One of the biggest problems most bloggers face is increasing opt-ins. You want more people to sign up for your newsletter, your rss feed, follow you on Twitter or submit your articles to social media outlets. It is what ultimately grows our blogs past our friends and family and into that “successful zone” where you are actually generating something out of your little corner of the web.
I got an email from a friend of mine in the blogosphere last week letting me know about his new plugin called Standout Comments. He happens to know a little bit about opt-ins and how to be successful online, so I thought to myself…”ok John Chow…let’s see what this things got!”. I downloaded it and installed it on my blogs…so let’s take a look what this thing actually does.
Standout Comments: The Lowdown
From what I can tell through using Standout Comments (you can see it on this site) is the entire premise is making it easier for your readers to opt in to your rss, newsletter, Twitter and social media avenues. Now…we all know this already, but it is essential to make things as easy as possible for your readers because if it is even just a little bit difficult…they aren’t going to do it…no matter how much they like you and your blog.
Once installed and configured through the clean, easy to use admin panel, your readers are presented with a few more new options when they are leaving a comment on your blog. With an easy check of a box, they can do four things:
- Signup for your rss feed via email.
- Signup for your email newsletter.
- Follow you on Twitter.
- Subscribe to comments left on that article.
The plugin uses the the name and email address provided in the comment form fields to give your readers the option to sign up for your opt-ins with the ease of a single click. I don’t know about you…but it doesn’t get any easier that that!
You can also choose which social media submit icons display much like the Sharable plugin by checking boxes in the admin panel.
I have been using this plugin for about a week and I have been very happy with the result. It is easy enough to use that any blogger can get it setup correctly and running without issue. It also does what we all ultimately want…it makes it incredibly easy for the commenters on your site to become a part of your community. With all of the rest of the noise on the web (that increases daily), it provides you with the means to stay in touch and bring more readers back to your content…further growing your blog.
Check out Standout Comments for yourself by clicking here.
Edited to add: Did I mention that you can win a free iPad if you install Standout Comments in the month of May?! Well…now you know.
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