T13 #13 | 13 Ways to Bring Even More Value to Thursday 13

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Posted by Cockney Robin | This is my first Thursday 13, even though it's BN-Politics' 13th.  Be merciful to me, an amateur!  Because the administrators are Occupied Elsewhere, I am presenting some suggestions for getting even MORE value out of T13!

1.  U Comment/I Follow. Tooling round the blogosphere, I see a bloody cartload of badges, widgets, "blog bling," and bells and whistles, most of which leave me feeling mildly out of the loop, since I don't know what most of them mean and don't have a lot of time (I have my own blogging to do plus a missus who doesn't like for me to do my own blogging) to find out. 

But there's one badge that we here at BN-Politics look for and love to see and it looks like this:

When we see this badge, we know that the blog owner has switched off the "no follow" function for his or her blogging platform, and if we take time out of our own busy blogging schedules to give a comment, the blog owner will recognize us by giving a real link back to our blog which ordinary comment links don't do. While ordinary comment links "redirect" to the blog---and therefore don't register as links on Google and Technorati---"do follow" links are the real thing.  And while we aren't in this meme for the links alone, we like getting them.  "I follow" is definitely an attractive feature in a blog and an incentive not to feel quite so shy about leaving a comment... After all, give a comment, get back a valuable link....

If you already use Mr. Linkies, jump down to #6 before you decide to stop reading....

2.  Instant link love.   If you're like me, you probably assumed all along that your comment links are like any other links.  Unfortunately, the "no follow" feature precludes this. Users of Blogger, Word Press, and Moveable Type can simply switch off the no-follow feature. Here are some Thursday Thirteeners whose blogs are part of the "Do follow" movement:

As A Mother; Five Dollar Shake; Kuanyin; Everybody Lies;  Daisy the Curly Cat;  OnWebCheck;  Dragonheart's Domain;  Mommy Bytes;  Call Me When You Get There;  Mom of 3 Girls;  Crazy Working Mom;  Secret Agent Mama; The Chronicles of a SAHM;  What Works for Us;  Mama Pajama;  Tidbits and Treasures 

4.  Plug-ins for Word Press and Blogger

- Word press:  there's a plug-in here. 

- Blogger: a plug-in here.

- Moveable Type:  a workaround here. 

- Badges: in a variety of colours, are here.  Bonus:  "I Follow" blogs can get themselves listed in some of the new directories (here and here)  limited to "I Follow" blogs!  Get in on the ground floor of the movement!

5.  Typepad Users (like us).   Unless you  (1) are paying for Pro level or above, and (2) are comfortable using advanced templates, it appears you are pretty much SOL re: "I Follow." 

- Pro-Level Typepad users  who don't mind advanced templates can find code here that will make your comments "do follow" links.

- Other Typepad users:  Write typepad and tell them you want a widget or a plug-in that disables "no follow"/redirect.  In the meantime, you'll have to make do with one of the other options.

* If you're a Typepad user and you've found an easier workaround, please leave us a note.

6. "Mr. Linkies."  As I understand it, you can create permanent links with Mr. Linky's magical linking widgets---just be sure that you create "Permalinkies" when your T13 is done by copying the HTML into your own blog.  Instructions for Perma-Linkies are here.  If you don't convert the links to Perma-linkies, your commenters' links don't register as actual links.  Some Mr Linky users seem to create Perma-linkies (cheers, mates!); others don't. 

7. Manually Listing Commenters at the end of T13 posts.  It's also how BN-Politics (a Typepad blog) deals with the no-no-follow problem, as you can see here.  Though it's a bit more time-consuming if you get a lot of comments, it ensures that commenters get the recognition they deserve.

8.  Refreshing your links.   Even if you've blogrolled other Thirteeners, getting fresh links for comments is important, because some search engines/directories drop links that are more than six months old. (e.g., Technorati authority only gives you credit for the last six months' worth of links).  After that, the links don't count in ranking the blog's authority. 

9.  Use "Social Bookmarking."  Social bookmarking greatly increases the chances that others with similar interests will find the posts you like and can be a tremendous boon to a blog that's struggling to attract readers. We use the following for T13: 

- Stumbleupon

- Del.icio.us

- Reddit

There's a learning curve for each of these systems (and all of them are quite different from one another).  Learning how to "optimise" them can take a little time. On the plus side, each is an excellent resource for blog material (and for networking).  And each helps you to promote content you think others should see.

10.  Other social bookmarking options.  There are many, many other social bookmarking sites; those are just the ones we've learned to maneuver. To make it easy for others to bookmark your post, consider getting a bookmarking widget of your own.  We currently use the sidebar widget from Widgetbox because it doesn't clutter up our posts, but there are other options.  Here are customizable shout list icons and the "ultimate social bookmark."

11.  Make your comment links easy for Thirteeners to find!  Some of the comment links have extremely creative nicknames (e.g.,  "Kisses for Tiffani, " a made-up name).  While those of us who are more prosaic (or are jealous because our blogging platforms don't provide the option) enjoy these amusing variations when we can find them, sometimes it's difficult to find them. Unless your comments are right at the bottom of the post, you might want to include a link to them or at least a direction for finding them.

12. Enable comments from bloggers who use platforms other than yours! If you want Thirteeners who use platforms other than yours to comment, set your comment defaults to allow them to link back to their blogs!  Blogger/blogspot blogs apparently have to be set to permit commenters from outside blogger/blogspot to link back to their blog.  LiveJournal is another platform that outsiders might find confusing.  First, check to see if there's a way to make your comments easily accessible; if not, consider providing instructions. After all: so many Thirteeners, so little time...

13. Join /Update Your T13 blogroll!   If you're not on the T13 blogroll, consider joining.  If you are, and you've been on it for awhile, note that it was updated as of March 14, 2007 and so you need to redo it or new additions (such as BN-Politics) won't be a part of it!  Joining the blogroll means that you install it at your own blog (see our link in the sidebar), thereby giving other T13-ers instant links.  (Just remember everyone's need for fresh new links, which is why comment love still matters!)

Cheers, Your host, Cockney Robin

Get Thursday Thirteen code here!            View More T-13 Participants

Recent BN-Politics Posts:

* Tax Dollars Spent on Luxury Travel?

* To the Monks of Burma: a Photo Essay

* Blackwater Hearing: Details, Odd Comments & Poor Media Coverage

* Bush Vetoes Bipartisan Children's Healthcare Bill

* In Burma, Resistence & Repression Carry on

* Feud in North Carolina over Amputated Leg

* TT:  13 Facts about the Iran-Contra Scandal

* TT:  13 Facts about Watergate

Leave a comment and we'll add your name to the list below.

1. Cherise Carter Dot Com
2. Chronicles of a SAHM
3. The Story of Me
4. Yuriko's Blog
5. Tennessee Text Wrestling
6. Air Force Wife
7. Too Many Ideas
8. Single Parents Unite
9. West of Mars
10. Fond of Snape
11. Me & Mine
12. What Works for Us
13. Kim Lane Designs
14. Thorne's World
15. Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing
16. Are we There Yet Mom
17. Working at Home Mom
18. Don't Call Me Mummy
19. Lives Less Ordinary
20. Storyweaver's Web
21. Here comes a Storm
22. The Collective Blog of Stephen & Erin
23. Celtic Angel
24. D-3
25. Colours of Dawn
26. My Place of Beauty
27. Denise's Den
28. Joy in the Moment
29. Miss Melis
30. The Pink Flamingo
31. Chaotic Crafter
32. Mindless Chatter of a Busy Mom
33. Secret Agent Mama
34. I Read Banned Books
35. Mommy Bytes
36. Damsel in Distress
37. Dog's Eye View
38. Boho Rhap
39. Ima on and off the Bimah
40. Writer Cramps
41. Terra in Public
42. Dragonheart's Domain
43. Stella's Blog
44. Di's Book Blog
45. In spring it is the Dawn
46. Call me When You Get There
47. Alasandra
48. Scoop Speaks
49. One More Word
50. Loose Leaf Notes
51. Author Amy Ruttan
52. You're next.

Comments

[Cher]

Excellent post! Thanks for the tips!

[Nap Warden]

I am part of the ucomment I follow movement. I about went into a panic changing my code. I didn't know anything about refreshing links. Bottom line, you are smarter than me;)

[Chelle Y.]

All that information is way over my head! :)

[Yuriko]

I like Mr. Linky myself... it saves having to update the posts with new links all the time... :)

[Thomma Lyn]

Wow, thank you so much for your informative post, and I have bookmarked it so that I can make some changes!

Happy T13 to you!

[AF Wife]

Thanks for all the info! I am bookmarking this!

[Mark Caldwell]

Well one of my weekly blog tidy up jobs is copying the links for my WW and TT posts into the page although because of a couple of spam attacks I don't advertise that I do and I do remove any blatant spam links from the list too. There was one poster who hit my TT and WW for a few weeks who changed the page they linked to from a TT/WW post after a couple of days to something entirely different.

Anyway, hopefully you'll encourage more people to share links this week :-)

[Lori]

Great info....thanks for sharing:) Happy TT.

[Susan Helene Gottfried]

Oh, how can I thank you guys enough? I've been trying to understand this stuff and even though the Tour Manager is a computer whiz, he doesn't get a lot of this blog stuff. So I need to understand it first. Now, I do.

I'll put him on it tomorrow; he's at poker tonight.

Thanks and have a great (and link-filled) TT!

[Janet]

I use Mr. Linky :-)

[Yen]

Bookmarking your site! I need a day to go through over this again:) Thanks for sharing! Very informative TT!

[WFMom]

Seriously, this was the best T13 EVER. Excellent information. U Comment, I Follow.

[Kim]

I switched off my "no follow", but I didn't know there was a badge to display. Thanks for the tips!

[Thorne]

This is a seriously excellent TT! I'm one of those little bloggers who need the link love, so I try to be sure to give it and this will really help!!!

[Lara]

Great TT and lots of good info how we can all help one another...and frankly, that's what blogging is all about! Meeting new people and helping each other along!
Terrific post!! Happy TT!

[AreWeThereYetMom]

I've learned some great new tips today!
Thanks for sharing.

Happy TT!

[jennifer]

Awesome 13. I will use all of them.

MY 13 is up on
Working at Home Mom

[mom not mum]

Great TT. I came upon an aol blogger today and couldn't comment because I didn't have a user name and all of that - it's a bummer when you have to stop and subscribe to something you don't really want just to tell someone you liked their TT.

[amypalko]

Well, they do say that you learn something new every day, and this post has just proved it for me! Thanks, and I'll give some serious thought to taking some of these up for next week's TT.

[Xakara]

It all sounded wonderfully helpful, but sailed completely over my head. As a LiveJournal user it's so difficult to incorporate certain things that I've been left out of a great deal of link love.

I'll come back after some sleep and see how much more I can absorb before next weeks TT. :)

~X

[Starrlight]

Excellent post. My nofollow thing has been fixed for a couple of months. I did a post on it too. Just an fyi on the permalinkies...that is not the free version of mr linkie. You must upgrade for that option.

http://absinthedreamers.blogspot.com/

[erin]

Wow, I'm a complete dunce when it comes to all of this stuff, but I'm going to look into the "no follow" bit. I also might have to try Mr. Linky for it would save me the time of posting links myself. Good list! Mine is things I'd rather do instead of grade papers.

[Celticangel]

Wow! That's a lot of info. I'll have to go back and reread it when I'm home so I can make a couple of changes to my blog.

Thanks, and Happy TT!

[J. Lynne]

I've been into the Do Follow movement for a while, though I didn't have the "official" badge.

I tried submitting to those directories, but the second one appears to have something wrong with the submit page -- just an FYI.

I've also been using del.icio.us for just a few months. It's a great way to be able to go back to something later, though I really haven't been able to figure out how to use the "community" there. Just two days ago I started trying to figure out Digg but I find it very difficult and confusing and hard to categorize things I find that I like on the web. I had tried StumbledUpon a long time ago but found it time consuming but from what I've been reading lately, it sounds like it's evolved, I might try it again.

I have to say that I completely agree about the TT blogroll. I've applied several times and not heard a peep about it and it seems like most of the links on it are dead or cold. I'd like to see it be useful. I'd love to be able to use it to find up-to-date TT blogs to read regularly and not just on Thursdays.

[Dawn]

Those are great ideas. I am not too computer literate, so some of it was over my head. I have heard of some of the things you mention. It does bother me when I go to someones blog, and I have to jump through hoops to leave a comment, or I have to send it to my fake blog at blogger which tells people to go to my real blog at wordpress. Thanks for visiting my TT.