You Comment, I Reply … and New Plug-ins to Make Commenting and Navigating Easier
July 16, 2007 by Lillie
Thanks to Yvonne Russell at Grow Your Writing Business for introducing me to You Comment, I Reply. If you look back through the posts and comments, you can see that I have always replied to comments. However, I’ve never brought it to readers’ attention. So the new icon in my sidebar lets folks know that I appreciate your comments and will reply. And since I’m part of the DoFollow movement, you’ll get a link for your comment. Now the only reason you have for not commenting is if you find nothing worth commenting on. 
I’ve also added some new comment plug-ins. Brian’s Threaded Comments allows replies to specific comments, so it’s easy to follow conversations. Another plug-ins lets you subscribe to comments so you don’t have to keep checking back to see if replies have been posted.
More plug-ins: Notice that the Archives has been moved to a separate page and is now a detailed listing of posts by date and title, courtesy of the Clean Archives Plug-in. And I changed my permalinks to include the post title, which Mig Lica recommended in her SEO Book of WordPress Blogs. The Permalink Redirect WordPress plug-in ensures that I don’t lose the links on all the old posts that were named differently.
If you’re a blogger, I hope these plug-ins are helpful to you. If you’re a reader, I hope the plug-ins make your reading experience easier and more pleasant.
Lillie – Like you, I always try to reply to comments, so it’s a good way to let new readers know that their comments are valued. All your plugins are on my list too.
You’ve given me a timely reminder. Thanks.
It’s a great movement, isn’t it Lillie? One of its developers was Mark at blogaboutyourblog.com. I originally found the logo at his site.
Glad you’re getting everything all squared away!
Have a great day!
Jeanne
Man, I can see that I am so far behind. I’m also scared to try these new things. But I will follow your links and check them out. Thanks Lillie.
Thank you for emailing me about this, Lillie. I will include it in the SEO book at the next update. Right now I am trying to see how to help bloggers who blog at blogspot.
LOL. I think we WordPress enthusiasts are a bit elitist,
but I do agree with you. I am very happy with WordPress and can highly recommend it. I’m sure there are Blogspot enthusiasts too.
You Comment I Reply – Join the Movement…
In the days when we need good ideas and concepts today I learned a new one. You Comment I Reply is the brain child of Yvonne Russell at http://www.growyourwritingbusiness.com
It is a follow up on I Follow concept.
Here is a quote from her site:
You Comment…
In the short time that I’ve been blogging, I’ve learned that it so important to reply to comments and keep the conversation going. I know when I take the time to write a comment, I always a appreciate it if the author acknowledges the comment. It makes me feel like the author values their readers.
Thanks for sharing those plug-ins. Very cool!
Lillie, you have always promoted conversation on your blog (at least since I discovered it earlier this year). By your example I have been doing the same and I have noticed quite a bit of it with other bloggers of late too.
I always like it when a blogger takes the time and replies to my comments. I have a couple blogs and always take the time to reply. I’m going to add the you comment i reply icon on my blogs. Thanks.
The thing that surprised me about blogging was that it can be – and is best as – a conversation. When I started out, I thought I would just write posts … now I enjoy and recognize the importance of the conversations that occur in comments.
When you reply, maybe only 30% that replies your replies ..
Richard,
Most don’t reply to my replies, but every once in a while someone keeps replying … and replying … and replying. Maybe testing me to see if I really will reply to every comment.
Yvonne,
I should have mentioned I found these plug-ins in your “plug-in candy store!” Thanks for posting that great list.
Thanks for letting me know, Jeanne, so I can give the proper credit. I first saw it on a list of WordPress plug-ins at Grow Your Writing Business.
Helen,
I tried a few more plug-ins that didn’t work well for me. But I really like all of these. The only one that was a little more complicated to install was the threaded comments, but I followed a step-by-step guide on Make Money Online with Court. I did go back and read the instructions on each site where I downloaded a plug-in, but most were easy to install and activate.
You’re welcome, Mig. I was so glad to find the redirect plug-in because I wanted to make the change in my posts’ URLs but didn’t want to lose all the old links. This one was one of the easiest to install.
Good luck with helping Blogspot bloggers. The best help you can give them is to change to WordPress.
Yes, Yvonne, I admit to being biased toward WordPress. I started on Blogspot and still have a blog there to be able to comment on those Blogspot that don’t accept outside comments. But all I do is go in once in a blue moon to add links to my latest posts here.
Sheila,
Sometimes the comments are more important than the original post. I enjoy continuing the conversation with my readers. I also like to continue the conversation on other blogs, both by commenting and by posting on conversations taking place elsewhere.
Oh, I totally agree! Comments are a blogger’s best friend.
Sheila,
I really like the threaded comments to make it easy to follow conversations.
Just to give proper credit: I noted that I saw this on Yvonne’s blog. However, I now recall I had seen it on Writer’s Notes but failed to follow up at the time (probaby because I was in the midst of upgrading my computer). Jeanne credits Blog About Your Blog with originating I Reply. Thanks to all of them
Matt,
You were one of the first people I had a conversation with – you left me a message on MyBlogLog, so I give you a lot of credit for inspiring me to engage in conversation. Thanks!