Derek Semmler dot com - money, motorcycles and cars (with a little bit of everything else)

The first edition of my Speedlinking series each month is dedicated to the Top Commentators from the previous month. July was a busy month and there were plenty of interesting comments shared by everyone.

The top five commentators from July are some of the usual suspects and I am happy to see their continued activity here at Derek Semmler dot com. However, I am going to challenge the rest of you to get more vocal here and see if you cannot find yourself being featured next month!

1. Saman Sadeghi claimed the top spot for July with 43 comments. He made a late rush at the end of the month as I had to update my screen shot a couple of times! Last week Saman shared a great registry hack on launching programs at login without using the startup folder. As he mentions at the end, I find this tip even more valuable for tracking down programs that you don’t want to launch at startup, as I have had to do a few times on my kids’ machine.

2. Chris Gray secured second place with 30 comments. Chris recently provided a very nice summary on how to optimize your WordPress permalink structure. If you’re new to WordPress or just not sure you really understand the permalinks, this post will help clarify everything.

3. Leo Chiang took home third place in July with 26 comments. As I mentioned in my post about how to earn repeat business, Leo has really stepped up with his effort to help find a cure for breast cancer. Darla Briggs, who for some reason is a friend of Leo’s , will be participating in the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure and Leo has used this as an opportunity to help Darla receive additional sponsors for the race. If helping a good cause is not reason enough for you, Leo is also offering a pretty cool prize package.

4. Damien Riley tied for fourth place with 10 comments. In the event you missed it, Damien had a great post on the fact that we don’t need social media like digg. Whether I agree with him or not, I admire Damien for speaking his mind and feeling free to share his thoughts and opinions even when they may not be mainstream. Personally, I always enjoy posts from a different perspective than my own as it gives me some additional food for thought.

5. Stephen Fung also came in with 10 comments in July. Stephen finally decided to join in on the meme fun as he shared 8 facts about the DOT COM Mogul Stephen Fung that you may not have known. Anyone that starts off their fun facts by disclosing that they love cheese is top-notch in my book!

Since we had a tie for the last spot last month, I’m going to throw in a bonus entry for your enjoyment (and possibly my gain in winning an iPod, lol).

If you’re a fan of hockey or maybe just creative with domain names, be sure to check out how you can win an iPod Nano courtesy of Beyond the Rhetoric and the.[ED]ition. Michael Kwan is the man behind Beyond the Rhetoric and writes about freelance writing and the.[ED]ition is a personal blog authored by Ed Lau. Check them out and be sure to enter their contest.

That concludes this week’s edition of Speedlinking. Thank you to the Top 5 Commentators and to everyone else for helping me build this site and community!

Who is going to take the crown for Top Commentator in the month of August?