Blogging Sueblimely

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Entrecard has just joined forces with SezWho. “SezWhat?” you may be saying - I will explain what it is later in the post but firstly want to talk about Entrecard itself and why this partnership may be very useful to bloggers.

Entrecard has been a great way of bringing visitors to blogs and creating a means for members to get known but it has fallen short in producing significantly extra comments and expanding individual blog’s reader communities. Entrecard has always had higher aims, with goals of bringing not only traffic but also audiences, readership and community participation. I agree with Graeme, the mastermind behind Entrecard, when he says that “Commenting is the second most important thing for you to do after writing quality posts. It was due to his aim to use “The same credits that power our culture responsible for millions of blogger-to-blogger visits each week … to help power a culture that comments on posts as well” that has resulted in the partnership with SezWho.

Now on to SezWho itself:

SezWho is a commenting/comment rating tool, which calls itself a profiling service and engagement platform. It creates a ‘profile’ for your commenters; hovering over their profile image or “check me out” link brings up a box which shows you the latest comments they have made and their SezWho ratings. It allows you to rate posts and the the comments and follow comments via RSS. If you are not registered or logged in when rating then the rating will be processed as anonymous but this has much less impact on member reputation scores. You do not have to have your own site to register with SezWho.

The Profile that pops up for Colin Campbell’s comments.

Its use is aimed at giving highly rated members “web-wide recognition for their insights and expertise”, “thought leadership”, and an increase in traffic. The theory is that the number and quality of comments on your blog will grow.

The Entrecard connection is that credits are awarded to members who comment on SezWho enabled sites. The amount of credits given is based on how highly the comment is rated by those who vote on it - ranging from 1 to 10 Entrecard credits. The idea is that quality comments gain the most, quick meaningless comments left merely for backlinks and spam comments will luck out.

will give SezWho users who receive ratings of 4 stars or more with credits to advertise on its network of blogs. This is an interesting approach, as it connects reputation with a direct reward.

How to integrate SezWho with your site (currently supported platforms are WordPress versions up to 2.6 (2.6 is beta still), Movable Type, Blogger, Drupal and phpBB):

• Create an account with SezWho
• Wordpress - download and intall the SezWho plugin by upload to your plugin folder, activate it. Then enter the blog id sent to you with your registration confirmation email in the SezWho plugin’s setup.
• Blogger - add the provided code to a HTML/Javascript page element.

You can view your own profile on your SezWho page:

Colin must lead thoughts to better places than I do

As I have only just installed the plugin I do not have any ratings, I do have ‘Star Power’ of 2.5 as this “community ranking” is not purely based on ratings?

Advantages

• If this new system takes off and more Entrecarders do comment, rather than merely dropping on you, your blogs bounce rate will improve.
• SezWho does not host any site content. All published and user-supplied content remains on - and is controlled by - the original site. It does not make off with your comments like some similar programs do.
• Backlinks are created for yourself and commenters.
• If you are an extraordinary commenter, a thought leader among bloggers, then your reputation will spread far and wide. If you are average then it may not make any difference to you, although I am sure the word will get round if particular blogs have generous comment ratings. I am open to that word :-). In my case I am sure I will not want to favor one regular commenter over another so will rate them all well, just because I am pleased to see them here. If you are new then I should imagine that I will vary my ratings although I love my comments so much that no doubt I will be generous - it will most likely depend on the mood I am in and if you are using a name that includes such words as casino. (my jury is still out with regards to the keyword luv plugin but I will save that for another post)

Disadvantages

• Receiving low ratings could lead you to have less confidence in your writing, even though it may be that your particular commenters do not want to use the system.
• It could be looked upon as bribing people to comment *
• If you write quality posts you are going to get plenty of comments anyway (I do not believe this always to be the case as it depends on your type of blog and readership)
• Adding to your workload by commenting on blogs just for your ratings is yet another way to divert you from writing and concentrating on your own readers.

Reading:

• On Entrecard’s blog Announcing the Partnership of Entrecard and SezWho
• Entrecard fan Joe Tech’s Top 10 reasons why the Entrecard - SezWho partnership is Important for Bloggers gives a positive review. The 70+ comments on the post show agreement with this view.
• * Entrecard + SezWho = Meh on Monkey Fables and Tales which talks less favorably about SezWho and not wanting to “bribe” people to comment. The 50+ comments on the post show agreement with this view.
• SezWho in operation on a phpBB forum on the SezWho Support Forum

To give you an opportunity to try out SezWho on this site I am will pose some questions.

• Based on this post or on your usage of SezWho are you in favor or against?
• Do you think this partnership is a positive or negative step for Entrecard.
• Are the multitude of peripheral blogging activities available to us now having a general effect of

• reducing blog posting frequency and quality or:
• taking us away from commenting on blogs? Is blog conversation moving to social media sites instead?

Popularity: 5% [?]

I have recently been trying out PhotoCrank, a kind of annotation/comment system for web images, and have had some fun browsing blogs that have installed this feature.

PhotoCrank allows the addition of word bubbles, graphics, comments and tags to any photo on any website. Those who have installed the browser extension can use the feature on any photo of any website.. In addition to the actual cranks, comments can made relating to those cranks.

If you add the Photocrank engine to your blog then any reader can use the feature on the images you have enabled for its use. You retain control over the comments and can delete those you do not think suitable. You can of course add your own annotations too. A widget is available for websites which shows the Cranks you have created yourself. PhotoCrank has been out for a while but a new version has recently been implemented with extra features.

An example is probably the best way to explain the concept: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, by the fake Steve Jobs, uses Photocrank and I think his blog is a prime example of good usage. Some of the comments are hilarious. You can see an example of the PhotoCrank widget in his sidebar too: Here is an example from his post entitled:

Confession: I have a really hard time deciding what to order in restaurants

Image before pressing the play button:

Image combining three of the comments

Total Diatribe is running regular “photo caption contests” using PhotoCrank

There are hundreds of images and blank bubbles to chose from. When you find those you like you can add them to favorites to find them again easily. Here is an example from one page of my favorites library:

The “Cranked” photos are displayed on the PhotoCrank website and your crank’d photos get syndicated throughout the PhotoCrank network of blogs, providing some extra link love for your site. Members can “follow” others I can see some blogs would find this a useful plugin to create a conversation around their published images in general or as a feature to use on designated posts only. Personal bloggers could write posts specifically for publishing images to be cranked. One blog I think would be ideal for the plugin is MagnetoBoldToo - little to her knowledge I have added cranks to a couple of her recent posts.

(For anyone already using PhotoCrank on their blogs, a new method of disabling cranks on individual images has just been implemented. In the PhotoCrank Options Menu on published photos (the gray button on the bottom right of the photo) click on Adminstration and uncheck the Allow Image To Be Cranked option)

PS - This is for Kelly who was keen to find out what PhotoCranks I had left on her blog images. The first is on the Mosh post and the second on the Be afwaid. Be vewy afwaid Sweet Potato image. Very corny I know.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Since my last post I have been investigating Google’s plans for including OpenIDs as a logging in method for commenting on blogspot Blogger blogs. The OpenID system can be a little confusing so I thought I would whip up some information for you.

The aim of the OpenID system is to give users a single digital identity to be used throughout the internet, ultimately eliminating the need for you to use multiple usernames across different websites. For sites that support OpenID’s, you can log in with your OpenID user name instead of having to register. The first time you log in to a particular site using your OpenID you will be directed to your your OpenID provider to confirm that you allow the site to access your OpenID. OpenIDs typically take the form of a URL. For example “http://youridname.claimid.com” or http://youridname.myopenid.com
If, like me, you struggle to keep up with different usernames and passwords, OpenID is really handy for logging in purposes. Having been subject to security breaches recently,
on a website I run for a client and on Windows Live Chat, I am keen to change my passwords much more often. Having to change only one would be much easier; although it does make it more important that you do change passwords frequently.

There are various providers offering OpenID’s, which means you can choose one that best meets your needs and one that you trust. Your OpenID name can stay with you if you move to a different provider. If you are cluey with coding you can even set yourself up as your own provider/provider for others using your own server but as that is quite complicated I am not going to go there. I mention it in relation to ensuring you sign up with a trusted site. I signed up for an OpenID a year or so ago with myopenid.com but have now changed my provider to claimID.com because of the more detailed profile information that I can add. You can see my OpenID profile here at my OpenID address of http://sueblimely.claimid.com - I am in the process of adding more information about where to find me on the net.

You can find up-to-date details on which sites are supporting the use of OpenID’s at the OpenID Directory, that is, sites where you can log in using your OpenID. It will be a while before we can rid ourselves of multiple login identities but more and more sites are joining up with the system. Some examples:

• Magnolia - bookmarking site
• Jyte - Social Networking Site
• Zoomr - Photo Sharing
• Wikispaces - Wiki
• Netscape news portal
• twitterfeed
• Stickis

You may actually have an OpenID without having knowingly registered for one. Your identities with the following sites are already OpenID’s. For example:

• AOL Your OpenID is - openid.aol.com/screenname
• LiveJournal - username.livejournal.com
• Technorati - technorati.com/people/technorati/username
• Vox - member.vox.com
• WordPress.com

This means that you can sign in to OpenID supported sites using your username from one of the above sites. For example if you have a WordPress.com blog you can use “yourusername.wordpress.com” to log in to a Magnolia.com account . One problem with this is that the OpenID belongs to your blog or than being yours individually. This has implications if there is more than one editor of your blog or if you wish to change blog platforms. You could, however, sign up for another OpenID and link your Wordpress ID to this.

More information in case you want to get into this subject in more detail and complexity:

• List of the providers that you can sign up with to obtain an OpenID - Public OpenID providers.
• Information for Wordpress.com users
• The OpenID Directory Blog
• A warning about backing up and changing passwords your paranoia is justified
• Simon Willison says that OpenID is moving towards a more secure system - Designing for a security breach.
• Reading this - The problem(s) with OpenID has me concerned about its security aspects.
• Run your own identity server Running your own identity server allows you to act as an OpenID Provider for just yourself or for others - this is quite complicated.

The impetus for writing this post came about because Blogger is testing support for using OpenID, which is good news for non Blogger user comments. It is possible to link your blog site with your OpenID account so that the links to your non Blogger blogs , lost by the recent Blogger comment form changes, are re-established. I will post about this separately.

Related Posts

• Blogspot Blogger comment form change unfair to ALL bloggers
• Using your own Blog URL as your OpenID

Popularity: 1% [?]

Do you look forward to checking to see if you have had new comments? I know I do. Not only does it reassure me that someone has been reading what I write but it develops the feeling of being part of a community. I find that once a person has commented they tend not to come back to the post again. Comments requiring a response from those who have already left a comment remain unacknowledged.

I always had the intention to revisit posts I had commented on but found it hard to keep track of what I had written where. Subscribe to comments plugins are a help but can create masses of emails with disjointed content. You cannot follow the flow of a conversation easily without revisiting the post again. This feature is not available on the majority of blogs in any case.

Enter coComment. I now use it for every comment I leave on other blogs. coComment keeps track of all comment conversations you wish to follow, saving them to your own page on the coComment site and informs you whenever something is added to a conversation. Clicking on a browser button tells coComment you wish to track a post’s comments. (It does not have to be one you have left comments on yourself.) I subscribe by email to my coComments feed but I tend to just head to the site now and again to see what is new.

There is a social networking side to the coComment site too. You can add friends and keep track of their comments, join groups and follow other members comments via tags. As well as supporting blogging platforms such as Blogger and Wordpress it works with other applications such as Digg and Flicker. Here is a list of what is currently supported.

The beauty of tracking comments is being able to go back to posts where the author or others have responded to your own comment and follow up where needed. If more people used this sort of tracking system blog comments could become much more dynamic, conversations more vibrant.

Do you have any methods for tracking your comments?

Popularity: 2% [?]

I have discovered two more ways to make blogging life easier!

The first I would like to talk about is co.mments, a method I am using to keep track of comments on blogs with posts of interest and those that I have left a comment on myself.

Bloggers who interact with their readers and develop a dialog, by responding to comments, can develop discussions that make a blog come alive. They are creating their own communities. I enjoy reading and participating in these commenting sessions because:

• they are helping me develop a social/friendship network
• they often contain valuable information that leads me to information/further research for this blog.
• They have been valuable for helping to develop my own readership.

If you have any points to add to this please let us know.
Being informed when there is a reply to a comment that I have left on another blog, or new comments on a topic of interest, means I can go back and respond further if necessary.

I used to save the post page to a folder on my links toolbar but I tended not to look at the folder regularly enough. Where a ’subscribe to comments’ feature is available I would use this but some posts generate masses of comments for a while after, crowding my inbox. These are normally the very popular blogs where I feel comments are left mainly for the purpose of leaving a link. To me these blogs, although having very large readerships, do not in general have such a community feel to them.

When I first read of co.mments my curiosity was immediately aroused and after using it to keep track of comments for a while now, I am a firm fan.

How does it work?

Very simply and quickly (I love simple and quick!):-

• Add the co.mments bookmarklet to your bookmarks toolbar.
• Click this bookmarklet button when you are on a post page whose comments you want to track. co.mments works in the background with no more input needed. A little pop up appears confirming the bookmark along with a link to your personal co.omments page.
• This action creates a page at co.mments that shows post summaries and all new comments on the posts you have co.mment bookmarked.
• A ‘conversations‘ page shows recently bookmarked pages of all the sites users.
• There is no need to visit the site each time you wish to read comments on your bookmarked posts as an RSS feed and email notifications are available. I have added the feed to my Thunderbird news reader so it is easy for me to keep up to date without getting masses of emails.

Other useful features:

• Make it easy for your readers to follow your blog’s comments by adding a link to let them track comments on your posts. - you can see mine below just next to the comments link.
• If you use FeedBurner, you can add comment tracking to your feeds.
• For WordPress users the Sociable plugin includes support for co.mments
• Registration is not necessary as a cookie is used to track your bookmarked posts but I preferred to do so as I like to clean out my cookies from time to time.
• The option of adding a widget to your own blog allows others to see where you have been commenting.

I have started testing out a similar application coComment and will let you know if I find it of more use. So far it is shaping up well and has more social networking features - although I am not sure I need more!

I will post about the second application that can make the life of a blogger easier tomorrow.

(That was not a deliberate ploy to get you to return here tomorrow, I just did not have time to finish the post today. Many bloggers do use such teasers. I am wondering what you think about them?)

Comments, Blog-Tools alexa

Popularity: 2% [?]