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Give Extra Link Love by Using the CommentLuv Plug-in

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As we discussed, link love is a term used to describe linking to someone else’s site or blog. When you do this, you are potentially sending traffic their way, hence the ‘love’ part of the term - we all love traffic. Just like in real life, the best way to get love is to give love, and the same is true here online.

WordPress has a handy little plug-in available to help you give extra link love (automatically!) to those who comment on your blog and it’s called, no surprise, CommentLuv. The author, Andy Bailey, explains:

Comments are a wonderful thing to receive on your blog, adding the dofollow plugin is one way to reward but why not place a link to their last post under their comment, with CommentLuv, you can do that automatically! This is an excellent way to promote comments from your readers.

The CommentLuv Wordpress Plugin will visit the feed of the comment author and attempt to scrape the last post they made and display it under their comment, this way you can encourage people to join in the discussion of your posts and give something back straight away.

Note:The plugin starts to add peoples last post AFTER it has been installed. Comments that were made before the plugin was installed will not show the author’s last post.

CommentLuv currently works with WordPress, blogspot, typepad and blogs that have a feed link in the head section of their page.

So how does using this plug-in help you if you’re potentially sending your visitors away to someone else’s site?

1. Your visitors - particularly the other bloggers among them (myself included) - will be more inclined to leave a comment at your blog because they know they’re going be rewarded with not only a link back to their own site, but a link back to their latest post, too.

   I comment on blogs that don’t use this plug-in if the content is great and I have something to add, but when I come across a blog that I like that does use this plug-in I might be inclined to think a little harder to come up with a relevant comment I can add to the conversation. Your visitors will probably do the same.

2. As long as you’re providing good content, your visitors will come back. The fact that you’re providing links to other great content out there elevates your reputation as a blogger. You and your blog are perceived as an even better resource.
3. It’s an easy way to give back to the online community at large. Unless you operate solely on the “what’s in it for me” principle, ’nuff said, eh?

I use CommentLuv on this blog, and I install it on all of my client’s blogs (unless they specifically request otherwise.) If you want to test it out, leave a comment on this post. When you fill in the website field, make sure you use your blog’s URL. That’s how the plug-in knows where to look for your last post.

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