WP Themes Gallery » Blog Traffic

Show Top Commentators or Not?

Artur Kim — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 02:06:04 +0000

For those who don’t know, there’s a WordPress plugin that can show top commentators in the sidebar. Many WordPress blogs utilize this plugin to reward their readers who regularly leave comments and to also encourage readers to comment more and be more involved. The list does not only display their names, but it also links them to their sites if desired.

This single link can be more helpful than you actually think, John Chow shared an evil top commentators trick earlier this year. So, by using this plugin, the blog and the readers get rewarded. Do they? A problem that could arise from this would be the start of low-quality comments and/or spam. John Cow recently had to ban someone because of this.

A simple way to fix this would be to just display comments after admin approval. However, many bloggers have a busy schedule and/or receive a large amount of comments daily. So, having to wait for admin approval hurts the blog discussion between readers. Spam comments can be easily taken care of, but what about low-quality comments? How will you decide what crosses the line and what doesn’t?

Show top commentators or not? Quantity over quality or quality over quantity?

BlogRush? I’ve Been Wamboozled!

Artur Kim — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:28:53 +0000

The BlogRush widget has been in the sidebar for about a month and I’ve just recently took it off. When BlogRush first came out, I didn’t buy into the hype and didn’t even think about signing up for it. I had read several negative reviews and articles, one of them by Small Potato, which made me not want it even more. However, after the new guidelines were created, I changed my mind and decided to give it a try.

I had low expectations, but the results were still worse than what I expected. The amount of visitors that WPTG was getting from BlogRush was pathetic. So, why didn’t I take the widget off then? I didn’t because phase 2 had been announced and I decided to give it one more chance. The new features from phase 2 seemed to have potential, but they didn’t help much. I did notice an increase though, which was better than the “42% increase in free traffic” that John Reese mentions in his latest blog post. WPTG got 7 visits through BlogRush after phase 2 launched and had only gotten 2 before! WOW, 9 visits total, I definitely felt a rush there. –”

So, if you still have the widget in your blog’s sidebar and are getting results similar to what I got, remove it and recognize BlogRush for what it is, SP couldn’t have said it any better. I realize that this is a bit late, but I still see a lot of blogs with BlogRush widgets, so I encourage you to write a post similar to this one in your blog. Say no to BlogRush! (:

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I Haven’t Felt Any Blog Rush Yet

Artur Kim — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:42:33 +0000

Has your blog been getting traffic from Blog Rush? Well, this blog hasn’t. I’ve had the widget in my sidebar for a couple of days now and this blog had only 1 visitor that came through Blog Rush according to Google Analytics. I’m providing the blog, but John Reese is definitely not providing the rush. Will it get any better? I don’t know, Blog Rush has been going through some changes, but I honestly don’t think Blog Rush will survive unless they change their system. Basically, as of now, popular blogs get more traffic from Blog Rush than smaller blogs, which is a perfect example of a system that makes the rich richer. Well, Blog Rush Phase 2 will be released to the public tomorrow night. If you haven’t tried Blog Rush yet and would like to, register, but don’t expect any Blog Rush.

How to Increase Blog Traffic in the First Few Weeks

Artur Kim — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:22:24 +0000

Want to bring more traffic to your blog without spending a dime? According to Google Analytics, I’m now getting 4x more absolute unique visitors per day than I was 2 weeks ago. So, what have I been doing for such increase in traffic?

Basic, but Most Important

We all know the basics, but they are very important:

Write good content (your blog will get more visitors);
Post regularly (your blog will get regular readers).

So, if you keep posting good content regularly, your blog traffic will always be increasing!

Join Technorati

If you are new to blogging and don’t know what Technorati is. Technorati is an internet search engine for searching blogs. You should definitely join and register your blog there. If you like my blog, please favorite it.

Join a Blog Community

There are various blog communities out there that you can join. I’ve joined a couple, but the one I use the most is MyBlogLog, which is now owned by Yahoo. I’m always logged in, so that when I visit other people’s blogs who are part of MyBlogLog, they know that I visited them and they usually visit you back. If they are interested enough in your blog, they will join your community. My community has been increasing and you are welcome to join it.

Be Active in the Community

You can do so by visiting blogs, leaving comments, participating in forums, etc. You should interact with other bloggers and build friendships. I’ve been getting a lot of visitors by doing so. Get your name out there!