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There are millions of blogs out there. You need to stand out from all the rest; be different to be remembered. However, standing out doesn’t just mean using a custom theme, it means customising every part of your blog, including the default messages.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 9:17 pm and is filed under General Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
We’ve all seen that message on blogs before, and what opinion does it give you of said blog usually?
It doesn’t. That’s the problem. The owner hasn’t bothered to put some personality into the blog, and as such, you have nothing to remember it by.
This is the most extreme example of course. The quoted paragraph is usually changed (removed?) by blog owners, simply because it is so over-worded and unfriendly to readers. What other lines in your blog can be given a personality of their own?
Encouraging Comment Messages
When your post has 0 comments, you want to do everything you can to encourage that to change. Wordpress offers an easy method of doing this through comments.php. Simply enter the message you would like to display where you see the line:
<!– If comments are open, but there are no comments. –>
For example, here on Pro Blog Design, we say the following on our comment-less pages:
“Sadly there aren’t any comments yet. That means that the article above was pitifully poor, or brand new. Either way, you need to use the comment form below!”
The “Comments Number” Template Tag
Wordpress also offers a template tag which lets you display different messages depending on how many comments there are.
<?php comments_number(' ', ' ', ' ' );?>
Text between the first pair of apostrophes is shown when there are 0 comments, text between the second pair when there is one comment, and text between the final pair when there are at least 2 comments. In the final set, a percentage sign (&) will display the number.
For example, placing the following before “<ol class=”commentlist”>” in comments.php starts off with a pretty standard usage of the tag, but then uses it again to a more unique effect.
<p><?php comments_number('No responses so far', 'One response', '<strong>%</strong> responses' );?> to “<em><?php the_title(); ?></em>.” <?php comments_number("Now's your chance. Get in there first!", 'Shall you join in and make it an actual conversation?', 'Join in!' );?></p>
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Another area typically lacking personality is the footer. It’s true that we all love Wordpress, but can’t you think of a more creative way to say it? Even changing this text in footer.php to “… the fantastic Wordpress,” is enough, because it shows that you put in effort.
There are many ways to customise a blog, like jazzing up the 404 error page. What customisations have you done on your blog? What was your most creative writing?
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Matthew Blancarte (4 comments)10 August 07
These are definitely some great ways to personalize a blog. I’m diggin’ the comment encourager :p
pablopabla (50 comments)10 August 07
Good advice there. I am definitely going to do some tweaking on your advice. Thanks!
Skellie (11 comments)10 August 07
Great ideas.
I read an article recently which talks about how to write great alt and title tags, and add life to your footer. That’s certainly customizing every inch of your blog!
You can read it here:
http://www.alistapart.com/arti.....webwriting
Rose (6 comments)10 August 07
Thank you for the helpful tips to personalize a blog.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)10 August 07
Matthew – Hehe – Seems it worked on at least one person. Thanks for letting me know the post wasn’t “pitifully poor”!
pablo and Rose – Glad yous enjoyed it.
Skellie – Alt tags are certainly one of the hardest areas to customise for me personally; it’s difficult to imagine what would make a good alt tag when you’ve never really had to use them before. The best I can do is imagine what it would be like if the image hadn’t loaded.
Thanks for the link; I love A List Apart! That article was one of the more controversial that I’ve read lately. The advice you read on blog writing is usually about bullets, paraphrasing etc. but I agree wholeheartedly with her about not throwing out the soul of your writing just to get the word count down.
Suzanne (1 comments)10 August 07
THanks for stopping by, GREAT looking site, I’ll follow!
Michael Martin (1319 comments)10 August 07
Thanks Suzanne!
Tejvan Pettinger (3 comments)10 August 07
I have to agree it makes a big difference, yet I haven’t done any of those suggestions. Just shows little things can make a big difference.
thanks
Tejvan
Tyler Michael Jonsson (13 comments)13 August 07
Thank you so much for these tips and practical applications.
I have changed my comment area around after reading this!
Check it out and let me know what you think!
Michael Martin (1319 comments)13 August 07
Hey Tyler – I had a look; love them! (Especially the no comment one, we wouldn’t want you to feel useless!
)
Can I ask why I have to register to leave a comment though? You’d most likely get a lot more comments if you turned that off, because it would be much easier for people to comment. (If you’re worried about spam, you can turn on comment moderation, whereby every comment needs to be approved by you before it is shown.)
Still – I did register this time, to return the favour!
Daniel (10 comments)13 August 07
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article lise Default Wordpress Messages to Stand Out From The Crowd, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)13 August 07
Hi Daniel – Is there any part in particular that you didn’t understand?
I’d be happy to re-explain anything which you feel wasn’t clear.
Jeanne Dininni (7 comments)14 August 07
Hi, Michael!
Thanks for leaving a comment at Writer’s Notes! I appreciate it!
Though I don’t use WordPress, this post is what inspired me to begin my new practice of (manually) adding a personal note at the end of each of my own posts, asking my readers to leave a comment–and hopefully, making that request in a manner that they will find engaging!
Sorry for not leaving YOU a comment the day I read and implemented your helpful tip! Guess I was a bit preoccupied that day!
Thanks for your great advice!
Jeanne
Michael Martin (1319 comments)14 August 07
Hi Jeanne! I noticed those messages when I was commenting on your blog. I did wonder if this way why. Great job on them! (It worked on me, as you saw.
)
And the apology goes both ways, I meant to send a thank-you email personally, but never got around to it. It was very rude of me, and I really did appreciate you adding my site to your blogroll. The encouragement means a lot!
Jeanne Dininni (7 comments)14 August 07
No problem, Michael! The blogosphere is a very busy place, and it’s extremely easy to get sidetracked by the next link you just can’t wait to check out!
I never mind adding great blogs or other websites that are helpful to writers to my “blogroll”–though it is getting quite long!
Thanks again for your great advice!
Jeanne
TechZilo (8 comments)14 August 07
Customising 404 is cool, especially since most blogs change URLs upon editing and republishing to a neweer date.
I am saved, ‘coz my URL structure is http://www.blogname.com/postname
Michael Martin (1319 comments)14 August 07
Jeanne – Thanks!
Techzilo – I think you’ve commented on the wrong post, but yep, date-based URLs would certainly be a good reason not to republish posts.
kristarella (141 comments)16 August 07
This is a good point. Most of the personality (in terms of text that’s not part of the post) in my template comes from Chris Pearson who made the template, I could do more to jazz it up.
Asking questions at the end of the post is a good way to get people to respond, I should think about doing that.
On the footer of my blog a while ago I had something like “This blog was brought to you by the letter A and the number 2.” I thought it was kind of fun.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)16 August 07
Hey Kristarella. Your template is a perfect example of customising a template. Usually the Copyblogger theme sticks out a mile (Because it’s so popular), but your wonderful header sorts that problem! Great work.
And yep, asking questions has worked very well for me. Some of the replies I’ve gotten were better than my articles ever were!
Mommy Zabs (45 comments)24 August 07
I like how you make a note that you have “do follow” on the comments box. I would love to do that and take the distracting button off my page
I love the idea of customizing things that we bloggers get so used to over and over, I will be thinking over more and more what maybe I can do for mine.
Also what I’m finding is that the more you look at the code languages the more you start picking it up… like any verbal lang. you would be trying to learn. That has been encouraging… Never thought I would love programming so much.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)24 August 07
Trial and error Mommy Zabs. It’s the best way to learn.
Play with things, one step at a time, and you’ll know Wordpress inside out soon enough. It’s a lot of fun, and your blog can only benefit from it.
Liberty and New Creation (6 comments)2 September 07
Thanks for the reminder. Do you mind taking a look at my blog? I’m using an out of the box theme, but I don’t think many others are using it.
Working on a custom header, but other than that, is there anything else that can easily be changed? I know basic html and css, plus some php. I’m just retarded when it comes to actual design.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)2 September 07
Hey,
If you can come up with a pretty unique header, that will make a big difference.
Have a read of this post on making your template unique. It has good tips for ya.
Karen Zara (4 comments)21 October 07
Found this post thanks to Mohsin’s post offering free backlinks. You see, although he hasn’t compiled the definitive list yet, his idea works.
By the way, I’ve just bookmarked your article on del.icio.us. 
Michael Martin (1319 comments)21 October 07
I ought to thanks Mohsin then. It’s a cool offer he’s running.
And thanks – Glad you liked the idea.
pelf (32 comments)23 October 07
I tweak my blog all the time, mostly to customize the default wordings and colours because I’d like to give my readers the impression that I am actually “conversing” with them on my blog.
It gives them a feeling that they’re looking at something somebody put some effort in, instead of “just another WordPress blog”.
Thanks for sharing the various tips and tricks on customizing our blog, Michael
Michael Martin (1319 comments)23 October 07
Pelf – Sounds like you’re doing well then. Realising that every part of your blog says something about you is a big step to creating the best experience possible. Your readers will notice those little touches.
Cheb (1 comments)2 December 07
Nice post Martin!
I totally agree that customizing Wordpress is the way to go. Although I must admit vanilla-Wordpress satisfies as a top-notch publishing system, the more you can customize it to be ‘unique’ or as individual as yourself; the more likely you will retain visitors.
Check out my post about making Wordpress faster using mod_gzip and PHP – another way to make your blog work for you.. I’d love to hear your feedback.
Well done again!
Cheb.
Marian (1 comments)7 February 08
Thanks for the tips. I was looking for something like this.
Beresdeh (1 comments)24 July 08
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sekhar (1 comments)27 February 09
Thanks for the article…
Pet Snakes (1 comments)27 May 09
Love your writing style and the design of your blog, its very original! Well done, look forward to reading more.
free i need 2 pee (1 comments)18 July 09
any updates coming ?
Nicole (3 comments)1 August 09
Great, thanks was just looking for this info for a project I am working on. Much kudos.
Seven Jeans (1 comments)7 August 09
Personalised messages make the online advertising spam free and increases ROI . Anyway, Good Post
Steven Vachon (1 comments)11 September 09
Thanks for the heads up on the need to urge people to comment. Useful stuff.
Garmin 478 (1 comments)6 November 09
Thank you, I will try to do this short tutorial
http://www.duitinternet123.com/cafe-franchise/ (1 comments)6 November 09
Good article, I will put into practice this advice