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!

2. Do Follow
   Another plugin I have dedicated an entire post to. Reward your posters by removing Wordpress’ default rel=nofollow from comment links. A do-follow blog is more prone to comments especially if it is one that is just starting out. Read more about no follow, do-follow.
3. CommentLuv
   Give your commenters additional incentive using CommentLuv. This plugin searches their RSS feed and adds a link to their last blog post in their comment. Your commenter gets a keyword rich anchor link to his/her blog. It is Google heaven for them
4. KeywordLuv
   This brings me to the next plugin and more Google heaven You might have noticed people using spammy names with keywords in place of their real name. This is because they are trying to get keyword rich links back to their blogs.

   This plugin makes the job easier without the spammy name bit. Just add your name as YourName@Your Keywords and Your Keywords will be used as the anchor link and your name will be shown separately. So if I write my name as Erum Munir@DotsnDashes Website Designs, my comment will show it as:

   Erum from DotsnDashes Website Designs

   Pretty cool, eh?

See it is just four basic plugins which offer so much in return.

A couple of other comment plugins which may help are:

1. Top Commentators
   Adds a list of your top commentators to your sidebar. Will work best once you have a few comments to start with. Believe me when I say you don’t want an empty list. This plugin adds an incentive for repeat comments as one needs to have some comments to get to the top. How many really depends on how popular your blog is. I have seen people specifically commenting at blogs with this plugin. So it might work for you, too.
2. Recent Comments
   This plugin works with the recent comments widget already a part of Wordpress 2.5.1 and Wordpress 2.6. It offers the option of styling your recent comments display to be a bit better looking than the default. You can use it to add a link to the commenter’s blog from your sidebar.

And remember when the comments start rolling in, these plugins will help keep you organized:

1. Akismet
   As always keeps most spam at bay. Comes with the core Wordpress installation.
2. Better Comments Manager
   It can get a bit tedious going to each post and replying to comments from there. Better Comments Manager lets you do so via the Wordpress admin - all in one place. A definite time saver if you have a lot of comments.
3. WP Paged Comments
   Having too many comments can also be nightmare if your page flows on forever. Enter WP Paged Comments which adds pagination to your comments. Phew! What a relief and great alternate to that mile long page of comments.

It is time for an updated list of useful Wordpress Plugins that work with the 2.5.1 version.

I’m not going over 2.6 as it is still in its early stages and not all plugin authors have successfully updated to this version. But I will get to this soon.

Some of these are going to overlap with my previous list as they have been upgraded to work with this version and some I have already discussed in detail in several other posts.

1. Accordion Tabs
   This lets you add Wordpress functions in a tabbed interface. Not only does this look pretty neat but it also saves space. A must have for any blog!
2. Add This Social Bookmarking Widget OR Add To Any
   Both plugins offer your visitors the chance to bookmark your posts and pages. Instead of adding several icons under your post and making them look cluttered, the whole menu pops up AJAX style on mouseover.
3. Adsense Deluxe
   This is a classic and should not need any introduction. It lets you add adsense or YPN ads to your posts at the click of a button. Manage the codes on the plugin settings page.

   An alternate which lets you add either adsense or YPN is the All in One Adsense and YPN. However, I haven’t tested this one yet.

4. Akismet
   This plugin is included with Wordpress. Spammy comments are more or less a thing of the past with this plugin.
5. All In One SEO Pack
   One of the simplest SEO plugins. Just a few tweaks and it is ready to work out of the box.
6. Amazon Reloaded
   Lets you add Amazon products to your blog with your affilate ID embedded in the links. Also lets you search for Amazon products when you are writing a post or a page.
7. Better Comments Manager
   Respond to comments from the WP admin instead of going to the respective posts to add a reply.
8. Cforms II
   A really good contact form script which lets you add any number of forms with pre-configured designs. It lets you add your own styles, too. CForms can also be used to replace the regular comment form at your blog.
9. Code Autoescape
   Although this is not main stream plugin and not everyone will use it. it does serve its purpose. Instead of the code being executed, it lets you show it as code in your post.
10. Configurable Tag Cloud
    The tag widget that comes with Wordpress does not offer any configuration options. This plugin is the solution to that.
11. Do Follow
    This plugin disables the rel=nofollow attribute in comments and gives SEO benefit to your comment posters.
12. FAQ-Tastic
    A very useful plugin which lets you add an FAQ section to your blog.
13. Feedburner Feedsmith
    This plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and simply redirects them to your FeedBurner feed
14. Google XML Sitemaps
    Creates a compatible XML sitemap. This is supported by Google, Ask.com, MSN Search and Yahoo.
15. Identify External Links
    Identifies all exteral links and adds class=”extlink” and optionally, target=”_blank” to open the links in a new window.
16. Most Commented Posts
    This a sidebar widget listing some of the most commented posts.
17. Multi Column Category List
    Lets you organize your categories into multiple columns if you have way too many. Lumps all of them together and does not follow the heirarchy. See WhackedOutMarketing Blog as an example (categories are right at the bottom).
18. My Twitter
    Lets you add your last few twitters to your sidebar. Additionally, it also lets you add twitters from within Wordpress.
19. NextGen Gallery
    Easily add image galleries and albums to your blog. Automatic thumbnail creation makes this a breeze. The included widget also lets you display random photos and slideshows in your sidebar.
20. Pagebar 2
    Provide an advanced paginated navigation instead of the basic Next Previous links.
21. Plugin Central
    A plugin which makes it easier to install other plugins.
22. Quotes Collection
    Add random quotes to your blog. I’ve found this to be a really good way to add customer testimonials. This is how I have used it at DotsnDashes Website Designs.
23. Recent Comments
    Adds the much needed customization options to the Wordpress recent comments widget.
24. RSS Footer
    Lets you add a footer to your RSS feed. Add copyright info, a call to action or just a link back to the post for comments.
25. Search Everything
    Gives you the option of adding pages, excerpts, attachments, drafts, comments, tags and custom fields to the Wordpress search option. You can also exclude posts, categories and password protected content.
26. Search Meter
    Keeps a track of what your visitors are searching for. Easy way of brainstorming what content to add to your blog.
27. Subscribe To Comments
    Give your visitors an additional option to subscribe to comments via email. This plugin will not work if you are using Cforms’ comment form.
28. UBD Block Ad Plugin (Wordpress 2.6 Fix)
    Automates the addition of those 125×125 px ads you see on everyone’s blogs nowadays.
29. Wordpress Database Backup
    Thi plugin can send you a daily or a weekly back up of your entire Wordpress database. You can also make a back-up right there and then, download it or get it emailed to yourself. No more lost content!
30. Wordpress Video Plugin
    Lets you display videos from the major video websites.
31. WP Post Views
    Displays a list of the most viewed posts in your sidebar. It also shows the number of times the post was viewed.
32. WP AJAX Edit Comments
    Ever added a comment and gone whoops I need to correct that? Why not offer your visitors a chance to correct their whoops? This plugin lets them edit their comments for as long as your allow them - generally 5 minutes is a good idea. You can try commenting on this post to see how this works.
33. WP Paged Comments
    Add pagination to your comments using this plugin and get organized.
34. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
    Keep your visitors busy at your website by providing them the option to read similiar posts.

Once you have visitors to your blog, the point is to keep them reading and keep them coming back. For that you need to keep your content in front of them. Give them easy access to posts they might be interested in.

This means you need to show listings of your most recent posts, popular posts, posts with comments on them and so on and so forth.

And as always Wordpress plugins help.

1. WP-PostViews

   This plugin displays the last X number of posts with the most views. In other words these are the most popular posts at your blog.

   This provides your visitor with social proof. After all if others are reading these posts, then they must contain good info.

   If you are the only registered user, you can set it to count views from guests only. However, if your blog has the option to register, then you may want to count views by both guests and registered users.

   Check out WP-PostViews

2. Most Commented Posts

   This plugin outputs a list of the Last X posts with the most comments. You can choose to display posts from the current month, current year or all posts.

   Again it serves as social proof not to mention that most people love a good discussion. People are more likely to check out posts which have a lively discussion going on.

   Check out this plugin

3. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

   I had to go thru two other plugins to find one that worked the way I wanted.

   This plugin lets you add related posts at the end of each post automatically. You can set the criterion for matching and set the threshold from 1 to 5, 5 being the strictest. Posts are then chosen based on the criterion and threshold. Start off with a lower threshold if you have few posts. You can increase it as you get more posts on your blog and can afford to get picky.

   This makes for a very useful plugin. Once you have finished reading a post on a topic of interest, you are more likely to click links that lead to similar posts. A brilliant way of getting visitors to stick around and may be even subscribe to your RSS Feed.

   Get this plugin.

4. Recent Posts

   Wordpress 2.5.1 already comes with a recent posts widget. Activate this widget via your Design > Widgets section to get a listing of the most recent posts in your sidebar.

You can see an example of how these plugins work at the front end on this blog.

Recent Posts, Most Commented Posts and Most Viewed Posts can be found on the sidebar. Related Posts are at the bottom of every post on the single posts page.

I joined Twitter a while but never bothered much with it. That is until I found this very simple to use Wordpress plugin.

This pulgin not only displays my last X twitters but also lets me add Twitters from inside the WP admin. Now that is a God send for people like me — what a time saver!

This can be called as a function or added as a widget. And that is the way all plugins should work. Give both options! You never know what might be needed.

Now I can tweet to my heart’s content and it is quite a lot of fun to do so, too.

For those of you who are still as yet unaware of Twitter, it is reminiscent of its name. Think of it as constant status updates of your life. It is the answer to one simple question: What Are You Doing? You can twitter away, let your friends and family follow your escapades or make new friends and see what they are up to.

Check out the My Twitter Plugin.

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER

This is not the must-have top of the list plugin. Nor is it one you can’t live without. It is just one of those fun, I want this option, kind of thing.

The plugin I am talking about is the Stray Random Quotes plugin. It let’s you add an unlimited number of quotes, be they famous ones or your own rants, to the database. These posts are then displayed in your sidebar randomly and one at a time.

You can also click next to view the next random quote.

Just a bit of harmless fun!

This can also be used to add a random tip. I can imagine a yellow post-it or a piece of torn paper with some random wisdom posted at the top of your website.

Time to go take a look!

Edit: See how I have used this plugin in the header. It can also be added to your sidebar as a widget if your theme is widget enabled.

I have been installing and trying out new plugins at this blog. Some have worked out very well while others have not been anything to talk about.

So over the next few days I am going to go over the gems that I have found. Some you can’t live without and some are just a luxury.

However, the best out of the lot is the Accordion plugin. See the tabbed navigation in the sidebar for Categories/Archives/Tabs? Yes, that is accordion. It can display up to 6 tabs for plugins which use li tags. This is necessary as it encloses everything in ul list tags.

However, I have a tweak around that.

If your plugin/function does not produce a nested list like my Tag Cloud, then this is what you need to do.

Go to Design > Widgets
Make sure Accordion is added.

Then click Edit.

For each tab you can add a function like wp_categories(); and so on.

Now let’s assume you want to add the tag cloud function. This means you have to add li tags around it. However, the function only takes php code.

So what’s the magic code? It is:

?><li><? function here; ?></li><?

The logiic to that is you first close the php code with ?> add your li tag, open php code again and add your function. Close PHP code. Close li tags. Begin php code at the end.

In case you don’t get that, don’t worry. It still works

It is really a cool little tool! One which I have been searching for for ages so I am very glad someone finally came up with it.

Click Here to go to the Accordion Plugin Home Page