Friday, April 18, 2008

Essential Tips And Techniques For Better Blog Commenting

This post was guest blog by Fabien, a teen blogger from Australia. Check him at Small Fish Big Money.

As bloggers, we all visit each other's blogs from time to time. We might even leave a comment or two if the blog post is good enough or if it's about something we enjoy reading. The important factor to note about blog commenting is that anyone can do it – but very few are good at it.

There is no right way or wrong way to comment on a blog, but there is always a better or more beneficial way. This post will outline key facts about the habits of blog commenters and explore the way in which a typical blog comment is structured, it will then explain how you can be a better blog commenter by having understood the elements of better commenting styles.

1. Where Do You Link Your Comments To?

I see so many people out there who take what some people consider the 'easy' way out, they link their comments to their homepage. Now, I do not have anything against this, scoring some brownie points for Google Page Rank is always beneficial. I believe that linking the comment to a blog post that is relevant to the one you are reading is both logical and good for spreading a variety of links to your blog. At some blogs you may even have the luxury of linking both to your homepage and a blog post of your own creation via the CommentLuv Plugin or the sheer fact that you included it in your comment.

2. Is Your Comment A Half Baked Job?

I have seen a bountiful amount of meaningless comments in the blogosphere. I highly recommend not leaving a comment like 'good one', 'well done', 'great' or 'really good post'. Despite the fact that you are praising the blogger, these comments will not do anything for your own blog ranking in the SERPS. I highly suggest making useful and insightful comments on a blog post. You can do this by relating to the post, suggesting some extra content, covering something the blogger has not talked about etc…By doing this you are adding value to the post, as opposed to lowering the quality of it.

3. Being Positive, Not Negative…

By being positive in your comments you are more likely to attain a response from the blog owner. If you take a negative stance, the blog owner may be likely to delete your comment or reply to you in a negative way (potentially damaging your rapport with the owner in the process). You don't have to always be overly positive, remember, if you are going to criticise, make it constructive, not destructive. Instead of saying something like "This post sucks" you can say something like "I agree with…But I also recommend etc…" The second one does not seem overly negative and comes across as a suggestion as opposed to an insult.

4. Praise the Blog - Thank the Blogger…If You Like It:

If you enjoyed the post, praise the blog and thank the blogger. It is simple and very easy to do. It is important to remember that when you are thanking the blogger, take the time to tell them what you liked about the post and how it helped you – it is far better than a 'thanks for the post' or a 'what a great article'. You could say something along the lines of "This post showed me a side of blog commenting that I did not really care much for about previously, thank you for sharing this and I will definitely take the advice onboard, I look forward to your future posts."

5. Sharing Your Knowledge In A Comment

Your comment is the opportunity to make a name for yourself. Instead of leaving small one liner think about leaving two or three paragraph value comments. As a blog owner, I really enjoy getting comments that add value to my posts; these comments are usually one or more paragraphs long. Additionally, those comments are the ones that I remember – and this is one of the most important things for you to remember. If you post a comment, a high quality comment, sharing your experiences and suggesting some extra information for the post, you will earn respect, build relationships and heighten your status as an authority about a particular subject or topic.

In conclusion I would like to say that you won't always have the opportunity or time resources to make huge comments. My advice is to make the comment worthwhile, that means, speaking your mind, suggesting ideas and showing your appreciation. On a more personal note, I would like to thank John Chow for giving me the opportunity to post at JohnChow.Com. It is very much appreciated. Kind Regards, Fabien.

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TheWHIR at Webhosting Day 2008, An Introduction

Normally I'd post something about this a little further in advance, but things have been rather busy around the WHIR office the last couple of weeks, as we've been working hard to assemble the March 2008 issue of the WHIR magazine (it should start arriving in mailboxes this week - which will warrant a blog post of its own in the next day or two).

Advance warning aside, however, I'm happy to report that the WHIR team is headed for Germany again (technically, I'm writing this as we head for Germany. When this post makes its way to the website, we'll be there). We'll be making our third consecutive appearance at (the third annual) Webhosting Day, the hosting trade show event held by Web hosting provider Intergenia.

I and WHIRtv host and producer Anastasia Tubanos will be on hand at the event, and that means two things, fundamentally. First, we'll be doing everything we can to provide thorough and up-to-the-minute coverage of the goings on at the event. And second, if you happen to be at Webhosting Day, please have a look around for us and say hello.

A few notes about the event (which begins Wednesday, March 12):

  • As with the past two years, Webhosting Day 2008 will be held at the always-bizarre Phantasialand, an amusement park near Cologne, oddly designed to resemble medieval China.

  • According to Intergenia CEO and event organizer Thomas Strohe, they're expecting 800 attendees at this year's conference, which is a definite increase over last year's approximately 500.

  • It appears as though the major sponsors of the event will be Microsoft and Parallels, both of which are currently working with significant new releases. So if the sponsorships translate into session content, which I suspect quite strongly they will, at the very least it promises to be relevant and current content.

    Also interesting: we happened to be on the same New-Jersey-to-Cologne flight as Internet lawyer and frequent WHIR contributor David Snead. From this encounter, I determined that he, too, will be attending Webhosting Day. Reliable and insightful WHIR blogger that he is, I wouldn't be surprised if he offered some thoughts from the event as well.

    One last thing - you can head over to our Flickr page to check out a set of photographs from last year's event. And we'll be adding pictures from this year's event as it unfolds. Of course, I'll post something about them just as soon as they're up.

  • please help me get out of the KDE console screen :( please

    Ok guys thaks for everything but i told you in a new thread that i resolved the problem by installing the latest nvidia driver :nvidia linux x86 94.43.05 pkg 1 that did the job. The hard part was installing it but i finally did it after installing the distribution's libc developement package.And after i had it installed i could go to nvidia X settings and modify the resolution without haveing to deal with the xorg file and all that crazyness.
    this is the new problem. this is my boot up screen :

    1.ubuntu 7.10 i386 (not sure)
    2. ubuntu 7.10 recovery
    3. ubuntu generic
    4.ubuntu generic recovery
    5. some memory test application
    6. windows XP

    Normally the computer started on the first option loading up kubuntu very well.BUT after i put it on hibernate when i enter options 1 or 2 or 4 the linux enters in a console state.And i have no idea how to get out of there... yesterday when i pressed 3 and hit enter it seemed ok but today it's not i mean it starts i log in bla bla BUT there is no kmenu there is no backgroung picture there is nothing i can do.it sucks ... please help me somehow please!!!! i dont know what hibetnation did but it screwed up everything. is there a way to start kubuntu from there (the bkack command like kde screen?) pease guys please:(

    Familiar resource extends app support

        A lot of HP 3000 customers need more time in the Transition Era. Besides preparing to migrate, or step away from HP as homesteaders, their duties include application maintenance and support. Speedware wants to help.

        The company that was one of the charter Platinum Migration Partners and still counts many customers for the Speedware development language has started a stronger focus on a new service this quarter. It's aimed at a broad range of the 3000 community, according to Speedware's marketing director Chris Koppe.

        "We're considering the installed base and what's happened to it over the years," he said in outlining who could use independent support of their applications. "Some are actively enhancing systems, others that are business-as-usual kind of operations with no enhancements."

       Koppe said that through retirement there are 3000 shops which no longer have 3000 experts on staff today. "There's not a huge surplus of 3000 programmers out there, and certainly they're often not in the same city as the customer."

        Koppe described his company as "loaded with 3000 support experts" working at 24x7 pace, as well as combining off-site management with on-site presence. "We can give these sites what they need to keep the 3000s running as long as they intend to run them," Koppe said.

       Other target customers for the service include companies who are rightsizing staff, investigating packaged applications to replace HP 3000 apps. "Along comes the business with critical enhancements that will get them into new technologies, and in the meantime, who's going to do the HP 3000 maintenance? Who's going to keep the business running for two three years while those projects go on?"

       Outsourcing applications support will be a growth business during 2008, with Speedware among several companies that want to step forward with the service. Pivital Solutions, which made the transition from authorized HP reseller to independent support provider, counted on supporting ERP sites which used the PowerBuilder application.

    The Support Group, founded on the MRP and ERP expertise of Terry Floyd, has been supporting MANMAN applications since the 1990s for customer sites. Speedware offers a support service that broadens its scope to include nearly any application.

       Data warehousing projects, analytics or a new Web presence can keep even a homesteading 3000 site busy, Koppe said, creating a need to outsource application support.

        "One of the problems we see," he said "is that the people who are currently maintaining the HP 3000 applications have been there a long time. They really know how the business works and how it interacts with the applications. Those are the knowledge workers have a critical strain on them. They are key resources for other projects, and [our app support] is a way to backfill the more mundane parts of their jobs."