Looking through your site’s analytics can be insightful and unsettling at the same time. You can see how many people read your latest articles, but then wonder why they didn’t share the link or join in the conversation. Disqus has tried to take on this problem by making comments more social, and building in a new ranks system to let your loyal readers show that they’re staying involved.
We’re going to take a look at some of the newest features in Disqus, and how you can use them to enhance your site’s community. Then, we’ve got 2 Disqus Pro accounts to giveaway to our readers: a 1 year subscription, and a 6 month subscription. Keep reading to learn more about Disqus and how you can win Disqus Pro for your site!
Comments 2.0
At its core, Disqus is a centralized commenting system that lets you focus on building your site and adding content rather than creating an awesome comment system. If you’re setting out to create a new Tumblr, static HTML site, or even many newer blogging systems like Calepin, Disqus is the default option if you want to enable comments. It’s brought millions of sites to life that otherwise would have only had static content, and is an increasingly popular option even for replacing existing comment systems in WordPress and more.
It’s not the only option for a hosted comment system; even Facebook has jumped into the fray with Facebook Comments. What sets Disqus apart is their dozens of features, brilliant interface, and tools that help you succeed as a publisher. Far from just a commenting system, Disqus both lets you learn more about your site’s visitors, and helps your readers learn more about their fellow readers and keep up with their own comments across the web. Publishers can manage comments on all of their sites together, while commenters can read all of their own comments and read replies from any Disqus-enabled site from their account. This makes it a brilliant solution that makes commenting work better for publishers and readers alike.
Managing all of your sites' comments together is a huge time saver
The worst thing about comments, unfortunately, is that people can often leave rather ugly comments or shady semi-spam links that make your site look more like a trashed war zone than a cultivated learning and interaction environment. One of the the best features Disqus offers is social network integration, so readers can sign in with their online accounts to comment, and it only takes one button-click to setup. It can even automatically find social network mentions of your site’s content so you’ll get the whole picture of your site’s interactions.
This way, your readers won’t be interacting anonymously, and you’ll get a better idea of who’s trying to subtly market stuff through your site. You’ll also get more feedback, with both comments and social network comments on your posts. After having a tough time with spammers on one site I ran, switching to Disqus and requiring logins to comment cut down spam almost to zero. That alone made it worth the trouble of switching!
Cut down on spam and make sure your community is real
Rewarding Active Readers
In addition to the great free features that can make your site’s comments easier to manager and more engaging, Disqus has been hard at work at expanding their offerings with additional Pro tools. These extra features are only available with Disqus Premium and VIP, which starts at $299 a month, but for sites with a growing audience, they can help you keep your readers engaged and your community growing. Disqus Pro has included advanced reader analytics, moderation reports, logs, and custom theming for a while, but their latest addition, Ranks, may be the most interesting.
Ranks lets you reward your readers with scores and special titles for reading and commenting frequently. While virtual points may not be a tangible reward, the number of people that obsessively check their retweets, likes, and Klout scores shows that points and online cred can keep users engaged with your service. Plus, it helps other readers and your own site’s team see who’s the most engaged in your audience, which you could leverage for special giveaways, incentives, and more.
Discover your best readers and biggest fans easier than ever
Best of all, Ranks isn’t a static system that you can’t tweak. Instead, it’s filled with options to let the ranking on your site work just like you want. You can reward people for reporting spam, or let your faithful readers that rarely comment still boost their rankings over time. Fred Willson’s A VC blog has been running Disqus with Ranks, and you can find more info about how Ranks has worked for him in his recent post about Disqus Ranks.
Base scores on the metrics that are most important to your site
Ranks is one of the many Disqus features that can help set your site apart, and help you build your community by leveraging the best that social media has to offer. It’s not for every site, but it’s sure one of the first options you should consider for your site if you’re wanting to go beyond standard WordPress comments.
Last, but not least…
If your site has an active community of readers, and you’ve been wanting a better way to leverage your site’s potential in connecting with them, then Disqus is one of the best ways to do it. It’s great as a free service, but with ranks, analytics, custom theming, and more, you’ll be able to get even more out of it with a Pro account. Disqus Pro usually costs $299/month, but we’ve got a year and another 6 month subscription to Disqus Pro for our readers for free!
This is a tad more valuable than our standard giveaways, and really makes the most sense for readers with active sites that you’re looking to expand over the next year. So, to enter our giveaway, leave a comment with a link to your own site, telling us why your site needs Disqus Pro. We’ll then collect the entries, pick the 3 best, and let our readers vote which 2 should receive the subscriptions.
Hurry and get your entry submitted; our contest will close for new entries on midnight, December 12 CST!
Please Note: Envato staff or people who have written more than two articles or tutorials for AppStorm are ineligible to enter.
We can’t wait to see what you do with Disqus Pro!