Come on, the WordPress comment system kinda sucks.

It’s very basic, quite frankly ugly and gets very little use.

If you’d like drastically more comments and user activity, you need to improve the WordPress comment system. I’ve been playing around with plugins, tools and systems that supposedly boost comment activity for years. Very few have worked, but here are the ones that do:

1. Comment Luv

Comment Luv is one of the more popular plugins for the WordPress comment system. It’s been around for years and because of its powerful features as well as good marketing; everyone uses it.

Essentially what it does is allow commenters to leave a link to their LAST blog post. When a user selects the comment luv box located directly below the WP comment “submit” button; it brings a list up of their most recent blog posts.

Automatically selecting the most recent post, but allowing you to choose which post you want to link to. Very simple SEO/exposure incentive for blog readers.

2. WP Threaded Comment

Another cool, useful and interactive plugin for increasing activity and building a community. WP Threaded Comment allows blog readers to comment on other reader’s comments hence “Threaded”.

Packed with a bunch of options and features; this is a must have plugin for any blog serious about building a community. It allows readers to comment on each other’s comments in a nested way, therefore making them able to communicate with each other easily – plus creating a sort of forum feel.

3. Subscribe To Comments

Subscriber To Comments is an extremely simplistic plugin that allows commenters to subscribe to other comments. By clicking “Subscribe To Comments” when posting their own; they’re instantly subscribed to any other comments that get posted on the post they commented on.

In other words; whenever another comment is posted after theirs; they’ll get an email about it. Personally I don’t use this plugin, because I think another plugin coming up is more useful and does a better job. But it’s really personal preference.

4. Top Commentators Plugin

This plugin is again; a great community builder. It adds a little competition to your comment system by adding a widget to your sidebar. The widget displays a short list of the top commentators, with links to their sites and comment count. This encourages readers to comment and to compete with other readers to be in the top commentators widget.

Being in the widget means they get site-wide links and massive exposure (supposedly lol).

5. Disqus Comment System

The Disqus Comment system is a fully fledged comment system, an alternative to WordPress; it replaces it. With something crazy like a million downloads; it’s popular to say the least.

I’ve played around with alternative comment systems and decided to stick with WordPress. However if volume is what you’re after then Disqus is definitely for you. For some reason it gets a lot more action than the WP comment system; maybe it’s more social in appearance; who knows.

6. Better WordPress Recent Comments

One of the best ways to encourage readers to comment is to showcase recent comments. This plugin allows you to install a widget on the side of your blog showcasing a short list of recent comments with links to their respective posts. Very powerful and simple plugin (not the easiest to setup).

7. MSMC – Redirect After Comment

This plugin allows you to automatically redirect commentors to a pre-defined page right after they comment. Very useful for monetizing commentors, building your list and gaining repeat visitors.

Setting up a “Thank You For Commenting” page is one strategy. After thanking visitors, enforce a quick call to action asking them to opt-in to the email list.

In Prosperity,

David Wood

P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments and questions below. Also opt-in to the email list on the right for more cool blogging tips, tricks and secrets.