Using CommentLuv Effectively

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 11, 2011

I don’t have to say this, but I will; I love CommentLuv, and I’m glad Andy created it. It was probably one of the first plugins I ever added to this blog, when I really had no idea what a plugin was, and it’s served my purposes well.

The thing is, I’m betting that my reasons for using CommentLuv are somewhat different than yours. Not all of you, of course, but an overwhelming majority of you. If you’re not using this plugin to increase your visibility in the community then you don’t know anything about networking. If you are, you might still be going after low hanging fruit rather than getting into the meat of it all (now there’s an oxymoron, talking about the meat of fruit). Let’s find out, shall we.

First, having CommentLuv is a must if you can. I know some blog types can’t use this plugin, and that’s a shame. On the surface it encourages people to visit your blog and leave a comment, knowing they’re potentially going to get traffic back. This is the reason most people use it.

Second, looking at comments both on your own blog and other blogs you comment on is crucial to expanding your network. I’ll admit that I don’t always read all the comments on other blogs, but I do read the ones on mine. However, what I will do is scan through all the comments and look at the blog posts that people are highlighting at the end of their comments. This gives me a lot of blogs to check out based on being interested in a topic that they’re highlighting; I think that’s pretty neat.

Of course, if you sign up on their CommentLuv site, when you comment on someone else’s post you get to choose which of your last 10 posts you wish to highlight, which is a benefit to your commenting as well. If your last post was kind of a throwaway or one time post, you might not necessarily want or need to keep highlighting it, so having the ability to choose between multiple posts is definitely a good thing. It also helps if you happen to comment on a post more than once, as it allows you to select a different post each time.

Also, did you know that if you hover over the heart after someone’s CommentLuv link that it will give you a little bit of information about that person? Nothing intrusive, just whether that person is registered at the main site, how many times their link on that particular blog has been clicked on, other blog links this person has commented on, and at least a few other posts that someone has written on their own blog. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.

Of course, some of the bit time bloggers would say you’re encouraging people to leave your blog and thus messing up your effectiveness. After all, the links through CommentLuv don’t allow to add code to them so people won’t leave your site. But I think it’s a legitimate risk to take because it pays in spades in the long run (no, that’s another phrase I don’t really know, but I know how to use).

So, what’s stopping you from using it? Disqus? Intense Debate? Blogspot? Drop them; go this route!

Tags: Blogging, commenting on blogs, commentluv

40 Comments »

Susan@Home Workouts:

Hey Mitch! Agreed! CommentLuv has sort of been a life saver for me, in that it caused me to really start thinking about networking with other bloggers, which I had not thought I needed to do in the past. Once I started commenting religiously on other blogs and making awesome relationships with bloggers like you, my numbers really started to jump up! I am hoping that, as my community grows and I help more and more people, that I will reap the rewards.

CommentLuv is just as much about helping others as we help ourselves. I really like helping other bloggers meet their goals for a post.

BTW, let the record show I beat Patricia to this blog post! But that’s only because she’s probably sleeping right now!

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 11th, 2011 at 5:48 PM

Yeah, it’s hard to beat Pat places these days, isn’t it? lol I embraced CommentLuv from the first moment I used it, although I didn’t think of it as a strategy as much as “hey, that looks interesting.” I think it’s great as both a strategy and as an information gatherer, and I’m glad Andy created it.

January 11th, 2011 | 10:55 AM

Gabriele Maidecchi:

Using CommentLuv since several months and I gotta say I am totally in love with it as well.
The tip about hovering over the little heart is a good one as I missed that for a looong while, I actually found out about it just a few weeks ago and I felt like a dummy but hey, we always learn something new.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 11th, 2011 at 5:49 PM

Gabriele, I only learned about it when I was fussing about Disqus and someone told me that CommentLuv could do it. I don’t think most of us learn everything about something until it’s either pointed out or we need it.

January 11th, 2011 | 11:33 AM

Ryan @ Personal Finance Software:

I use commentluv on all my blogs that aren’t static and find myself commenting mostly on those who use the plugin.

Andy’s site seems like a great watercooler as well where he allows anyone to guest post on a PR6 site and his commentluv search engine is pretty sweet too.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 11th, 2011 at 5:54 PM

Ryan, it’s easiest to find blogs to go to when you see back posts, and of course if you go to those blogs and they’re using it you’ll find other blogs to comment on as well. That’s why I think it was a great addition.

January 11th, 2011 | 2:31 PM

Carl:

I think CommentLuv is a most for most blogs, probably it is installed on 10 of my 20 blogs, for some, I don’t want to do it as those blogs are already to heavy on plug-ins and the speed is crucial for SEO and for visitors.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 11th, 2011 at 8:21 PM

You make a good point about speed, Carl, but truthfully, I’d find something else to eliminate to make sure I had this one on my blog if I wanted interaction with others. If not, then I wouldn’t worry about it.

Carl Reply:
January 12th, 2011 at 10:00 AM

I agree with you Mitch, if interaction is the case, the plugin is “must to have”. This is one of the most useful plugins, forget to mention, on the other side of the coin, by my opinion the most useless is disqus plugin.

January 11th, 2011 | 8:11 PM

Sire:

Mitch, when I click on a commentluvlink it opens up a new page so I don’t leave the post I’m reading.

There’s also a way to link to two blogs, you may remember the post I did explaining how to do that?

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 11th, 2011 at 11:14 PM

Well Sire, I didn’t necessarily mean it literally, but in reality I have to hold down on the Control button and click on it for it to open in a new window, otherwise it takes me away from what I’m reading. I wonder how yours is doing something else like that. And yes, I remember the deal about linking to two blogs, but I didn’t want to go there since it was more of a post about CommentLuv itself.

Sire Reply:
January 12th, 2011 at 12:26 AM

Actually I have to respectfully disagree. You heading is Using CommentLuv Effectively and that little technique allows you to get more out of commetluv,ergo you’re using it more effectively

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2011 at 8:57 AM

Hmmm… I’m still not sure it qualifies as a CommentLuv tip, but since you disagreed respectfully… lol

January 11th, 2011 | 10:33 PM

Jessica Sieghart:

Every time I come here, I learn something new. I’ve been using CommentLuv for a long time and I never knew you could click the little hearts and get more info on registered users. I don’t know how these things escape me. So much to learn, so little time, I guess.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2011 at 8:58 AM

Jessica, if you never needed it then you wouldn’t have ever really needed to know it before. But now that you do you can use it if you ever get the inclination to do so. And most of the time you won’t.

January 12th, 2011 | 7:31 AM

Dean Saliba:

I love CommentLuv too, anything that encourages more comments on my blog is a great thing. And I only learned about hovering over the heart while reading this.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2011 at 11:26 AM

I’m glad to help build your knowledge of CommentLuv, Dean. And I’m totally with you on encouraging comments.

January 12th, 2011 | 10:41 AM

Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing:

Excellent points Mitch, being a CL lover myself.

I’ll be releasing a post myself, regarding a CL use that not many if any users have realized yet.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2011 at 3:32 PM

I wonder if you’ll cover the same thing Sire did, although for the life of me I’m thinking I read his ideas somewhere else as well.

January 12th, 2011 | 12:26 PM

Val:

Good post, Mitch. Very informative.

As I’m one of those who can’t use plug-ins, part of it doesn’t apply to me but part of your post does and I wanted to ask you about that: if I were to join commentluv site even though I can’t use the plug-in myself would I get the option to choose which links to post in my own comments? That’s something I’d find helpful as sometimes my current post’s mood isn’t in keeping with the post I’m commenting on.

Oh and by the way, I discovered the hover-over stuff fairly recently. Seeing how many clicks my own comments get is quite enlightening! Is it selfish, I wonder, that I’m most interested in the clicks my comments get over how many other peoples get?

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2011 at 8:31 PM

Hi Val. Yes, if you sign up you would get to select which post you wanted to highlight. It’s based on the email address you use. And I wouldn’t say you’re being selfish; that’s research.

January 12th, 2011 | 5:10 PM

Allan Douglas:

Yessir, ComLuv is a great plug-in. Like you it was one of the very first that I incorporated. I discovered that heart hover thing totally by accident. It’s a great little tool.

And this was a great rundown on it!

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2011 at 8:33 PM

Thanks Allan. I give full kudos to Andy, and it’s too bad he’s never made a dime off it.

January 12th, 2011 | 7:20 PM

Kissie:

Great piece, Mitch.

I’m already sold and no, I didn’t know about hovering over the heart. So if for no other reason, which I know there are plenty more, this was a valuable bit of information (coming from someone who has installed the plugin). This proves that we could have a useful tool and still not utilize it to its maximum potential. How often does that happen in life? We have so much and never take full advantage of the many uses.

Sorry, you know how my mind works.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 12th, 2011 at 10:42 PM

And that’s why I’m here, Kissie; isn’t the internet and all the bloggers a wonderful thing?

January 12th, 2011 | 9:34 PM

Amr Boghdady:

CommentLuv is certainly a great piece of plug-in!

If it wasn’t for CommentLuv, I doubt I would have ranked for any of the keywords that I currently rank for. ComLuv has really made my SEO work much simpler than it used to be before I discovered it

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 15th, 2011 at 10:00 PM

Thanks for sharing, Amr. I’m not sure it’s helped my ranking, but I’m definitely sure it’s helped me find people whose writing I like, and maybe encouraged some people to stop by and visit this blog as well. That’s enough for me.

January 15th, 2011 | 3:24 PM

DiTesco:

Hi Mitch. Backing you ere 100% and like you it is probably one of the first plugins I ever used and the truth is, it probably was the reason why it prompted my move faster to WordPress. I started with blogger and Andy (ComLuv) supported blogger blogs via JS-Kit, until JS decided to charge for their commenting system and Andy took it off.

Anyway, you do have a point about how most users of ComLuv ulterior motives are and the best is really to take advantage of it and use it to build relationships and connecting to other people.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 21st, 2011 at 12:07 PM

Thanks DiTesco. It’s probably the one plugin that, when I help others create blogs, I make sure they have from the beginning.

January 21st, 2011 | 6:56 AM

Michael Pedzotti:

Hi Mitch, anything that spreads a little love has got to be good. I have found in life that it is better to give than receive so giving out link love may not at first lead to receiving any but it sure feels good

I only recently found that hover thing by accident. It sure helps to know a little bit more about the comment author without first clicking on the link and with the other activity listed it gives me more confidence that this person gets around and his/her posts are most likely worth reading.

Michael.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 22nd, 2011 at 9:29 PM

I have to admit that I don’t use it often Michael, but it’s nice knowing those things are out there for us to look at.

January 22nd, 2011 | 7:54 PM

Henway:

I love CommentLuv as well, and I find myself commenting more than usual on blogs that have CommentLuv installed. it’s a great way to connect with other people, and share what you know. It’s a shame some blogs can’t use it.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 23rd, 2011 at 9:45 AM

It’s definitely a great system, and it was a brilliant creation.

January 22nd, 2011 | 10:46 PM

adnes:

Every time I’m going to online i go first blog love to read and learn something new. I’ve been using CommentLuv for a long time.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 28th, 2011 at 1:40 AM

Glad to help out, adnes. It’s a great plugin, isn’t it?

January 28th, 2011 | 1:18 AM

Mark Katavice:

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
November 13th, 2011 at 6:22 PM

That’s how life is, Mark; glad I was able to help you learn this one next thing.

November 13th, 2011 | 12:43 AM

Leticia:

Will the bill of SOPA affects commentluv plug-in? I meant that it is where people shares posts and some of it are foreign. I am concerned. Commentluv is really a good plug-in. But it is also shared worldwide.
__

Leticia recently posted..procerin reviews

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 23rd, 2012 at 11:28 AM

No, that’s not what SOPA is all about. It’s after illegal file sharing, copyrighted files, nothing more.

January 23rd, 2012 | 6:30 AM

Christian Lead Generation:

February 11th, 2012 | 1:26 PM

If you like this post, why not donate to the cause? :-)

Leave a Reply; please see comment policy if this is your first visit. This blog doesn't accept keyword names, and the comment will be deleted if a real first name isn't put on first. Also, if your name has 3 words or more in it, the comment automatically goes to the spam filter; just so you know.

I'm Just Sharing

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 11, 2011

40 Comments »

About

Subscribe To Feed Here!

Subscribe To Feed By Email

Meta

Product Pages

Other Blogs Latest Posts

Archives

Categories

Blogroll

Business

Marketing Sites