Lately I’ve been priding myself in Blue Hat SEO having the most useful and insightful comments and commentators of any SEO blog I’ve ever read. For any blogger this is definitely a brag worthy subject. This isn’t a suck up post it’s to let everyone know how much I appreciate it. So I feel I have every right to be cocky in this manner and brag for at least one post. This may not be the most popular blog in the sphere but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t have the best feedback. 
I was reading some other, more mainstream, SEO blogs this morning and I gotta say just the difference in the insight and intelligence of the readers’ comments are amazing. On other sites they tend to just agree or disagree with a post or blurt out whatever random ass emotion they’re feeling at the moment. Over here theres a trend of critiquing and research every aspect of the post. People tend to ask the questions everyone else is thinking and what future readers are bound to ask. Then the questions are usually answered intelligently by two or three different people citing their own research and facts. Problems and ambiguities tend to be solved in the same manner. Not to mention; the reader contributions have been BADASS so far. I gotta say YOU GUYS/GALS KICK ASS!
In light of this I just put up a neat plugin I found called Show Top Commentators as a way of thanking the people who comment often. It’ll post the names of the top 10 global commentators as well as a link to their websites (if applicable) on the navigation. Likewise, this is old news, but I also removed all nofollow links in the comments. So now the people who comment can get properly rewarded with links and the people who comment most can get rewarded even more. Personally I’d rather do what I can to improve the community here rather than my own faggy Page Rank.
I know there are plenty of lurkers still on this site (about 1,600 and growing daily to be exact) that I would love to get commenting on a regular basis. So if you’re a lurker by all means if you got some questions or insight on a post feel compelled to let us know and help everyone out by leaving a quick comment. Likewise if you’re not in the habit of reading comments on blogs than I’d recommend you make an exception here because you’re missing a ton of great information if you don’t. The rest of you; You really are making this an awesome place so keep it up because we all appreciate it! I know I’ve learned a ton from you guys already.
Thanks!
Did I fail to mention that this is the only popular SEO blog I’ve ever seen that doesn’t ever have to moderate its comments?
Eli,
I have to agree with your sentiments above. Although I am not a regular commentator here, I read your blog regularily, and have to say that in many threads, I have learned nearly as much from the comments section as I have from the posts themselves. That is quite an accomplishment, especially in as solid a blog as this.
Good job, everyone - Kepp it up!
I knocked on wood for you about the moderating comments comment Eli. But all said and done, the community here is something to smile about.
at first you’re right, the comments are pretty helpfull. but it is not really a optimal place to discus different aspects of a topic.
maybe you could also add a link to a topic in your forum. this way it would get more attention.
here are a lot of really clever and creative people. if everbody would be a regular poster in your forum .. that would be awsome
.
inso
i was actually thinking of getting rid of the forum completely. its pretty much useless at this point.
Any ideas for reformatting the comments so it’d be easier to discuss the post?
There are also comment rating scripts there, where users can rate comments and/or i can highlight certain comments.
I suggest a nested or threaded comments. You’ll have to make a change to your WP DB, but I think the results make the comment section very usable.
Plugin
Thanks Will!
Just installed the plugin incase you couldn’t tell. Love it!
I didn’t even realize there was a forum… The problem with forums is separating the wheat from the chafe. As much as I have to give props to syndk8 for giving me a starting point, it gets tough wading through the muck to find useful content.
I like the idea of nested comments–kinda like shoemoney uses.
Hey Eli.
I’m one of those 1600 lurkers you mentioned in your post. I really enjoy reading your blog as it is both insightful and very interesting. In fact, this is the only blog from which I have read more than one or two posts! I look forward to reading more of your BlueHat techniques!
Lucas
Welcome Lucas!
nice post. ur readers are loyal fo sho
Longtime lurker - dropping out of the shadows briefly to say thanks for all the useful tips.
Hopefully I will have something to add at some point in the future.
Welcome!
Come back anytime.
With regards to Inso’s suggestion above, there are WP plugins available which integrate WP with phpBB in such a way that the entire comment system is replaced by a phpBB thread.
Eli, thanks for all the interesting posts and the good laughs…brilliant.
Learning curve rollercoaster.
One day i hopefully might even contribute my own tips.
like the new nested comments?
Will this work? Should I still get rid of the forum?
Argh, tough math question–ran out of fingers!
Anyway, love the nested comments. Personally, I think they serve the purpose just fine. Forum is unneeded IMHO.
Perhaps though, someone can pull out a bit of php and add a cookie or something to show new comments delineated from those that have been seen already…?
New comments look great Eli. Keep up the great work. I still have to catch up on some of your older articles though so slow down on the posting!
Wow! I almost cried. But you aren’t giving credit to yourself. Who else could attract such an intelligent audience except Eli? Anyways I think it’s great what you are doing here with your blog I am also a regular subscriber and reader. And yeah I like the new comments.
Thank you
I’ll confess, I’m a lurker, but I love the site. I just don’t have alot to contribute right now, as I’m ignorant of alot of the more complex facets of SEO.
I’ve been lurking here as well. Great blog!
Yea Eli I realllly enjoy the discussion’s we have here too - its nice that we can take different approaches to stuff and pick them apart from several different angles, heck look at the screensaver post - over 100 comments there with all of us talking about different methods etc.
Keep on giving us good stuff to talk about bro! (and mabey someday I’ll get off my azz and submit something for the main blog instead of just a comment lolz)
Merry Christmas!
Matt
Hey Eli,
I copied ANOTHER one of your ideas. But this time I have you a backlinks. Its a really great idea to get more people posting. It was smart to tell people how many daily uniques you got also, 1600 a day. I would start posting if I could get a link on a 1600 unique day site, oh wait I have been hehe
Thanks Eli
hehe alrighty, but if you guys fail me and joe cracker shows up on the list I’m taking it down! *stern look*
Anyone who remembers joe cracker knows what I’m talking about
hehe oh sorry jon I forgot you weren’t on the blogroll. I added you.
cool,Eli,i even miss joe cracker,if he is here,there would be more joy,haha
ps:i changed name again,haha
Nice… so far all I need is 11 more comments and my blog will have 3 backlinks, rather than 2. Solid
may i add your article to ppnow.com ?
umm sure.
That site is very slow loading for me. Just an FYI.
General rule of thumb for everyone. You’re welcome to post articles elseware, but if you quote this site in anyway you have to give credit and a backlink. I only have this rule cus I don’t want ppl a couple months or years down the road claiming I stole anything.
Yeah it is a good blog here you got going Eli, you don’t sugar coat it, just the main ideas out there on how to make money. I have used a few of your ideas, keep it up
Hey mate i read your blog all the time, don’t comment much but its in my reader and always read new posts! Keep up the great work!
Hey Eli,
I just discovered your blog and just finished reading it page to page. The concepts and researches you introduce are very interesting! I’m so sick of SEO blogs that talk about proper use of meta en headers, I’m soooo over that. I’m glad I discovered this blog! Creativity to the max!
Keep them coming!
I still get a lot of people just posting comments for the sake of it (or to get their own sites indexed) rather than contribute.
I guess I’ll need to start posting less mainstream stuff :p
huge fan here. just de-lurking for a moment.
Welcome!
Thanks for dropping by.
Good call Eli,
What code did you use for that “top commentor” bit over in the sidebar - is there a plugin or could you share the php?
Its a plugin. I linked to it in the post.
http://www.pfadvice.com/wordpress-plugins/show-top-commentators/
You can download it there. Very easy to install.
Cool, thanks Eli.
The top commentors plugin looks like fun. Yet another reason why I should swich more of my blogs to wordpress.
Eli,
What happened to the top commentators list? It appears to have reset and because of that you are now linking to “phentermine diet pills” and some SEO contest… Ewww
Funny thing about that. The script is set to reset all the commment counts once a year.
Welcome to 2007!
Ahhhh - I see, was wondering what the heck was going on.
Ha ha, that explains why I’m actually on the list!
E-
I didn’t bookmark this site back in Nov when I first came visited and tried out QUIT. Wish I had. It looks like your blog is blowing up!
I have a question for you that’s been bothering me since I read it. I was reading a post by Neil Patel on pronet (http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/what-i-learned-at-shoemoney-university.html) about what he learned from Shoe in terms of arbi.
The bullet that kills me is how Shoe showed him:
How to easily make 1,000 dollars a day (if not a lot more) from PPC arbitrage. The only upfront cost involves building a landing page, potentially putting up a website or two and spending a few bucks on PPC with Google, Yahoo and MSN.
WTF — How the F does someone pull 300k a year “easily”. What are the rest of us missing?
Heya Al!
Welcome back
I don’t do arbitrage and I also refuse to answer any questions related to shoemoney quotes. Infact we try to avoid quoting him on this blog for several reasons I won’t get into. So my answer to that question unfortunately has to be limited.
Here’s a great forum thread that helped a lot of ppl start making big money from arbi. You may want to check it out.
http://www.wickedfire.com/affiliate-marketing/2802-we-going-do-arbi-test.html
Thanks for the quick response E! I appreciate it. What’s the big beef with Shoe? I read a while back on aojon.com that Jon was a little miffed by that whole Elite Retreat thing. Is that the reason? Damn now I’m all curious! (u can always email me if you don’t want to sully up your comments by mentioning his name
— again thanks for the info bro
Sorry I didn’t mean to give the impression of beef between us. There’s no beef. Infact there is absolutely no association between us. We barely know of each other. We’re just two completely different people with different views on things. He stays out of my business I stay out of his. So you can see how asking me about stuff he says is like asking Ford about Chevy. Theres no intelligent response I can give.
Sorry
I’m glad that I have found your forum. It’s easier to come back now that I’m using an rss reader finally that works well in firefox and will notify of new posts.
I appreciate what you bring to the SEO community. AND, your willingness to share. I like how you think of ways to use tools other than the stated intention, especially if they are not that great for the developed reason, and that you find a real use for them.
Blue hat is fun…just walking that edge.
Thanks for your insights.
Robert
It`s good idea to install top commenters plugin. isn`t it?
What plugin add text: Please add 2 and 2?
I know this is an old topic, but I just though I’d let you know that I added your blog to my latest post, which is a list of blogs with the top commentators plug in
I love that plugin, i will install it probably today.
What do you think about u comment i follow? plugin
Great artil.
Hi Eli:
Thanks for the chance to try this out for free…much apprecited
)
I don’t know if you have the time to watch this video or not, although I hope that you do, and that you enjoy watching it.
After reading the comments it seems to be a bit ‘hit and miss’, hopefully this wil be a hit..
Nice one.
Peas…
I’m afraid I’m just another lurker de-cloaking momentarily to say Hi and Thanks! Great site here I come often.