Mert Erkal from SearchForBlogging.com referred me to a really cool plugin yesterday. After leaving a comment on his blog, I got an email from him thanking me for my comment, and inviting me to subscribe to his RSS feeds. I thought to myself, “What a great idea!”
Most people who visit your site and happen to comment on a post never return later to subscribe to your RSS feeds. In other words, you’re losing out on potential subscribers simply because you never followed up with them and invited them to join your feeds.
That’s exactly what the Comment Relish plugin does: It follows up for you!
Once you install this plugin, go to Plugins > Comment Relish and draft your email. It comes with a few variables you can use which will be replaced with the actual values when it’s sent out to the commenter.
According to Mert, this plugin has already helped him double his RSS subscription rate, and I think it can do the same for you.
Page: Comment Relish
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Also, this really really really pisses people off.
One option is to add a custom message to the subscribe to comments plugin.
If I enter a fake email address it’ll send them an email.
Thanks for the tip. It is worth a try.
Yes it will send email to fake email addresses also, but who cares about anonymous posters who use fake email addresses..
This is a pretty cool plugin !
Thanks!
Thanks for the tip…
Anything that can increase sign ups and traffic is worth a try!
does anyone has any clue, if a wordpress site will slow down with too many plugins installed?
thanks
regards,
Bobby
This works quite well for my site because I force registration to comment – no fake mails!
I use comment relish, but its hard to say if its made a significant difference In RSS. I certainly don’t think its a negative. One tip – either get a friend who has never commented on your site before to comment, or comment yourself from a email address which is also “virgin” to your site. This way you can test out what gets sent. I initially confused some of the options (which is easily done) – the last thing you want to do is send out a crap message!!!! David
LOl David,
That is a great idea actually. I also got one of them messages once from another blogger whom I had visited quite frequently and then all of a sudden I got this email message from him.
To say I wasn’t very happy is probably an understatement. I only later realized that it must have been due to comment relish having been installed freshly.
The newer versions of WordPress seem to cope very well with a lot of different plugins installed. Still, we as humans sometimes want to install everything under the sun and eventually it will slow down. Just like Windows Vista
suggestion:
you can customize your message in comment relish in a way so that it doesnt sound like you speaking to a new commentor
for example:
Oh.. by the way, have you subscribe to my RSS feeds?
I agree with Bobby Leong. I customized my message. It is a good welcome message that never pissed off anyone. When you start receiving 50 comments in a few days after publishing a popular post, this plugin helps you welcome the first time visitors.
what a great plugin! thanks for the info
btw, can I ask you something? what’s the difference between “Subscribe to comments via email” above the comment box and “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” below the comment box?
thanks
Hi
Anyone experienced any problems after activating the comment relish plug-in? I had loads of php warning messages appearing at the top of my blog page after activation. I was using WP 2.3.1.
Anyone with similar problem?
Ash
No problem with the install Ash.
sometimes it has got to do be with conflicts with another file on your server.
I had the same problem when I installed another plugin;
check if you have another header.php file in your server.
delete it or rename it, that’s what I did.
regards,
Bobby
I just wanted to comment to say that I actually received an email from a blog that must have been using this plugin but I didn’t realize it then and I wasn’t put off by it at all. The email was re-worded and had a genuine “thank you for your comment and welcome to my blog community” feel to it. I personally thought it was a very nice touch! I will be installing this plugin on my blog and rewording it with a similar style since I know just how effective it was for me.
I would never comment on you blog and neither will 99% of the rest of the internet.
The email address is there to keep up with the thread for me, not you.
If I add a comment to your blog it is of value to you, not me. So taking more of my time to comment on your blog is not very attractive so bye-bye.
Being an email delivery consultant I can see how this could draw some spam complaints if someone enters wrong email addresses.
I am currently testing it out on one of my sites, but I would definitely put a disclaimer at the top stating why this email has been sent and that this is the only email to be sent.
As long as it only sends one email and never again to the address once it is entered you will be ok.
If you get spam complaints then pull it because a history of this will get you in trouble with email delivery and ISPs.
@ Chris: That is very valuable feedback actually. I see where you are coming from with this. We can’t be too careful these days with email campaigns of any nature.