Gee, blog commenters these days have some really strange names.
Like who would think to name their kid “seo strategies“, “plumbing fixtures” or “cheap shoes“?
Seriously, you gotta wonder what some folks are thinking when they post comments like this to a business opportunities / Internet marketing blog like NetProfits Today:
First of all, the NPT blog is about Internet and affiliate marketing, so WHY would a knowledgeable blog commenter use a name like “weddings” or “buy LCD TV” to try and attract traffic to their site?
Uh, they wouldn’t.
It’s unlikely that “cheap shoes” will get their comment approved on professional blogs.
Business bloggers immediately see that “cheap shoes” is probably a spammer or a complete newbie who has wasted money on a bad training course. And it makes me feel sad when “cheap shoes” actually does leave a good comment, but they’ve contravened my blog commenting policy so I can’t approve their comment.
The policy specifically states that “‘nice post, thanks’ type comments from “Buy LCD TV” posters will be marked as spam, so it is in your best interest to contribute to the conversation as a real person, if you are looking for some link love.”
I have no desire to reward cheap traffic seekers who contribute nothing of value.
Even if the comment does get approved, it’s too much of a crap shoot to hope that people who are interested in doing business online might also be planning a wedding or in the market for a new TV.
So, if you want traffic to a site about weddings, go post a comment on a site where the topic is about weddings.
Having said all that, a real affiliate marketer can drive traffic to their wedding site from a blog about affiliate marketing, but they have to be smart about it.
“Smart” means:
- Building credibility by contributing value to the conversation. If your site is about weddings and the post is about traffic strategies, share an experience related to the topic and invite folks to look at a relevant page on your blog.
- Using your real name or a pen name. Not just a first name either. You gain additional credibility for your blog comment by including your real FULL name. Even something like Super Affiliate Wendy W. is more likely to encourage visits than “cheap shoes”.
- Having a Gravatar. Want even more credibility? Get a gravatar to show alongside your thoughful comment.
All that said, remember that you want traffic that stays on your site.
The fellow who pops by “acia berry wonders” from a bizop blog won’t help your bounce rate if he only sticks around for a half a second.
So take the time to post real comments using your real name and point to content on your site of real value to your visitors.
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About Rosalind Gardner
Hi Ros,
That does make you itch in places you don’t care to disclose – mind and body. I’m always angry at the ones from Nigeria and the inheritance. I get at least three a day. I waste a lot of time to just delete the crazy things I get in the inbox. I was reading the other post about you being called “dude”. I have only been labeled a lady once about six years ago. Reading your article brought it right back to me.
It’s all going to get better!
John
Roz, I even get people with the name “Business Plans Here” trying to use my blog. I sell business plans for goodness sakes. What are the honest to goodness odds that I will approve those links??? Anyone that dumb just doesn’t deserve to be successful. Maybe I’ll just shift my name to “Cute Shoes” (which I like better than “Cheap Shoes”) and be done with it.
Oh, dear, am I not relevant here? Please say I can stick around. I am truly trying very hard to get this internet thingy right. That’s why I read people like you, Ros. I do hereby promise to always use my true and real name. (I said that with my right paw raised respectfully.) Seriously, I too have learned (from a bad spammer no doubt) that even when leaving reasonably intelligent comments, you should put a keyword in the linking text. My blog is still so small that I don’t have the spammer issue, but I imagine that it takes up a lot of wasted time for people like you. So sorry. Like many other newbies, I truly never meant to offend.
Loved this post; had a good laugh.
I often get comments like those on my blogs. Most of them are automated spam comments, though. People who do not even bother to actually visit a blog, but spray spam all over the web through software. It’s a real nuisance to say the least. I moderate *all* comments, by the way, so none of them get through. I sometimes wonder if the spammers are aware of this; do they even care?
Hi Ros,
When I read this post today, I immediately thought of something we deal with at work and I think the concept is so relevant. Submitting a resume for example to a prospective employer with the email handle “Psycho-Bob” just instantly forms a negative opinion. This is actually a very mild version of what I’ve seen over the years; I couldn’t repeat here some of the terms I’ve seen. What I don’t understand, is how people think this is ok. Maybe they think it’s funny, cute, comical, or makes them stand out. It makes them stand out alright. Point is, this kind of thing in any aspect of the business world just isn’t appropriate or called for.
Hi Roz – I was getting ready to write a similar blog post about this very thing but yours was so perfect that I shared it Twitter and Facebook and called it a day. Thanks!
I am getting tons of what I call “seminar” comments from people that are coming from this link (separated so it doesn’t actually go anywhere) http:// automatedaffiliateformulax.com/. The comments are identical but come from different people. Needless to say they go straight to the trash. At first I was a little annoyed but now I just feel sorry for these people. They are being given some very poor advice somewhere along the line.
The funny thing is that one of them was aimed at my blog post about our BTR radio interview and was about affiliate marketing. I almost fell for it until I saw the same comment repeated from different sources.
Hi Ros,
I think the trouble is with ‘me too’ link spammers. They don’t care about traffic, but high PR backlinks. These often come from cheap outsourced services that just are targeting any blog where they can comment.
SEO, marketing blogs are often the target due to relevance so I’m not surprised you’d get hit by these comment spammers. I usually get a couple per day (seems Briney Spears’ underwear is popular lately).
I guess it’s part of having comments open and there are plenty of site where they’ve just given up and turned off commenting entirely. So there are options at least.
Cheers!
-Jim F Munro
Hey Ros:
This post really made me laugh because I used to see the same thing on my Comment Dashboard and I never approved these Spammers. I know that a lot of bloggers say you should not moderate comments but at my blog I want to build a community of people that add value with their comments.
I got so tired of these types of comments plus the gambling and porn spam comments that I installed a wondeful plugin that as stopped all Spam from coming in. It’s called “TanTanNoodles Simple Spam Filter”. The plugin basically works by rejecting a comment that looks like spam (you can set-up spam keywords for the filter), then if a comment gets rejected an error message will display with an explanation of why the comment was rejected. There is also nn optional captcha (provided by reCAPTCHA) that can be configured to display, which allows people to confirm that their comment is indeed legitimate (this is how mine is set-up).
I have had zero spam comments that I have to delete since intalling this plugin.
- Rick
people to continue as the mentality seems to be ‘well at least some of the comments make it through’.
I always use my real name (but agree that a pen name is just as good) and I have a Gravatar; I want people to connect with me, see value in my comments and maybe pop on over to my site to find out more about me and what I have to offer.
Gosh! Ros, you are so frank. I like you. You made spammers think twice before making a comment. You even made your point in a diplomatic and nice way. I will probably visit your site for new posts of yours. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.
This reminds me of a couple of verrrry odd posts left on one of my sites, the person did use a regular name but left the usual dumb post about their site for an buying whatever, which had less than zero to do with my site about natural cancer treatments. So I deleted the post. Next day, there the post is again, but the person prefaced it with something like – “Why did you delete my post? It is as good as any of the posts you approved, maybe better, please do not delete it.” So I deleted that after reading and thinking what on earth??? Well, the next day, here the post is again, including the complaint. Deleted again. It’s happened about four times now, and I assume it’s some robot post, but wonder if it’s some nutcase checking all their spammy posts. Like I said, very strange. You certainly get an education from building sites on the internet.
More than a clear example of what not to do when commenting on someone else’s blog because it’s definitely spam, it’s also plain disrespectful!
And, as you put it, it’s a sure sign of not knowing or understanding what goes on in the process of link building and traffic generation.
I mean, even if they’d like to play the odds, and hope that some people interested in doing business online are also looking to buy [insert whatever keyword], they don’t see that they won’t get much out of that incoming link in terms of PR or link juice because is just not relevant.
And what’s more, it may even have a negative effect in the long run.
when i comment on blogs i always put my name of my website i’m trying to get traffic to. it’s all about key words for me. great tips!
Hi Rosalind
I have seen videos where they train you to use your keyword as the name, if you are using your name then you are ranking for your name, if you use your keyword then you are ranking for your keyword.
At the same time the taught you to leave relevant comments and on sites in a similar niche, thus giving you higher ranking in the search engines.
Bill
How I hate those so much. I mean seriously why do they waste their time on a good comment, if they’re doomed from the start with the name they use. I get these all the time in my blog.
I feel like emailing them back and telling them, “hey how are those comments working out for you?”
Do you need help with your marketing, I can help you… something, as a matter of fact I think I am going to do that next time to see if they answer back, they probably don’t since they probably left a fake email too.
I am so glad I’m not the only one who receives so many of these garbage comments. What a waste of time – both theirs and mine. Why not take the time to find relevant blogs and post a comment that is relevant? Thanks for all of the info Rosalind – appreciated.
Hi Carol Ann,
My pleasure and thank you for the kudos. I agree… but unfortunately, the idiots won’t go away any time soon, so best we can do is make sure we use the right tools (Akismet) and moderate the heck out of the ones that manage to get past it.
Cheers,
Ros
I think its just necessary to keep the keyword in a separate links and still use your name for the Name. Its still valuable if its like that.
I personally don’t have so much of a problem with people promoting their site through one of mine, as long as the comment is relevant to the original blog.
how lucky cheap shoes is, me i commented a few times here before with my real name and all but i never ever seen my comment appear.
Well, on the flip side, when you do receive a lot of spam comments, I look at it as a indication that your blog is doing the right thing!
Sometimes it’s a hassle going through all the comments, and some good comments get deleted, but it really doesn’t take that long to leave a comment that is relevant to the blog or topic.
Do these spammers ever really prosper anyway?
Hey Ros,
I signed up for your newsletter as was really surprised that it just comes on the first email: no confirmation email. I’m seeing a number of big-timers doing that and teaching that.
What’s up with that? What happened to a handful of people clicking REPORT AS SPAM causing your email to get blacklisted by ISP’s and possibly cause you to lose your host?
I’m very curious about this trend. I look forward to learning what you have to teach me.
Also, this is to let you know that the link for Blog Comment Demon takes you to the Bookmarking Demon site, but it looks very good.
While it’s a different product, it’s for the same thing: link love. Anyway, I’ve signed up for the autoresponder campaign and I might end up getting.
Bosco
Hi Rosalind,
I think the main reason many people use the kind of names like “Buy LCD TV” , is to try to get some sort of relevance to their keyword/ site ( with the backlink)
Took a course a while ago, where they suggested that you use your main keyword in posts, as a username when you sign up for social networks, etc.
NEver really used or liked the idea, so I do not really know if it works for them that apply it to their strategy.
Thank you for the Gravatar link. I Have just created one image for my site. The link is much appreciated. Thanks!
Hi Ross,
Your name reminds me of my favorite spanish tele-series entitled Rosalinda..Anyway, we have to admit the blog nowadays tend to be more on the marketing rather than personal. In fact some of the then personal blog sites have Google ads on the side, and affliate links on the other. So if you are really on this business, there is such a thing called you give away 80% to earn 20%, that is why you have to open up a bit in your comment section to entice visitors not only for new traffic but chances that you links will be clicked or patronized in other words.
I love your write up that people seem to have names such as refrigerators, electrical stuff and other. It is however the reality of niche blogging nowadays.
Your name reminds me of my favorite spanish tele-series entitled Rosalinda..Anyway, we have to admit the blog nowadays tend to be more on the marketing rather than personal.