Last month, Theresa Milstein of Theresa's Tales of Teaching Tribulations and Typing Teen Texts guest posted on Bird's-eye View about getting blog comments to work for you, http://michellefayard.blogspot.com/2011/07/getting-blog-comments-to-work-for-you.html. Today YA fantasy author CherylAnne Ham of Making Words Happen is here to talk about a blog tool that can do some of that work for you—IntenseDebate, http://www.intensedebate.com/. Take it away, Cheryl!
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| CherylAnne Ham |
Interacting with your blog's readers and making real connections with your followers is a challenge every blogger faces.
IntenseDebate is a comment-hosting service that makes connecting with your readers that much easier. It is super easy to install on your blog and works with WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and many other blogging/CMS platforms.
One feature I love is comment threading, also referred to as nested comments. Comment threading is the ability to add a reply directly to individual comments, turning them into organized conversations that are easy to follow for both you and your readers.
IntenseDebate also allows users to moderate and/or reply to comments by e-mail. For me, this feature is especially lovely because, as an admitted iPhone addict, I always have my phone with me, but I don't always have access to my blog through a computer.
When your post receives a new comment, you receive an e-mail notification. Simply reply to the e-mail with your response, and it's automatically posted to your blog, nested under the original commenter's message.
The greatest benefit of responding to comments quickly is the time it saves, and anything that can save us time is a good thing. Adding a personal reply to each comment takes time, and comments can pile up if you wait until the end of the day to respond—especially if you're lucky enough to have lots of people reading and commenting on your posts. Even if you're just starting out, as your blog grows, so will your number of comments. Why not get into the habit now of responding quickly?
If you prefer replying to comments by e-mail, then IntenseDebate has that covered as well. Comment notifications also include a link to the commenter's e-mail and blog URL. No more searching profiles for contact info or Googling the commenter's name in hopes of finding their blog. I absolutely adore this feature.
A few other things I like about Intense Debate.
- Mouse over the avatar of commenters who've signed in with their own IntenseDebate account (if they have one) and their profile pops up, allowing you to learn more about them at a glance.
- No IntenseDebate account? No problem. Additional sign in options include Twitter or Facebook profile, WordPress ID, or they can log on as a guest.
- Commenters can subscribe by e-mail to all post comments or receive notification only when there is a direct a reply to their own comment.
- Commenters can subscribe to the blog via their favorite reader right at the comment box.
- You can change the color scheme and design elements of the comment box to match your blog.
IntenseDebate is free service. There are other comment hosting services such as those listed below. These may or may not require a paid subscription.
- Disqus, http://disqus.com/;
- Livefrye, http://www.livefyre.com/; and
- Echo, http://aboutecho.com/.
Thank you very much, CherylAnne, for letting everyone know about this outstanding tool!
Your turn: What is your preferred method of responding to comments? What do you think about your blog's current comment system?
33 comments:
Thanks for sharing this, CherylAnne and Michelle. I do like to answer my blog's comments, and have found the current blogger system to be fine. But I like the way the system mentioned here does have a way of quickly organizing the replies.
This sounds really practical!
CherylAnne,
I'm a sucker for gadgets and gizmos and so I'm definitely going to try this. The biggest advantage I see is the 'reply to' function that blogger does not have. I think it's so much tidier to be able to reply directly to each comment rather than doing them all at once in one response or individually. Didn't realize this could work with blogger. Wasn't paying attention, I guess.
Many thanks to both of you. I'm off to try this. Hope I don't wreak some havoc on my blog that I can't fix. :)
It's also great that the reply will be auto posted when I respond by email. Really cool, info. Thanks again CheryAnne!
@Joanne: I love the way replies are organized.
@CQG: It does make things a bit easier. :D
@J.L.: I hope you like it. It's easy to install, but don't forget to back up your blog. :D Good Luck. Let me know how you like it. :D
Very cool! Me and my five readers will be closer than ever. :)
Tirz
wow. This sounds like a supercool tool! I'll have to check out how it works. Thanks for the heads up, CherylAnne! And thanks for hosting Michelle! :o)
This sounds super, but I am one of habit and have got used to the present way.
Very good to read.
Yvonne.
This sounds like exactly what I am looking for. Thanks :-)
I have to say, this sounds pretty cool. I think it might be the ticket:) Thanks!
I've been trying to figure out how this is done. Thanks so much for the information!
I think I've seen something like this before. Or at least, seen similar versions.
This sounds fantastic! I will definitely look into it. I would love to be able to reply directly to comments. I've seen it done on other blogs and wondered how - thanks for enlightening me!
Nothing annoys me more than going to a blog and finding there is no easy way to follow the comments. I read hundreds of blogs, and I expect something like Intense Debate (or other methods depending on the platform) to keep me engaged and coming back to comment threads.
I often think when I'm reading the comments after someone else's blogpost that I wish they had a simple 'Reply to' feature so I could respond to other's comments as well as leaving my own. One blog I follow does have Disqus.
I also like how an email reply posts automatically to your blog as I normally reply on my blog then copy into my email reply.
However, the turnoff for me is that you cannot use your Google account to comment. This bugs me on other's sites.
My new blog title is a mouthful, isn't it?
I've never heard of this service. The funny thing is, I complained about wanting something similar in my guest post. And this sounds better than what I wished for. Thanks, Michelle and CherylAnne!
@Joanne, you've inspired me to tell my secret wish--that Blogger could automatically let commenters know the blog administrator replied to those who took time to leave a comment, otherwise we bloggers wind up either talking to ourselves or having to copy and paste what we said in an e-mail message and hoping the commenter doesn't have one of those do-not-reply addresses. :)
I don't think many people elect to be notified when there are new comments on a post, since that means getting pinged when the administrator replies as well as when anyone else comments. And it's so sad to think that of all the thousands of lovely things administrators have said in return to their commenters, maybe only 1 percent ever will know about it.
@CQG, welcome to Bird's-eye View. **waves**
@Joy, I'll be excited to see how this looks on your blog and how you like it.
@Tirzha, LOL :)
@LTM, if you decide to try this out, I'd be interested in hearing how you like it.
@Yvonne, there's a lot to be said about being careful about what coding, etc. you change on Blogger. Thank you, Cheryl, for reminding us all about the importance about doing a back up first.
@Sarah, I'm so glad the post was a helpful one for you. And welcome to Bird's-eye View!
@Deana, if you decide to try this out, I'd love to hear what you think about it. :)
@Rosi, you and me both! I'm so glad that when I e-mailed CherylAnne to ask how she was doing this, she not only took time to e-mail a response but write it up for everyone to benefit from. Yeah, Cheryl!
@McKenzie, **waves**
@Susanna, I have a feeling we'll be seeing this on quite a few more blogs, thanks to Cheryl. :)
@J.A., welcome to Bird's-eye View! I agree it would be so much easier if Blogger automatically kept the responses threaded with the original comments.
@Brooke, I love your idea of other commenters being able to reply to a particular comment, not just the blog administrator.
@Theresa, LOL, but that title sure has some nice alliteration going on. :) I hope IntenseDebate works out great for you!
Ooh, I'm thrilled that so many of you think this might be useful. I'm glad I could help. :D
I love that Intense Debate gives commenters the option of subscribing to all comments or only to replies to their specific comment.
As far as replying to comments, when I receive notification of a new comment from Intense Debate, I reply (which posts a reply on my blog) and just CC the commenter, so they receive my email at the same time the comment appears on my blog, all in one step. :D
Thanks Michelle, for bringing us this information. How do you find so many wonderful and interesting guest bloggers? Wow, you amaze me :) Thanks Theresa for the info. I'll have to check out Intense Debate.
@Jeanne, I'm so glad you enjoyed this post. CherylAnne's information was just to good not to share. :)
Wow...that takes commenting to a level that I had no idea existed. I shall expect this blog to move to the intense debate format now /eyeballs Michelle.
This old (post a comment) box is so 2008.
Sounds pretty good. Thanks, CherylAnne.
Thanks again, CherylAnne and Michelle. I have Intense Debate up and running on my blogs. You guys rock!
@Michael, **blushes** IntenseDebate was supposed to be up on my blog by now, but as I was registering, one of my feline assistants accidentally assisted a little too much. Whatever key she hit has my installation locked in limbo. Never fear; the IntenseDebate is helping me straighten out my snafu. :)
@Matt, **waves**
@Joy, I used your new IntenseDebate commenting system for the first time last night, and I loved it. :)
I've tried and tried this on my blogger blog and it just won't work. Perhaps it's easier on World press. Sigh.
@Tirzah, hmmm, maybe I blamed my kitty in error ... Let me send an e-mail message to you offline, so we can see if we both got stuck on the same step.
I managed to get it to work. HAd to delete it and add it back THEN log off and then on again...but as long as it works.
:)
T
Thanks for the info. I've been curious about the various commenting services out there. Saving time is always a plus. :)
@Medeia, with the busy schedule you have right now, I can see how something that saves time would look extra great. :)
Thanks for this great post, I'm already checking it on another tab! I didn't know something like this existed!
@Nas, I know just what you mean; I love this idea too. I just wish the Blogger template I'm using is one IntenseDebate supported ...
Hi Cheryl Anne. I installed Intense Debate on my Blogger account, but I'm running into a few problems. How, for instance, do I get blogger to put the intense debate comment option on my home page. There, it says that my posts have gotten zero comments, yet when you click on the posts' titles, the intense debate comments are listed. Also, although I signed up for automatic email notifications they're not showing up in my email account. Guess I still have some things to figure out.
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