Incentives work. Our whole economy is powered by incentives — as one of my favorite business books Freakonomics reveals.
Incentives work in the blogosphere too. Commentors will respond to incentives. Motivate your readers to comment with the following WordPress plugins (hat tip to Blogtalks.net):
- Show Top Commentators — to publicly recognize and name your top commentors on your blog
- Link Love — to motivate your commentors to post comments, because they’ll get links and PageRank from you. Most blog platforms automatically nofollow the links in comments, so that no PageRank is transferred. This WordPress plugin removes the nofollow, so that your commentors will gain an SEO benefit from their comments. Just make sure that your blog is pristinely clean of comment spam. You don’t want to inadvertently link to what Google calls “bad neighborhoods.”
- Comment Relish — to send Thank You notes to your new commentors. The plugin ensures that you don’t send regular commentors repeated thank you emails. So don’t worry, you want be inadvertently barraging your commentors with an onslaught of spam.
Great article! Found you through http://www.DailyHub.com.
Another idea to add to the list is some type of weekly or monthly contest where the “most insightful comment” wins. Though subjective, it’s a great way to reward those that take the time to write thoughtful and useful comments.
Comment by carefreeliving — June 29, 2007 @ 11:42 am
Great information – we launched a blog yesterday, and will incorporate these plugins immediately. I really like the idea of a thank you note sent to commenters – adds a personal touch.
Comment by Geek — July 4, 2007 @ 8:58 am
I didn’t realize there was a comments thank you plugin… will have to get that one.
Thanks, Chris
Comment by Chris Taylor — July 17, 2007 @ 8:14 pm
Some good basics, here. But getting quality content into search engine rankings is vital if you want visitors who are also non-bloggers.
I’ll link to your blog. Nice content and a nice design.
Comment by Hey, Don! — July 23, 2007 @ 1:37 pm
Stephen,
Thanks for pointing these plugins out. We used a do follow plugin but I have been thinking about switching to link love for sometime now. I will check the other ones out as well. Do you see any real value from showing top commentators?
Comment by Khalid Hajsaleh — August 15, 2007 @ 6:46 am
Good information. The fact is, incentives work. Smart marketers have been using incentives for years. It’s simply a matter of knowing your market and knowing what motivates them.
Comment by Kathleen Gage — August 29, 2007 @ 6:04 am
Any idea on how to implement a top commentator addon in blogger?
Comment by Increase PR — September 16, 2007 @ 12:29 am
You would think that someone could get more creative than a thank you note. How about product giveaways from sponsors?
Comment by Michele — September 19, 2007 @ 8:47 pm
Blogging is a really great way to do some marketing for your business, no matter what that business is. And, as someone involved in IT consulting, I know it is great for that type of business (I provide tips for working with clients and building your consulting business in mine!), but also for many others. I think incentives are a really great idea for anyone running a business – whether incentives to get people involved with your blog and your marketing campaign (an “extended sales force�) or just to get clients to buy your services (by providing them with something of value that will get them to raise their hands and say, “Yes� to a relationship). Thanks for these additional tips!
Comment by Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course — February 1, 2008 @ 12:10 am
The only time we have to use incentives are if the website lacks content. Normally if you have good content and great articles, people will want to contribute.
Comment by Barter — March 3, 2008 @ 2:34 pm
Useful information, I’m with Blogger, so bit harder to implement the thank you note unless there is one out there already.
Comment by Kimsta — March 12, 2008 @ 3:19 am
I have been tasked with putting our corporate blog together and thus am researching various plugins and learning through the blogs the right ways to do this. My question to you is why did you disable the top commentators plugin as so many people say that it brings visitors yet so many blogs have removed them, why did you remove yours may I ask.
Comment by Marketing Man — September 17, 2008 @ 2:08 pm
Thanks. I use wordpress and blogger and Ive gotten a few thank you’s I think they are a great idea.
Comment by Profitable Home Based Business — October 27, 2008 @ 3:45 pm
We held a competiton on one of our blogs where anyone who wanted to enter had to leave 2 comments on the blog. It worked really well.
Comment by Paula from Affiliate Blog Online — November 4, 2009 @ 5:16 am