Introducing the Comment Info Tip Plugin

You asked for it - now you got it!

This WordPress plugin provides you and your commenter’s a bit of information on their posting stats.

How It Works
When you mouseover a commenter’s name you will see a tip appear displaying some information about that given commenter. The tip will display 1 of 4 results:

1. If the commenter has only posted once then it will say so in the tip (see number 1 in the legend below).
2. If the commenter has posted more than once we will look up the last three posts they have commented in and display links to those posts. This allows you to see which type of posts this user is interested in and easily navigate to those posts (see number 2 in the legend below).
3. If the commenter has posted more than once we will attempt to search their RSS feed and show an excerpt from their last post (see number 3 in the legend below).
4. If it’s a pingback or trackback the tip will indicate so (see number 4 in the legend below).

DOWNLOAD THE PLUGIN HERE

* Please give it a shot and return here and tell us where you installed it. Let me know how it’s working for you and of course if you have suggestions or advice please let me know.

As you run your blog you may find yourself building relationships with some of your visitors. I know that when someone puts in the time to be a repeat commentator to Search-This I often find myself wanting to investigate that person a little. I may visit their blog and read a handful of their posts. I then usually look for an about page to get a brief bio of the person. I guess we all like to know who we’re inviting into our homes…

One of the problems I had at Search-This was that I could never easily tell how many comments a given person contributed. It would be nice to know who our top commentators are, not just for a given month but overall.

In addition to satisfying my own curiosity, I thought you guys might also like to know how many comments total you have logged.

Now we both can tell!

Simply mouseover the dude representing you for your comment and it shows you your total comments. It also displays links to the last three posts you commented in. See the screenshot below:

In this, our third lesson of the How to promote your blog series, we will look at two characteristics of the blogging audience. It doesn’t really matter what your blog is about: internet marketing, fly fishing or your love for pets. We can pretty much assume that your blog’s readers share some similar traits.

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The first lesson of our How to promote your blog series was titled “Know where you’re going”. In it we talked about the importance of planning and setting goals for your blog. Creating that vision before starting out on your journey creates a real destination in your mind; it gives you something to work towards and allows you to visualize what it will take to get there.

In this, our second lesson, I want to caution you about a trap that can happen to bloggers, especially as your blog becomes more and more successful. Let’s just call it stinginess.

When I started Search-This in June of 2003 it was the height of Google’s PageRank. People were crazy about PageRank and acquiring it and hording it. I was no different. I didn’t want to link out to anyone and transfer <Golem like>my precious</Golem like> to anyone else. In a word, I was stingy.

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I’ve finally done it. I’ve created my first WordPress Plugin. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile now. And for no other reason than because I wanted to learn how it’s done.

In typical WordPress fashion, they’ve made it as easy as pie to create plugins. The plugin I’ve created is real simple; there’s no admin panel so that part I have yet to learn how to do. But now that I’ve got my feet wet I think I will start thinking of what other plugins could be handy.

Let me show you the plugin I created and how I created it…
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The article “How to Promote Your Blog” was so well received that I’ve decided to make a series out of it. So each month, in 2008, I will give you a new lesson on promoting your blog. At the end of the year we will have 12 lessons with which we can then create a “Season 1 - How To Promote Your Blog” DVD that you can pick up at your local Best Buy store and give to that special someone for Christmas…Yeah right!

Since it’s the beginning of a new year and many will be either starting their first blog or looking for ways to further their current blog, I thought it fitting to start this series by talking about the significance of setting goals for your blog.

Know Where You’re Going

Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn’t find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets. It wasn’t there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn’t find it. Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn’t find it.

The conductor said, “Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it.”

Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket.

The conductor rushed back and said, “Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don’t worry, I know who you are. No problem. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one.”

Einstein looked at him and said, “Young man, I too, know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going.”

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As a blogger, one of the most rewarding things you can do is look back over your body of work at the end of a year to see what you’ve accomplished. I’ve spent the last week perusing the archives and I am very pleased with what Search-This was able to offer up in 2007. In case you missed anything, here are just some of the great posts from 2007. Enjoy!

Blogging

• Blog Critique: Chris Garrett on New Media
• How to Promote Your Blog
• WordPress - From Install to Pimped Out
• 10 Blogging Mistakes / Why Your Blog Struggles

CSS

• Relatives - Who needs them?
• CSS Liquid Round Corners
• 10 Quick Tips for an Easier CSS Life
• CSS - A Recipe for Success

SEO

• Title Tags - A Search Engine Optimization Cornerstone
• Do It Yourself SEO? Part 2
• Stop Worrying - About SEO
• Link Swapping - Should You Do It?

Coding

• OOP in PHP from a .NET OOP Perspective
• CSS The Star Matrix Pre-loaded: Part 2
• Objects - Why You Should Care About Them

Other Stuff

• Web Browser Wednesday - Going to the Opera (Part 1)
• Simple Tips to Help Survive The Digg Effect
• Yahoo Job Interview Questions: Part 1
• What’s Your 404?

Random Bits

• Random Bits Podcast with Rand Fishkin
• Random Bits Podcast with Peter Flaschner
• Random Bits Podcast with Chris Garrett, Part 1
• Random Bits Podcast with Eric Meyer

Let us know if there is something you would like to have us blog about in 2008. Or who you would like to see interviewed in a Random Bits Podcast. And Thanks for making 2007 a wonderful year.