A great way to interact with the commenters on your blog

I’ve had a post in draft for two weeks about a new WordPress plugin I’m using, but I kept holding off on publishing it because I thought it might be too techy (read: “boring”) for my personal blog. However, I’ve recently seen a few posts out there by people searching for answers to the problem this plugin solves, so here goes.

Darren has a great post about getting interactive with your blog readers. Among other things, Megan asks how do you respond to comments, and Problem Girl says she’s going to start responding to comments even though it is a pain for her to do on Blogger.

I used to have the dilemma about responding to comments too. If someone asked a general question I would respond on the blog, but otherwise I’d respond in email. What I didn’t like about this approach is that when you looked at the comments on my posts it appeared that I never respond when that is not the case.

So a few weeks ago I was delighted to discover a WordPress plugin called Comment Email Responder. It lets you respond to comments on your blog, and your response ALSO gets emailed to the original commenter. It is freaking fabulous.

Do you already use the Subscribe to Comments plugin? No problem, if the person you’re responding to is already subscribed to that entry, they will only get one email, not two. Sweet.

The only downside of the plugin is that you have to respond separately to each comment, so you end up looking like a jackass who is trying to inflate the comment count. But I think it works so well for the readers in every other way that I’m willing to look like a jackass.

See what I do for you people? Aw… I’m feeling the love already ;-)


Posted

in

by

Comments

20 responses to “A great way to interact with the commenters on your blog”

  1. Kathy Avatar

    I'm horrible about responding to comments. So much that I let it be known in my comment policy page. (Which is kind of ironic.)

    (Sometimes the comments are smarter than anything I've ever written.)

    Kathy's latest post: Because I find myself using words like "interestingness" daily

  2. Erika Jurney Avatar

    Yeah, I've heard that it is hard to deal with comments in Blogger. Bummer! And I completely agree about some of the best writing being in the comments section ;-)

  3. Andrea Avatar

    As the resident tech-goddess (well, to my frineds anway) *how* did I not know about this plugin???

  4. Owen Avatar

    Thanks for your kind comments about the plugin. You're not the first person to ask for the ability to respond to multiple comments at a time. I'll be building it into a future version.

    Owen's latest post: The “sell cheap, get famous” ploy

  5. Kellyology Avatar

    Thanks for the tip. And as for looking like a jackass…well that comes naturally for me!lol

    Kellyology's latest post: The Fight To Not Fight

  6. Erika Jurney Avatar

    Kellyology, true that — I figure this entire blog is a giant tribute to me being a jackass, so what's one more log on that fire in the grand scheme of things?

  7. jen Avatar

    I usually respond to my commenters via email but rarely do so on the blog. This sounds great and I'm gonna give it a go for sure.

  8. Erika Jurney Avatar

    Jen, I'm loving it muchly so far. I like having the conversation out on the page so everyone can join in. Come back and let me know how it goes.

  9. that girl Avatar

    and here I was thinking you were SUPERWOMAN b/c you always replied to my little comments… OK, ok, you can still be superwoman. But what about all of us wimpy blogger.com people! No plugin, or do you think the WP is universal? See how I'm too lazy to figure it out on my own?? Yah, again — you really are superwoman!

    that girl's latest post: Oh, Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun…

  10. Erika Jurney Avatar

    that girl, I'm afraid there's no Blogger equivalent short of moving your blog to wordpress.org :(

    ::flys away in cape. crashes into side of building. limps away hoping no one saw…::

  11. Velveteen Mind - Meg Avatar

    One more damn reason I think I should be on WP.

    But I love TypePad so.

    This makes me think that the painful process of responding on my blog and emailing the commenters to check for the response is still the best route. Though, harrying.

    And I love how you said, "Among other things, Megan asked…" because Megan loves to write one incredibly long post about ten things when she could just break it up into 10 separate small posts.

    Velveteen Mind – Megan's latest post: The Big Tease #1

  12. Karly Avatar

    I use that plug-in too and I LOVE it. :)

    Karly's latest post: Jesus? Are You There?

  13. Lotta Avatar

    I realize this is a dense question. But I can't use that if I use Blogger right?

    Lotta's latest post: Booster Seat Bedtime Story

  14. Erika Jurney Avatar

    Lotta, sorry– it is wordpress only :(

  15. Assertagirl Avatar

    Oh, awesome, I've been looking for a plug-in like this for awhile now. Thanks for doing the legwork!

  16. Jen Avatar

    Before I read this all the way through I was going to leave you a comment saying “Hey! I just talked about this!” but then I read closer and say that you kind of already mentioned me. So now I don’t have to leave you a comment. Only I just did so ….. hmmmmm.

  17. Laura Avatar

    This is awesome!! Thanks so much for the heads up. Woohoo!

  18. […] Plain Jane Mom and others have lamented, it’s hard to know whether to reply to commenters via email, ie […]

  19. dee Avatar

    Yay! This is exactly what I've been looking for. I'm going to intall it right away!

    dee's latest post: Evie – 6 Weeks

  20. Lorrie Avatar
    Lorrie

    Made my day just a little easier. Thank you.

Leave a Reply to Jen Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *