Best way to boost your blog popularity is by converting your visitors into readers. Nothing can beat loyalty of repeat visitors because they actually like what you have to say. But how do you accomplish such a difficult task?
Many people don’t necessary arrive to your blog on your front page and might have landed on page that interested them but wasn’t the best example of your work. How do you draw people deeper into your blog and present them with your best work. Well, if they commented – you have an excellent option!
I want to present to you a WordPress plugin I have found to be incredibly useful on my own blog and I will actually show you step-by-step how to install and configure it. Plugin called Comments Relish and it will email each First Time commenter with your personal message – there is your chance to draw the person in. Watch the video for details.
Relevant resources:
- Comments Relish plugin download page
- One Click Install plugin download page
Update: Unfortunately original plugin has a resource utilization issues and can cause problems on shared hosting. But fear not. Here is a link to a blog post where all those issues have been addressed and plugin works quite nicely.
NOTE: If your blog sends email to every comment made by a persona on your blog you need to take a look at database and determine if cr_emailed table was created. It supposed to do it during activation but failed to work for me. Here is SQL code you can use to create a table (special thanks to Patchlog for pointing it out):
[mysql]CREATE TABLE wp_cr_emailed (
emailed_ID mediumint(9) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
time bigint(11) DEFAULT ‘0’ NOT NULL,
email varchar(255) NOT NULL,
UNIQUE KEY emailed_ID (emailed_ID),
INDEX ( email )
);[/mysql]
Great! Thank you very much for answering my questions.
Hey there,
Thanks for sharing us this great WP plugin, I’m just going to install and test it on my blogs.
Cheers.
Sure thing!
Its a great plugin 🙂
Alex
TheSpot-er, could I also ask you what plugin are you using for the “Share This” feature under each blog post?
Thank you.
Sure- its called Share This by Alex King … in my WordPress Web 20 guide page – I have links to most plugins I use …
Alex
I’ve been looking for this plugin for a while and just stumbled upon your article randomly. Cheers and thanks m8! *bookmarked*
Sure thing, make sure to stumble too 😛
Alex
Hi Alex,
Great plug-in. Can’t wait to use it. Your blogging info has been a real blessing to me as someone that is relatively new to blogging.
Best regards,
Brian
Thanks Brian …
Just trying to help by sharing what I know 🙂
Alex
Alex,
Thanks for sharing all your Word press knowledge. Your Web 2.0 product is the best investment I’ve made, even after the purchase you keep on giving to your customers and subscribers.
thanks
Regards
Reinaldo
Thanks Reinaldo,
Your kind words greatly appreciated!
Alex
Hi Alex,
I installed comment relish yesterday… and I mention it here : http://www.fabnetrevenue.com/2007/10/08/blogging-week-end-accomplishments/
Thanks for the video.
Thanks Fab!
Glad my tutorial helped someone 🙂
Alex
Thank you Alex,
Very useful. So I guess that unless I do the coding change you mentioned after I install the comment relish plugin there’s a chance it may cause problems? Or have they fixed it?
Use latest version of the plugin – it is fully working on my blog.
Alex,
Thanks for this video – I had heard so much about this particular plug-in, so I downloaded it, installed it an….err….stalled!
Now I’ve got this, I’ll give it another shot, with at least some hope in my poor, forlorn heart that I might this time succeed!
Thanks again
Steve
Steve’s last blog post..Writers Cramp
Hi Alex
I’ve just installed the Comments Relish plugin. Easy as usual with your excellent video help.
Thanks
Donnie
Donnie Graham’s last blog post..Help in the Kitchen
Thanks Donnie 🙂
Glad it works … that plugin is great and adds that extra touch to your blog to help you separate yourself.
Alex
Thanks for this great video presentation. I wish there was an option to delay the relish e-mail (to give a more natural feeling to it), but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Thanks again!
Luciano Passuello’s last blog post..Happy New Year, Every Week
Sure thing,
It actually could be a good thing. You grab your commenter attention while your blog is still fresh in their mind 😉
Alex
Hi Alex!
Great post! Nice video…very informative.
One thing, I used the contraction, in the subject area of the email for and when I upgraded preferences it changed to .
Went back and changed it to , upgraded prefs and it was fine. Not sure if that’s on my end or a glitch.
Len
Thanks Len,
I haven’t seen the issue you describe and I had plenty of chances …
Must be something on your end.
Alex,
It appears this plugin is no longer available do you know of a replacement?
Dick
Thanks for letting me know!
Here is an Optimized Version of the plugin. Turns out that old plugin had also some issues that made it UNFRIENDLY on sharing hosting! This one fixes the issues:
http://patchlog.com/wordpress/more-optimization-for-comment-relish-plugin/
Alex
Excellent resource, thanks! I'll certainly check it out today.
Enjoy, Barbara
This post was re-posted to provide an updated (better) video and because I think it is still very relevant and deserves attention!
Alex
That is a fantastic plug-in! I could see immediately sending out a message to first time commenters as increasing retaining rates by at least 10 or 20%, maybe even more if the message is written properly.
another brilliant article Alex.
Im on a vps server but still had a bit of trouble and had to manually create the db table but all is good. will test it out and when its set up I will put it on my live site.
Here is the correct “create table” statement you have to use in case the plugin doesn’t create the table:
CREATE TABLE wp_cr_emailed (
emailed_ID mediumint(9) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
time bigint(11) DEFAULT ‘0’ NOT NULL,
email varchar(255) NOT NULL,
UNIQUE KEY emailed_ID (emailed_ID),
INDEX ( email )
);
Note the extra index for the email field that will help a lot when you have a lot of comments on your site.
Patchlogs last blog post..Scour: The socially search engine
Forgive me, but I think that I have the comments + post confused – so we can use the plugin AND the http://patchlog.com/wordpress/more-optimization-for-comment-relish-plugin/ addition to get it to work? Gosh, after all of that, will it still be compatible with 2.6?
Erikas last blog post..Miami Web Design
That’s a pretty good plugin – It sure seems to work with your blog. I see many people comment and many, including myself return to your blog for the latest updates!
Keep up the good work
Nice article. Great video too. I have it set up and am patiently waiting for a comment. : )
After a comment was posted, I checked to see if the table was created, and it was not, so I tried the SQL statement.
Not sure if anyone else has had issues with the SQL posted here, but I did. I ended up creating everything manually. It was a little daunting but I got the tables set up correctly ( I hope : ) ). I kept getting an error when using the supplied SQL. It kept telling me I had bad syntax with the unique key line.
Setting it up manually with PHPmyadmin, I didn’t know what: UNIQUE KEY emailed_ID (emailed_ID), or INDEX ( email ) were, but I finally figured out how to accomplish it.
Is there a way to tell if it is working correctly? I am not 100% positive my tables are correct.
Dwayne,
create a new email address at Gmail and make comment using that email. If it works for you – you will get email.
Alex that was a great email just in time because I got a comment today. That is a nice feature sort of like an autoresponder and people will like to see that ther comment was read. I have never gotten a thank you for a comment other than from you.
Hey, Alex how do we get the photos to show on our comments. Adds a nice personal touch.
You are the Blog King…
Kim Dion
Kim Dions last blog post..Eliminate Google CPC High Keyword Cost!
Thanks for the compliment Kim,
On picture – just go create an account with http://en.gravatar.com/. Every time you comment using email address registered with them – it will place your picture with comment on those blgos that support it. It has to be integrated into theme. Your EWP theme has it. I left one comment for you today and once you approve – you will see my mug on your blog.
Alex-
looks like a great plug-in. I am going to give it a whirl over at my blog.
Paunchinesss last blog post..Vitamin C and Weight Loss
Hi Alex,
Thanks for the video – very useeful.
I have found anothef plugin that seems to do a very similar thing called Thank Me Later which you can download here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/thank-me-later/
Have you used this plugin? If so, how does it compare in terms of features?
Thanks
Dave Ovenden
Dave Ovendens last blog post..Dave Nicholson Launches ‘Your Software Website’
Hey Alex
Thanks you so much, what a great plugin. I agree with you it is a nice ‘customer service’ touch.
Lorrette – DailyScrew-Upss last blog post..Bulk and Spam Mail: Mail A Brick To A Junk Mailer
Thanks for the video is really amazing. However something is happening with the download link:
Comments Relish plugin download page/
It takes you to some kind of directory where I could not find the plugging.
Even the post about it from Patchlog / has the same problem.
What do you suggest? Could you have some way to fix this?
I think this is a serious issue you should know about it since you are recommending a plugging through a post that doesn’t work properly.
As always Thanks
Queen007
Looks like his site is down – try this plugin instead:
http://making-the-web.com/thank-me-later/
Does similar thing!
Hi Alex,
Thanks for letting us know about this plugin. I will be installing it shortly.
Cheers,
Gordon.
.-= Gordon´s last blog ..Setting Your Weight Loss Goals =-.
This is a very nice feature, so you can offer an incentive for your readers to comment, and you can spread your brand and name much faster than with blogging alone!
I will try to install it on my blog, thanks!
.-= Ben Huebner´s last blog ..Massive PPV Traffic, is it a good deal? =-.
Thanks for the video on the plugin. Once I get my blog installed I’ll definitely be using the plugin. There is nothing more important than good communication …. and I love the added opportunity to invite the commenter to keep up to date by following my RSS feed. Appreciate the heads up!!