Turn One-Time Commenters Into RSS Subscribers

by Gobala Krishnan on January 11, 2008

in Wordpress Plugins

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!

comment-relish

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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Comment Relish | ashchuan.com
January 12, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Comment relish plugin - Pros and Cons
February 13, 2008 at 12:37 pm
A Visible Drop Of Traffic | Blog Content
May 12, 2008 at 5:26 am

{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Anonymous January 11, 2008 at 8:17 am

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.

2 Ash January 11, 2008 at 10:53 pm

Thanks for the tip. It is worth a try.

3 Gobala Krishnan January 12, 2008 at 5:32 pm

Yes it will send email to fake email addresses also, but who cares about anonymous posters who use fake email addresses..

4 abinesh January 15, 2008 at 3:36 am

This is a pretty cool plugin !
Thanks! :)

5 Bobby Leong January 21, 2008 at 5:54 am

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

6 Paul Tan January 21, 2008 at 5:27 pm

This works quite well for my site because I force registration to comment – no fake mails!

7 David Rogers January 21, 2008 at 8:45 pm

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

8 Monika Mundell January 22, 2008 at 12:26 am

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.

9 Gobala Krishnan January 22, 2008 at 1:53 am

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 :)

10 Bobby Leong January 22, 2008 at 3:23 am

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? :-)

11 Mert Erkal January 22, 2008 at 1:28 pm

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.

12 zirpy January 22, 2008 at 3:04 pm

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

13 Ash January 26, 2008 at 10:41 am

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

14 Bobby Leong January 26, 2008 at 12:27 pm

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

15 Epiphany April 21, 2008 at 12:37 am

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. :-)

16 Chris Lang May 29, 2008 at 2:52 pm

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.

17 Chris Lang May 29, 2008 at 3:03 pm

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.

18 Monika Mundell May 30, 2008 at 12:11 pm

@ 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.

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