I’ve received several comments and criticism about not having the top comments plugin. Many bloggers like the plugin, but I like doing things my own way.

Positives for Top Comment Plugin

The top comment plugin can be essential for new blogs to establish a base and start interacting with their readers.

Installing the plugin is great incentive for bloggers to leave comments. Not only do they get a backlink, but the possibility of traffic as well.

By using the top comment plugin, comments for that blog should increase.

Negatives for Top Comment Plugin

Although you are rewarding comments, you may not get “quality” comments. I could assume we might get more comments with the plugin, but they may be even more junk comments than we already get.

Another factor is which websites you are linking to with what keywords. You want to reward your comments, but what if its a blog that is offensive or you just don’t feel good about promoting?

While searching for the top comment website, I found Andy Beard’s article, Multiple Reasons Why I Loathe the Top Commenter Plugin. He sums up his negatives for this plugin, he’s always worth a quick read.

Alternatives for Top Comments

When people ask why we don’t have it, or that we should, I just point them to Comment Friday. This not only gives me the choice of who I link to, but how I do it. I can choose if I want it to be from a quality comment, interesting, sad, funny, or just because I want to.

Another alternatives to a top comment is doing a round-up of top commenters. Pure Blogging used to use this method, but looking through a few pages they don’t seem to do it anymore.

Some blogs run contests for their top commenters of the month. Zac Johnson was (is?) doing this for a while. I won 2-3 times, however I only received one prize :(. Bloggers reward their top commenters with prizes like cash, advertising or other similar prizes.

Are you looking to monetize your website like the pros? Get the great looking 125×125 and 468×60 banners, text link ads and sponsored postings delivered, paid and rotated automatically with the brand new OIOpublisher WordPress plugin.

To all of you Blog About Your Blog readers, this is Jim, author of TheNetFool.com (feed), a business blog focused on making money online through the stock market, affiliate marketing, get paid to (GPT) websites and more! But enough about me, lets explore this great opportunity.

Lots of bloggers face the problem of adding advertisements to their websites in a quick and efficient manner. The brand new OIOPublisher direct WordPress plugin allows you to do all of this automatically. Truth be told, this is the first (and only) WordPress plugin I have ever purchased. At $37, its not cheap… but it completely beats out WP Text Ads ($127) and WP Bankroll ($50).

Not only is OIOPublisher a cheaper alternative, but it is much more functional! Unlike any other WordPress monetization plugins before it, OIOPublisher offers an all-in-one solution for bloggers. You can place banner ads, image ads, text ads, sponsored postings and even sell digital downloads! I use it on The Net Fool to rotate all of the 125×125 banners in the sidebar. You can have multiple banners rotated per ad slot, and even randomize the appearance of the banners. OIOPublisher is your swiss army knife of monetization!

With all of the functions and a terrific price tag, you may be asking yourself how hard this thing is to actually install and use. I had this plugin up and running within 30 minutes of first downloading. It is extremely easy, and after you activate it.. there is an entire new tab (labeled “business”) that opens up in your admin panel. You can have emails sent every time an ad is purchased, clicked, etc. A full flux of options makes OIOPublisher the only option I will ever use for putting ads up, and best of all the one-time $37 buys you a license to use the software on multiple servers.

I know that the initial shock of shelling out almost $40 for a WordPress plugin, most of which are free, is a bit much. If you are a somewhat popular blog, all you need is a couple of purchases to get that all back. No longer do you have to sacrifice 50% of your revenue to a service that handles the work for you, now you can do it yourself. I’m always looking for ways to make money online, there is no better way in my book than by monetizing your own blog site. OIOPublisher makes it easier than ever!

-The Net Fool

WP Auctions is an interesting Wordpress plugin that allows you to host auctions on your blog. You can auction off whatever you want. This could range from advertising space to items. This is perfect for any website looking to sell their merchandise for a little cheaper each week. I can see using this plugin for lots of different things.

WP Auctions Info

WP Auctions is a simple plugin to use which literally took me one or two minutes to install. The best thing has to be NO fees!

Configuration is pretty simple as well. You can either add a code directly to your template to display the WP Auction on your sidebar. Or even easier, you can just use the widget like I have.

You can add a starting price as well as how long you want your auction to run. The people at WPAuctions are working on even more ways to improve this relatively new plugin.

Our Auction

We are giving this a trial run. I hope to come up with new ways to keep our auctions interesting. We started by auctioning off a 200+ word blog review. The minimum bid is at $5 and will run for a week. Make sure to look on over at our sidebar and put in a bid!

If there is anything you’d like to see auctioned here please don’t hesitate to let me know. You can run multiple auctions at a time.

The folks at Automattic (guys behind Wordpress) released a very cool new theme recently which takes Wordpress to a whole new level.

The Prologue theme turns your blog into a Twitteresque site - with much of the same feel, layout and functionality. Some people are even suggesting this could be a Twitter killer.

I don’t believe this will have any effect on Twitter, but this theme opens the door to many an opportunity. It wasn’t long before I started dreaming of the possibilities and after a couple of hours of work - RankScale.com

RankScale is a place for online marketers and bloggers to plug tools, sites, blogs, and other resources they come across. The site is nothing special - but it does demonstrate just how powerful Wordpress is and what can be achieved.

I have got plans to do some quite a bit of custom coding work on RankScale which will greatly improve the experience - but let me know what you think of the concept. (plus you always sign up and grab some free link love!)

I’m sure many a similar site will be built using the great new Prologue theme and I can’t wait to see what other developers come up with. My quick project was just a cosmetic job (fiddled with design etc..) but amazing things could be built using Prologue + plugins + clever coding!

Find me and all my articles at my new blog - Marketvice.com

I’ve wanted a complete blog makeover for some time on this blog. However, to get the good designers to custom make it, that runs a pretty penny. When re-designing Blogging Addiction I chose one of my favorite new themes.

Structure Theme

Justin Tadlock designed the structure theme. Make sure to upgrade to a newer Wordpress to use it.

“Description: A theme for news/magazine sites with a blog-friendly option too. It includes built-in video and image features that easily allow you to customize your site. There are content blocks that you can place virtually anywhere on the page.”

What I like most about it, is that you can manipulate it (very easily) to however you want it. Whether you want it magazine style, featured posts, full or half posts, you can make it however you want.

The features are easily customizable, especially to start. You can add your feed subscriptions just by giving the URL etc. This  theme is definitely for a moderate Wordpress user, but easy to learn.

Features

There are some features that definitely should be mentioned.

• A custom home page to look like a news or magazine site (optional normal blog layout for the home page)
• Related Posts plugin support
• Plugin support for Popularity Contest by Alex King
• WordPress 2.3 tag-ready
• Placeholders for ads. Good sizes for 125×125px ads (must have for new themes)
• Widget-Ready sidebar (not designed for them, kinda aligns it weird, but nice to have)

From the sounds of it, this theme really needs pictures. I think any type of photo blog may work really well here.

For more information about the Structure Theme you can view and download it here.

Structure has to be my new favorite theme, Whats yours and Why?

Blatant plug warning!

WordPress and Firefox have something in common. They are both extendable by user generated add-ons - WordPress Plugins & Firefox Extensions.

I love finding and trying out new Firefox Extensions and WordPress Plugins. You can find all these in the official Firefox Add-ons directory or the WordPress Plugins directory. But, often times I have found useful plugins through someone else’s recommendation.

Top Firefox Extensions

So, I started out creating my Top Firefox Extensions list. This list serves as a reference for myself as well as anyone else looking for great Firefox extensions recommendation.

Top WordPress Plugins (65+)

With this list being the most viewed post in ShanKri-la, I decided to make a Top WordPress Plugins (65+ plugins) list where I could categorize and publish the plugins I try and use. I have just started creating more blogs and find myself going to ShanKri-la Admin Panel to find out what plugin I was using. This list is going to help me a lot and I hope for you too.

15 WordPress Tweaks for a (New) WordPress Blog

I have published my collection of WordPress Tweaks, tips & tricks at Techie-Buzz.com that I gathered and implemenred in various WordPress blogs over the months. I wanted this list to be an excellent resource for a new blogger on WordPress blogging platform to get the most out of this wonderful solution. Even if you have been on WordPress, I am sure you’ll find a few tweaks that you can implement.

Plus, when my friends or fellow bloggers ask me about a Firefox Extension or a WordPress Plugin I use, I can just direct them to these lists. Such a time saver!

I am not trying to create a link bait post with these lists by creating it once and leaving it to rot. The first two lists are to be constantly updated as I find new extensions and plugins. So, don’t forget to bookmark the lists to come back for new stuff.

Visit ShanKri-la for more tech tips | Subscribe to ShanKri-la Feed

Written by Mark of MeAndMyDrum | Fave MAMD | Subscribe to MAMD

Magazine themes are making a stronger presence on the Internet for bloggers. What’s a magazine theme? It’s one that provides snippets on your blog’s home page for one thing, so readers can see a variety of things going on in your blog, not just a summary of posts you’ve made.

To give you a better idea of what one looks like, I’ve rounded up three magazine themes that I think are pretty cool. Only one of them has to be purchased, but I think you’ll see why when you take a look.

Mimbo Magazine (free)
Very clean and a nice balance between text and images. I also love the drop-down menus in the nav bar at top.

Revolution - Magazine Style (pay)
This is the one that’s pay-for, but honestly, you’ll get no argument from me. It’s a darn good layout that’s well-thought out. There are two other themes that are variations that you’ll find when you work the demo — all equally as nice. Single and mutli-use licenses are available depending on your needs.

Cybercafe Sandbox (free)
A very narrow theme, but still possesses elements that make it a magazine theme.

A while back I was featured on Weblog Tools Collection for my post on Ten Reasons to Choose Wordpress. Well, I don’t want to beat a dead horse and copy over ten reasons, but here are three great reasons that make Wordpress the best.

3. Wordpress is FREE!
That’s right you can get one of the most versatile blogging platforms for FREE. Why on Earth would you not use something that could let you express yourself, let you earn some extra cash, and that is FREE. Wordpress has far less problems than any other blog software that I have used and has a great support community that is also FREE.

2. Wordpress is SIMPLE!
Whenever you want to do anything, you want it to be as simple as possible. This is why Wordpress makes it easy to install with help available if you need it. They provide detailed instructions and even videos to show how to install it. Plus, when it comes time to upgrade/maintain it, all you have to do is delete the old files and add in the new ones, no messing with your data, it stays safe in the database!

1. Wordpress is all around YOU!
Wordpress is everyone on the internet today, according to Weblog Tools Collection, it is used on 0.8% on the internet. Who knows how much further that could go. Everyone from famous baseball players to Harvard students use Wordpress.

Hope you enjoyed my shortened list. To check out more of my Wordpress and Blogging related ramblings visit me at Krispy Blogs and Blogging 4 Everyone. Take care everyone.