I just got word from Andy Bailey that the new premium version of the highly anticipated CommentLuv plugin for WordPress will be available to a limited number of beta-testers soon. I’m a huge fan of CommentLuv and I hope to be one of the select few who get to try it out first. Those of us who use CommentLuv, might need to spend more time moderating comments than those that don’t. Either way, here are some tips that I’d like to share with you about how I moderate comments on Basic Blog Tips. You might not agree with them all, but keep in mind that we probably have different goals for our blogs – that’s one of the beautiful things about blogging right? So here goes!

Fight Spam with GASP

First and foremost, if you have a self-hosted WordPress blog you need a plugin to guard against spam! It’s just a fact of life. If you set up a blog, the spammers are going to show up. We all want traffic, but this is NOT the kind of traffic we want to attract. I highly recommend the GrowMap Anti-Spambot Plugin or GASP (also created by Andy Bailey). While it’s not perfect, it’s the best spam fighting plugin I’ve ever used. Many people like to use Akismet, and I won’t debate with about it here (but there IS a good Akismet debate going on over at my blog) I just want to make sure you’re doing something to fight against those dreadful spammers.

Moderate Comments Quickly

Try to visit your WordPress dashboard frequently to moderate comments. I normally do so within the first few hours after a comment is posted. This is a great way to keep your readers interested in your posts and making frequent visits to your blog. For me there’s nothing worse than leaving a comment on a blog and the blog owners let’s it sit in moderation for days on end. That tells me that they don’t value my comment and they don’t really want to interact or grow their blog’s community. I’m sure you have run across those kinds of blogs in the past and as a result, you don’t waste your time commenting again. You’re also are reluctant to share those blog posts with your social networks so your friends can avoid the disappointment as well.

How to Handle Link Builders

Ah!! Link builders…hmmm this is a toughy. What I mean by that is – we’re all link builders right? So what’s wrong with that? Did you know there are people who pay someone else to leave comments for them so they can build links for their blogs and websites? Yep, I know it’s hard to believe but it happens. LOL

Well just like anything else, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do almost everything. And it really doesn’t matter if someone is outsourcing their linkbuilding and commenting but one thing they need to do is actually read the post so they can comment intelligently. This is one area where you need to use your own judgement in determining what you will allow and what you send to the trash bin.

If you’re strict about the use of Gravatars and keywords consider posting a comment policy to save time in the long run. Just keep in mind that your blog will NOT be doomed if you give away a link or two every now and then.

Now let’s hear from you. What comment moderation tips do you have to share with us?

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Kiesha Easley from WeBlogBetter has taken a new approach to the typical guest blogging contest. She used her creativity in a very innovative way to bring together the world of reality TV with the world of guest blogging and made her latest contest a sure-fire winner for everyone involved!

I hope you have visited Kiesha’s blog before, if you haven’t there is no better time than the present. You can see and vote on all of the posts she has submitted here to Blog Engage by visiting her profile and while you’re there be sure to add her to your friends list. Kiesha is such a generous blogger and she is a true believer in forming relationships throughout the blogosphere, it’s no wonder why she has so many friends and faithful supporters.

Surviving The Blog Contest

Kiesha first introduced the contest the other day in her post Surviving The Blog Reality Blog Contest – Out Rank, Out Shine and here’s how it works:

“This contest will be like no other in the blogosphere.  I will recruit two teams of 5 bloggers.  Each team will be confronted with the difficult task of building a successful blog together.  They will receive training and will face many blogging challenges together.

This contest will run for about 10 weeks. At the end of each week, one team will outrank the other and the losing team will have to vote off one of their precious team mates, reducing their team’s effectiveness and reach.

By the end of the “Surviving the Blog” competition only one successful blogger will remain.”

Check out the amazing list of sponsors Kiesha recruited for this contest. As per usual you’ll find some of your favorite Blog Engage Members (including your’s truly and our fearless leader Brian) among them.

Platinum Level:

Ileane – Blogging Tips

Brian Clark – CopyBlogger.com

Hector Cuevas – Blog Marketing Tips

Jane Sheeba – Find All Answers

Bryan – Host with Support

Brian – Blog Engage

Gold Level:

Marcko – The Traffic Blogger

Basic Level:

Aidy – Writing

Will YOU enter this contest?

What do you think about this concept of using blogging teams and getting “kicked off the blogging island” like in the Survivor TV show? There is certainly no other contest like it and it’s a very intriguing challenge. Go for it!

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Recently I got a question about Blog Engage from a blogger who saw me mention this community in a comment I left on a popular blog. In the comment I talked about how Blog Engage is an essential component of my blog promotion strategy. They wanted to hear more about my experience with Blog Engage.

As you can imagine they got an earfull from me going on and on about how much I enjoy being a member here and how many valuable connections I’ve made since I joined over 2 years ago. I went on to explain the benefit of using the RSS Syndication service and how it helps your get the maximum benefits from your membership.

I also get lots of positive feedback from other Blog Engage members who are using the RSS Syndication service, and I wanted to share some of it with you.

Real World Results Using Blog Engage RSS Syndication

Alex Whalley - The Build.Rank.Profit Group is a successful blogger who makes money online through niche sites and affiliate marketing. I talked to Alex earlier this week and here’s what he has to say about using the Blog Engage Premium package:

Signing up for the BlogEngage Premium Membership Service was one of the best marketing decisions I have made. The Return on Investment is not only measurable, it is noticeable! Not only is my Content now syndicated to one of the most prolific and well established blog networking sites online, it is also bookmarked and syndicated to a myriad of other social media services, heck even Brian, the owner of BE goes that extra mile for his customers, sharing my content through his own social media channels.

The result is a measurable increase in traffic as well as a significant boost in the overall SEO of the site*

*I used the BE Feed service on one niche site and without any other substantial backlinking efforts, found the site ranking #1 and #6 for my two target keywords!

I could not be happier with the service, price and overall ROI I get from being a Premium BlogEngage member. Thanks Brian!

That’s a powerful testimonial of how Alex is seeing real world benefits that are impacting his bottom line. Be sure to visit Alex’s profile here on Blog Engage so you can engage with him, vote for his articles, and learn how to improve your visibility on the web.

Share your Blog Engage testimonial

What about you? Feel free to share your experience with using the Blog Engage RSS packages and the impact on your bottom line.

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Did you ever get lost navigating your WordPress dashboard? Well you’re not alone, I’ve done it many times. Here are a few tips that should help keep you on the right track.

Comment Moderation Page

The most common mistake for me occurs when I’m moderating and reading comments from the dashboard. I like to respond to most of the comments that are left on my blog and I also want to leave a CommentLuv link from another recent blog post with my response.

TIP: Don’t click the title of the post! If you click the post title, you’ll go into edit mode by mistake. Instead, click the # sign next to the post title. Remember, long before Twitter we used to call this # the pound sign. Now everyone calls it a hashtag, but click that and it will take you back to your blog.

Widgets Page

I know everyone has this problem. We have so many widgets on our sidebar and the majority of them have the same name – Text Widgets. I wish there was a way to change the name of each text widget and I guess there’s a plugin or theme out there somewhere that allows us to do this. Having so many widgets with the same name can really make your head spin. For example, right now I have a total of 13 text widgets on my sidebar, and if I decide I want to get rid of one, I end up going back and forth opening them up until I find the one I’m looking for.

TIP: There’s no fancy way to do this – you just need to count down on your sidebar from your homepage and remember which position the widget is in before you go into the dashboard. If anyone has a better solution please let me know!

Plugins Page

There are times when you need to change the settings on an active plugin or deactivate one before you uninstall it. You might be surprised when to go to your plugins page and don’t see the plugin you’re looking for on the list.

TIP: You might be looking at the list of inactive plugins if that’s where you were last time you looked at this page. Check up at the top and click “All” to see a complete list. You might also need to, scroll down to the bottom of the dashboard menu on the left, and you should find your plugin hiding underneath the Settings Panel.

I hope you find these tips helpful and feel free to share any WordPress dashboard navigation tips that you might have with the rest of us so we can learn from them. Or maybe you just want to confess that you got lost on your dashboard before, we want to hear about that too!

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Have you considered hosting guest bloggers on your blog? Maybe you’re thinking about having a guest blogging contest but you don’t know a thing about inviting guest authors to your blog. It’s easier than you think so don’t be afraid to get started with allowing others a chance to share their content on your blog.

How to be A Good Blog Host

There are a few things you need to take care of first and here’s an important one that many of you might be overlooking. After all, you want your guest bloggers to put their best foot forward and offer you high quality articles, then in return you should do your best to be a good blog host. You should install a plugin to properly display the guest authors bio!

Here at Blog Engage, Brian recently talked about how to Set Up Your Bio When Guest Blogging and you should have a similar bio box for guest posters on your blog. On my blog, Basic Blog Tips, I use the plugin called Better Author Bio.

This plugin provides each guest with the following:

• Link to all of their posts on my blog
• Link to the guest’s blog or website
• Link to their Twitter profile
• Link to their Facebook Page or Profile

Did you notice all those links? There are many plugins available for creating an author bio box, so be a good to your guest bloggers and in turn, they’ll be good to you!

BONUS TIP: When you want to find all of the posts by a given author on your WordPress blog, take the url of your blog and add /author/username to the end. For example, in order to find all of my posts here on Blog Engage, this is the url:

http://www.blogengage.com/blogger/author/ileane/ 

Therefore, if you are a guest blogger here on Blog Engage, simply replace my user name with your own, and now you have a listing of all your guest posts here on the site!
What are some of the ways you use to treat your guest bloggers good?

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I’m sure you all know and love Karen from Blazing Minds, or at least you remember when she was the first ever Weekly Top User for Blog Engage.

Well it’s been 3 years since Karen launched Blazing Minds and she decided to host a fabulous event called the Blazing Minds Birthday Bash in honor of the prestigious occasion. We should all be proud of Karen and show her our support as best we can. Now, let’s get on with the details and how we can all participate and as you might have guessed, you can even win some cash prizes to boot.

Prizes for Blazing Minds Birthday Bash

“Blazing Minds Birthday Bash Sponsors and Prizes

• A months worth of advertising on Blazing Minds
• Brian at BlogEngage is offering two prizes -
  a One Month Business Membership and 100 USD cash
• Ileane at Basic Blog Tips is offering a prize of 50 USD cash
• Metallman is offering a prize of 25 USD cash”

I hope you notice by the list of sponsors how, once again, Blog Engage Members support each other in these types of contests and events and if you want to be a sponsor, contact Karen and be sure to add her as a friend here on Blog Engage.

The rules for the contest are simple and they consist of Tweeting, Digging, Blogging, and all the other promotional tactics we’re so familiar with. So head over to Blazing Minds and check out the details and let Karen know that you want to win one of those cash prizes!

The Blazing Minds Birthday Bash Contest ends on September 4th, so make sure you stop over and say:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAZING MINDS!

One of our long time Blog Engage members, Typhoon aka Sushant from SmartBloggerz is having a guest posting content. You can win an nice chunk of change with this one and the pot is growing as we speak. This contest is being hosted by SmartBloggerz and here are the other sponsors:

Smart Bloggerz Contest and Sponsors!

SMARTBLOGGERZ – Main Sponsor ($750) SmartBloggerz helps bloggers and affiliate marketers learn what it REALLY takes to make money online and be successful online just by implementing the tips that are shared regularly on the blog and to those who subscribed to the private newsletter. ESTAVA MORIOKA – Gold Sponsor ($150) Estava Morioka is the premier resource for the American Party Girl. Their online boutique offers Stylish, Inexpensive, and High Quality party dresses, cocktail dresses, sexy party dress and sexy club dresses. THE BAD BLOGGER – Gold Sponsor ($150) “The Bad Blogger” is a blogger who blogs about Internet Marketing, Copywriting and Blogging related Topics.

One thing you might notice is that each one of them is a member of the Blog Engage community (Estava Morioka and The Bad Blogger).  So it only makes sense that we support the contest by tweeting, sharing, voting, sponsoring….oh yeah, and of course, entering and winning!!

Other Benefits of Entering the SmartBloggerz contest

When you enter this contest remember that your guest post will appear on a blog with PR4 and Alexa Rank of 22,004 (now you know why it’s called SMARTbloggerz).

You have until September 15th to submit your entry so don’t waste any time because top prize is $550. Pretty sweet right The prize money can increase if more sponsors join in but here’s what you can win so far:

1. First Position $550
2. Second Position $275
3. Third Position $125
4. Fourth Position $75
5. Fifth Position $25

Show your support for this contest, and I wish you the best of luck. If you plan to enter or sponsor or, if you have any questions, just let me know.

In fact don’t even think about it, just write a great post and go for it!

Conducting blogger interviews is an excellent way to promote your blog and bring in more traffic.

Recently I have been doing a lot interviews and from both sides of the coin, and I can tell you first-hand, that they are a win-win situation for everyone involved, including your readers.

You both get exposed to each others audience of readers and your audience of readers, gets to know more about you and make a personal connection.

Before you begin, here are a few points to consider.

Interviewing other bloggers:

First, decide what format the interview will take. Here are your choices:

Written interview

Of course this is the most basic style of interview. You can send the questions to your guest via email and give them a deadline for when you expect to have the responses

Audio interview

Arrange a time to conduct the interview and use Skype or a site like BlogTalkRadio with a  smart phone or traditional land line to place the call. You can also send the interviewee the questions ahead of time so they can prepare

Video interview

Video interviews require a higher level of expertise on your part and special recording software. Once again, you can use Skype for this but you need a plugin if you want both you and your subject to appear on screen. You can also consider using the Google + Hangouts feature to create your video interview recording

Being Interviewed by others:

When the time comes, you might be asked to give a interview. This request might come from one of your friends or from someone who has heard about your achievements. It might even come from a reporter (imagine that) In that case you want to be prepared so that you can respond intelligently and try not to appear nervous.

Check out these suggestions:

1. Obtain a list of the questions or topics ahead of time
2. Add the interviewer to your list of contacts on Skype, Twitter, Google + and other networks
3. Make a few notes of key points and people that you want to mention
4. Keep your voice even, and remember to be natural
5. Be sure to smile – so that your voice sounds energetic and upbeat

Consider incorporating blogger interviews into your regular routine or as often as you can. Hook up with your friends or people you feel comfortable with and practice ahead of time. That way, you can ease into the flow of responding to questions on the fly. Who knows, you might end up being interviewed here at Blog Engage one day!

Let’s hear from you! What do you think about blogger interviews? Will you give them a try?

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