2008 October | WassupBlog

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Archive for October, 2008

Commentators, How Do I Reward Thee? Let Me Count The Ways

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm

Comments (47)

I reckon those of you who read my blog regularly would realize by now how I hold my commentators in high esteem and I how I love to reward them for leaving a comment. Those of you who don’t, well let me list them here for you in order that it may encourage you also to join in the discussions on this blog.

Do Follow: First of all, by using the Do Follow plugin I have removed the No Follow tags and so Google will now be able to follow the link, left in the name field when you leave a comment, to your blog or site.
The F Group: I am a member of the F Group, a group that promises to follow all commentators to their blog and reciprocate with a comment of their own.
Brian’s Threaded Comment Plugin: This plugin makes it easier to respond to an authors comment rather than have to use the old ‘@ Name’ Crap and then scrolling up and down to see what the conversation is all about.
CommentLuv: This is a neat little plugin, developed by Andy Bailey, that reward you by including a titled link to your last blog post at the end of your comment. If you register your site at commentluv you can actually choose from your last 10 posts!
Top Commentators Widget: Read all about how being a regular commentator can increase your backlinks via this plugin.
KeywordLuv: KeywordLuv by Stephen Cronin is the latest method that I am using to reward those who take the time to leave a comment. Everyone knows the value of keywords, well with this plugin will separate your name from your keywords in the link to your blog or website thereby giving you improved anchor text. All you need do to to utilize this plugin is enter YourName@YourKeywords in the Name field to take advantage of it. For example, if I was to enter Sire@Wassupblog in the name field it would show up as Sire from WassupBlog.

You can thank Kristi of Kikolani fame, her latest poem The Sweetest Drug, for that last plugin as it was her comment on my Commenting Etiquette post that inspired me to install it.

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Commenting Etiquette Is Important

Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

Comments (24)

When you enter a persons home there are certain rules that everybody follows, little rules such as farting in the presence of your hosts and not making a pig of yourself. Most people know about the etiquette involved when visiting and on the whole they do their best whilst visiting.

I have made the analogy before where a blog can be considered the bloggers home and we as guests should follow a common commenting etiquette. We should follow the bloggers, rules if such exist and also monitor the way we behave while commenting. This means to always be polite and not to flame others in whatever comments we leave. We can however fart to our hears content and the hosts will never know.

My blog is no different and I have a Comment Policy for all to see. I also have the following added in the comments box so that their can be no mistake;

Please leave a comment but remember SPAM will not be tolerated
Please use a name and not a keyword as keywords will be removed. I reserve the right to moderate or reject any comment for any reason.

Unfortunately there have been commentators who have ignored this simple rule and I let them go for the sake of the comments. However, due to an email I have received, I am afraid I can no longer let this go on as it is unfair to those who are following the rules. I hope you understand.

Getting A High Technorati Ranking

Saturday, October 18th, 2008 at 7:34 pm

Comments (19)

Like most rankings Technorati ranks your blog depending on how many other blogs linked to it. If you had a good ranking you would displaying it on your blog in the hope that it would demonstrate to others that you are a blogger with some authority. As I wanted to be one of those bloggers I decided to increase my ranking and I came up with several methods that I pursued with great diligence. They worked so well that I managed top get a Technorati Authority for my Blogsire Blog of over a 100. I was quite happy with this and so I slacked off taking things easy and then I noticed my ranking was slipping.

Why? Were bloggers removing my links? Nope, nothing so sinister. It appears that Technorati only counts those links for a period of 6 months, so what was happening was that as the age of those links approached 6 months they simply dropped off and I must admit that so did my enthusiasm for wanting to keep it. Way too much work as far as I was concerned.

So, what techniques did I use?

Review Exhcanges: I made it quite obvious that I would be willing to swap reviews with blogs of a similar nature.
Blog Hopping: By collaborating with other blogs who are willing to join this system worked quite well and you can read all about it at the original post.
Commenting On Do Follow Blogs: I noticed that these were sometimes picked up by Technorati.
Joining In Memes: This would normally involve an exchange of links thereby increasing your rankings.
Top Commentators Plugin: This is not one that I used previously but I have noticed that links from this plugin actually does appear on Technorati. It’s only natural to assume that were you to become one of the top commentators on blogs using that plugin that your link will be picked up by Technorati.
Technorati Favorites: According to this post it seems that there unlike Technorati Authority there is no time limit to your Technorati Favorites Votes which has it’s own advantages including recognizing your blogs authority. Get to the top 100 and you may well receive an increase in your blogs readership

So, if you want to get into the ‘Favorite’ exchange just ‘Favorite’ me by clicking here leaving your favorite link in the comments and I will do the same for you.

I know that there are other methods but I leave that to you, the ever important reader, to contribute for the betterment of the blogging community.

[eminimall]

Proof That Regular Commenting Does Pay

Saturday, October 18th, 2008 at 1:45 am

Comments (18)

Some of you may have noticed that I have a new logo, one that I think is pretty snazzy, and it’s all to do with my commenting regularly on other blogs. I’m always on the lookout for blogs that I can leave meaningful comments on and a lot of the time I find one that I like so much that I subscribe to it so as not to miss any updates.

Work From Home Business Blog is one such blog and unbeknownst to me I won a competition for being the Top Commentator and that prize was a professionally designed logo, and there it sits for all to see. Thanks Peter for the prize.

Yet that wasn’t the only thing that resulted from my commenting sprees. I’ve also got to meet a lot of other bloggers who come back frequently, and on top of that I get a heck of a lot more visitors. So you see, commenting does pay.

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Is Timing Of the Essence In Regards To Blog Posts?

Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 5:33 pm

Comments (14)

This photo is one of many I took in another series of falling drops on my my Photos2Blog blog.

Sell photos on photrade | By Sire

I have found that in many situations in life, just like capturing this particular in time of the falling drop, that timing is of the essence. If you get the timing right you can usually expect great things, but if you get it wrong there can be a catastrophe waiting to happen. Take the current share market as an example, those who waited too long have either lost a bundle or are forced to sit on their stocks waiting for an increase in the market, whilst those who got out in the nick of time are rubbing their hands with glee as they search the stocks waiting to pick up all the best bargains.

One wonders if this can also be true in blogging. Although the results of mistiming may not be as dramatic in blogging I can’t help but wonder if the timing of your posts can have any relation to the immediate exposure it gets? Should I be delaying my posts so that they appear when it’s morning in another time zone when people are waking up, or evening when they come home from work.

I noticed last night, thanks to my Stumbled shortcut, that two of my blogs were stumbled just before 11pm Australia time, resulting in over 500 views in just over an hour. I’ve have been stumbled before but only once before did it result in so many views. Unfortunately I did not take note of the time on that occasion. So the question remains, is the timing of publishing your posts important in regards to getting the ultimate outcome?

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