On one of my other blogs, I use the Max Stripe Ad to remind readers to subscribe to my RSS Feed. It is an easy way to add an advertisement or reminder for your readers. Now MaxBlogPress has come out with a new plugin called Max Banner Ads and I thought I would give it a try.

The plugin installed easily and it took me only 20 minutes to get five ads up on my site. The set up is so easy! You can add advertisements in four places – top of first post, sidebar, bottom of last post and within the post. I have added all except the one within the post. The best thing is that you can add as many banners or boxes as you want – each add will rotate in order.

I also love that Max Banner Ads includes stats. Here are my stats from the recently added banners. The stats included impressions and clicks. This will help me decide if an advertisement is working well or not.

You can download Max Banner Ads as ReviewWare right now. This means you can download it and use it for free but they are asking that you provide a review of the product or let others now about it. You can also purchase the Pro Edition. This edition removes the words “Powered by MaxBlogPress” and the price is $47.

I have just discovered two new WordPress plugins that will help you show comment love to your commentators. The first is the Show Top Commentators Plugin.  This plugin will show the Top Commentators on your blog with a link back to their website or blog.  Upload the plugin to wp-content/plugins directory and activate it.  If you are NOT using widgets, you are finished!  If you do use widgets, you will also need to download and install the Exec-PHP plugin and activate it as well.  This plugin will place a PHP Code 1 box in your Available Widgets.  Drag the PHP Code 1 box where you would like it on your sidebar and then edit it.  Include the following code:

<?php if(function_exists('ns_show_top_commentators')) { ?>
<li>
<ul><?php ns_show_top_commentators(); ?></ul>
</li>
<?php } ?>

Name the Widget “Top Commentators” and save changes.  Finished!

The second Plugin is called Comment Relish written by Justin Shattuck. This plugin will send an email message to a commentator the first time they leave a comment. After uploading the plugin to your wp-content/plugins directory, activate the plugin. To configure the plugin, click on the Plugins tab and then choose Comment Relish. The cool thing about this plugin is that you can add the article name, your RSS Feed, the comment that was posted as well as other items to the thank you note.

NOTE:  If you have problems with Comment Relish, there is a new optimized version as well.

My sister-in-law wanted to add a section to her new blog that would enable her to post a poll. After some searching, I came across a WordPress Plugin, WP-Polls that was written by Lester Chan. I downloaded the plugin, unzipped it and uploaded the polls folder that was created to my wp-content/plugins directory.

Activate the WP-Polls plugin. If you are using widgets, make sure you activate the WP-Polls Widget plugin as well.  Since I am using widgets, I just dragged the WP-Polls widget to my sidebar.

It was very easy to add a new poll.  You will have a new tab on your menu called Polls.  There you can manage your polls and create new ones as well.  I have added a poll to the side of my blog so you can see what it looks like.

Lester Chan has created a forum for support for the plugin.  If you have any problems, visit the forum, it is extremely helpful!