Blogging Category Archive

The importance of comments

37 Replies Christopher Roberts

For 99% of blogs, comments are vital. They are the power behind blogging. People voicing their opinions on things that matter to them.

Not getting me? The comments are the fire of blogging, leading me perfectly onto my analogy of what comments are.

The analogy!

When creating fire you need three things:

  1. The right atmosphere (oxygen rich)
  2. Fuel
  3. Heat

These create fire.

Comments works in a very similar way. Comments also need three things:

  1. The blogosphere – when and where everyone meets and interacts (like the atmosphere)
  2. Articles – the substance to debate argue and discuss (like the fuel of the blogosphere, what it runs off)
  3. Opinions – these are people’s views on things which then cause them to write (like heat)

These three powerful elements create comments. The environment is set, the content is there, people’s opinions are brimming, bring on the comments!

Without comments I doubt that blogging would still be going now. Yes blogging is said to have died multiple times in the last decade, but it still lives on strong, and people like us are leading the community, pushing the boundaries to find new frontiers!

Thank you

As comments are so valuable, I though it would be a great idea to thank the commenters of this blog, as a way of saying ‘welcome to the community’!

Thank YouBelow is a list of the names of all the authors and commenters that have helped Technology Bloggers through the first 18 days of it’s life.

Over 100 comments from 26 authors (including me) – Wow! Well done everyone 😀

Authors

Commenters

  1. Wayne John from Southern California Web Development (8)
  2. Maria Pavel (5)
  3. SEO Gurgaon (4)
  4. Anna (3)
  5. Jakk from Technology News (3)
  6. Lillie Ammann (3)
  7. Marc (3)
  8. Nasif (3)
  9. Samantha Dermot (3)
  10. DiNaRa (2)
  11. jason from car Insurance Tips (2)
  12. Jimmy from wordpress themes (2)
  13. Jordan (BHATTMAN) (2)
  14. Chadrack from Making Money Blogging (1)
  15. Dana (1)
  16. Enfotainer (1)
  17. James (1)
  18. Justin Germino (1)
  19. Matt (1)
  20. online jewelry (1)
  21. Radithya from cirrusdance (1)
  22. Rojish (1)
  23. Tammi Kibler (1)
  24. Tony from Technology News (1)
  25. Travis from TradeTechSports (1)

Thank you all 🙂

Good bye April 2011, hello Technology Bloggers future!

How to be a great commenter

17 Replies Christopher Roberts

Do you read a lot on the internet? If you do, the chances are that you read in places where there is the ability to comment, be it on a blog (the most obvious place) or even a forum or website.

Why should you bother commenting?

If you have a website or blog yourself, then promoting this would be a good idea… But there are other reasons!

If you are an individual you may just wish to build your own personal reputation (or brand if you like) to make yourself more popular for social or employment, or other reasons.

Why I add comments

As an author of multiple blogs and sites, there is not much in the way of blogging that pleases an author more than a genuine (not spam – they are pesky!) comment. Bloggers describe this in many different ways, I like to say it gives bloggers a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

Funny comment - Someone on the internet is wrong!So I comment to make blog owners feel good – among other reasons. I also comment to promote my website and blogs.

But we are missing the big reason why I comment!

The main reason I comment is because I love to add my opinion. If I agree with someone, I will tell them. If not I will ask them why they feel/think like they do, and I will tell them how I think/feel on something. Debate is the fuel of the blogosphere!

How can you be a great commenter?

There are a few simple rules I follow to make sure that I am a great commenter

  1. Don’t always agree – so many people think that they are a great commenter if they agree with all the points raised and don’t challenge the author. Often authors like to be challenged, that’s why they write!
  2. Don’t just add a comment, interact with other commenters – I would guess that 99.9% of people just add their comment. Read and reply to others comments too. This helps to build a great commenting community – something highly promoted on this blog. I am quoted for saying once that ‘comments often are more valuable than the article itself!’ this is due to so many brilliant people adding great contributions improving the article, giving it support, etc.
  3. Don’t just go looking for a link or PR boost – take some time to carefully craft your comment.
  4. Don’t comment on everything you read – just make your contribution on articles that matter to you.
  5. Read the article! Far too many times, I have seen so many people on so many blogs who have read the title and then gone straight to comment. It doesn’t work, and often your comment will end up being deleted, or worse, your name put on a spam list.

Commenting tools and traps to look out for

KeywordLuv and CommentLuv are two fantastic commenting tools to look out for if you own a website or blog. They really help you promote your blog when commenting, by allowing you to use your keywords, and feature one of your latest articles.

One final thing to watch out for is nofollow blogs, AKA the greedy (I was going to use scum, but that’s a bit strong) people in the blogosphere. These are people who run blogs which do not give you dofollowed or as they are also known followed links. This means that the link to your blog doesn’t pass on any link juice to the contributor.

It’s simple, no readers or commenters, then there is no point in writing. Treat your readers with respect, and they will return the favour.

Our comments…

Being a community blog we are 100% dofollow, meaning that you can guarantee you are getting great quality dofollow comments, every time 🙂

Happy commenting!

ReplyMe – a great WordPress plugin!

38 Replies Christopher Roberts

ReplyMe is a fantastic plugin, which I am very proud to announce that Technology Bloggers uses to notify users when their comment has a reply.

Why use ReplyMe over other subscribe to comment plugins?

Well with normal subscribe to comment plugins you get sent an email every time there is a new comment, even if it’s nothing to do with your comment. You also have to remember to tick the little box at the bottom of the comment box to say that you want to receive updates.

What is ReplyMe?

ReplyMe is a fantastic plugin which allows you to receive updates (without subscription) when your comment has been replied to. This means that you don’t need to sift through hundreds of irrelevant comments, you get your comment and the reply delivered directly to you by email – free of charge 🙂

In Technology Bloggers ReplyMe emails you get to see your comment and the reply to that, along with a link to the article, and the comment that replied to yours.

ReplyMe (Plugin) LogoIf the new comment needs no reply, you can read it in your email without even having to visit the blog. If you want to reply, just click the link and you are ready to continue the conversation!

A good blog has a community on-site and off. This can be through social media, but it can also be through using great plugins like ReplyMe to ‘continue the conversation’!

If you read Ari Herzog’s blog, Draggon Blogger, Christopher Roberts Philosophy Blog, Blogging Bookshelf or The Sales Lion, you will probably have seen ReplyMe in action before. Technology Bloggers has it’s own unique style of delivering the email, but the principle is the same 🙂

For details of how you can customise the plugin, check out Justin’s article on it.

If you want to see ReplyMe in action post a comment below, and I will gladly reply to show you.

If you are interested in using ReplyMe on your blog, check out it’s plugin page 🙂