I have been using Wordpress for a couple of years and I’ve run accross many great Wordpress themes, as well as many that were not-so-great. Here is a list of 7 Wordpress themes that have recently caught my eye in design, features, or both! You can use these themes, or others, to accent good writing and help your blog appear as professional as possible!

1. Busy Bee

Busy Bee is a premium Wordpress theme designed by WooThemes. It is the theme that I use here at The Future of Blog at the time of writing this post. Busy Bee is an outstanding 2 column theme that has several features such as Ad Management, great “out of the box” SEO, over 13 colour schemes to choose from, and a sidebar and footer that are both widgetized! You can get this theme for the cost of a theme club membership or for just $70, and don’t forget that you get one other premium theme with your purchase!

Demo | Purchase

2. deStyle

deStyle is a free premium Wordpress theme from the guys over at ThemeShift.com. deStyle features ad management, automatic image resizing, Twitter & Flickr integration, and it’s completely free of charge. Coupled with a great look and feel, deStyle is probably one of my favorite free Wordpress themes.

Demo | Download

3. Dreamworks Redux

Dreamworks Redux is a great, free theme from Vinh Lee at BlogDesignBlog.com! Although Dreamworks Redux doesn’t have any ad management features, or even a theme options page, the design is sleak and unique enough to make my list of astonishing themes! The theme is well coded and easily made into something of your own, as you can see from the Blog Design Blog theme, which is based on Dreamworks Redux.

Demo | Download

4. Snapshot

Snapshot is another great theme from WooThemes.com, but unlike Busy Bee, this theme is completely free! Snapshot is a photoblog or portfolio theme, which has some amazing features such as dynamic image resizing, theme options page, 3 colour schemes to choose from, and ad management. Snapshot also allows you to switch between a photoblog blog layout or a portfolio layout to showcase your work.

Demo | Download

5. WP Premium Theme

WP Premium is a sleak, simple Wordpress theme that comes in the free and non-free flavours. The free version of this theme features 3 colour schemes to choose from and comes equiped with a detailed how-to file for installation and setup. For the low price of $49.99 you can upgrade to the Single Use License version, which comes with 10 colour schemes, theme support, theme control panel, and a detailed PDF file.

Demo | Download

6. Wordpress Fun

Wordpress Fun is an awesome theme from the guys at SmashingMagazine.com. The theme was originally designed by Maleika Attawel and then purchased by the Smashing team to be released to readers for free! The theme may not be that useful to blogger looking to make money from advertising, and doesn’t have many premium features such as a theme options panel. The outstanding design, the low low price of nothing, and the inclusion of PSD and EPS files for your editing pleasure make this theme astonishing in my book!

Demo | Download

7. Thesis

Probably one of the most popular premium Wordpress thems floating around the Internet, Thesis is a work of art. Well, not visually in my opinion, but this theme is packed with so many useful features that I can’t deny it’s greatness. Ad management, excellent SEO, and easy customization just graze the surface of the features Thesis offers you as a blogger. You should just check it out for yourself!

Demo | Showcase | Purchase

Conclusion

A good blog theme design can give a professional feel to any blog and the right theme can add great features that can actually help you out! Choose your theme based on both design and features to get a winning combination.

What Wordpress theme are you using and why?

A Little Back Story

On Tuesday, I published a new blog post about improving your blog post titles, “4 Easy Ways to Improve Your Blog Post Titles“, right before I ran out of the door with my brother in-law to go check out the newest grocery store opening up in our area. I had also posted a link to my new blog post on Twitter, which I often do when I publish new content. Little did I know, I had published the post with a typo in the title. Instead of “Titles” I had written “Titltes”, an easy mistake to miss and to correct, when you are at your computer desk, but it came to my attention while I was in the middle of a grocery store.

Twitter on the G1

Here is where my smartphone started to play a pivotal role in helping me correct my mistake as fast as possible. I have access to Twitter on my G1 using an application called “I Tweet!” by Multiple Facets. The application alerts me when I receive a @reply or direct message on Twitter, similar to the way I am alerted of new SMS/MMS messages.

Since I had posted a link to my latest blog post on Twitter, several people had already clicked the link and read the new content. One of those people were my friends from EyeFlow SEO Company. After posting the link, @eyeflow alerted me through Twitter that I had a typo in the title of my blog post. Of course, I didn’t want to just leave this typo in the title of my blog post on improving post titles, so I fired up my mobile web browser.

Blog Editing on the Go

Most smartphones, like the BlackBerry line, Apple iPhone, and the HTC G1, have web browsers that are capable of allowing you to login to your Wordpress blog with ease. Though, blog editing while on a mobile phone can be a daunting task. Even though I just had to change a small typo in the title of the blog post, it could have taken me forever waiting on each and every page to load on my mobile phone. Luckily, I had two things working in my favor:

1. I have decent data service with my mobile carrier - I’m on the T-Mobile network, which isn’t the biggest network in the United States by far, and I don’t get 3G service where I live. However, I do get EDGE service everywhere in the city, and that is just fine for a little text editing.
2. I have a mobile Wordpress Admin Interface plugin – That’s right. There is a Wordpress admin plugin called WPhone that will transform your Wordpress dashboard into a mobile interface that is much more suitable for mobile web browsers than the regular dashboard theme. Although I have found that doing advanced editing using this plugin can be somewhat troublesome, basic quick edits such as titles, text, and so-on are a snap!

Logging into my Wordpress admin interface was a breeze. Thanks to the tools I had at hand, I was able to login and fix the typo in a few minutes.

Conclusion

Thanks to the applications on my HTC G1, the fast data service of T-Mobile, and the WPhone plugin; I was able to quickly correct the typo that I had made in my blog post title and get back to checking out the new grocery store I was walking through. If you have a smartphone such as a BlackBerry, an iPhone, or a G1, I suggest you install the WPhone plugin and a Twitter application so that you can use your phone as a tool to help you be a better blogger!

Like that photo? It’s by jugglerpm!

In this blog post I’m going to list 4 easy ways you can improve the quality of your blog post titles and how effective they are at drawing the attention of readers.

1. Give Away The Subject

One of the most important jobs of a title is to tell readers what the blog post is about, without them having to read the entire post. So you should always ask yourself the question, “When I read my post title, do I know what the post is going to be about?”. You should be able to answer “Yes!” to that question with every blog post you write. The Internet is a crowded place, and readers don’t want to waste time reading a blog post they thought was about “Healthy Eating Habits” when it was really about “Fad Diets”.

2. Keep the Wording Simple

Most internet users enjoy simple things, and don’t want to bust out the dictionary to decipher what your blog post will be about. Writing is an educated process, and I always encourage everyone to expand their vocabulary to the furthest extent, but using complicated words or language in your titles can be confusing. Words that some readers might not understand could turn them away before they even get to read the content of the blog post. Keep the post title’s wording as simple as possible.

3. Use Adjectives

If you’ve forgotten your parts of speech, adjectives are words that are used to describe an attribute of something. For example:

I took the red book from the table.
We had an easy day.
They didn’t want to read my difficult handwriting.

The words in bold are all adjectives, and these are the kinds of words that can add emphasis to your post subject. If you’re going to write a list of quick and easy dinner recipes for your food blog, don’t forget to include the adjectives “quick” and “easy” in the post title. It will appear much better to readers as “5 Quick and Easy Dinner Recipes” than “5 Dinner Recipes”.

4. Keep It Short and to The Point

A common mistake that I see and make all the time is writing a blog post title that is too long. The longer your post title, the longer it takes a reader to get the information they want from the post title — the subject. Keep your post titles as short as possible, while still conveying the subject of the post to your readers. Here are a few tips for keeping titles short and to the point:

• Know the key subject of the post before you write the title.
• Identify words that you don’t need or a word that has a shorter synonym (for example, “title” is shorter than “headline”, which I used in this post’s title for that reasoning).
• Use adjectives, but not THAT many. It can be “Awesome”, but not “Amazingly Awesome, Really Cool”.

*Bonus* Write Title With Social Networks in Mind

If you plan on using social media or social networks to promote your blog content, you should be aware of character limits in each of these communities and write your blog post titles accordingly. For instance, Digg has a 60 character limit on the title of submissions, if you’re blog post title is over 60 characters the user submitting your post will have to edit the title to make it fit. So pay attention to your Target Social Networks and the character limits on submitted content!

Like that photo? It’s by malias!

FriendFeed has decided to start sharing subscriber counts when they crawl your blog’s RSS feed. Now your FriendFeed subscribers appear as subscribers to your blog’s RSS feed (if you listed your blog on your FriendFeed stream);  just as Google Reader, Bloglines, and other places your feed may be aggregated. Of course, some bloggers are happy to have a higher subscriber count to display, but others are not so happy with the results.

Just look at the graph below:

"friendfeedagg"

FriendFeed Aggregation accounts for more than 80% of my subscriber count for subscribers using Feed Readers and Aggreators to view my feed.

Thanks but No Thanks!

As I mentioned above, a lot of bloggers are upset with their new “friendfeedagg” numbers appearing in their subscriber count. While the jump in numbers may be nice, many find the inflation of their subscriber count to be artificial and false. Since FriendFeed subscribers are essentially subscribing to your online activities and not just your blog, some feel that counting them as readers is flat out wrong.

Not All Bad, I Guess

To me, the increase in subscriber numbers is a plus indeed. My blog is fairly new, and having a low subscriber count can put off new readers who may be interested in a blog with a little more reader activity than mine. Now that my FriendFeed subscribers are being lumped in with traditional subscribers, my subscriber count has a little more weight to it than before, which can instill a bit of confidence in new readers.

Even still, the increase in my subscriber count has no real value in terms of traffic. These “subscribers” have been getting my latest blog posts since I start to blog here at The Future of Blog, and since then, not once has a visitor been referred from FriendFeed to my blog. This probably has more to due to my FriendFeed activity being little to none, and most of my subscribers aren’t that active either.

How do you feel about the increase in subscriber counts?

Like that photo? It’s by Tela Chhe!

In the month of May, I wrote a blog post detailing SEO Tips for Wordpress. In that post I talked about 5 simple things a Wordpress blogger can do to improve their SEO. In this post, I will talk about 5 more ways to improve your blog’s SEO:

Avoid Splitting Your Page Rank

When you’re sharing the URL to your blog, how do you format it? Does your link point to http://yourblogdomain.com or http://www.yourblogdomain.com? Did you know that to search engines, these are two completely different places on the Internet? If your blog is able to be reached by both URLs, you are at risk of splitting the page rank for your blog. The simplest way to defeat this problem is to use a 301 Redirect to redirect http://yourblogdomain.com to http://www.yourblogdomain.com.

If you’re using Wordpress as your blogging software, you can easily do this using the All in One SEO Pack plugin by checking the “Canonical URLs” option in the plugin’s option page. If you’re not using Wordpress, you can add the following to your .htaccess file on your server:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %(HTTP_HOST) ^yourblogdomain.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yourblogdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Make Your Images SEO Friendly

I’ve been forgetting about this important SEO trick, and you probably have been as well. Formatting your images to be search engine friendly is a great way to get some traffic from image search engines, such as Google Image Search. Here are a few quick tips for SEO friendly images in your blog posts:

• Name the image with keywords in mind. DC10001929.jpg is jibberish to search engines, whereas Blog_Tips_For_Wordpress.jpg is full of useful keywords.
• Use the ALT and TITLE attributes to describe the image to search engines. Remember to place your keywords here as well.
• Place a caption near the image that is identical or very close to the ALT attribute.

Duplicate Content and Wordpress

Duplicate content is a problem with Wordpress. By default, Wordpress places all the content you write, in full, in a few different places — archive pages, category pages, tag pages, and your RSS feed. Having the same content in multiple locations can cause a search engine to become confused on which page to index or can be precieved has an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings.

You can take care of this easily by using the noindex meta tag, which will tell search engine spiders not to index certain pages of your blog. To make it easier, you can use the All-in-one SEO Pack Plugin to turn on the noindex meta tag for pages of your blog with the click of a button. Also, avoid displaying all of your blog posts in full text on the homepage of your blog, you can do this by implementing the MORE tag to link to the rest of the post from the homepage.

Rewrite Titles for Better SEO

When you write a blog post, sometimes it’s difficult to write a title that is both SEO friendly and reader friendly. You must convey what the post is about, draw the reader’s attention, and at the same time include keywords for search engines to pick up. One way to simplify your efforts could be by rewriting the TITLE tags to include the SEO Friendly title, while keeping the less SEO friendly, reader friendly version on the page itself.

Once again, a plugin like the All-in-one SEO Pack plugin can make this a breeze for you. The plugin allows you to change the title tag, or the title that search engines will crawl and that will be displayed at the top of the web browser, to something completely different from the title that will appear at the top of the content itself.

Optimize Old Blog Posts

Once you’re in the swing of blogging, it’s often easy to forget that your old blog posts are still going to draw in traffic. Sure, you’re not handing out a link to them on Twitter or in forums everyday, but search engines have still indexed them and they will continue to appear as results in search engines. Here’s a couple things you can do to optimize old blog posts:

• Pay attention to keywords and phrases that drive traffic to these posts.
• Go back and optimize the page title to include keywords.
• Link to the old posts using the best performing keywords as anchor text.
• Write a meta description to draw in searchers looking for specific information.
• Look for opportunities to link to newer content in old posts.

What else are you doing to improve your blog’s SEO?

You can use these tips for your blog to increase the amount of search engine traffic you are recieving. However, these aren’t the only SEO tips around, how else are you improving your blog’s search engine friendliness?

Like that photo? It’s by Hamed Saber!

Anyone who has used Wordpress for any length of time knows that an update can be a good and bad experience. There’s the good in the added security, bug fixes, and new features. On the other hand, there is a bad side to updating your Wordpress installation. For one, Wordpress developers like to make changes that can cause some plugins to perform incorrectly, or stop working altogether. There is also the chance that your Wordpress theme can be effected by the update and will display incorrectly.

Having an issue with an important plugin, or having an issue with your Wordpress theme can all have negative effects on your blog. Readers who are used to certain features may be disappointed if those features are rendered useless by updating to a new Wordpress release. If you theme is displaying incorrectly, readers might view your blog as being unprofessional.

Here are five ways to avoid problems with Wordpress updates:

1. Check Your Plugin Compatibility – Wordpress Codex offers a compatible plugins list for every Wordpress release. Search this list for all of the plugins that you use and make sure they are compatible with the update.
2. Check Your Wordpress Theme Compatibility – You can easily see if the Wordpress theme you use is compatible with the latest Wordpress release by visiting the theme author’s website or by testing it for yourself on a test installation of the latest Wordpress release. You can also find a list of compatible themes in the Wordpress Documentation.
3. Wait for Bug Fixes - If you find that a plugin you use or your Wordpress theme has problems with the latest release of Wordpress, hold off on the update until all the bugs are worked out by the plugin or theme author. If you feel this may take too long, try finding an alternative that works with the update.
4. Do-It-Yourself - This generally works better with your Wordpress theme problems than plugins, which might require advanced knowledge to fix. If your Wordpress theme is displaying incorrectly, it can often be some small piece of code that the Wordpress developers have changed and can be fixed using notepad, google, and 15 minutes of your time.
5. Test Everything - Setting up a sandbox to test Wordpress releases is a great way to test out new releases of Wordpress. It’s as easy as setting up your first blog, just simply install Wordpress under a different directory or sub-domain.

It may be as easy as clicking a button when you want to update to the latest release of Wordpress, just remember to be prepared for any problems that may occur with the update. Check and double check plugins and theme bugs before updating to save yourself the headache of having to fix your blog on the fly!

What other ways do you prepare your blog for Wordpress updates?

Like that photo? It’s by bru76!

There is another way to get your blog noticed, to get your opinion heard, and your content read — offline advertising. Many bloggers forget that there is a world away from the web browser and that many people living in this world don’t know about Twitter, forums, or even blogs. These people are ripe for the picking and you can advertise your blog to them for little to no costs. Here are seven ways you can advertise your blog, without the Internet.

1. Local Newspapers

Although classified ads have been essentially killed by Craigslist, they are still a great way to gather a few eyeballs for your blog. Many people, myself included, still scan through the classified ads in the local newspaper on a regular basis. If you’re just starting out and your advertising budget is limited to a few dollars a month, posting a classified ad in your local newspaper is a cost-effective way to get your blog’s name out in the world, offline.

2. Roadside Signs

How often do you see signs for garage sales posted on the side of the road? I know I do all the time, and this can be a great way to advertise your blog in local communities or just around your neighborhood. Remember that you have to catch the eye of motorists, and they need to have time to absorb your blog title, URL, and maybe a pitch line. So choose your locations wisely, and design a sign that will catch the eye of people passing.

3. Fliers and Posters

Last week I received four fliers on the outside of my mailbox advertising local businesses and services. One was from a group of kids looking to mow yards for a small fee. This got me thinking, why couldn’t I be doing this with my blog? Although passing out fliers and tacking up posters around your neighborhood might not be the best, targeted advertising for your blog, it’s sure to get a few local people interested enough to surf over to your blog and read what you have to say.

4. Design a T-Shirt

A t-shirt can be a great way to put that trip to the supermarket to work in your favor. T-shirts are relatively inexpensive, and can be made to have your blog logo, URL, and a pitch-line for little to nothing over the cost of the shirt itself. I would suggest handing them out to family and friends, maybe try to organize an outing where your friends and family wear your blog’s t-shirt. A few years ago my family and I participate in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes, and I plan on using my blog’s name and URL on the t-shirts we wear the next time we participate in the walk.

5. Bumper Stickers or Car Decals

Where I live in Fredericksburg, Virginia, there are a growing number of small businesses. Over the last few months, I have taken notice to the amount of vehicles traveling the roads with bumper stickers, car decals, and even complete car graphics advertising a local business, website, or service. If you live in a highly populated area and you’re driving to and from work every day in heavy traffic, you’re missing out on a lot of eyeballs seeing your blog URL.

6. Display Computers

I mentioned this method in a blog comment on Salwa’s blog post “6 Tips on How to Promote Your Website” last month. If you find yourself browsing around Best Buy or other stores that have computers and laptops on display, surf to your blog and just walk away. This is both a great method to get someone to randomly see your blog, and a great way to see how well you can keep people interested in your blog from a glance.

7. Word of Mouth

Probably one of the easiest forms of advertising to execute is just telling people about your blog. Tell them in the line at the supermarket, tell the bank teller when you’re depositing your paycheck. Tell everyone you can that you have a blog and encourage them to share the URL with others! People trust their friends and family, and if someone suggests your blog as a great resource, or just a good read, they will probably stop by for a visit.

Conclusion

Getting your blog out there in the world is a hard task. The use of offline advertising can help promote your blog locally, while at the same time keeping your costs to a minimum. You can use a combination of online and offline tactics to maximize your advertising space and increase traffic and readership for your blog!

What are some other ways you advertise offline?

Like that Photo? It’s by Ceris!

Why should you reward your commentators? Think about it for a minute: You’re walking down the street and you’re stopped by two people asking for opinions on a topic. One of the people is just looking for you to give your response, while the other is looking for your response, but will give you a free prize in return for your thoughts. Which person do you think will be getting your response?

Comments work in a similar fashion. Writing a comment takes time, and time isn’t something a lot of people have to spare, but if you offer something in return — even something small — it gives your readers more reason to leave a response and to return in the future to leave more.

1. Remove The NoFollow Attribute From Your Blog

NoFollow refers to an HTML attribute used to tell search engines that a link should not influence the target site’s search engine ranking. By default, Wordpress 1.5 and above will insert the “rel=nofollow” attribute into every user generated links. That is, all links in your comments, top commentators widget, etc. By removing the NoFollow attribute from your blog, you are giving others a back link when they comment your blog. For many, this is a great incentive to write a comment, as it benefits both parties.

How do you remove the NoFollow attribute? If you’re using Wordpress, it’s as easy as installing a plugin. Here are a few:

• Do Follow – This is the plugin that I use, it simply removes the “rel=nofollow” attribute from your comments.
• CommentLuv – This is a great plugin used by many bloggers. It not only removes NoFollow, it also allows commenters to leave a link to their latest blog post!
• Dofollow (WP Plugin) – Does just about the same as the old-school “Do Follow” plugin listed above, but also allows you to remove the NoFollow attribute only after a certain length of time.

For more Wordpress plugins to remove NoFollow, and how to remove NoFollow from other blogging platforms, check out Andy Beard’s Ultimate List of Dofollow and Nofollow plugins.

2. Recognize The Top Commentators

People like to be noticed for their efforts, it’s human nature. One great way to put some focus on your loyal commentators is to somehow recognize the top commentators. These are the people who have returned time and time again to leave a comment and by rewarding them with recognition, you’re encouraging them to continue commenting your blog in the future. Here’s a few tips for paying tribute to your top commentators:

• List the top commenters in your sidebar, which can easily be done using a Wordpress plugin such as Top Commentators Widget.
• Make a monthly post listing the top commentators and some of their most valuable comments.
• Link to their blogs and websites (as long as they aren’t inappropriate or spammy, of course)!
• Send them a private “Thank You” email.

3. Thank Them Publicly for Their Comment on Twitter

Let’s face it, a lot of people are on Twitter. Most of the people who have been leaving me comments recently have a blog and a Twitter profile. By using the Dofollow plugin, they have been receiving back links from my blog just for commenting. So why not give them a little Twitter love at the same time? I’ve recently started to Tweet a “Thank you for commenting” message to each commentator that I can find to have a Twitter account. This not only allows me to thank them for commenting in a more direct manor, but it also gives them a small amount of publicity at the same time!

Conclusion

The people taking the time to comment your blog posts should be just as important to you as the content you’re producing. So, take a step back, take a look at your blog. Are you rewarding these people? If not, will rewarding your commentators improve feedback and increase conversation? What other ways do you reward your commentators?

That AWESOME photo is by Pink Sherbet Photography.

I’ve read many blog posts and articles that will argue in favor of a slow pace or fast pace, but in the end, it’s all up to your abilities and your reader’s preference.

Set Your Own Rhythm

You are the master of your blogging pace. Establishing a regular rhythm early on in your blog’s life will let readers know what to expect in terms of how often you write and will help you establish a pace that you’re comfortable keeping up with in the future. Keep in mind a few things while establishing a rhythm for your blog:

• How much content can you produce comfortably within a certain time frame?
• How much content will your blog topic allow you to produce?
• Does your audience enjoy reading long, information-packed posts or short, to the point posts?

Don’t Experience Writer Burnout

If you’re attempting to keep up with a high post frequency, you could experience writer burnout. If you’re finding it hard to create a quality post, take a break and clear your mind for a while. Writing is a mental process and it can take a toll on your creative abilities if you are stressing yourself to produce good content in high frequency. Keep your post frequency at a realistic pace, and don’t over-stress yourself as a writer.

Don’t Forget Your Audience

Your audience should play an important role in your pace as a blogger. They are the people consuming the content that you produce, so you should keep them in mind. Some readers will enjoy shorter posts that come more frequently, while others might like longer posts that come once or twice a week. Try to figure out what your readers would like from you in terms of post frequency, and attempt to meet those demands, if possible.

Also keep in mind how your readers are being referred to your blog. Is most of your traffic from your RSS feed or search engines? How will a higher post frequency effect those readers coming from the RSS feed vs. a search engine?

Conclusion

• You make your own pace. If you can only write one article a month, you should focus on making that one article count.
• Set goals for yourself, realistic goals. Don’t burn out by trying to push yourself to write 2 great articles a day if you only have a few hours a week to devote to blogging.
• You shouldn’t worry about quantity as much as quality of your posts. If you’re posting one great post a week, that’s better than 10 rushed posts. Your readers can tell the difference.
• Set a rhythm early on so your readers can get use to your post frequency.

Photo by Tony the Misfit

Comment on Blogs Related to Your Niche

Commenting can be a great source of traffic for your blog, but in order to maximize the value of that traffic, you should concentrate on blogs that are related to your niche. If your blog is about cooking, commenting on a gadget blog is probably not going to bring in visitors interested in your blog’s topic. Find blogs with the same topic or a related topic, this will maximize the retention of visitors referred by the comments you’ve made. It’s also more likely that the blog’s author will be interested in your blog, solely because you’re blogging about similar topics.

Make Valuable Contributions to The Conversation

“Cool post!” is not a good comment. You’re not providing information, making an observation, or displaying knowledge of the post’s subject. Make sure your comments count by making valuable contributions to the conversation. Here are some tips for making your comments count:

• Add to the information already present in the post.
• Provide a useful link related to the post.
• Answer the author’s closing question in detail, if they asked one.
• Draw from personal experiences, don’t be afraid to share a story!
• Make sure you’re never negative, unless you’re participating in a debate, but be civil.
• If the author replies to your comment, keep the conversation flowing and reply back!

Do NOT Link to Your Blog

Most blog comment forms will allow the comment author to provide a URL that will display as a link in the published comment. This is all the URL promoting you should be using, as it’s very distasteful to display links to your own blog unless it’s absolutely neccasary. By linking to your blog you could be seen as trying to steal the author’s thunder, or simple as a spammer looking for traffic. You don’t want to have this reputation, so don’t get greedy and link to every blog post you have made in the past week.

Conclusion

This post just touches on how to use commenting to drive more traffic to your blog. Remember to add value to the conversation, be civil at all times, and don’t be a spammer; keep the links to a minimum. What are some techniques you would suggest using to drive traffic through the use of comments?

Photo by Tom Purves