One continued complaint that many bloggers routinely have is that they can’t get their visitors to comment on the blog postings. New blogs find this especially difficult. Is there a reason for this? Well, there are a few. New blogs run into this issue simply due to the lack of traffic. And of that traffic, many readers refuse to take that first step and post a comment. Why you ask? Well, you can compare the feeling of walking into a crowded room and announcing yourself to that of posting a blog comment. No, I don’t say that to make an extreme example - I’m being serious. Once you post that submit button, you’ve now not only made your opinion public, you’ve also put your opinion up for dissection. Not everybody is going to agree with you and sometimes that can be a difficult thing to swallow. We as a human nature don’t like to be told we’re wrong nor do many of us like to be the one to put the first step forward. We want somebody else to do it.

Another reason that blogs have trouble getting their readers to comment is simply the lack of features. If you venture around and visit other blogs, of those with high comments on the postings, you’ll notice they usually have a sophisticated blogging comment software and/or plugin installed. The problem with this type of method is that many of those softwares or plugins can be pretty intimidating to those not familiar with them.

So, with that said, I’ve come across IntenseDebate which is a very simple yet in-depth commenting plugin for Wordpress.org platformed blogs. It has all the bells and whistles of the most popular commenting software/plugins on the market, yet, it’s very simple in design and in no way would it be deemed intimidating to any novice blog reader. Some of the key features are comment threading, commenting via e-mail, allowing readers to have user accounts, comment voting, integrated Twitter and FriendFeed support which end up driving more traffic to your blog…along with many other features. Along with that, the comments are stored on your own Wordpress Server so you never need to worry about losing them if something goes wrong with your blog.

To download IntenseDebate, click here.

I like to consider myself pretty knowledgeable when it comes to blogs and the internet. By no stretch am I some uber genius, but, I do like to think I have a pretty vast knowledge of the blog-o-sphere. However, recently I was informed by a good friend of mine that I might have been doing something very wrong when it came to creating and maintaining blogs. Something so simple that could have a catastrophic effect on my blog. Something that most of us don’t even pay attention to.

You’ll notice that when you visit a website and/or blog, sometimes the blog URL will read “http://www.sitename.com and at other times it will read “http://sitename.com”. I never really thought this was much of an issue. I actually never even gave it a second thought. But apparently, I should have. The problem with this situation is that most search engines treat those addresses as two different domains, splitting your backlink count. That in turn effects a variety of things, especially your PageRank and where you place on search engine index’s. Now, be aware, not all websites and/or blogs have this issue but a fair amount do.

So the question begs - how do you fix it? Well, there are two ways to go about this. The more difficult way is to create a 301 Permanent Redirect using PHP which the average blogger simply lacks the knowledge to do. So, for those of us who need the easy road, there is Enforce www. Preference plugin. This plugin is extremely easy to use. Simply install it, activate it, and it will automatically create a 301 Permanent Redirect page for you and you’ll no longer need to worry about search engines confusing your website/blog as if it were two totally different webpages.

To find out more about Enforce www. Preference and/or to download it, click here.

I highly recommend this tool.

Is there anything more ironic than using a newspaper to promote your blog? I mean, blogs (and the whole social media revolution) are really pitted as the reason for the decline of newspapers. But with that said, that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of your local newspaper or online publications. Newspapers are always looking for stories, content, and money and will always have open ears and pockets if you’re looking to promote your blog.

First off, let’s look at this from a financial situation. Newspapers need money - always have and always will. If you have the extra money, one thing you want to look into is taking out an add in your local paper. Now, depending on where you’re located (big city, small city) you’ll find a variety of different options and prices. If you’re a sports blogger, you’ll want to take an advertisement out on the sports page. If you’re a entertainment blog, you’ll want to put it near their gossip column. If you’re a business blog, you’ll want to put it in the business section. It’s very important that you match your blog niche to the correct section of the newspaper to make this an effective marketing strategy.

If paying for a full out blog advertisement isn’t something you’re interested in, you’re still not out of luck. As I mentioned before newspapers and online publications are always looking for content - especially free content. What you’ll want to do is contact somebody from the newspaper or online publication and let them know you’re interested in writing a small piece on a relevant topic that matches that papers needs, but, that also compliments your blog. Simply asking what they need in terms of content might not be a bad approach. Making “friends” with your contact is the most important part here. Once they’ve given you a topic to write about, hopefully they’ll publish it in your local paper or on an online publication and you’ll get free promotion using that method.

It’s actually something I’ve seen done before and I can’t understand why it’s not used on a more consistent basis. It’s a very cheap and easy way to promote your blog to thousands of people, if not more.

Give it a try!

This topic might be for the more advanced users out there, but there is now a way to transfer your PSD (Photoshop) files into a Wordpress Theme. While many of us can use Photoshop, it’s always been an increadible challenge to transfer your PSD file into a readable Wordpress theme file. Unless you have a very advanced knowledge of both software platforms along with CSS and HTML, it literally just wasn’t possible to the average Joe blogger. In fact, there are many companies out there that will do this for you….for a couple thousand dollars. No, I’m not joking. It’s a very profitable business as it takes a special and unique talent to do.

However, thanks to the good guys at the Divine-Project, we average Joe bloggers now have the ability to do it our self. They’ve released a very impressive piece of software that will now allow you to covert your PSD Photoshop files into workable Wordpress Themes, for free. Yep! For free! Now, I should note it’s currently in beta so you might run across a bug or two and it is only available for Windows computers (sorry Mac’s!), but with all that said it’s very much worth the download.

I’ve seen a few people who’ve used the product and they’ve fallen in love with it. They report that it’s functionality is incredibly easy to use and so far, they’ve ran into no problems with bugs or glitches.

To visit the Divine-Project website, click here.

To download the program, click here.