Frequent Commenter? Rewards Aplenty
Blogging, Personal October 4th, 2007After looking at some stats this morning and seeing there have been 5,600 comments made over the 313 posts I’ve pressed the publish button to, I decided it’s time to give back to the loyal reader who are posting their thoughts on each entry I press the publish button to.
As this month has just started, it’s the perfect opportunity to start this. I’ve created a new static page which lists the top ten commenters in the set month. At the end of each month I’ll be sending the top commenter $40, and the second and third $10 each via PayPal as a little way to say thanks for sharing your knowledge and thoughts.
This is just a start on more reader competitions and giveaways - keep posting your thoughts on various topics to be in contention each month.
Check out the live running list of top commenters here.
Update: The trial period has finished, I’ll not be running this for a second month. All payments sent for the 1st month. Thanks guys!
October 4th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Cha ching.
October 4th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Cha chingz.
October 4th, 2007 at 11:45 am
This comment is spammmmmmm
October 4th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Glenn! I’m glad you are doing this, I will not be “competing” but it is making me realize I haven’t commented in a while. So I will start back up again. Congrats on the 2000 readers too btw.
October 4th, 2007 at 11:57 am
This a great idea. But where have the posts been, Glenn? Presumably, you’ve been at school, but still, there’s been a void where all your great content used to be.
I have a feeling Macguide and the Video show have been taking most of your time; don’t forget about this lovely site, Glenn!
EDIT
Oh, and I forgot to mention those new ads for Xtorrent and Acquistion. Interesting placement, though it’s getting a tad on the “CLICK ME CUZ I’M AN AD” side. But whatever makes you teh moniez.
October 4th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Glad to hear you like the idea Taylor.
The quality content will keep flowing. It has been a busy few months but I’m getting back into the swing of things. I’ve started making more opinion posts recently after many requests via email. Any other suggestions? :-)
October 4th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Lets hope a spammer doesn’t take first place… ;)
October 4th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Great work Glenn, first of all for having that many readers, but second for being so generous :)
Best of luck in this new endeavor!
October 4th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Spammers are not welcome here ;-)
October 4th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Cheers Nick! I thought it’d be a good idea to give something to the readers for a change - they’re the ones fueling me with energy by commenting, this is the least I can do.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Sounds like a Great Idea Glenn!
October 4th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
I’ve been following your site for a while now Glenn, and this new contest seems like a good excuse to make my first post. So here it is.
Also wanted to mention to you that I just got back from my first walk around with the 40D and 17-85 IS USM I picked up yesterday. I’m fairly new on the photography scene but I know you have been planning on getting the same body soon, so if there is anything I can explore for you, let me know. New ideas will only help me learn anyhow.
Keep up the excellent work!
October 4th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Hey Glenn,
Great idea. I was wondering how you were automating this? Or are you just doing it manually? :P
October 4th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Oh, and is this for each comment made in October, or all the comments on October posts?
October 4th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
I like this idea Glenn. =P I know the feeling of trying to get into the swing of things. I’ve had a few blog posts stuck in my note book for a while now and haven’t had much time to post them. 313 posts. Nice! =P
October 4th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Looks like for “posts” in October. I made a comment in a previous post and it didn’t update. Smart Glenn =P
October 4th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Seems like the quality of the comments feed on your blog is going to get a lot worse in the near future.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I don’t think so. After the initial reaction of everyone trying to post comments, it will just be at the back of everyones mind, and now when I see Glenn’s post in my RSS feed, I think twice if I have anything to say, and then I comment on it. I find it works as a “silent motivator”. At least for me…. :P
October 4th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Hence you posting 3 times already? ;)
October 4th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Grrr… SPAM! That’s the problem when holding competitions like this. But, I love the idea of rewarding your loyal readers! :)
October 4th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Well, I guess I’ll have to comment on every post your submit. Just kidding :). Sounds good, and very generous of you Glenn.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Glenn, you might need to add a Capcha plugin soon :P
Haha, anyway, I find commenting quite fun :)
October 4th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
What, aren’t you getting many new readers any more or something? You have to pay people to comment on your blog. :P
I like what you’re doing, but I don’t think it’s appropriate; and it probably makes people question if people read your blog for the good content or if they’re reading it hoping to comment enough to get prizes.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Couldn’t agree more. Seems like a move of desperation…..but I don’t see how you could be desperate because from what I see you have quite a broad reader-base as is.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
I stopped commenting for a while, but i’m back on it again. Another reason to comment.
Thanks for thinking about the readers glenn
October 4th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I applaud your generosity, but hopefully it won’t lead to people posting lots of crap comments just to get cash. It’s a nice gesture, but I kind of agree with zzap and Dustin above.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Random Thought about commenting:
Glenn, do you have Wordpress email you every comment? I’m assuming you have that disabled, but if you don’t, wow, you must get a LOT of emails from wordpress [at] glennwolsey [d0t] com :P
Yet Another Random Thought on Commenting:
I find commenting not quite as fun when they’re hundreds of comments on a post. Less “personal”. However, having 24 comments above mine (as I’m writing this), it still feels “personal” because you respond to comments. That’s why I tend to comment more on “personal” blogs, compared to big blogs like TUAW…
P.S. Great work on the 2000th subscriber!
October 4th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
This is automated with a plugin called “Show Top Commenters.”
It counts comments over all entries site wide - there’s no way for me to change this sadly.
I hope not, if so, it won’t be my loss, it’ll be the readers if I have to stop doing this in the future.
I said nothing of the sort, I’ve done this to reward, not to attract. Two entirely different things. I have plenty of readers/comments, and want to reward those who are frequent to voice their opinion.
I turned the auto-emails off a while back ;-) I would be getting dozens and dozens a day if I hadn’t. It used to be fun to wake up to 50 emails, but I’m getting those 50 emails from normal messages alone now (not much fun) ;-)
Thanks for the nice comment abut..my commenting :-D I like to respond to all comments which ask something of me to keep involved in the community side of the blog.
October 4th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Just found your site today although I had been looking at your Flickr and other pages for months. Great site and it’s a great thing your doing to give back to the community.
Thanks,
Tim
October 4th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Wow, someone has money to burn! I wish I could pay my top commenters.
October 4th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Reward, not pay ;-) I thought it wouldn’t hurt to put aside a little cash each month toward this. Maybe in the future I could give top commenters products I’ve reviewed in the past at random. Looking forward to see how this pans out.
October 4th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Speaking of rewards, what ever happened to the Shuffle case giveaways?
October 4th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I’ll do a video with winners first thing Monday morning, I’m away at the moment without my recording setup so I can’t do any videos at the moment.
October 4th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
We’ll see how this idea works out… I’m still not convinced it was a good idea to start this, whether you call it rewarding the top commenters or paying people to write comments. I’d fear a loss of quality comments as soon as too many people just try to be on #1 of your top commenters list.
But I’m eager for more information on this experiment — let us know what you think about it in the future and what you think about the quality of comments you are getting compared to the comments you got before the experiment started.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Very interesting idea Glenn, I’m not sure if the comments will go down hill, you always have something great or different to say and that is why readers keep coming back, this just helps them come back and then comment and if everything goes a bit awry with SPAM then all you have to do is stop and everyone will understand. It’ll be an interesting experiment to say the least.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Thats an awesome idea Glenn!
October 4th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Glenn, I just realized that I haven’t commented in a while, this really will send your comments exploding :-)
October 4th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Sorry but this doesn’t feel right I am afraid. As such this will actually be the last comment I make and we are ‘friends’.
My reason - commenting is something that I feel people should only do if they personally feel compelled to do so from the quality of the post or the debate generated in the comments.
I can’t help but think that the generally good comments will get diluted by too many ‘awesome’, ‘great idea’, ‘nice review’ type of stuff that while it drives the stats up actually does nothing to contribute to the debate or the relevance of a post.
Good luck with it though :_)
October 4th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Im afraid im with Chris on this one Glenn.
It really doenst seem right to the top people who comment. If it wasnt a manual process, ie you picked the best comment of the month not just the person with the most - Id be with you 100%. This site needs more quality comments not more quantity.
I do feel that there are too many “awesome”, “wicked”, “agree with you Glenn”, comments as opposed to insightful remarks or opinions that spark discussions.
I have a feeling there will be a lot of spam and needless competition purely to get comments posted.
There was actually a pretty neat thread a couple of posts back on the iPod touch, with a good discussion but I feel this would happen less and less.
Just now I was reluctant to wade through all the comments on this post, if there are is a large number, not saying anything, in every post then whats the point!?
October 4th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
I think thats a great idea, but would it include people who lived in scotland, as you talk about dollars?
:)
Thanks,
WizzKid
October 4th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Not a bad idea.
Will you award the person with the most quality posts or just the most posts in general? Won’t be much fun for everyone else if someone who only posts 5 word comments wins the big money.
October 5th, 2007 at 12:19 am
It will definetly carry in spammers, but that comes with most things, i wont lie, as soon as i saw this post i started commenting again, partly because of the money, i mean come on who wouldn’t, but that’s not the only reason i started commenting again, i also love this blog and if it was for the money alone i wouldn’t do it
October 5th, 2007 at 12:35 am
I do agree with a few people here about the fact that quality will drop, and I’m guessing you would have for seen that whilst thinking about implementing the system.
The problem is, there is no way to ‘quality-control’ it. A comment is a comment and if people post ‘Great stuff Glenn, keep it up’ in all your posts, then they will get the prize. I think it degrades what the sites about if that happens.
The actual concept is good though. I personally like rewards for commenting, but my comments will never sink just to get to top place.
That’s my two cents and good luck with how it runs in the future.
October 5th, 2007 at 1:16 am
Glenn, this is a another good way to draw MORE comment to your blog. Remember to install spam control, some people might spam your blog a lot. HAHA!
October 5th, 2007 at 3:33 am
Glenn, that is indeed very generous of you. I have one more reason to add of you having so many readers despite the fact that your blog is very informative and helpful, and that is, you are a good person. Only a good person with a good heart can attract others :) Thats what I believe.
Anyway, all the very best bro. And keep up the good work.
October 5th, 2007 at 3:41 am
I have to say that I agree with Chris24. Commenting on your blog is different than commenting on TUAW’s or more popular blogs. I think the it’s more attractive to comment here, because instead of the comments being a conversation between the readers, it’s more of a conversation between the readers and you, and it’s an extension of the post. Developing a good community of commenters can really add to the blog. I think maybe a few will try to take advantage, but most will consider it a motivation to be apart of the community more.
October 5th, 2007 at 4:25 am
Excellent idea Glenn, I’ve been reading this blog (and enjoying it) for quite a while and I always thought I should comment, but I never got around to it. This is a really good incentive and something I’d like to see on other blogs too!
October 5th, 2007 at 4:48 am
Keep up the good work Glenn, in my opinion, we should be paying you. For such a young age, you do marvelous work.
I look forward to your continuation of quality pictures and readings.
October 5th, 2007 at 5:40 am
I don’t mean this comment to be negative in anyway, but I’d be careful as there’ll be alot of people posting only for the money. So just bare in mind any spam and pointless comments like “I agree” XD
But otherwise it’s a great idea, giving back to those who are helping you.
*ps I hate auto complete! My URL should be http://www.lostpixel.net! sorry XD
October 5th, 2007 at 5:48 am
Good idea. You should format the page to make it more interesting.
October 5th, 2007 at 6:30 am
Sounds good. Thanks for changing my URL. On the static page (top readers) it still leads to my old page though.
October 5th, 2007 at 6:39 am
What a great idea! I may incorporate over on my blog as well. Thanks for the fresh ideas and great content. It sure encourages folks like me who are consistent lurkers to join the interaction more often.
October 5th, 2007 at 7:13 am
Great idea, Glenn! Can’t wait to read your upcoming articles. Keep up the good work.
October 5th, 2007 at 8:09 am
I must start commenting more!
October 5th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Haha… This post has a lot more comments then the other posts. That won’t be for long though :-)
October 5th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Thanks for all the warm comments about the idea guys. To Chris and the other skeptics, if this idea doesn’t work out I change the concept and reward the user who made the most helpful and well thought out comments during the month. For now, I’ll give this a trial run, but ultimately it’s up to the users if they want this to stick around, or me to move to a different concept as described above.
October 5th, 2007 at 9:32 am
How about we call a quick raise of hands. 90% of comments here are for this idea, though a few are against. We have two options:
- Keep the same format, three top commenters in volume win a prize.
Or
- I’ll chose three commenters by random each month who I feel have added great value with their thoughts.
October 5th, 2007 at 9:54 am
” I’ll chose three commenters by random each month who I feel have added great value with their thoughts. “
In my opinion, this is a better option. But anyway, I dont think anybody on your blog is posting their comments to get something in return. I do it because I think that I am a part of a very nice community who share information and are friends also. And in this world, this is not something that is very rare.
Whether you reward someone or dont, we are still gonna post our thoughts here and send you emails :-)
October 5th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I think it’s a great concept, just not the part of how many comments you make. I think that if you do it with your second options, we will see high quality and informative comments other than just two word-ers.
October 5th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
A little off topic,
Glenn, how do you highlight your comments on your blog? Is there a Wordpress plugin for that, or is it part of your blog’s custom design?
October 5th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Yay money!
October 5th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Im all for the second option of rewarding quality posts.
I don’t post comments on blogs just because i think i should.
I post comments if i think the topic is good and if i think i have a good enough point to make.
Also i want to make myself a better writer and get involved in the community a lot more.
October 5th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
I agree with your second concept, Glenn. This will boost the quality of a post.
@ Nick Humphries: you can do it both ways. There’s also a plugin called ‘Author Highlight’: http://tinyurl.com/r4g59
October 6th, 2007 at 6:01 am
I’d say that the second option is best too. It will stop people from commenting SPAM and give people an incentive to actually think about what they comment, which pretty much all your readers I’m sure do.
So in my opinion its a step in the right direction.
October 6th, 2007 at 6:19 am
There definitely needs to be some sort of discretion. 5 word comments are, I’m sure not what you’re looking to gain in this experiment.
October 6th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Dustin, stfu you are such a spammer
October 6th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
By the way, Glenn: Have you noticed what this has caused? 67 comments on this post, on average your posts have about 30 comments, and 67 is twice as much and an uncomfortable amount to scroll through.
October 6th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
I’m a spammer? I’m posting thought out, on topic comments. How does that make me a spammer? More comments is what he wants dude….
October 6th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
I’m a spammer? I’m posting thought out, on topic comments. How does that make me a spammer? More comments is what he wants dude….
(Glenn you can delete that first one, there is something wrong with the edit feature)
October 7th, 2007 at 2:35 am
@ Dustin: I have to say that it’s funny that you claim to not be a spammer, and then you have 2 identical posts.
(I know you didn’t mean to)
October 7th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Glenn, while giving awards to the top 3 people is a good idea, I feel that quality is more than quantity. So I am leaning a little more towards the random 3 people, who add “quality” posts. Things that add more to the site, compared to others. I don’t know, both of your ideas are good, either one will rock!
October 8th, 2007 at 4:37 am
Cool…$60 for the top commentators is cheap, yet effective.
Like Chris T said, you should probably make it something like most high-quality comments. Rt now, its whoever’s got the time to make ~50 comments - that’s BAD.
October 8th, 2007 at 4:45 am
How are you showin the list on the page? Top commentators plugin tag+ Execute PHP plugin?
October 9th, 2007 at 5:26 am
The second option is better I think. Three totally RANDOM commenters that have posted above 3 or 5, say?
October 9th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Sounds like a great idea! I’ve long been a lurker so this is going to get me to actually comment.
October 10th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I don’t think 3 totally random commenters would be very effective..
October 11th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Will there be anything done about spam posts?
October 11th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Like the 3 side notes you had on the Wifi Music Store post…. :P
October 12th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Well, yes, I suppose that could be viewed as spam, lol. I’m never really commented on blogs before, so failed to notice the EDIT link. It will, however be used in the future :)
I was thinking more about the three top posts on this topic.
October 13th, 2007 at 9:06 am
This is a great idea. gives readers a chance to get something back…
Cheers Glenn
October 14th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
You seem to be doing the same thing. Over 30 comments in 2 days…Most of them under 8 words.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:29 am
Oh, yes. I am clearly, literally posting “This comment is spammmmmmm” three times in the top of a topic.
November 5th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Is this still happening?
November 12th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Amazing idea, I’ll be sure to not SPAM but comment vaildly.
November 20th, 2007 at 7:49 am
Awesome idea! I’m going to have to do something similar when my blog gets a bit bigger.
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
CtxXj1 hi nice site thx http://peace.com
June 13th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
keep up the good word
June 19th, 2008 at 6:24 am
site rocks from here to vegas