During the Thanksgiving break I was able to spend some time updating parts of eCommerce Optimization. I will continue to update the site and add new features or resources, but updates to the site will come slowly as I tend to prioritize the content, including new articles, guides, interviews and reviews. In the mean time, be sure to subscribe to our feed, that way you will never miss new blog or community feature announcements like this one.

This time around I mostly concentrated on reader and comment features that I hope will help to make our community even more enjoyable for our readers, especially those who comment on blog articles regularly. There are also some new additions to our blog sidebar that help tie in many of the comment features that were added.

So, what are the new features? Check them out and be sure to leave your feedback in the comments…

Sidebar Navigation – Top 5 Latest Comments & Recently or Most Commented:

I added some more navigation options to the sidebar which include the top 5 links to our latest comments, recently commented articles and most commented articles. Each heading also has an ‘All’ link next to it which takes you to the appropriate page on our blog featuring the top 50 latest comments, recently commented or most commented articles. The new comment navigation show up on the sidebar below our MyBLogLog readers and fans section.

New Recently & Most Commented Articles Page:

In addition to the sidebar navigation for the top 5 recently or most commented articles, we also added a new page which features the top 50 for each. Now readers or commentators can easily find and track content that has been commented on most or recent article comments all from one page. Each section is updated in real time.

Separate Comments & Trackbacks:

We used to have comments and trackbacks/pingbacks all showing up in the same area below each post. In order to add many of the other new features discussed on this page I had to separate them. Separation is not necessarily a bad thing, it personally bugs me when blogs have them all showing in the comments area, I just haven’t had the motivation to get it done on our blog. Guess the new comments features motivated me to finally get it done, so enjoy the separated comments and links back. Links back currently show up under the single article page comments, if there are comments available.

New Comments Subscription Options:

In an effort to boost overall reader subscriptions and keep commentators coming back, we decided to add in comment subscription options in addition to our standard feed, email and bookmark subscription options. The new comment subscriptions appear below the comments text area and allow readers to get notifications via email when comments are updated. Readers can also subscribe to comments without actually leaving a comment by entering their email into the appropriate form field. By default, the subscription box is checked and the comment without subscribing field appears below the comment text area on all single article pages.

New Reader Comment Box Headings:

You will also probably notice that there are new and improved reader comment boxes near the bottom of each single article page (the ones that have comments). I added a bit more separation to help users better distinguish between the different commentators, as well as an area to highlight the author of each comment. You will notice that it is much easier to tell where one comments ends and another begins. Later on, I may style my (eCopt) comments a little differently, but for now I think the added single pixel border and grayish background in the author name area does the trick.

Comments Box Reply & Permalink Navigation:

In addition to new comment box headings, there is also new navigation within the lower left area of each comment box. It’s not typical navigation like links from one page to the next, they are more like controls for commentators. The first two controls allow readers to reply to a comment or fetch the comment permalink (in order to link to specific comments). The reply control puts the comment text from the box you selected to reply to within the comment text area field wrapped with quote tags. Our site does not feature nested comments and the plugins available for it do not play well with my theme, so in my opinion, this is the next best thing. It allows commentators to easily see who has replied to their specific comment. If you aren’t replying to someone, simply use the comment text are as usual. The permalink control is great for linking to specific comments you have made or for referencing a specific comment on our blog.

Latest, Recent & Most Comments Navigation:

We already went over the latest, recent and most commented sidebar sections and the pages which feature the top 50 for each, but there is one more place where readers can quickly and easily access these blog sections, the comments box navigation. Next to the reply and permalink feature are links to the previously mentioned sections. We wanted to make it easy for commentators or readers to see their latest comment or find other content to comment on. The links for these pages appear right after the comment reply and permalink controls.

Reader Rating & Comment Thumbs:

One of my favorite of the new features are the reader rating and comment thumbs that now appear directly under each comment authors avatar. The avatars and comment thumbs are aligned right for easy reference by readers or commentators. To use the thumb system, simply click the blue up or red down thumbs, depending on whether you think the comment you are rating deserves a thumb up or down. Once a user has voted, the thumbs will turn gray and you will see the number next to the thumbs move either up or down (upon refresh), depending on what you, or others, have thumbed. Pretty cool right? Not only that, but the author name also appears before the thumbs so it’s easy to see who you are rating (another reason for the comment separation and comment box headings).

New Reader Ratings & Comments Thumbs Page (with avatars and links):

Finally, the best for last!! Well, almost last, we have one more little thing to mention after this. My favorite feature to announce would have to be our new reader ratings and comment thumbs page. It is the page that keeps track of all the thumbs up or thumbs down a reader receives and also lists things like total thumbs and total comments for the whole site. Not only that, but reader avatars and links back to their personal sites are included. Readers are then ranked depending on the number of thumbs up minus the downs. If there is a tie in the normal rating scale, the total comments will be used to determine the rating order. What are you waiting for, go check out our newly launched reader ratings page, and start commenting so you can get some thumbs and potentially a link to your personal site from that page. For specific details about the reader rating table columns, refer to the table key. Avatars are updated using MyBlogLog and a Yahoo! ID.

Reader Ratings Navigation:

The final navigation element to the comments box area is a link to the previously mentioned reader ratings page. For the same reasons we linked to the latest, most and recent comments sections we have also linked to the main reader ratings page. It is there to keep commentators motivated and so they can keep track of how many thumbs up or down they get. The ratings link is right after the reply, permalink, latest, recent and most links. It’s the closest one to the actual thumb ratings for each comment.

Conclusion & Final Thoughts:

Whew, that pretty much sums up everything I accomplished over the break. As you can see I worked on this relentlessly in an attempt to have it up and running smoothly for today, barely made it. I also had some articles to update and few new ones to write, so I managed to get those done too. One post I updated worth mentioning again is the SEOmoz Premium Membership Rating and Reviews article.

I hope you all enjoy the new eCommerce Optimization blog features, I am eager to hear your feedback, so please don’t hesitate to speak your mind and let me know exactly what you think about all the new features, or even just one.