Comments on: Characteristics of a Super Friendly Blog!

By: Chandan

Chandan — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:02:40 +0000

@Ajit,
though the sign-up pop up forms are annoying, it helps in building lists of targeted customers and in making sells.

By: Aparna

Aparna — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 11:07:55 +0000

Hey, just came across your blog recently while doing some research. Very informative. Will keep coming back for me.

By: Ajith Prasad

Ajith Prasad — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:34:39 +0000

@Gagan, it’s up to you.. If the users are interested in your content, they would subscribe to you anyhow. Otherwise, they are just going to unsubscribe after downloading their stuff… However, signing up as a member to comment may not be very good and that’s what I have been mainly talking about.

By: Gagan

Gagan — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:08:06 +0000

In my blog I’ve used condition, that to download my eBook and WordPress themes, users have to subscribe to my blog. I think I’ve to remove it. What do you say?

By: Ajith Prasad

Ajith Prasad — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:14:12 +0000

@Tammy, yours is a super friendly blog already and it has an amazing audience that is equally friendly as well

PS: I love that little cricket in your gravatar.

@Nihar, I agree on the depth of personal details one wouldn’t want to provide. However, unless you are an anonymous blogger due to political, controversial, life-threatening issues, why not?

By: Nihar

Nihar — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:32:49 +0000

I agree with most of the points but don't agree about the author page. It is upto the author whether he/she wants to give his/her personal details.Nihar's last blog post... March 2009 Blog Traffic & Income statistics

By: Tammy-Cricket

Tammy-Cricket — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 05:24:09 +0000

Hey there! I love all of these ideas that you have shared. I am stepping back and taking a second look at both of my blogs and this was refreshing to read.I hope all is well and happy in your life.Tammy-Cricket's last blog post... Kick Off Your Shoes Whenever You Get the Chance

By: Ajith Prasad

Ajith Prasad — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:23:57 +0000

@Lovvy, Good to learn that you liked my tips. All the best for your WordPress blog. I liked it…

By: Lovvy

Lovvy — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:10:49 +0000

very nice post.. i have gone through it and it's very interesting. Im blogging since last year, but still there was some spices that were not present. Now the mind is opened, thanks dude.. Keep it up..Lovvy's last blog post... Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 & Movies Mobile

By: Ajith Prasad

Ajith Prasad — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:19:52 +0000

@Mitch, thanks man. Yep, I know that you hardly use any images. Even I do not use too many images unless it’s related to the content. However, I have the habit of using those little images (more like news paper content) at the start of every three posts or so – just to make sure that my homepage doesn’t look so bland.

@John, thanks for your compliments

@Raju, thanks for keeping it as a reference post buddy As for the smileys, yep, many could be against them – especially when you write a lot of serious technical content. Probably blogs with general (day-to-day and personal affairs) content may find smileys very important.

@George, I totally agree… Even without putting the smileys, one should smile while reading the post if there’s enough ‘feel’ is built into the post And smileys are not just about happy mood Technically speaking, ‘emoticons’ is the better term…

@Kurt, you are right! Even, I was planning to set up a blog to take on the corruption and some of the goverment people… When you do such things, not only the about page but even your comment habits on other blogs should be carefully implemented.

@Venkat, great buddy! Good to know that we have a few things in common here.

@Lax, yes… branding and being unique are the key ingredients to success. However, they need to be well supplemented by some of the other aspects mentioned here.

@Richael, that’s an important point. Blogging is all about freedom and even the commenters (unless they make obscene remarks) need to be given freedom as well. So if you enforce them to change names, use short URLs, completely avoid keywords, sign up before commenting etc you may end up receiving not only less comments but reduced readership as well.

There’s another issue with comment moderation as well. Recently I pointed out two big mistakes in one of the SEO posts of a reasonably popular blogs. The blogger opted not to display those comments. I stopped visiting him thereafter. The ideal way should have been to allow such comments and accordingly reply (counter or apologize)

@Melvin, your blog is super friendly already And slangs are also a good way to keep the ‘informal touch’…

@Kurt, thanks for relieving your blood pressure by being expressive You are absolutely right… even I got pissed off with some top bloggers as they never reply to even genuine questions. Actually this treatment is what inspired me to write my post on the blogger-reader engagement models :lol

@Nicholas, welcome back… I hope you had a good go with your exams. How’s Bangalore treating you otherwise?

@SK, you don’t score zero buddy… think of the content where you score well above many others

@Chetan, thanks… But you guys provide actually some cool technical content and that’s what I am not able to keep writing

@Jhankora, I guess the basic smileys are built into (ie. recognized by) the WordPress I guess… Are you talking about the comment smileys alone?

@Harish, thanks for agreeing on the points… Yes, there are not really something like a ‘perfect blog’ out there but one can only improve on certain aspects.

@Sunil, I shall write an email to you on the affilate front. I have been very busy of late and could not write about certain new moneymaker products.

@Anish, thanks… But a lot of others don’t seem to like the smileys

@Ramesh, a strongly technical oriented blogs like yours need to be interactive only when questions arise. I guess you probably are not providing any opportunity for people to ask questions because the posts are almost self explanatory and complete.

@Simon, yes… high interaction levels would definitely improve further involvement and hence you get more monetary and non-monetary benefits as well. As for the smileys, well, I think I need to take it back as many of you are against smileys in the posts! What if I say ‘smileys in comments’ alone?

@Gwen, same as the above comment. I guess, smileys in the posts probably is not a good idea but it definitely improves interaction levels when appearing in comments.

@SK, as Richael mentioned, I am going through some terrible times… Though blogging is close to my heart, there are other priorities ahead of that. The next few weeks are going to be tough for me and hence you could expect some changes in the post frequency and time to reply/moderate comments. Thanks for your understanding!

Thank you all for your views!

By: Richael Neet

Richael Neet — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:47:08 +0000

@ Binaryday , Ajith’s son/daughter seems to be suffering a medical problem. I saw his tweet.

By: Binaryday

Binaryday — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:13:21 +0000

Hi Ajith,No post for so long?? What's up?ThanksBinaryday's last blog post... Step by step guide to making money with blog: My first attempt at an ecourse

By: gwen

gwen — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:05:39 +0000

You have written a very useful and well thought article. However, I am no fan of smiley faces as others have said as well! We must keep in mind what seems friendly to one may seem odd or useless to others. Finding a balance is a challenge.gwen's last blog post... Free Phone Service From Google

By: Simon | Teenius

Simon | Teenius — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 09:08:25 +0000

I highly agree with the Interaction point. Making a community is one of the most vital parts of any blog, and if you can do this then you’re sure to get loads of comments, RSS readers and just generally quality visitors.

Regarding the smiley point, I’m not so sure. I think they’re good to some extent, but if they’re overused they look spammy

Simon | Teenius’s last blog post… Five Reasons Why WordPress Rocks

By: Ramesh Natarajan

Ramesh Natarajan — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:02:12 +0000

I need to make a huge improvement in #6 — Interactive.

I couldn’t agree more with #10 –

Ramesh Natarajan’s last blog post… Get a Grip on the Grep! – 15 Practical Grep Command Examples

By: AnishK.S

AnishK.S — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:57:14 +0000

Good Points, i like the last one ” lot of smilies ”

By: sunil

sunil — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 06:45:27 +0000

Hi Ajith Bhaiya i want to know some good affiliate marketing website .. as you have told me about pepperjam network but they rejected me ...... i want to know some good affiliate marketing websites.sunil's last blog post... SAI appearing as a Snake

By: Harish

Harish — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:59:07 +0000

Covered all the important point Ajith. Great post. There are lots of blogs in this world but only few among them hold all the above characteristics.Harish's last blog post... T3leads - A Leading Pay Per Lead Affiliate Network

By: Jhangora

Jhangora — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 05:24:41 +0000

I guess #4 and #8 are most important things to keep in mind. I am having a hard time with JS-Kit comments. Once I sort that out I'll try and integrate smilies in the blog.Jhangora's last blog post... Tata Nano To Launch On 23rd March 2009

By: Richael Neet

Richael Neet — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:11:22 +0000

Very true, Kurt Avish. Its up to the owner of the blog to implement his/her own rules and regulation…but for the sake of humanity, the reply could be like “Sorry to set such rigid rules but I have to implement them to prevent spam” rather than a blunt “I don’t care”.

Well guess what, I don’t care to visit that blog again…hehe

Richael Neet’s last blog post… Exclusive Interview with CEO of Telnic – Khashayar Mahdavi