Case Study: Ajax Edit Comments and Technorati
12. Oct, 2007 
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Bes and I began RAP (the Reader Appreciation Project) back in early March of ’07. At that time, the focus was spreading the word about the project and to get the blogosphere to take readers seriously and not for granted.
I had released one WordPress plugin previously, and I told Bes if we want to get some links in and some traffic, perhaps we could give out some plugins that help out readers. Not only could we write articles, but we could also give away downloads.
Bes was all for it, and I released my second WordPress plugin called Categories and Posts. The plugin was fairly popular and brought in some links, which was nice. My ultimate goal was to get our Technorati ranking up.
Ajax Edit Comments Released
I began to work on other projects, and then one of the readers of RAP suggested a plugin that edits comments. I searched high and low for a plugin, but couldn’t find an elegant solution. I told Bes I was going to write my own.
So I began work on Ajax Edit Comments and finished a “testable” version in a week. What followed was hours of testing, bug fixing, and testing again. Vivien (InspirationBit) and Brett Terpstra were the original guinea pigs of the plugin and helped get it out the door.
The Links Poured In
Around the time of the plugin’s release (April 5, 2007), our Technorati rank was still over 100,000 as our site was just over fifteen days old. However, by the one month anniversary of RAP, our rank was sitting at 39,000 with Ajax Edit Comments being downloaded over 1,000 times.
With the plugin’s release came an avalanche of links so great I had to turn trackbacks off. Comments poured in as well as bug reports and support requests. As I interacted with the people needing help, even more links came in.
The links from Ajax Edit Comments (and some from group projects) enabled us to have a Technorati ranking of about 20,000 after our second month. By the time we reached our six month anniversary, we were on the verge of breaking into the top ten-thousand.
Ranking Slipping Away
As of today, our Technorati ranking sits at about 12,600. At its peak, our rank was about 9,200. The problem with having so many links come it at once is that as the links get old, the rank can take a steep dive. In less than a week, we had lost 3,000 points of ranking and about 40 points of authority.
Lessons Learned
I am very honored that Ajax Edit Comments has been as popular as it has. It’s logged over 7,000 downloads on WP Extend and has been rated 5 stars by almost every rater. I’m honored that so many people have linked to RAP and allowed us to grow. We’ve gained several readers based on the plugin.
But with Technorati, you have to keep the links coming in continually otherwise your ranking will slip away.
I doubt I’ll ever have another plugin as popular as Ajax Edit Comments. But I will continue to give back to the readers, and whether Technorati awards me or not is irrelevant.
Giving something away is an excellent way to built in-links, especially if what you are giving away is valuable to many people. However, make sure you also write linkable content that will sustain the ranking over the long haul.
This was written as part of the Internet Marketers United Group Writing Project.
Other RA Project Articles
Author Info
I saw this plugin in action at InspirationBit before getting to know you. I was impressed that I was able to edit my comments. I wondered how Vivien made that possible. Now I know
Simonne,
Yes, it’s a good story. I asked Vivien (since she suggested the concept) how much experience she had in PHP and such and if she was willing to test.
It turned out she was a PHP instructor and had extensive experience in testing locally. I suppose we both lucked out. And her help was invaluable. Many of the features were a direct result of her feedback.
Thanks for the mention, guys and girls
I guess I should think of another plugin that users would find as helpful as AJAX Edit. Vivtiger Image Resizer has been uploaded 838 times as of now, but the difference between these two plugins is that the 1st one was very visible to readers – like Simonne has mentioned – she saw it in action on my blog. So you (or me) would have to come up with another plugin that readers could see in action, and that would help them in a long run as well.
Btw, it’s been over 9 months since I started blogging, and my blog’s old links have lost their “power” on Technorati as well. But I’m not too worried about it, the blog’s actual authority is on the rise and that’s what counts, isn’t it?
Good luck with getting more recognition that RA Project deserves!
Guess which participant will give you the best return for your comment effort.
Table of Link Values of participants
Just a quick survey of how many links on each participants article page.
It will eventually be an article but I thought you would like to see the table. I was amazed!
Here are a some of the seo tips and trends also techniques on how to optimize your webpages besides expansion your ranking in search engines.