Modernize your Comment section with IntenseDebate
Have you noticed how busy the people of this generation are? It’s a tough challenge to bring people to my blog and make them spend some of their valuable times by reading what I wrote. Our blogging doesn’t end there. I have to do whatever I can to make each and every reader make a comment on the post they just read. Don’t you believe it’s incredibly hard to make everyone leave a comment on your blog?
No matter how difficult it is, you have to force your readers to leave comments on posts. This will begin a conversation with what your readers can interact. Another good side of having comments from reader is that, your every other readers will notice that the blog is busy and is read by other people. That leaves a positive impression on each and every reader, including me!
So, it’s your job to make commenting as much easy as possible. If I find it hard to leave a comment on your blog, generally I won’t. Keep in mind, everyone is busy. So you have to make commenting on your blog easy which will let readers write and post a comment at their ease and think that your blog is “user-friendly”.
Then Implement IntenseDebate
Regardless of what platform you are using to blog, you can implement third-party commenting system to make your blog look better and make it easier to leave comments. There are a number of third-party comment systems implementable to your blog. But I’m going to tell you about IntenseDebate which is being used by my blog.
IntenseDebate is just another third-party script that will make it easier to leave a comment on your blog. Busy readers will find it attractive to leave a comment. The style of composing a comment, the template of IntenseDebate, several ways of commenting as a logged in user etc will make your blog look professional and gorgeous.
So, let’s find out the features IntenseDebate has to offer.
Features of IntenseDebate comment system:
Here are the features at a glance which IntenseDebate comes with:
The Reason of having an account
You have to be registered with IntenseDebate if you want to implement the comment system in your blog. So, you got an account. You can use this to post a comment on the blogs that use IntenseDebate. Plus, all of the comments you leave worldwide is gathered in your IntenseDebate profile along with the replies you get. This is going to save your time. ‘Cause you don’t have to go back to the blogs you left comment on to check if somebody replied to your comment. Cool, eh?
Threaded Comments
In wordpress, this option is known as nested comments. This means you and everyone else (if chosen) can reply to any particular comment which will be nested right under that comment. This makes conversation smarter, faster, and looking greater.
Who was that guy!
If your commentator has an account with IntenseDebate, you can know more about him/her by having a look on the profile page of the IntenseDebate account. Please note that anyone having an account with IntenseDebate can simply login to their account and leave comment.
Bring them any way they like
As I said earlier, people of nowadays are extremely busy. But the majority of them remain logged in to either twitter or facebook. If a reader is logged in to twitter or facebook, he can simply post his comment by logging in using his twitter account [one click away].
Please note that you have to integrate facebook connect option in order for your visitors to leave comments using their facebook account.
If a reader has openID account, he can use that to post a comment. Posting as a guest requires filling up the name and email form each time. That’s why these simple login options are useful.
Reply by Email
You have been hearing that you can receive all the comments of your blog into your inbox. But did you know that now you can reply to comment thread via Email too? Yes, with IntenseDebate active in your blog, you can reply via Email. You receive an email notifying you about the comment you’ve received. You can directly reply to that comment by simply replying to that email. However, you can stop receiving emails and commenting back via Email if you don’t want to use this feature.
Let them subscribe
IntenseDebate will let anyone subscribe to either the comments of any particular post or latest post from the entire blog. When posting a comment, comment author can also set this to subscribe him with any RSS he wants.
Shut them up
If you think someone is spamming, or if you just want one or more specific IP to be blocked, you can do so anytime you want. While you are logged in to your IntenseDebate account, you will find a text “Block IP” next to every comment. This way you can block anyone’s IP you want.
You can moderate your comments by any way you want. Also, you can have a blacklist of comment authors. You rule your world, isn’t it fair?
HTML Formatting supported
As well as WordPress default comment form, IntenseDebate lets your comment author format their comments using some HTML codes such as ‘b’, ‘em’, ‘a href’ etc.
IntenseDebate for WordPress
As I have always been saying that wordpress is the best for blogging [also for CMS]. You actually have to do nothing but install and activate a single plugin. WordPress will handle the rest with the help of that IntenseDebate plugin. You can use IntenseDebate for your blogger platform too. But using it in wordpress blog will give you some extra features.
Features you get if using WordPress
If you are using self-hosted wordpress blog, you can simply install and activate a plugin and start using it. If you’re using it, you get some extra functionality such as:
Comments are never lost
While using wordpress, each and every comment are saved in the wordpress database along with the post concerned. But while you’re using IntenseDebate, the comments are also being imported to your IntenseDebate account. So whenever you want to uninstall IntenseDebate, just execute your wish! No loss will take place.
Administration is made easier
Hey, you don’t even have to go back to your IntenseDebate account once your blog is registered and plugin is activated. You can auto-login yourself to IntenseDebate each time you login to your wordpress blog’s administration panel. So, you can moderate, block, reply etc without leaving your wordpress page.
SEO..even for comments
IntenseDebate outputs the standard WordPress comments enabling your comments to still be indexed by search engines that ignore JavaScript, while ensuring that visitors surfing with JavaScript disabled will be able to interact with comments made in IntenseDebate.
IntenseDebate recognizes your WP Settings
WordPress admin settings like closing and opening comments on a post, and even changing your post titles, are automatically recognized and reflected in your IntenseDebate settings.
…Plus lots more. So,
Download the plugin
Click here to download the plugin. After downloaded, install it to your blog and activate it from inside the administration panel. You will find out a submenu named “IntenseDebate” under the “Settings” menu. You will have to login to your IntenseDebate account from inside your WordPress admin area.
Use IntenseDebate in Blogger
Don’t be disappointed if you’re using blogger as your blogging platform. It’s true you will have to work with complex codes if yours is a blogger-powered blog. IntenseDebate will provide you some codes which you will have to place in your blog’s template.
IntenseDebate has widgets too
Showing the overall statistics of your blog, the most commented posts, top ten comment authors etc various kinds of widgets are available from IntenseDebate. IntenseDebate will give you a short code which you need to place into the sidebar of your blog as a text widget. You can install the widget in both blogger and wordpress blogs.
So, wait for none
Make your blog a great-looking one. In my opinion, great quality content isn’t enough to draw attention of your blog. Take some time to design your blog. Implementing IntenseDebate in your blog will be a part of designing your blog. So, consider replacing your ancient wordpress comment form with the brand new IntenseDebate comment form with the flexibility of posting a comment.
Related Service:
Disqus: Disqus is pretty same as IntenseDebate. The options and functionality are similar. You can also use Disqus comment system instead of IntenseDebate if you like. But you’re advised to at least create an account in both platforms so that you can leave comments universally and have control over them. This blog (Life with Technology) uses Disqus comment system. You will find that Disqus meets almost all of the features stated above in the name of IntenseDebate. To give Disqus a try, prepare a comment and post it in this post.
Info: Most of the blogs use either IntenseDebate or Disqus to improve their comment system. So it’s wise to have account in both.
Have your say
Please don’t forget to post a comment about what you think about implementing third-party comment system like IntenseDebate. Let me know if you liked this post. Also, try out posting a comment using Disqus below. If you have a twitter, facebook, IntenseDebate, or OpenID account, login with any and leave a comment. Don’t worry, both IntenseDebate and Disqus allows logging in as a guest requiring to fill up Name and Email Address forms.
By posting a comment below, let the world know are you using Disqus, IntenseDebate or any other third-party commenting system on your blog? Did you find it extremely useful? Don’t you think each and every blog should use these third-party comment system?
Did you find this article useful? Did this help you anyway? Is it worth rewarding me for it? Please support me to keep this work up.
