How do you increase a site's popularity and also people commenting on it. I was recently told to add the do not follow plugin. Has this plugin benefitted others? Also, it allows the person who is commenting (their link) will be visible to a search engine correct? Is a good way of building comments to find blogs similar in nature and to comment on their site?
To add the dofollow plugin can help motivation people to comment on your blog. Make sure, you have akismet or spam karma installed to handle possible spam problems.
That's not smart. A) You shouldn't want people posting comments on your blog for backlinks. You should want natural comments from your targeted readers. If they're not commenting, you're doing something else wrong. If you can't engage your readers, fix that; don't add a plugin. B) Spammers are getting smarter and Akismet and other plugins miss a ridiculous amount these days. A few weeks back a freelance writer posted to her blog about removing the no-follow, saying that spam wouldn't be an issue when I brought that up. No sooner did she say that then there was a spam comment on that exact post. Spammers aren't adding links to the comment text as often (just taking the link with the name), and are making generic but content-rich posts that automatically pull in your post titles as though they were really commenting on it. It's pathetic that people keep approving them, b/c they're too naive to know any better. Fix your blog if there aren't comments, and encourage people to leave them for the right reasons. Any time you try to manipulate a natural system like that, you make your site look less credible. Natural referral traffic and natural comments based on quality content are what make a quality blog.... not sheer numbers.
What if the content of your blog is good yet you are having a hard time finding readers. I have subscribed to some sites and also pinged my blog. Oh how can I tell how many readers I am getting using Wordpress. Are there any plugins for that? What do most people do to find out how many people are reading their blogs. Also, how do you make your blog more "visible" to the general audience?
If you have cpanel, check awstats. If you mean hosted wordpress, I'm not sure what you can use. Remember, just because you think your blog content is "good," it doesn't make it so. Ask for feedback from contacts in the field (because if you're a smart blogger, you would have chosen a niche you were passionate about, knowledgeable in, and at least a little bit connected to). If you don't have any industry contacts, you need to take a step back and start there first. Your blog won't become "visible" overnight, and if you try to make it happen, you'll only get artificial results. It takes time. Start with your own network. If your content is truly of high quality, they'll naturally link to it and refer it, and you'll get a nice trickle-down effect to your contacts' contacts, who will also spread the word if they like it. That's how you go about building a real reputation and the highest quality visitors... not with any of the supposedly great marketing tactics you'll read about here. Build your reputation as an authority in the niche, and keep networking. Absolutely nothing else you do as a blogger is more important than that.
try the top commentators plugin. Ive found it works on loads of blogs. Trying it on my new noddegamra one too
Start a contest and make sure that you provide the winner with a nice prize! The entry for this contest? Simple! Ask the visitors to post a comment.