The Article Writer

I finally installed and activated the CommentLuv plugin today on three of my blogs, heeding the advice of several people who urged me to consider this method of sharing link love. As mostly everyone knows, good SEO strategy is to make your blog as inviting as possible, encouraging people to leave comments while linking back to their most recent post.

So, why are you still reading this? Leave your comment now!

Moments after installing I got this nifty little note on the WP administrative panel asking me if I wanted to upgrade to CommentLuv 1.2. It so happens that the latest release was made available today, so if you have CL you can obtain the newest copy right through your Plugin panel. No need to leave the blog and look for the upgrade — one click and WP does that for you. So, why couldn’t WP do my taxes for me this year?!?! Hmmm???

As far as changes with this release, it is now fully compatible with WP 2.5 and it now uses a remote script to do the parsing if your hosting cannot do it and has it’s own options page.

Of course, I can’t really know that it works until someone leaves the very first comment….

Last week I announced that I was giving Entercard a look over, applying their widget to five of my blogs. I’ve been taking my time learning the system, but I have been a big time dropper so far. I think I’ve only advertised once or twice to date.

I am late to the Entrecard game, so I realize that some of you are pros while others have used Entrecard and left. For those of you who have been sitting on the sidelines to this point, I offer to you the following observations:

• There is a core group of entrecarders who seem to drive the system. Known a “power droppers” they routinely hit their 300 drop limit each day. Most also are part of a “You Drop, I Follow” network, just the type of person who is guaranteed to stop by.

• Asia is well represented - I’m finding plenty of bloggers from Malaysia and the Philippines present. Without generalizing, most take their networking very seriously.

• If you talk up Entrecard you may get a visit from founder Graham Langdon who will leave a comment on your blog and invite you to join their forum (I haven’t done this yet).

• You can stumble the Entrecard site, but for some reason StumbleUpon has banned their blog. BTW, I like to stumble “entrecard” and find drops that way. If the article is good, I’ll give it a thumbs up. If it isn’t I usually keep moving.

• Like any social media system, Entrecard can be addictive. Some people definitely need to get a life, but you can say the same about me when it comes to StumbleUpon!

I plan on running Entrecard on these five blogs for some time, but the widgets will stay below the fold on this blog and on my automotive blog. If an ad is ugly, it doesn’t stand a chance for approval nor does any site that I think my readership wouldn’t be interested in.

More Entrecard notes to follow!

I finally did it, I installed a plug-in which allows people to see their comments immediately on this site without having to wait for my approval. No, if you haven’t posted here before you aren’t in that group of people, but if you have a couple of earlier comments included, then you’ve got an automatic go ahead.

I made the change for two reasons:

• A handful of my regulars commented that they would like to see their comments right away instead of waiting, and…

• …it makes it easier for me as I don’t have to check in several times throughout the day to answer email notifications of comments.

If you want to treat your blog visitors similarly, then why not head over to Lucia’s Linky Love plug-in page and download a copy for your blog?

Finally, April marks the first year anniversary of when the “Do Follow” movement really got going, something I first learned about over at Tricia’s Musings. For the record, most of my other blogs are also Do Follow.