What I’m going to share with you today is something I’ve (unfortunately) seen done over and over again, and it’s the one thing that stops people from being a successful bloggers. If you don’t watch out for this, you will fail. So…
Ready?
Let’s Roll…
I don’t remember the last time I commented on a blog post I’ve not previously read. The reason I don’t do that is, I think it’s rude and extremely unprofessional. Whenever someone comments on something I write, I can read their comment, and immediately know if they took the time to go through what I posted or not. I am sure if I can do it, other bloggers can do it, too. In fact. Let me make something clear:
This is Extremely
Easy to Tell !
Now, onto the story I have for you today. Some time ago I published a post on how to get the most out of guest posting and received a comment which read something like this:
“Guest Posting is Great and
it’s an Awesome Writing Strategy !”
Do you see what I mean? You really don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize the whoever wrote it, didn’t have any idea what the original post was about. They just wanted to get their link out there. There is at least one reason why posting general comments like that doesn’t work, and it is…
A Blog is Supposed to Be
a Discussion !
Whenever a respected blogger publishes something, he or she wants to get a conversation going, and general comments are conversation killers. I mean, think about it for a moment. If you want to join a discussion in real life, you don’t walk up to whoever is talking, and start saying general things, do you?
No !
If you want to join in, at first, you listen to what they’re talking about, and then you decide if you have something to contribute. If there’s nothing you’d like to add, you remain quiet, but if you do speak, you make sure what you have to say is valuable and relevant to the conversation. That’s obvious.
It’s Life 101 !
What some people seem to ignore is, it’s the same with blog commenting. You first read the post and see what other people are saying to determine if you can (and want to) contribute. If you think you have something valuable to say, you say it, if not, you don’t.
Easy, Right ?
I am tempted to believe that the spammers making general comments, like the one I mentioned previously, already know all this. The problem is, however, their goal isn’t to contribute. Their goal is to get a back link. They sit there all day shooting crap around and making our lives harder because they want to get their site to rank higher in the search engines. Hopefully, after they realize spamming for back links doesn’t work anymore…
They’ll Stop !
There are a few things I’d like you to take away from this post. One, I want you to treat blog commenting seriously. Following blogs (and participating in the conversation that takes place on them) is awesome for building your status and striking relationships with influential people in your market. If done wrong, however, it is also one of the quickest ways to make sure no one wants to work with you ever again.
No Partners !
No Affiliates !
No Business !
It’s not worth it to ruin your reputation for one lousy back link. What’s more… most of those spammy comments are not going to stick anyway, which means…
You’ll Get Nothing in Return
for the Time
You’ve Spent Spamming !
Two, none of the big boys do it. Have you ever seen Wikipedia spam links out there? I haven’t. The trick to ranking well in the search engines is posting relevant content regularly, and making sure it’s not only interesting to read, but also useful. Of course you need to have your on page SEO done well, but if you always strive to contribute and provide value on your blog, your content will be picked up by opinion leaders in your market which will get the ball rolling really, really fast.
You’ll Become
an Authority in
No Time At All !
Lastly, you need to understand your time is valuable. There are only so many things you can get done before the day is over, so don’t waste time on trashing the Internet up. If you’re still not convinced, I have an exercise for you. I want you to close your eyes for a moment, and go back to a time when you thought spamming blogs worked. Have you ever actually done it? If yes, let me ask you this…
What Was Your
Return On Investment ?
I mean, you’ve put in a lot of time and effort into this, but what did you get in return? If you’re like most inexperienced bloggers, your answer is going to be… not much. Why? Because, as I’ve mentioned previously, it doesn’t work. The people that sell spamming systems and software will have you think it does, but that’s not because they want to help you out. That’s because…
Their Only Goal is to
Sell As Much of Their products
As Humanly Possible !
A thing to keep in mind. People put a lot of work and effort into managing their blogs and making sure they provide value to the world. Don’t disrespect them by wasting their time with low quality comments. Make sure whatever you have to say is relevant not only to the original post but also to the conversation that’s already going on. When you show respect to people, they’ll see it, and whenever you approach them with a JV proposal or anything else business related…
They’ll Remember You, and
Want to Help You Out !
So that’s all I have for you today. Let me ask you this… Have you ever been upset by someone posting spammy comments on your blog? What happened?
Stay Smart,
Also Known As “The Smart Blogger”
Article by Wong Chendong aka The Bad Blogger
This bad boy delivers the oohs, ahhs, and woes of money matters like any man would... rough. He's frank, to the point and likes it raw. There's no sugar coating here, except for the taste of sweet success and the beautiful women who love it just as much. TheBadBlogger.com is a blog pictured and accented with the likes of lovely ladies and while the dames tend to be a delightful distraction, The Bad Blogger always takes care of business first.Find out how you can improve your marketing tactics, money matters and blogging techniques by Subscribing to his RSS Feed to get the latest update of his blog post or go direct to his blog at www.TheBadBlogger.com. You may reprint this post provided you leave the content, links, author, and "about the author" section at the end intact.
has written 286 awesome articles for us at The Bad Blogger
Twitter: @@TheBadBlogger | Facebook
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: bitdoze
March 8, 2013 at 12:01 am
Hey Wong! You seem to be really disappointed with these spammers but I think they are just not worth the trouble- when some learn that this is not something worth doing others appear. Daily, I erase a lot of spam comments from my sites- and some simply advertise completely different products then the topic I approach in my post-but I do not give much importance to it. I focus on my writing, I follow some bloggers I like and that have a “voice” and life goes on. By the way, loved your hint to Wikipedia, pretty clever!
Dragos recently posted..Best Medical WordPress Themes 2013
Twitter: gametipcenter
March 8, 2013 at 10:33 pm
I think the real point here was.. don’t do what they do. While I wouldn’t necessarily say that every commenter out there that skims a blog post and posts a comment should be considered a spammer, I do understand the point. Make real comments and contribute to the discussion, or just don’t comment at all.
The real spammers to me are the ones that are using spam bots to post comment spam for them to thousands of websites with a single click. At least the manual commenters are doing a bit of work, even though I still delete them.
Donny recently posted..DragonVale: How to Breed the Century Dragon
Twitter: OshoGarg89
March 8, 2013 at 9:40 pm
I think if you have a blog site its common spam comment. I install Akismet so it protects all bad comment. Mostly they do for link building. But I agree with your point genuine comment is certainly different from those spammy comment
Osho Garg recently posted..How To Take A Screenshot In Mac OS X
Hi Wong,
In my opinion shall a comment contributions something to the articles for be called for comment. It may be a different opinion and develop the view also or a deepening of the subject. All these comments about good article, I agree, nice photos etc. is spamming comments for me. (I think.)
Twitter: thetraveltart
March 11, 2013 at 1:51 pm
Yes, I did read this post before commenting – hilarious! I also think your site layout is quite funny as well – very clever. I get spam comments on my blog all the time – which involves me giving them a *FREE* delete!
Anthony recently posted..Taj Mahal Photos – Love Story Irony..
Twitter: krimfuk22
March 11, 2013 at 3:05 pm
Completely agree with your say. You have mentioned how you can distinguish the spammers or people who comment just to gain a backlink. Yes they will never be your loyal reader. Then why blogs are still using commentluv like plug-ins?
TechMero recently posted..Top 5 Apps for Rooted Android Mobile in 2013
Twitter: technreviews
March 11, 2013 at 10:38 pm
I think just because spammers try to take advantage of the commentluv plugin, it should not be banned as the readers who have really taken time to read and post valuable comment should get some advantage for this. Its true that blog commenting means having a discussion and contributing something only if someone has valuable to say. This will make it interesting and as you pointed out, you will remember him the next time he comments or approaches you again. Nice post.
vicky recently posted..Hostgator Hosting Review And Flat 35% Off Hostgator Coupon
Hi Wong – If you plan on making comments or reviews, it is suggested that you take a few things into consideration to protect yourself and offer the best online review to the public:
Tell the truth about the experience.
Comment with the intent to help others benefit from your review.
Stay clear of vulgarities, heavy opinions and accusations.
noman recently posted..Spring into 2013′s Jewellery Trends
Twitter: cooljags14
March 14, 2013 at 1:28 pm
Often the comments of spammers like “Great post”, “thanks for the great info” etc frustate me, and I tend to believe that there should be no section for comments on my site. However, as a blogger, we have no other option that to bear those comments and approve the genuine ones. It’s an investment and waste of time at the same time!!
Gaurav recently posted..MockNow – A Unique WireFraming Tool for Bloggers & Web Designers
Very nice points written here by you Wong. May people do not even read before commenting and move to conversation to somewhere else. In the end they are not going to get anything out of it and it is a sheer waste. Thanks for this article.
Abhishek recently posted..Happy Holi 2013 Facebook Status Messages Orkut Scraps
Great examples you’ve got here. I wonder if you got these kind of spam comments in this article itself.
Gautham Nekkanti recently posted..Importance of Visual Aids in Presentation
Lots of spammers are being posting comments without reading complete post. I’ve analyze why they continually doing this type of spam strike. There are many unprofessional SEO companies have been developed through out many Asian countries, particularly in India and Bangladesh. So from those countries many peoples are below educated than average needed to be. Now SEO companies are hiring employees who have computer running knowledge but don’t have knowledge anything about blogging or online at all. They’re getting toughed with some sentence link (thanks for sharing, great post, keep up the good works and many others short spam notes). Therefore those uneducated workers are annoying our sites by posting spams on and on, without knowing consequences of spamming. I think they needed education first and than such type of work would be suitable for them. Thanks.
Arikson Kieron recently posted..Famous Reformed Porn Stars
You can only comment on something if you have adequate knowledge about it otherwise the comment would either be biased or simply invalid. The same applies for blog commenting; posting a comment without reading the blog post doesn’t make sense at all. Appreciate you brought up this discussion.
Twitter: richlymiddlecla
March 22, 2013 at 3:42 pm
This is a great post. I love to read different blogs. I try not to comment if I don’t have something value to say. I don’t know that my comments always spark interest but I only comment if I feel the post is something relevant to something that I have learned or has sparkled an emotional or feeling. I get a lot of spam comments. I think it is because I am new on the scene. I absolutely hate the one liners or the I really like this post. In the beginning I was grateful for that type of comment because that at least meant that someone was coming by to visit but now I think give me a break, it took me a few hours to put this post together at least mention something in the post to show that you have read it.
Cynthia
Cynthia recently posted..Spring House Cleaning
Spam comments are a regular feature and one does not even have a control on it. The best way to let the spammers beware is to approve only those comments which seems to be genuine and in accordance with the content of the post. Thanks for the share.
Hi Wong
I spend about half an hour each morning leaving 3 or 4 comments on different blog posts and it is a win win for me I get a small drip feed of backlinks which helps but also I try to find posts where I need some help on something so I learn something at the same time and get a backlink to my site and hopefully build a few relationships at the same time. As most of the blogs I go on now I have been on before and I know I will get useful information from.
As you say the spammers don’t read the post so they get nothing from it. They leave spammy comments so 9 times out of 10 they will get deleted anyway. Then as soon as the webmaster sees a comment from that particular person he is going to delete it whether it is spam or not. So it turns spamming in to a pointless exercise.
Thanks lee
Twitter: mamamakesmoney
March 25, 2013 at 2:27 am
It does upset me to get the generic spam comment and especially the “this piece is great” type of comment. Luckily most of the comments I get are good ones where people have read my work. Of course the spam filter catches a lot of them too.
Julie recently posted..New Facebook Page and a Big Favor
Twitter: billysbilling
March 28, 2013 at 11:28 am
What’s even worse than spammers who link or leave useless comments, are the spammers who leave negative comments to draw attention to themselves and their sites.
UGH. I hate it. Google should smite them all.
When I started blogging, I used to feel really offended. Then I realized that these people hadn’t even read what I’d written. They just left a general, negative comment to draw attention to themselves.
So happy Akismet takes care of this problem on my Wordpress blog.
Thanks for sharing
Nikki recently posted..Capital Network Magazine Interviews Billy’s Billing Founder Toke Kruse
On a personal note, whenever I decide to post a comment, it’s often because I feel strongly about the subject.
We need to add tangible value in our interactions with others.
Thank you very much.
Tony Nguyen recently posted..Fibroid Treatment – Cure Uterine Fibroids Naturally With Fibroids Miracle
Twitter: basicblogtalk
April 3, 2013 at 1:09 am
I don’t way the spammers always make the spam comments on other blogs every the blog commenting gave the benefit to each other while we leave a commenting. Thanks for sharing..
Kimsea recently posted..3 Tips Increase Blog Valuable Backlinks, Commenting strategy
I really hope a lot of people will read your article! You ask the readers if they have been experiencing comments from spammers, and that is exactly the reason I Shut the comments on my blog off…
But, from reading articles like this, I’ve learned a few things. With my new blog I’m going to try to leave the comments open.. Maybe a tip: in a lot of site-building systems, you can ad a plugin, to track down spammy comments. (they never work 100%, but it can save you time and frustration!) Can I use your comment policy as an example? ( Don’t worry, I won’t copy it, but will use the way you wrote it) Maybe this will save some time
Twitter: TheTechieBoy
April 7, 2013 at 4:54 am
Hi The Bad Blogger,
Most of the people, Really don’t read the post and leave their comment on a blog post. This is what I don’t like about my Blog readers. And It too is one of the reason why I don’t use CommentLuv on my blog.
You have written a really nice article on, why one should read blog post first, before leaving a comment on it. Well written, Worth Reading.
Thanks,
Chiranjeev recently posted..Top 10 Social Bookmarking Sites to Submit Your Blog Post
Spam is a big problem, expecially if you run a blog. After some months I decided to put nofollow on links in my blog comments, because I was receiving too much spam.
I also began removing nofollow on people who have made at least 10 good+approved comments: that worked for me!
I always comment on a post if I find it interesting and appreciable like yours. If the content is either not interesting or readable, I tend to move on without leaving a comment there. But, I think all we can do to prevent backlink hungry people from spamming is to approve comments manually.
Rahul recently posted..15 Killer Ways To Create High Quality Backlinks To Your Blog Instantly
Twitter: GlobalCraze
May 18, 2013 at 6:02 am
Hey Wong!!!
This is very important instructions for posting a comment. Many spammers doesn’t follow these instructions. These are for those spammers. commenting is an art. A good comment can create a huge discussion.
Chetan Gupta recently posted..top 10 new year resolutions all time