Archive for » August, 2008 «

393466886 93a4a580b0 m Plugins, Questions and Open Mic

It’s been another busy week here at BWAB and for me in my real life. As the week comes to a close, it’s time to recap what we’ve learned.

This week’s posts included:

1) A.S.K. Liz – How do You Inspire Your Readers To Join Your Community
2) New Blog Of The Week – Writer Dad
3) Parties, Spam and Hanging Chads
4) Self Promotion From The Archives

Behind the scenes I’ve been experimenting with the following plugins.

1) Liz Strauss’ Comment Count Badge See mine in the right sidebar.

It’s an easy plugin to download, use and configure. For details and screen shots, check out Lorelle’s blog post titled:My Comment Count Is Bigger Than Your Comment Count

2) The What Would Seth Godin Do (WWSGD) plugin is shown on the top of each post.

It’s a typical download, and once activated the message in the rectangular box and easily be changed. To witness how other bloggers are using this plugin, check out Catherine Lawson’s great ideas.

3) Ozh’s Absolute Comments lets you reply to comments directly from your “comments” screen.

With this plugin you can answer one comment at a time. If you choose to answer more than one, the only way I’ve found to accomplish that is by entering your replies directly on the post screen.

To read more on comments, check our Joanna Young’s post titled: 10 Practical Ways To Boost Blog Comments and Conversation

Today’s Assignment

To start off this weeks “Open Mic”, I have two questions for all of you.

1) Are you more apt to read a blog if the RSS feed reader count shows a high number?

2) With the introduction of Liz’s Comment Count Plugin, would the display of comment counts influence you to join in on the conversations?

The floor is yours. You know the rules.

Questions, comments and concerns are welcome.

Have Fun!

Keep it Clean!

And don’t forget to either check the “subscribe to comments on this post” box, or subscribe to my comments RSS feed (upper right sidebar), so you can follow along.


Photo Credit: El Conde!’s photostream

92782951 510374b896 Self Promotion     From The Archives

Today as I was digging through my archives, I found many posts I had forgotten about.

Here’s a recap of my favorites in no particular order.

Today’s Lesson In Self Promotion

Funniest Picture In A Post: “Do You Walk Your Talk Or Are You Just Blowing Smoke?”

Most Controversial PostL (Created motivation for other bloggers to write their own posts on freedom of speech) Blog Losses Massive Traffic Due To Profanity

Highly Visited Post: (according to statistics) “Blogging Etiquette – The Unwritten Rules”

Post Receiving The Most Comments (105): :Four Day Open Mic 8/21 to 8/24/08

My Corniest Post (it’s a poem):“I Love To Blog”

My First Post: My Blog Had A Baby”

Most Misleading Title: “Blogger Exposes Herself, Traffic Soars”

Most Gratifying Post: Join Me In Helping A Fellow Blogger

Post With The Most Links: : 1066 Links, Lessons or Tips For Bloggers

Most Educational Series: Interview With Lorelle VanFossen – Part 9 – A Recap Plus A Bonus

Today’s Assignment

Knowing our archives are often forgotten, how do you self promote ensuring your previous articles get more attention?


Photo Credit: sh0dan’s photostream

2000 Florida Butterfly Ballot

Do you remember the 2000 U. S. presidential election? In Florida, many ballots were punched incorrectly resulting in what was deemed as “hanging chads”. It was quite controversial as a huge number of votes weren’t being counted. Several recounts were performed and the situation ended with many disgruntled people.

As I was reviewing the A.S.K. – Liz Strauss – How Do You Inspire Your Readers To Join Your Community article, a comment written by Theresa Zagnoli said, in part:

I would however find it insulting if a writer responded individually to others, but not to myself.

This reminded me of a problem that occasionally happens in a blog’s comment section. Your comment doesn’t get answered.

Your comment gets left “hanging”.

Today’s Lesson

I see a few scenarios as to why this happens,

1) You’re “late for the party”. Late for the party meaning you’re one of the last ones to comment on a post, and the blog authors misses your comment.

2) Your comment ended up in your spam folder. Even though it gets fished out, the author gets busy and forgets to answer the despammed comment.

3) The author gets so many comments, they accidentally miss yours in the group.

4) You comment on an old post, and again, the author overlooks your reply.

As blog authors, we want our commenters to know their words are important to us. Missing those random comments could result in lost readers.

As much as I try to catch every comment, I know I’ve probably missed a few. For those commenters whose comments I’ve missed answering, I truly apologize.

Today’s Assignment

How do you ensure that you catch every comment?

What do you do when you miss one? Do you answer it, or leave it hanging?

Have you ever left a comment on another blog, not to have it answered?

If so, how did it make you feel?


Photo Credit: Rory Finneren’s photostream

2579336765 fb0297d2f4 300x251 NBOTW   Everyday Is Fathers Day

When a blog is nominated for “New Blog Of The Week” (NBOTW) by so many of the BWAB readers, I can’t ignore it. In fact, it’s a blog I’ve been following, too.

From his post titled, ” Here Is A Macbook, Go Make Your Million”, you know the author is a writer when you read words that so eloquently say:

Daisy and I have been married for seven years, holding hands for eleven. It’s a bit of time, but compared to my grandparents who were married for three quarters of a century, it’s really just the first few buds to bloom on the branches of a freshly planted tree.

While researching blogging, he read he needed a niche. After much thought, here’s what he wrote in Let’s Put Ourselves Together

I quickly decided that speaking to a niche would dull my voice, and until I discovered my niche, I should just speak as though over a cup of coffee, even if it’s to someone sitting at their own keyboard on the other side of the world.

Success means different things to different people. For this blog author, he knows what he wants. To quote him (from his post titled:Crabs Don’t Walk Straight For A Reason) he says:

I want to see everything I haven’t, learn what I don’t know, and visit places that will fill me in a way that the same half a million street signs stuck deep in the concrete of my own city never could. Being able to find success as a writer, means my office can fit in a knapsack.

He needs no introduction as he’s already a part of the BWAB community. For those who may have missed his blog, he’s a writer, and he’s a dad, He’s Writer Dad.

Please join me re-welcoming Writer Dad to the BWAB community.

Hello again, Writer Dad! :)


Photo Credit: DanieVDM’s photostream

ask 300x205 A.S.K.    Liz Strauss   How Do You Inspire Your Readers To Join Your Community

Building our blog communities is accomplished in our comment section.

Last week Liz Strauss, author Successful And Outstanding Bloggers and “The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog (the book), answered the question, “How To Format A Blog Post To Maximize Comments”.

As we all know, part of receiving comments is answering them. Our readers want to know they’re being heard. Based on the fact Liz will soon be sporting 70,000 comments on her blog, I asked what her secret is to inspiring her readers to continue to leave comments, thus building community.

I asked: With the amount of comments you receive, I suspect your readers are finding more than “just another blog” where they can share their opinion. When you read and answer your comments, what technique do you use to make each reader feel so special they want to subscribe to your blog and/or continue reading your work?

Liz answered: I don’t do much special. In fact, I suspect I do exactly what you do. I read the person’s name, say hello, and comment back to each one, exactly the way I might if I met that person face to face in my house at my front door. I want to know what people are thinking. It’s a genuine curiosity on my part about who they are and what I might learn from where they’ve been and what they’ve taken from what they read. We build a response together. :)

I often click through the link to see who I’m talking to before I write my answer. I like to answer each person individually. After all each person talked to me one at a time. :)

When Ellen of Wilson’s Words and Pictures asked how Liz manages to answer the massive amount of comments she gets, she continued on by saying:

How do you answer questions your kids ask? One at a time. Answering comments is no different. I could ramble on about rules and wisdom, but there really isn’t much more to say. If you care about what someone says, you listen and respond.

To Elaborate on Liz’s answer:

Thank you Liz for taking time to answer these questions. You’re answers have been most helpful.

Rereading Liz’s answer, it’s all about common sense. We treat our readers special by letting them have their say. By respecting their viewpoint and responding appropriately, they feel compelled to come back for more conversation.

Today’s Assignment:

How do you answer your comments, one by one, or as a group?

How do you like your comments to be answered? Individually, or is a group response from the author acceptable?

If a blog author does not respond to your comment, will you return to that blog?


Related Posts with Thumbnails