When I first heard about CommentLuv a couple of years ago (I think it’s been about that long?), I tried it out and liked it. At some point, the service had some growing pains, and I decided to remove it until they got some things sorted out. Well, as is normal, I ended up forgetting about it completely and never reinstalled it. Until tonight, that is. I’ve been noticing it more and more frequently lately, and I finally decided it was time to give it another try.
A quick explanation of CommentLuv: Basically, it’s a special comment feature that rewards people who comment here on the site with a link to their most recent blog post. The plugin grabs it automatically and does all the work without the commenter having to do anything special. The links are still nofollowed, so there’s no incentive for spammers, but hopefully commenters will get some real traffic from interested visitors to this site. Cool, huh?
Anyway, that’s not what this post is about. This one is about showing you how easy it is to give the commenter’s CommentLuv link some special CSS styling. I wanted to do this because I noticed that the post links didn’t stand out as much as I wanted them to. I wanted to put a little extra space between your comments and the actual CommentLuv latest post link, and I wanted to italicize it as well. So, I dug around in the source code for a second and realized that the plugin was using a class called “cluv”. That’s all I needed to know. Woot!
So, if you want to style your CommentLuv links, just go to Appearance / Editor and edit your blog’s stylesheet. Scroll down to the bottom and add the following line:
.cluv {margin-top:10px; font-style:italic;}
Save your edit, and that’s it! You’ve now added a little extra space between the comment and the link, and you’ve italicized it as well. Of course, feel free to style them any way you want. That’s just an example of what I did.
Let me know if you get any traffic from your CommentLuv links when you comment here. I really hope I can send some your way.
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Very interesting and helpful tidbit, Donna! Thanks! Hopefully I can still get to see how it looks, on this comment, even though I’ve been having some issue the last couple days that I haven’t fixed yet.
What about KeywordLuv – what do you think about it?
Nope – can’t see it on last comment, so I’m using another blog just so I can see what you’re talking about. Hope you don’t mind. I need to get in there and fix whatever problem Hippie’s having tomorrow!
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I’m on the fence with KeywordLuv – but mostly leaning towards not liking it, because it just comes way too close the edge of spamminess.
I don’t see your latest post showing though, so maybe you aren’t using an address that it recognizes?
LOL, your second comment came through as I was replying to the first one. Yep, the second one works! (And no, of course I don’t mind.)
Hi Donna,
I’m a fan of CommentLuv and I have it installed on my blogs. On my Blogger blog it’s actually installed as a plugin on the Intense Debate commenting system I’m running (the default Blogger commenting systems sucks). Do you think these instructions will work there as well?
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Hm, Ileane, *if* you are allowed to edit the css for your blogger template, then probably yes, but I have a feeling that might not be the case. It’s been a few bazillion years since I even looked at blogger, though, and I’ve never used Intense Debate … so … not real sure.
Hey Donna, your way works perfectly and I’ll probably be fiddling with my own comment display too, but I don’t recommend using the built-in WordPress editor. I learned the hard way that if you make a mistake and accidentally delete something, you can’t undo it.
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Backup, backup, backup.
I’m a backup freakazoid, so I never really worry about that, but yes, definitely always be careful when making changes. Or…backup. 
Always a great idea with anything computer related
I found a great Firefox addon which makes backups very easy. I don’t want to seem rude and post a link on your blog, but Lazarus for Firefox automatically saves your text and encrypts it, so recovery is as simple as right-clicking and selecting “recover form”
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I’m always happy to hear about useful tools and Lazarus sounds like it definitely qualifies. Thanks for letting us all know about it.
Hi Donna
I think CommentLuv is fantastic.
Guess I started using it after all the problems have been sorted.
Don’t have any problems with the styling but useful to know that it can be styled.
Interested in your comment “I’m on the fence with KeywordLuv – but mostly leaning towards not liking it, because it just comes way too close the edge of spamminess.”
I’ve been looking at KeywordLuv – can you explain a bit more about “way too close the edge of spamminess.”
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Over the years, after seeing a few zillion spam comments try to break through hawking their spammy wares, one gets a little tired of all the spammers. KeywordLuv just opens the door to them and welcomes them in, with a big ol’ sign that says, “Yo, put your spamfest keywords right here”. I can see the point of it, and the good intentions that are probably behind it, but the invitation to spammers is just way too big, I think.
Comment luv only came to my attention recently and I still have to install it on my blogs. I like it because it’s easy to find other bloggers using specific keywords that are of interest and finding information that can roundout our information.
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Thank you for the simple explanation! It works beautifully, and I appreciate you saving us all the work of figuring it out.
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It’s a bit modification and you don’t have a demo for it?
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Well, look at the comments on this page if you want to see the demo. Not sure what more I could do to make a demo.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Andy just sent me here to get started, and this will help me a LOT. I’m working on completely revamping my CSS for my site. Thanks very much!
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Glad I could help, James. Have fun with your CSS revamp.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Very nice tip indeed! I feel empowered now…LOL. Empowered for CSS anyway.
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hi Donna, I just to ask about commentluv, does your code actually work on any wordpress templateS? I am having trouble how to find to change the background of my commentluv, its all white and can’t even see the author’s name… if you know anything please help. anything will do thanks!
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Yes, Christine, these instructions were specifically for WordPress. Should work as described.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Ack, that will teach me to pay closer attention! For some reason i’d entered .div instead of .cluv for my style, no wonder it didn’t work! Now that i’ve actually opened my eyes i can see my mistake is quite glaring. Thankyou.
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I like commentluv and I dont think there’s any problem of spamming in it like keywordluv. And it does attract a whole lot of visitors. I wouln’t remove it at any cost in my blogs.
The website for CommentLuv is Horrible! I’m still not sure what information I’m suppose to enter into it and what I need to do on my end as a commenter.
Well, the most important parts are to make sure you enter your site’s url and your site’s feed url correctly at comluv. Then, when you comment on a blog that uses commentluv, in the comment form where it asks for your website url, just enter the site url you entered at comluv. Make sure you enter it exactly the same, with the http:// part as well. Once you’ve entered that in the form, your latest posts in your feed will show up, and you can choose the one from the list (right there under the comment form) that you’d like to show.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Thanks for the tip Donna, that’s very kind to share. I’ve not used commentluv before but reading the above responses it seems I’m a bit behind the curve.
How come you chose commentluv over the likes of say Discus and the new Facebook commenting app (which I’ve just read has been modified to enable google to read)? Have you seen a noticeable improvement in the number and quality of comments since applying it?
Just curious as I would like to increase the number of comments on my blog without opening it up to spammers.
Thanks
Josh
commentluv doesn’t replace any commenting system. It’s an addition to whichever you choose. I just use the regular WordPress commenting system, but I assume commentluv would work with another such as Discus.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Hi Donna
I have been using commentluv for a few months and really like giving link luv. But I didn’t know I could change the appearance of it, so thanks for the tip.
It did cause a definite increase in spammers when I first added it but I added an app called Spam Free WordPress and that has really helped.
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I think the upcoming version will be even easier to style.
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I was trying to override the styles before. This way is way easier and works better. Thank you!
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A Social Media Marketing, Traffic Geyser, WordPress Loving Virtual Assistant … I am loving all the bonuses and new features of CommentLuv Premium! … a Social Media Monitoring System – Creating and Pro
How come you chose commentluv over the likes of say Discus and the new Facebook commenting app (which I’ve just read has been modified to enable google to read)? Have you seen a noticeable improvement in the number and quality of comments since applying it?
Those systems have my comments on their sites. I like to keep my comments inhouse. Beyond that, however, the features are what really win me over. Here’s a few of those that I luv – http://www.dazzlindonna.com/blog/making-money-online/site-ideas/wordpress/just-how-enticing-are-you/
Twitter: DonnaFontenot