Introducing Top Monthly Commenters

by Michael Good Posted on April 22, 2012

A part of the vision Claudia and I have for rise365 is to build relationships and community through this site. We want it to be a supportive environment for others that are looking to realign the trajectory of their life so that it is more congruent with their calling, dreams, and passions.

Time and time again, we are blessed, challenged, and encouraged by your comments and emails. On many posts, I feel it’s in the comment section that some of the biggest takeaways are.

For this, we thank you! You are awesome!

To continue the growth of the rise365 community, we are going to feature the Top Monthly Commenters. This will enable you see what others in the rise365 community are up to and get to know them better. So many of you are living such incredible stories!

You can see who some of these amazing folks are in the sidebar of each post.

Question: Do you list top commenters on your blog?

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As a side note, to have your photo show in the Top Monthly Commenters, simply setup a Gravatar profile. To link up your website or blog, setup a Disqus profile and put your site address in there.

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  • http://www.threedimensionalvitality.com/ Ann J Musico

    What a wonderful idea – you two are amazing! Truly. I always enjoy your posts and the insights they provide. Your generosity is inspiring.

    • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

      Thanks Ann; and thanks for your contribution!

  • https://twitter.com/#!/CindyHirch Cindy Hirch

    Great idea! I enjoy your content very much. It makes it easy to participate in what you are doing.

    • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

      Thanks Cindy,
      It’s been great getting to know you over the past few months!

    • http://rise365.com Claudia Good

      Thanks, Cindy! It’s been great connecting with you.

  • http://daddydifference.com/ Ryan Ash

    Very cool, guys! I always thought it was neat how Michael Hyatt does this, and yours looks close to what he’s doing.

    It’s hard to believe that you guys started this little site less than 4 months ago. Wow! You have both come a long way! Congratulations!

    • http://rise365.com Claudia Good

      It’s been a blast, Ryan! We’re having a ton of fun doing it and are blessed to get to know so many of you!

      • http://daddydifference.com/ Ryan Ash

        The feeling is most definitely mutual, Claudia!

    • http://www.jmlalonde.com Joe Lalonde

      Ryan, I think that’s one of the reasons Michael has such an active community. When people are rewarded for their contributions, they normally respond better than you expected.

      • http://daddydifference.com/ Ryan Ash

        Agreed, Joe. It just illustrates that people want to be recognized…even if that’s all they’re getting out of it. Basic human psychology, right?

        • http://www.jmlalonde.com Joe Lalonde

          Yep, they say that acknowledge can be better than financial rewards in most cases.

          • http://daddydifference.com/ Ryan Ash

            If only most employers knew that… :p

          • http://www.jmlalonde.com Joe Lalonde

            Right and thankfully some of them do. The honors of Employee of the Month, a primo parking spot for the top salesman, or some other acknowledge pushes employees to greater heights.

          • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

            Right, Ryan. I know I’ve worked at some places where this was over looked. At work and in other areas of life, we want to have a voice and feel like we’re making a valuable contribution.

          • http://daddydifference.com/ Ryan Ash

            Totally! Not getting recognized sure makes you appreciate recognition later! :)

  • http://alanamokma.wordpress.com/ Alana Mokma

    Great idea! I may copy you. :)

    • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

      Alana, sweet! I think it’s a cool tool and I’ve seen it work very well around the web.

    • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

      There’s a number of different plugins out there that will do this. I found this one to work the best for us: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/top-contributors/

      • http://alanamokma.wordpress.com/ Alana Mokma

        Michael, thank you for the plug-in. After hearing both you and Joe Lalonde endorse this, I am even more motivated to check it out!

    • http://www.jmlalonde.com Joe Lalonde

      Do it Alana! You’ll see the interaction grow.

      • http://alanamokma.wordpress.com/ Alana Mokma

        Excellent! I am looking for ways to increase my audience and interaction, so I will definitely look into this.

  • http://www.jmlalonde.com Joe Lalonde

    I started a list of top commenters a couple of months ago. I think it’s helped build the community and get more people involved. In the coming months I’ll be adding prizes from my book collection for the top commenters. I hope that will bring even more discussion to the site.

    • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

      Joe,

      I noticed you have done this as well and I really like it. I think it’s an effective tool in creating more of a community feel around a blog.

      We’ve considered adding prizes too. I noticed that’s what Michael Hyatt has done and I think it’s a nice gesture of giving back to those that are investing their time and thoughts.

      • http://www.jmlalonde.com Joe Lalonde

        It can be Michael. People just like to be recognized and they’ll jump through hoops to get it.

        And Michael Hyatt’s prize system was one of the reasons I became so active when I first started reading his blog. Then his content hooked me.

        • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

          Joe,
          It’s like the famous Zig saying, “You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.”

          I’m trying to keep this in mind in all aspects of my life. I want to be service oriented and think about how I can help others.

  • http://www.fatherofone.com/ Michael Wright

    Great idea, M & C! Your heart for community and interest in others are so obvious in your posts and feedback to others!

    • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

      Thanks, Michael. Glad to connect with you!

      • http://www.fatherofone.com/ Michael Wright

        Oh and thanks for the plugin. I added it to FatherOfOne.com yesterday!

        • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

          Nice, Michael! You’ll have to let me know how you like it.

          • http://www.fatherofone.com/ Michael Wright

            Michael, I noticed this morning the Top Commentors plugin updated for May on your site. Mine did not…are you using the same plugin listed in the comments here or did you guys try another one?

          • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

            Michael,
            We’re still using the same plugin.

            In your dashboard, go to: settings >> top contributers >> set time options to: “only this month”

            Let me know if that works…

          • http://www.fatherofone.com/ Michael Wright

            As always, thanks! Yes, it worked.

          • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

            Sure thing!

  • http://www.liveitforward.com/ Kent Julian

    Love it. How do you track (did I miss that)?

    • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

      Kent,
      I simply use a wordpress plugin that does all the work.

      There are a number of different ones out there; this is the one we used http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/top-contributors/

      • http://www.liveitforward.com/ Kent Julian

        Thanks!

  • robclinton

    That is awesome! So cool to see that up there… Makes me want to add it to my blog! I see that link you showed Kent, so I’ll check that one out… Very cool!

    • http://rise365.com Claudia Good

      Rob,
      Yeah, we love having it up there! The particular plugin doesn’t seem to update very often. May try switching it out to another similar one.

      • http://www.180coach.com/ Rob Clinton

        Yeah, you’re right I’ve noticed the update lag now that you mention it. Hey, but it’s cool thought for now… Looking forward to seeing any new one’s that come out.

        • http://rise365.com Claudia Good

          Rob,
          yeah, we’ll keep you updated ;)

  • https://twitter.com/#!/CindyHirch Cindy Hirch

    Michael – That is a very cool feature. Since my blog website is new I’m gaining a larger readership, but don’t have a lot of folks that comment. The other thing I’m not sure of is why my picture isn’t showing up. I have a DISCUS account which links back to my site. Any ideas?

    • http://daddydifference.com/ Ryan Ash

      Where is your picture not showing up, Cindy? I’m seeing the same picture next to your comments here and on your site that you use for your profile pic on Twitter. If you’re not seeing that, I’d clear your browser’s cache and see if that fixes it.

      • https://twitter.com/#!/CindyHirch Cindy Hirch

        Ryan – I’m seeing my picture here, but if you go to Michael and Claudia’s site and see the list of contributors on the right my picture is not appearing there as with everyone else.

        • http://daddydifference.com/ Ryan Ash

          Ah. Got ya. Did you just update your profile pic in Disqus recently? If so, that would be the reason. That plugin uses a caching system that only updates the results periodically.

          • https://twitter.com/#!/CindyHirch Cindy Hirch

            No I haven’t Ryan. It’s been up for a couple of months now. I’m not a tech person so the “why” of what isn’t working is a mystery to me. Also, if you click on my link from that same spot it doesn’t take you to my website it connects to my Twitter account.

          • http://www.fatherofone.com/ Michael Wright

            Cindy, my photo wasn’t showing either, but I realized my 2 email addresses I used somehow confused things. I just changed my Gravatar account to the other email as primary and it fixed it promptly.

            The Twitter issue is probably linked to the Disqus account somehow. I don’t use Twitter, so not sure of the issue there.

          • http://daddydifference.com/ Ryan Ash

            I bet that’s it, Michael. Keep in mind, Cindy, that any changes you make won’t show up here immediately.

          • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

            Ryan, thanks for your advice and expertise!

          • http://daddydifference.com/ Ryan Ash

            You’re welcome! A lot of the time it feels more like “expertguess” than “expertise.” :)

          • https://twitter.com/#!/CindyHirch Cindy Hirch

            Thanks Michael – I will check that out.

          • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

            Cindy,
            I tried clicking on your name here in the Disqus comments and it still sent me to your Twitter account.

            I think if you link your site in Disqus, that will fix both the Disqus link and the Top Monthly Commenters link.

            I attached a photo of where you need to put your blog’s address in.

            Go to http://disqus.com/ – then: Profile; Edit Profile; that should take you to the screen attached below.

            Let me know if that works.

          • https://cindyhirch.com/ Cindy Hirch

            I think that did it Michael. I’m not sure how long it will take before it takes effect but I changed it to the web address. I was looking everywhere for a tab, and never thought to look there. Thanks!

  • Pingback: Month In Review For April 2012 | rise365

  • http://www.skipprichard.com/ Skip Prichard

    I haven’t added this feature to my blog, but have thought about it. Most people read and move on, and it’s a challenge to get them to engage. So congratulations on this effort.  I wrote (but didn’t post yet) a piece on engagement and the challenge this is for new bloggers. You have a great site–glad I found it.

    • http://rise365.com/ Michael Good

      Thanks, Skip. Yeah, that’s a common challenge. I’ll be on the lookout for that post!