Good news! There is a new version of CForms that is out and has got great features. The best thing about it is it has got most of the features on my wish list

So here goes…

Plugin Compatibility

CForms is now completely compatible with three of the most used comment plugins.

• Subscribe To Comments
• CommentLuv
• WP AJAX Edit Comments

First Step is to install the above mentioned plugins and activate them.

Next… adding Subscribe To Comments and CommentLuv

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It is amazing how many blogs do not do this. They have the messiest comments section with a zillion comments, trackbacks and pingbacks all jumbled up. And it is almost impossible to make some sense of out of the entire mess. Want to follow the conversation? Try evading the trackbacks and pingbacks along the way.

What’s the solution?

Separate the two, of course.

But How?

That’s a good question. You will find plugins that do this but if you can manage something in the theme design, it is best to do so rather than install plugin upon plugin. Plugins are best used where you cannot achieve your objective without touching the core Wordpress files.

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If you scroll down you will see a live preview option for comments. Just try it out by typing in a comment. Pretty cool, huh!?

A friend asked me why this was useful and why anyone will want to see their comment twice?

My answer: If your comment is pretty long, the textarea will start to scroll and you won’t be able to look at your entire comment in on go. The preview on the other hand shows the comment in its entirety. This way you can see how it looks and proof read with ease before you post.

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I have already discussed a few techniques and plugins you can use to increase your comments. Here is a re-cap of some old and some new plugins I haven’t discussed before. All are must-haves if you want to explode your comments:

1. Subscribe To Comments
   I am absolutely staggered that so many bloggers don’t use this one. Don’t they want their commenters coming back? When I comment on a blog, I really want to know when there is a reply. And subscribe to comments is the perfect plugin as it sends me an email whenever a comment is posted.

   Without this option, your commenters may just get sick and tired of checking manually or not bother at all. Not everyone subscribes to the comments RSS feeds so make sure you provide this option.

   I cannot stress this one enuff!

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Cforms II is a Wordpress plugin which makes it easy for you to add a contact form to your website.

Once you install and activate the plugin, don’t get intimidated by the dozens of options available. It is pretty easy to set up. Click on CForms from your WP admin menu.

Click to view the bigger image
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You have to motivate your visitors to leave comments.

How do you do that?
By giving them a good enuff reason to do so.

Like they say there is no such thing as a free lunch.

We have already discussed one approach and that is by making your blog do-follow.

Another option is the CommentLuv Plugin.

This plugin searches the commentator’s RSS feed and adds the title of their last blog post to their comment.

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As soon as you make your blog a Do-Follow you will notice a slight if not a large increase in comments.

Some of these are great as they contribute something. Fair enuff for a link back to your website.

And then there is the category who want a link back for nothing. If they could they would leave a blank comment. Since they can’t they just leave comments like ‘Thank you’ or ‘ I came upon your website and wanted to say hi’.

Bring Something To The Table

As much as I love new comments, they need to have some substance. It is ok to add one line comments as long as you add to the discussion. Don’t just say thank you .. show that you are by adding something meanigful.

Fair Exchange

It is only fair that if someone is letting you add a do-follow link to your blog or website then you give something back in return as well. A simple thank you is just not enuff.

Wordpress, by default adds a no-follow tag to links in comments.

What that means in very simple terms is that a Search Engine Bot should not follow that link. Your commentator receives no link benefit from this and gets no page rank credit from Google. The reason why this is a default action in Wordpress is to combat comment spam, to stop people from leaving meaningless comments just to get a link back to their websites.

However, all this does is inconvenience the real posters who are genuinely contributing to the discussion. The no-follow tag has not served its pupose and has not stopped spam flooding your comments. Best option is to just use the Akismet plugin (comes with Wordpress) for that and be done with it.

So let’s come back to the people who are contributing effectively to a discussion on your blog. Why are they being punished? They are giving something, they should get something back. It is a fair exchange. And it is a win-win situation as you can be at the receiving end as well by posting comments on blogs that do-follow links.

So from today onwards, this blog is officially a DO FOLLOW blog.

You can use a very simple, set it and forget it plugin called Semiologic Do-Follow

You can add your do-follow blog to this list.

There is a list of more plugins as well as directories you can add your do-follow blog to. Check it out.

Since I design custom blogs for my clients, I have to keep a lookout for plugins that can achieve any effect under the sun. Following is a list of some of the most used plugins:

1. Akismet: This plug-in helps you in stopping comment spam. It also keeps note of comments you mark as spam for future blocking. This is a part of your Wordpress download. You need to install and set it up, though.
2. Search Everything: This plug-in adds search functionality to include pages, tags, attachments, drafts, comments, excerpts and custom fields. It also lets you exclude categories and posts from search.
3. WP-Contact-Form: Give your visitors the option of contacting you via a simple form. The modified version of this plugin comes with a very useful Spam Protection option. See an example

4. Add This: Social Bookmarks allow your visitors to easily submit your posts to social bookmarking sites. Many plugins are available for this purpose including Social Bookmarks, Gregarious and Sociable. I just recently found Add This and although it adds a link to their site, it is less intrusive and less cluttered than the others. You can see the result at the end of this post.

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