What would you think if I added a plugin to my site that would keep track of new commenter and send them a personal greeting?
The plugin is Comment Relish and it identifies new commentors and allows the blog owner to automatically send out a pre-defined message to that new visitor.
With so many new blogs being created daily sometimes you need an edge to grab that first time visitor or well in this case commentors attention. They’ve already like what you posted enough to leave a comment. Why not send them a greeting welcoming them to your site and thanking them for their visit? While you’re at it you could also list your RSS feed and email newsletter subscription link or possibly introduce your new visitor/commentor to another similar blog that you write.
I need your opinion
If you were a first time visitor to this site and you received a warm welcome visa email that also promoted the sites RSS feed and newsletter would you appreciate the message or be ticked off that you got yet another unwanted email? Mind you, this would be a one time email.
My other concern with this plugin, or well for that matter any new WP plugin that I add to my site is whether it will be a CPU hog on my hosting account. A plugin that makes too many calls to the MySQL database or behaves poorly in other ways can get your hosting account shut down as fast as a blink of the eye! I’ve had hosting problems in the past (not with current web host – Hostgator – thankfully!) and I don’t want those issues revisited just because I tried to enhance my visitors experience with a new WP plugin.
- If you’ve used or if you currently use this plugin I’d love to hear from you.
- Have you had any problems with this plugin?
- How do your visitors like it?
- Is your site fairly busy or do you have a number of other sites on your hosting account (this is where hosting issues come in on shared hosting accounts)?
Please help me decide whether I should use this plugin or if you know of another one that does something similar (but definitely doesn’t cause problems) please let me know which one you use.
Since you asked…. I wouldn’t worry about the resources needed to actually run the plugin. They’re probably negigible.
But I don’t think Comment Relish is very important. I’ve received those emails from many blogs, and I know they’re sent via Comment Relish. Of course, not all visitors will know that. Some people will think that you actually sent them a personal note. It could be useful as a way to welcome new visitors.
Maybe you should give it a try and see if your subscriber count goes up.
Hi Tricia
Well, I am a new commenter here, and I think it could be a useful plugin depending on the demographics of your visitors.
For a tech-savvy crowd, web designers, Internet marketers etc. like my visitors I don’t think it would impress much, and might even put people off. However, for a more general, less techie audience my guess is it might be a good thing.
If you do try it please do blog your results, it would be very interesting to know if it has anny effect on encouraging comments!
Bill
Well, here’s what I think.
On one hand it might be really annoying to get another email in my junk folder. I have the filter set really high, almost nothing get’s through to my regular inbox. I never open things that aren’t familiar and I think thank you snail mail cardsare cheesy.
On the other hand, for me sometimes I’ll find a cool site that I like and forget to bookmark it. It could be nice to get a little something to remind me of that blog I really liked.
But really what do you have to loose? Why not? Hope that was helpful.
I actually appreciate the comment relish plugin. I’m a regular commenter when I visit blogs with content that I like.. and a lot of times, I’m moving so fast that I forget to subscribe when I’m on the page. So, a lot of times, when I do receive that e-mail I go “Oh, yeah, that was a good article” and wind up subscribing right out of my e-mail.
I think that for any blogger who makes money from their website, you should definitely look into it as a way to make visitors feel all warm and fuzzy and welcome. Besides, you can always turn it off. 🙂
Well, I think it depends on demographics and interests. If somebody get a message from a blog of his/her interest, one might appreciate it. But if the blog is not of his/her interest then the reaction can be different. Same is the case with demographic.