About Community « Blogsreview.Net

Reader’s Opinion Needed On DoFollow

This blog has been utilising the DoFollow plugin for a couple of months. Back then, this blog enjoys a Google Page Rank of 4. It was slapped with a zero and my best guess is that it was due to my using of the DoFollow attribute AND writing paid reviews over here. Following a change in the focus, direction and theme of this blog late last year, paid reviews did not flow with the other contents on this site and thus were removed (after satisfying the advertisers’ requirements on removal).

The use of the DoFollow attribute was to share some so-called page ranking with those who commented on this blog. Being not totally clear myself on how the sharing works, having a link on this site (through commenting and leaving the url) is supposed to pass some authority to the commenter’s site. However, with the current Page Rank of zero, there is in effect nothing to share.

Apart from that, I have been getting quite a lot of spammy comments which take up a bit of time to weed them out one by one. More often than not, these are one-off commenters who do not seem to take any interest with subsequent posts. With a couple of blogs to manage, I can do without the attention of these spammers.

Now, I need your opinion. I know most of you who comment here - and I mean the regulars, especially, comment in response to the blog posting first and foremost rather than with the primary motive of squeezing out whatever juice that is left on this blog. If I were to remove the DoFollow plugin since it is redundant, would you protest about it? I need your feedback on this. So help me out to make a better decision.

If you are interested in learning how to enjoy blogging to the fullest, join the Blogsreview.Net community by subscribing to its RSS feed!

. 29 Jan 08 | About Community | Comments (6)

Having The Last Say In Comments

As a blogger, how often do you pay attention to your commenters? Do you reply to them for each comment left in the comment box? As a reader, do you revisit a post to check if the blogger had replied to your comment? Whether it is something over-emphasised or under-emphasised, I believe that bloggers should give as much attention to comments left on their comment box as they do to the contents. It is thus important to have the last say in comments and I will tell you why from the perspective of both as a blogger and as blog reader.

As A Blogger

Having the last say will ensure that you do not miss out a single commenter because you will be forced to screen through each and every comment. You would not want a commenter to return to find that you have ignored his response or worse still, a question which he posed and you did not answer. Without being overdramatic about it, it might be the last time he’s coming over to your blog.

Having the last say shows that you care to interact with each commenter on a one-to-one basis. This builds relationships and community. It says much about how much you want to interact and communicate with your readers.

Having the last say challenges you to reply in an appropriate way to reflect your personality as a blogger. Sometimes, it is indeed a challenge merely to respond to a “Great post” comment. Personally, it is better to respond with a short “Thank you” or you can turn it around by asking “Thanks. Which part of the post do you like best?“.

Having the last say increases comment count. This may give the perception that you have a thriving community who leaves comments. A perception, though it may be inflated, is still powerful in some ways. Read on »

. 25 Jan 08 | About Community | Comments (9)

Simple Tips To Please Your Readers

A blog requires a blogger and readers to tango. Many bloggers dig through countless articles on how to improve the readership numbers but fail to realise that there are some simple tips to win your current readers over. One step which is often neglected is the conversion of a regular reader into a loyal reader - one who will stick through with you no matter whether your blog is going places or going through a slump. These simple and obvious tips are based on effective business marketing tactics, psychological methods and common sense.

Be courteous

If you want your readers to do something (eg. to Stumble your article, to participate in a writing project, etc), don’t forget what your mum used to teach you - Say Please. And do say Thank You when your reader/s respond.

Reward

Reward and flatter your readers. Make sure it is genuine or people will smell it. It can be in the form of an acknowledgement especially for those who leave a valuable comment in your blog posting. You might also want to consider promoting their sites where appropriate. If your blog is resourceful enough, you might also want to consider compiling your contents into an E-book to distribute it to your readers. Read on »

. 10 Dec 07 | About Beginners, About Community | Comments (3)

20 Terrific Ways To Get Your Blog Noticed

So you are now blogging but the audience (visitors and readers) is small and not up to your expectation. What else can you do to get your blog noticed? What performance is needed to get noticed? Short of placing an advertisement on the newspaper or running a banner advert on the body of a public bus, there are actually many things you can do to get your blog noticed.

Comment On Other Blogs - the blog author would notice you and if he is interested, will come and visit you. If he likes what you blog about, he might even become a regular reader. Even other commentators might also notice you if you comment well in that blog. Better still, make cross comments to other commentators where appropriate.

Submit Your Blog To Directories - there are many directories out there. Submit to as many as possible and there will always be a chance that someone would notice your blog . Based on my personal experience however, the referrals from directories are few and far between.

Blog Carnivals - submit your articles to Blog Carnivals. There are many sites out there which run blog carnivals where bloggers post something which is relevant to the topic and these posts are compiled and posted after the due date.

Link To Other Sites - link to blogs which are similar to your blog. I would advocate linking to blogs which are lesser known and appearing to have lesser traffic. This is more likely to attract the attention of the blogger you are linking too and the chances of a reciprocal link and referral traffic is much higher. After that, pray that the bloggers whom you link out too become famous and bring more referral traffic Read on »