Yes, and finally it’s version 1.0. It’s a small update, but one which can improve the sidebar layout if you have been affected by it. The latest version fixes the extra tag that appears on all other pages when Show In Home Only is selected. Thanks to Ulquiorra for reporting the bug.

Download Top Commentators widget v.1.0 now.

(Tacky headline, don’t you think?)

If you’re subscribed to my feeds, you probably don’t realize that I have made three changes to my blog this month. Although very small, they’ve been very significant in terms of increased traffic, and — yes — increased moolah! Yeehah!

1. The Top Commentators list at WebGrrrl.net has been increased
   Many people who have used this plugin/widget have posted about how Top Commentators can increase a blog’s visitor participation and bring in more traffic. And they’re true. Of course, comments also depends on the quality of your posts, PageR***, and removing the nofollow tag off your comments. I recently thought that it would be cool to just list as many commentors as possible every month, so that every one gets the chance to show off their URLs in my home page. It’s currently set to 30 names, but I’ll keep increasing them as the commentors grow every month. From the increased comments I received, everyone seems to like this change.
2. EntreCard has been added
   I am loving the EntreCard concept; users get EC credits for visiting or being visited, then use the points to advertise or buy some stuff. I have noticed a 20% increase in visits since I installed EC on my sidebar, and discovered many other great blogs out there that I ended up subscribing to.
3. Ads have been added
   Because of the increased traffic, I thought that I should just take advantage of it by targeting and monetizing my popular posts. You should only see those big ads showing up in certain posts that are popular with the search engines. And, oh boy, it is definitely showing some very good results! I like to do the hard work, but it doesn’t hurt to get some passive income once in a while.

At least try the first two if you’re looking to build some easy traffic into your site or increase your blog’s popularity. Feel free to share your own traffic-building tips, too.

I am in the midst of updating the Top Commentators Widget, and have a few changes in mind for this:

1. Modifying commentator queries based on e-mail addresses instead of URLs. I have read a few posts currently in the Web about how Top Commentators plugin can be hijacked by spammers, by way of typing in legitimate site URLs of honest commentators in a particular blog, then possibly inserting the spamming URL in the content of a comment. The suggested fix to this issue is to do queries of top commentators based on e-mail addresses, which are hidden from comments (as is most often practiced). I have suggested a fix that does just that in one of the comments of the Top Commentators Widget, but I have not tested it extensively. I’ll be doing so before releasing the next version of this widget.
2. Fixing the unclickable form fields in the Control Form. There’s only one, really, that I have identified as problematic, and that is the “Specify number of days” field under the reset period. The problem is apparently caused by the label tag wrapping around both the reset period and reset day fields. I have redone that part in my current test.
3. Option to list only commentators with URLs.
4. Fix the exclude URLs field, which seems to not work the way it suppose to.
5. (Added 4/Mar/08) Option to display or not display comment count.
6. (Added 11/Mar/08) Option to set NoFollow on all links in the list.

There were a few more issues I would like to fix but which may be out of my control. For example, a few commented that changes were not reflected even when saved (this could be permissions issues or browser not refreshed after changes were applied), and the control form not showing at all (certain browsers can’t display the JavaScript-and-CSS-based form properly; you may want to try using a different browser just to make sure).

If you’re currently using the widget and have anything else to add before the update is released (probably end of March), please use the comment form in this post, instead of the widget home post, and I’ll see what I can do with the request.

Updated 24/Jul/2008: Download Top Commentators Widget v.1 (refer to the README for customization). And, yes, it works with WordPress 2.6.

Holy Molly, I never thought I’d make one so soon, but it’s true! I’ve created my very first WordPress Widget!

Yeah, well, not exactly. I adapted this Top Commentators Widget from the actual Show Top Commentators (hereto known as STC) plugin by PFA. Here’s actually what happened:

1. Went to Giuk.Net as usual, saw MrBadak talking about his newly installed plugins, and I hopped by.
2. Excitedly surfed into Personal Financial Advice to download the STC plugin.
3. Followed the instructions to the dot, only to find out later that it won’t work if you have Sidebar Widgets activated.
4. Googled for a widgetized version of STC, only to find that the download links don’t work.
5. Desperately needed to install it, so I did the next best thing a desperate grrrl would do — build one.
6. Accidentally sacrificed a few other widgets due to carelessness, but nevermind as I always back-up.
7. Destabilized my site with countless access error messages and loads of SQL warnings.
8. Trying so hard to stay true to the original codes, only to surrender at the last minute and decided to strip down most of the original codes off, therefore FINALLY COMPLETING MY MISSION!

But wait….

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