How NOT to Leave a Comment on a Blog
Apr 26th, 2010 | By Loretta | Category: Articles & Other InformationThank you for coming back to visit us! Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more information.
What I’m about to say may seem opinionated to many in the online world, and that’s because it is. Everything that follows here is my personal opinion and how I personally handle comments and spam on my websites and blogs. What you do may be different, and that is okay. I’m not going to say that my way is right and your way is wrong, because this is the internet and I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as all that.
There are a lot of opinions about this topic and it can be confusing for any blogger, especially a new blogger, how exactly this whole comment and backlink things works. Add into the mix debates over no-follow, do-follow, comment-luv, keyword-luv, and oh yeah … keywords and keyword phrases. It’s enough to send a person running for the virtual hills with their laptop trailing behind them.
So, let’s look at a few examples here. This first set of examples comes from a post on my own Craft Blog (you can find the actual post here http://craftblog.stitchingthenightaway.com/1610/creative-and-crafty-fun-for-toddlers/, I’ve deleted and edited the comments to remove the keyword stuffing in the name field.)
In the above example we have four comments, two that I think are great and two that are what I call keyword stuffed spam comments. Now, I’ve seen far worse, at least these keyword comment leavers tried to keep their comments related to the topic at hand, a lot of times they’ll just say something like, “Hey, nice blog.”
The first one with the red X just used “Fishing” in the name field of the comment form, not a lot of effort and honestly such a broad keyword to shoot for anyway. I just deleted this comment after I took the screenshot and they get a D+ for effort in my grade book, because there was little effort put into the comment and it was clearly just looking for a keyword anchor text backlink to their website.
The bottom comment is a little more stuffed than the previous example and they used a very specific keyword phrase in the name field of the comments section, “elite marketing tampa” – Now, they get a higher grade for effort, maybe a C- in the grade book, because they left more of an actual comment. After taking the screenshot I edited the comment to include the person’s name. How did I know the person’s name? Well, I recognized him from the internet marketing space, and while I was disappointed to use of nothing but keywords in the name field, I really like comments and I try not to trash them if I don’t have to.
Now the above examples are just mild keyword stuffed spam. I personally believe that when you’re commenting on a blog the name field is for your name. I know that sounds totally crazy and off the wall, but that is why that field was titled that way. Why do I feel so strongly about that? Because I believe in building community and relationships whether you’re discussing crafts or internet marketing.
Sure, we all want those awesome do-follow anchor text links that help us more up the search engine rankings, but is it really worth it to go out there and comment on every blog you can find with some keyword stuffed junk in the name field? I tend to think it’s not, but others disagree with me and they are entitled to their opinions as well. How you handle comments like this on your own blog is totally up to you, that’s the beauty of having your own blog.
Here’s an example of blatant spam that doesn’t even make any effort at all…. This I flagged this one as spam.
*side note* There is a difference between sending something to the trash and flagging something as spam. That information is gathered and collected. You do not want to label something as spam unless it truly is spam, the same goes with email. Reserve that spam button for the nasty stuff, the p*rn*graphy, and the very obvious cases of spam that came through your comment section.
I realize I’m getting a little bit long here… so, I’ll stop for now and I think we’ll pick this up again tomorrow and talk about the differences between no-follow and do-follow and what all that might mean for you, your comments, and your blog. Then we’ll move on to talk about keywords and a few other aspects of this whole big blog commenting picture.
I’ll try to wrangle up some expert guests to share their opinions with us as well, because I believe that a well rounded and balanced approach is the way to go, and to do that you need to hear different sides, different opinions, and different ideas to decide what is right for you and your blog. In the end all that really matters is what you feel is right for you.
Kind Regards,
Totally awesometastic – and well thought out – post, my friend! We seem to have very similar views on the whole blog commenting thing. I do hate to just trash comments lickety split, so if they’ve made some effort in the comment, if I’ve gotten lucky and their name is part of their email (mike@yahoo.com) I’ll just grab it from there and edit the comment that way. If there is just nothing usable, comment or name-wise – they’re outta there!
I think you’ve done a great job here, teaching people who might not know how this all works – newbies and such, like we once were. Like we’ve been discussing, it does seem that there is not enough ‘good’ newbie information out there lately – and this is a great start to that!
Lisa Marie Mary´s last blog ..Sponge Bob And Article Marketing?
Thanks, Lisa!
I do hate to trash a good comment, and I’ve totally done that too where I grab their first name from their email address, or gone to their URL to see if their name is there, or a few times I just named them “mike” or “bob” LOL
I’m with you on this one! I have some pretty crazy examples in my inbox too!
For the keyword folks that leave a real comment I usually either leave the keyword or delete the “link” part. For the blatant spammers who don’t even try I “spam” their comment and send them an email letting them know my advertising rates!
Christine´s last blog ..Not Completely Over, But Close
While I can’t say for sure, that the last one is a exactly like one I’ve sent to my spam in the last few days, the word toddler and nephew stick out in my mind. I’m pretty sure that a very similiar comment was left on one of my scrapbook blogs. Sadly after blogs get more popular we learn what a lot of the canned responses are.
You are far nicer than I am. You actually changed the name? WOW, it’s sent to spam on my blogs, I don’t give a dang who it came from. Spam is spam. Yes, I realize that some VA out there probably took a few minutes and found my blog online, but then they picked out 1 of 5 canned responses that would work so they could get their clients backlink-keyword loaded crap on my site. That to me is spam
Thanks Lisa and Val.
– Actually, Val brings up a good example of the different ways to handle comments. I don’t think your way is wrong, it’s just better for you.
I’m curious to hear how others handle comments on their blogs.
I do much the same or should I say did much the same. I got to a point about six months ago where I stopped editing the comments that were at least decent seeming to put a name in there and just started spamming or trashing them all. Now that I’ve toned down the amount of blogs/activity I have online I *might* start being a little more thorough again.
Faith´s last blog ..4 Years Ago
Lisa Marie, I went and did the name changes on a bunch of past comments on one of my blogs. I put up a new post on working wahm about a major DUH moment I had after Retta’s post here and your comment. lol
I guess part of my lack of tolerance for spammers comes from years of putting up with them as moderator for forums as well.
Unless it is blatant spam I am lenient, I know people are looking for backlinks, it’s something I have learned commenting does for you…at least on do follow blogs. However actual reading of the post and then commenting is essential to write a good comment.
If I notice someone skimmed over or just read my title only and commented on just that then I delete it, I don’t spam it. Why because maybe they will learn that skimming a post or commenting of the title doesn’t make for writing a good comment, makes them look inexperienced. I will give a person the benefit of the doubt. Unless they are persistent to NOT read and continue posting then I spam it.
Blatant SPAM usually gets caught in the spam folder but those that don’t I do spam, then delete permanently.
Chrissy´s last blog ..Letters I Will Never Send: Dear Movie Director