Here’s some good news for those of you, who are kind enough to comment here and share your opinions with my readers and myself. As from right now, when you leave your comments, you will be able to share YOUR most recent blog post with MY readers!
How come Jim?
The CommentLuv WordPress Plugin
I have just installed the CommentLuv WordPress plugin. The CommentLuv plugin automatically visits your site when you comment here, as soon as you enter your web address (URL). Then, as you type your URL in, this little program retrieves a selection of your last blog posts, Tweets or digg submissions. (By the way, I have also added it to the AMAZINGLY BRILLIANT Ideas blog too!)
You can then choose one, which will then be included at the bottom of your comment. See the example below, and check out the box just under Danny Brown’s comment:
I’m always looking for ways to make the blog genuinely more valuable for you. This latest addition will hopefully help commenters attract some new readers – as many of the people who comment here have superb sites! This is just a way for me to say “thanks!”
What do you think?
I would love to know what you think. Leave a comment and show your fellow readers your most recent post, Tweet or digg in the process.
As always, it would be great to hear from you.
Now that’s what I call value. Very nice.
Michael Loce´s last blog ..Using Reality TV to Increase Sales and Build Brand Awareness
Time will tell Michael!
I’ve found the plugin to be invaluable for building a community of readers that come back again and again to provide feedback, share ideas and to receive the benefit of leaving a link to their posts.
I have read peoples comments on other sites where they have raised concerns that the plugin attracts spammers but I am yet to experience this. Spam comments happen on my blogs with or without the plugin installed and I certainly haven’t seen an increase.
Personally, I think it is a nice reward for those that take the time to comment, a small token of appreciation.
Warmest regards,
Karl
Karl Foxley´s last blog ..15 Free Tools To Add To Your Online Business Toolbox
Thanks for sharing your experience Karl.
It will be interesting to see how much new spam I get as a result of the plugin.
Time will tell
That is true Jim! The more incentives you give people to comment the more likely you will get them spamming your blog.
Tom | Build That List´s last blog ..RSS Subscribers VS Email List | Which Is Better?
I hear conflicting feedback, though right now, 80% says you don’t get any ‘extra’ spam.
It will be interesting to see Tom.
As you’d expect, I will share my experiences here.
Very nice Jim! Per the spam issue, I doubt it will increase spam comments much, if at all. Since the nofollow tag is still attributed to the latest post of each commenter, spammers get no added SEO bonus.
But it is a plus for those of us that leave a comment.
Rob Mangiafico´s last blog ..FTP Injection Attacks Are Getting Craftier
Let’s see, Rob!
Your have always been considerate of your community. This is just one more expession of your consideration. Thank you!
Susan/TogetherWeFlourish´s last blog ..Junior Achievement Needs Your Help in Beaver County
You’re welcome, Susan!
I’ve gotta say, I’m not fussed either way about CommentLuv. How I feel valued is when we have a brief chat, and I get enough out of that when we do to last me for ages!
I take your point Scott, but I’m not going to be able to phone the thousands of people who read the blog each week.
Imagine the phone bill mate!
good point, Scott, I do appreciate Jim’s comments and interaction no matter what but I am a commentluv fan and was actually going to ask Jim about it soon for my blog. I know many bloggers who use it and their communities are amazing.
The question is, is it because they are amazing bloggers like Jim who offer value with every post and make you feel like you are part of a community or do people flock there because they have commentluv? The people I know who have it fit the first scenario so unless I choose to read someone who publishes drivel and uses commentluv, I will never know.
As far as the spam issue, I know that the people I enjoy who use it have had it for a long time and one is Kim Woodbridge who has been my WordPress Expert for over a year so I would guess that if it was a problem, she would first blog about it and then remove it.
Julie Walraven´s last blog ..Brand Confusion
Thanks for the feedback
I don’t think there will be much of a spam issue, Julie.
I also believe that just adding a few smart plugins is not enough to build a blog or its community.
That’s where the ‘human touch’ comes in.
Nice addition Jim. As you know, I’m a huge fan of CommentLuv (it was one of the reasons I moved back to WordPress comments from the Disqus system).
I haven’t had any issues with spam (I received more with third-party comment systems), and Andy Bailey (the U.K. developer of CommentLuv) does a great job of ensuring that the plug-in enhances a blogger’s “life”, as opposed to hindering with spam, etc.
Cheers!
Danny Brown´s last blog ..It’s Not Rocket Science. A Retrospect at One Year of Community Building
Thanks for the feedback Danny.
I avoided using CommentLuv for a LONG time, because of the potential spam problems. After speaking with a lot of users over the past month or 2, it seems there’s little chance of any additional spam issues.
As you’d expect, I will report back via the blog if there’s any thing significant either way.
Thanks Mr Brown!
Thats a great addition! another reason to move over to wordpress – its in the making
I didn’t think you could give more love Jim 
x
I hope there isn’t too much spam.
Thanks Michelle. There’s always a ‘little’ more love if you look hard enough.
I wish they would develop such a plugin for WordPress.com – I think it adds great value to your website by prompting people to leave their comments and in turn it offers them the opportunity to communicate their ideas via a link to theirs.
I agree with @DannyBrown, with all the “FREE” resources available, the question that remains to be answered is . It sounds philosophical, but if you think about it you’ll see that we have to re-postulate the meaning of the world – like Seth Godin said in one of his blogs, where he clearly accuses Marketing Professors, who force students to buy the basic marketing 101 book, of laziness – since you can find this info online with a click of the button and for free – so he pushes them to add value!
Great initiative Jim – thank you
John Antonios´s last blog ..I am THE BOSS of ME!
I LOVE the fact that WordPress.com is free, but find it odd that they put so many restrictions in place; supposedly to stop people hacking into wordpress.
Like everything in life, there’s usually a price to pay for ‘free’ stuff.
Thanks for the comment John!
Hi Jim,
I hadn’t heard about this before. It obviously works, as it propelled me to leave a comment.
I think I will have to try it at my blog. Thanks for doing this.
Susan Weinschenk´s last blog ..10 Ways To Get User Feedback
Thanks for the feedback, Susan. The use of CommentLuv on THIS blog is not to encourage more people to comment, but to reward those that do. The blog already gets quite a few comments (one post here alone has almost 700 comments!)
The concern expressed by people is that it will cause readers to chip in, even though they have nothing to add to the conversation – just to get a link to their blog. This would actually hurt the comment section, as it would lower the value and flow of the comments.
I have to admit that I am certainly not ‘fully sold’ on CommentLuv yet – let’s see.
Thanks for the feedback!
Kudos, Jim! I’ve employed CommentLuv on my blog for about 18 months — and I frequently prefer to comment on other blogs which also use it…which lends to those bloggers to comment reciprocally my way. Something you may want to emulate?
Also, perhaps you’d be inclined to verify your outbound links use the DoFollow juice?
Hi Ari. I’m glad you find CommentLuv useful, though for a different reason to my own.
I’ve added it as a way to give something back to my readers, rather than as a way to garner more comments – I do fine with those already.
Regarding nofollow and dofollow, I blogged about my 6 month long experiment here:
http://jimsmarketingblog.com/2009/06/29/my-dofollow-experiment-the-results
All the best!
Thanks, I added a comment there.
Also, FYI, your CommentLuv plugin asks me to verify which post to include… but it doesn’t show up in the final copy once hitting the submit button. You might want to check your code…
FYI – Your blog has same problem! Just left a comment and it stripped the link.
CommentLuv was hacked yesterday and it seems to have screwed everything.
If you hear of a fix, let me know.
Pretty unimpressed with commentluv this far.
Thanks Jim. I downloaded commentluv. What a great idea. I expect it will help improve comment frequency. I’m not quite up to 700 comments yet on my new blog.
. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.
Thanks
Mark
Hi Jim
I love CommentLuv and find that Akismet plugin deals with most of the spam.
CommentLuv is easy to install, easy to configure and that little red heart looks brilliant.
Cheers Jim
Keith Davis´s last blog ..Laugh and the world…