Why You Should Embrace Top Commentator Whores
If you’re having a hard time deciding whether you should follow the recent trend of adding the Show Top Commentators plugin to your Wordpress blog then I’m going to make the decision easy for you.
To do this you’ll just have to ask yourself one question: “Does my blog’s target market run their own website?” If you answer yes to this question then you should be using the show top commentators plugin.
I was first introduced to this plugin over at John Chow’s blog in his late-December Two Plugins To Increase Blog Comments post, and I was initially skeptical of this plugin. My first reaction was that this plugin would be a spammer’s dream come true.
Now, however, I’ve come to the realization that you should embrace top commentator whores. John was right in that the plugin is a good way of increasing community interaction, but there’s another subtle benefit that will mean much more to the long term growth of your blog: The show top commentators plugin will turn casual readers into sneezing fanatics.
If you have a truly remarkable blog with top quality content then you’re losing out by not using this plugin. By turning the casual reader into an everyday reader at the cost of 5 to 10 (or however many are appropriate) linkbacks you’re going to obtain and maintain more readers than you would otherwise.
As you can imagine these top commentator whores already have a website, so they’re more likely than the normal reader to link to your blog. In this current day and age of Google PageRank and Technorati Rankings these types of readers are invaluable to your blog, as they’re likely to attract more readers to your blog that are just like them.
But what do I do about spam?
By using this plugin you’re guaranteed to get some amount of spam, and there are a few things you can do about it. First, the plugin provides a configuration option that allows you to filter out users and/or URLs from showing up in the top commentators. If you find someone routinely abusing your plugin for a site related to content you don’t agree with then just add them to the filter.
You can also mark all of their comments as spam and hope Akismet catches on, and you can also use the various filtering options Wordpress provides to help limit spam. Spam will come to your posts regardless, so the benefits of using this plugin far outweigh the possible spam.
I am a Top Commentator Whore
I want to thank a few blogs in which I have top commentator whore status that helped me come to realize why you should embrace top commentator whores: John Chow dot Com, JohnTP.com, HMTK.com, King Nomar dot Com, and Alex Blogging.
These aren’t the only blogs I’ve whored my comments out to, but without the top commentator plugin I might not have ever visited these blogs (or stayed for very long). Now, however, I visit these blogs for more than whoring comments: I visit for the unique and quality (or in some cases entertaining) content they provide that I would have missed out on if it weren’t for the top commentators plugin.
I just started this blog this week, so comment on this post to be one of the first people to join my community of top commentator whores. What do you have to lose? You already know I’ll love all of my top commentator whores!
Download the Show Top Commentators plugin now.
Tags: show top commentators, wordpress, plugin, whore
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26 Comments so far »
HMTKSteve said
on February 23 2007 @ 11:18 pm
I always knew you were a whore!
I’m waiting for the post “top 5 WordPress Top Commentator Whores” to show up on John’s website.
personal finance advice said
on February 23 2007 @ 11:55 pm
Hope that the plugin works well for you and please let us know if you have any issues with it.
robwatts said
on February 24 2007 @ 8:49 am
I just installed this myself about half hour or so ago, I think its a great way of rewarding regular commentators too. If it ups user participation, then its all good.
Ryan J. Parker said
on February 24 2007 @ 9:45 am
Steve, I’m sure he’ll do one of those sooner or later!
Rob, make sure you embrace all of your whores.
Allen.H said
on February 24 2007 @ 4:16 pm
Obviously you and I have regarding this plugin, but thanks for dropping by at AlleNation and leaving your opinion!
Regards,
Allen.H
VinayM said
on February 24 2007 @ 11:00 pm
wow - i didnt think reading an article could make me so proud to be a whore. Actually i dont think I am enough of a whore yet, but I genuinely aspire to be a big ho. Reading your engaging article has removed some of the moral doubt I was facing. Thank you for encouraging bloggers to make it rain on their comment whores
Ryan J. Parker said
on February 25 2007 @ 2:25 pm
Vinay, I’m confident you can be a great commentator whore. Just make sure you provide a thought provoking comment on any comment you make so that you’re actually providing solid discussion and you’ll climb the ranks of top commentator whores in no time.
I also know that a comment whore like yourself would fit in just great here, so go ahead and whore away!
Clickfire said
on February 26 2007 @ 12:02 am
Just installed the plugin. Took about about 2 minutes and looks great. It will be interesting to see if this is makes any difference.
Ryan J. Parker said
on February 26 2007 @ 12:14 am
Clickfire, I hope you get some good whores.
It obviously helps to have a blog that’s updated regularly or it’ll make it tough for people to comment on a regular basis.
Wild Bluff Matt said
on February 26 2007 @ 1:28 pm
Glorious. I’m going to grab that plugin and start whorin’ it up all over town.
Ryan J. Parker said
on February 26 2007 @ 3:57 pm
Matt, all whores are welcome here.
Good luck in your quest to achieve top ho status.
Stuart said
on February 26 2007 @ 7:54 pm
Very nice post man, I need to install this on my blog. Thanks.
Ryan J. Parker said
on February 26 2007 @ 8:23 pm
Stuart, I see you installed it on your blog… nice going! Hope you get some good top commentator whores.
Oh, and happy birthday!
Nate Whitehill said
on February 27 2007 @ 6:06 am
Good call! Top commentators are the sheezy!
Rekzai said
on February 28 2007 @ 12:18 am
Great feature, I first saw it on shoemoneys blog =)
sourcer said
on March 1 2007 @ 4:51 pm
Thanks for mentioning my blog there and btw you have a good point there about top commentators plugin.
Robert Irizarry said
on March 22 2007 @ 8:05 pm
Wordpress bloggers have all the fun. Unfortunately, nothing like this is available for Blogger (to my knowledge). Maybe one of the enterprising Blogger hackers will cook up something.
derrich said
on April 7 2007 @ 11:16 am
I’ve noticed that people were finding our blogs by way of Google…searching for “Top Commentator”. Looks like you got the #1 spot…followed by John Chow and then me. You think Google is trying to tell us something?
Ryan J. Parker said
on April 7 2007 @ 11:39 am
derrich, maybe Google says you should love your top commentator whores.
Court said
on May 15 2007 @ 1:52 pm
I do my fair share of comment whoring too. I figure it’s fair since I installed it on my site as well. Plus I’ve found quite a few daily reads searching for top comment sites.
MoneyNing said
on June 3 2007 @ 2:12 am
I have this plugin and I love it. I also like to leave comments on other people’s site to increase my exposure!
Ryan said
on September 17 2007 @ 11:53 am
I have only truly seen a small increase since I implemented it.. but it went from zero to a few in just a day or so. I haven’t even been keeping up with posting and that so I could definitely see the benefit.
Ar2r said
on September 25 2007 @ 4:46 am
Great article!
By the way… Practical Neural Network Recipes in C++ - good boook! respekt!
Sol Lederman said
on February 15 2008 @ 10:48 pm
I used to think commenting, from a “build up your blog” perspective, was only good for getting a bunch of (mostly) “no follow” links to your blog which don’t give you link juice. Now I’m liking the idea of finding blogs, like this one, that have a top commentator plugin and commenting enough to get on the list. Then I get a free bump in my Technorati authority, maybe a new reader or two to my own blog.
An obvious challenge, though, is dealing with people who spam comments just to get the link (and Technorati hit). Anyway, I’m glad to get in on the ground floor of your acknowledging top commentators. Hmmm… Maybe I’ll add the plug-in to my own blog. I need to think about it.
James Christnesen said
on March 4 2008 @ 11:57 pm
A simple formula is all you need…
As technorati spam approaches 1/2 of comments, you turn off top commentator. As long as you still have good comments going, it’s a great add-on.
项链 said
on July 2 2008 @ 10:11 pm
I have used this plugin for a long time. It increased traffic.
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