4 Ways I Want To Thank My Readers

The other day I posted an article about surviving a massage from another dude and I received more comments than I expected. Within a couple of days, you all left me 18 comments…I guess you liked the story about my pain and suffering.

I was a little caught off guard to get that many comments and that may seem odd to some of you out there…”Isn’t the point of blogging to get a lot of comments?” And, in the blogging world, 18 comments isn’t a ton of comments, but it’s a lot for me!

Well, I really debated posting that story and I had felt very uninspired and discouraged a few days prior to that article. With so many great blogs out there, it’s easy to start feeling like your wasting your time and that your blog is lost among the millions of other blogs out there.

I really appreciate everyone who checks out Building Camelot on a regular basis – it means a great deal to me. On that note, I wanted to let everyone know what I’m doing here to thank all of my readers and anyone who leaves me a comment.

1. Do Follow Plugin:

This one has been in place for a while now. You’ll notice at the bottom of the comment section a little “badge” that says – “U Comment, I Follow”. In a nutshell, this plugin removes the “nofollow” tag that is added to your blog url when you leave me a comment. Why do you care? Every time my site is crawled by Google, the Googlebot sees your link and will then crawl your site. Pretty cool.

Without the plugin, Google just sees “nofollow” and won’t visit that site. The nofollow tag was designed to prevent comment spam, but with Akismet installed and moderation turned on, I stay on top of the comments left here.

Learn more about the “U Comment, I follow” movement here:

1. No Nofollow | I Follow | DoFollow Community
2. Ultimate List of DoFollow & Nofollow Plugins
3. 22 Do-Follow Social Bookmarking Sites That Actually Work

2. Comment Luv:

This one is long overdue here on Building Camelot. Comment Luv, if you haven’t seen it before, retrieves your latest blog post after you leave a comment. This is another way to share some link love with you if and when you join my conversation.

Unfortunately it won’t go back and append your latest blog post to existing comments. But, going forward, when you leave me a comment, all other readers will be able to see your latest post and hopefully come check out your blog.

Link to the official CommentLuv plugin home: CommentLuv Wordpress Plugin

3. Subscribe to Comments:

Another one that is long overdue here. Subscribe to Comments inserts a simple check box below the comment section and will send you updates to comments for that article.

I never really saw the value in this until I became more involved in the blogging community. I would leave a comment somewhere…want to know what else was being said…and completely forget where I left the comment.

If you’re worried about checking the box, here’s what the author has to say about the plugin:
Subscribe to Comments is a robust plugin that enables commenters to sign up for e-mail notification of subsequent entries. The plugin includes a full-featured subscription manager that your commenters can use to unsubscribe to certain posts, block all notifications, or even change their notification e-mail address!

4. My Avatars Plugin:

Like the Do Follow plugin, this one has been in place for a little while here on Building Camelot. The My Avatars plugin inserts your avatar from MyBlogLog or Gravatar after each comment.

This is a great way to increase your visibility to other readers. It also gives the comments more of a community feel. If you haven’t signed up for MyBlogLog or Gravatar, I highly suggest doing so. A lot of people will see your avatar and it will add value to your blog.

As a reader of Building Camelot, if there is something else that you would like for me to include, drop me a comment and let me know. I’m open to suggestions.

Also, if you have had pretty good success with a particular plugin, please tell me…I’d love to know.

Tagged as: comment luv, comments, gravatar, link love, my avatars, thanks, u comment i follow