Sensonize.com

Not exactly subscribe to your blog, but subscribe to your blog comments. I was just browsing the WordPress plugins directory to checkout some new plugins which could be useful for my blog. I found the plugin Subscribe to Comments 2.1 which is an amazing plugin if you are running a blog which gets alot of comments on your articles or a blog which gets a few (like Sensonize.com).

Using this plugin the good way
You can use this plugin in 2 ways. 1 is the good way which would be simply installing the plugin and allowing your commentators to choose if they would like to subscribe or do it yourself for them 👿 This good way will make readers subscribe and stay, the evil way might make them unsubscribe and never visit your blog again.

Using this plugin the evil way
The people who have been following me on Twitter, know exactly how evil am I lol. Lets get started –

1) Install the plugin
Installing the plugin is really simple, if your using WordPress 2.7.1 just search for “Subscribe Comments” and install it. If your doing it the manual way: download the plugin, upload it in wp-content/plugins and extract it, then activate it from your WordPress Admin Panel.

2) Tweaking some codes
This is really simple. Once your done installing the plugin, login to your Cpanel or any other panel you use File Manager and open the wordpress directory you have installed your wordpress blog in. Then open: domain.com/wp-content/plugins/subscribe-to-comments After you have done the above you will see a 50.41 KB file named subscribe-to-comments.php. Right click on it (in Cpanel 11) and click “Edit”. Once your there, Press Control + F(find) in Firefox and it will open a search box. In the search box search for: This is the text that is displayed for users who are NOT subscribed. You will see that line highlighted on that long page full of codes.

Just few lines below that you will see a code like this:
<input type=”checkbox” name=”subscribe” id=”subscribe” value=”subscribe” checked=”no” style=”width: auto;” <?php if ( $checked_status ) echo ‘checked=”checked” ‘; ?>/>

Replace it with:
<input type=”checkbox” name=”subscribe” id=”subscribe” value=”subscribe” checked=”yes” style=”width: auto;” <?php if ( $checked_status ) echo ‘checked=”checked” ‘; ?>/>

All I did in the above code was, changed checked="no" to checked="yes"

Now the visitors that leave comments to your blog will automatically get subscribed to the blog post they have commented on. This is a good way to make them subscribe to blog posts without letting them come to know 😉 But yes, a visitor can uncheck the subscription option in the comment box if he/she wants.

Benefits

1. It subscribes the commentator to a single blog post and informs him/her about the new comments.
2. The  commentator will visit your blog again to see what has been posted and will also reply to the comments.
3. The commentator will also subscribe to your blog if you have quality posts.
4. You can also add text in the email – Eg: There are new comments on so-and-so post, please check back and give your feedback and also add a line below that: “If you like reading my blog, do subscribe to my RSS feeds”
5. Your blog becomes more active and gets feedback from the visitors that like your blog and would leave comments back again and again.

Loss

1. That commentator might not come back if he is bombarded with alot of emails for a single post.
2. The good way can gain you readers but the evil way will just make you lose readers.

My suggestion would be to use the good way if you get 5+ comments on your blog posts. If you get less than 5 comments on your blog posts, use the evil way! 👿