free promote (2 comments)11 February 10
Thank You!
this post very very helped me !
Man and a Van London (13 comments)12 February 10
I guess making your blog a nofollow free is really one of the factors why bloggers will return to your site. I really agree with your post. Thank for sharing this I have learned another one to improve my blog.
תיקון מחשבים (1 comments)17 February 10
תיקון מחשבים ורשתות באזור הצפון
Aira Pratama (2 comments)19 February 10
Thanks, I’m still new with WordPress and this post really help me to find useful plugins for my blog.
Thanks Pro Blog Design
Daniel Haim (1 comments)20 February 10
This is a great post, but how come you chose to do a “DoFollow” without a spam check? Do you not think you will get less spam with that? On our blog right now I have to use Dofollow to use AJAX on the main page otherwise it messes up the platform, I’m very upset with this resolution because I could keep all the linkjuice to myself.
Anyway, I really like your comment.php and stylesheet
Omer Greenwald (3 comments)26 February 10
Excellent set of tools ! However, the most efficient technique to get more comments still remains combining the two principles of writing killer content and interacting with other bloggers in your niche (especially by commenting in their blogs).
m65 (19 comments)27 February 10
comment luv is the best. nice share
Anggara (1 comments)1 March 10
I’m new with wordpress (1 month); so nice information…., I’m very appreciate. Thank you.
Anne Smith (1 comments)4 March 10
Like the site , just responding to the great comments on wordpress and the plug ins.Qualitity content is still the way to go.
Matt (10 comments)11 March 10
Great post. I’ll be sure to try these out on a few of my sites.
Indonesia Web Design (4 comments)11 March 10
nice info. the number of comments in this article prove that I should implement some of these plugins on my sites.
sobatsehat (1 comments)13 March 10
martin, thanks for info
bali beach (1 comments)13 March 10
martin, i like no 1 plugin
Steve (12 comments)13 March 10
Great post full of useful tips! My site is fairly new and I am also having a hard time getting my readers to leave comments. Analytics shows they are coming to the site but I have a feeling “nobody wants to be first”.
My site with very few post comments is WeirdLawsuits.com
Anybody reading this comment is more than welcomed to leave a comment on WeirdLawsuits.com as well. You can also leave your “first impression” or other opinions on the Feedback page.
Thanks again for this great post!