Pop Quiz!
Here are some recent comments on BlogshopSantaFe.com:
1. “Great work, webmaster, nice design!”
2. “Simple and sweet. I’m thinking of starting another blog or five pretty soon, and I’ll definitely consider this theme. Keep ‘em coming!”
3. “You made some nice points there. I did a search on the subject matter and found mainly people will consent with your blog.”
4. “Awesome post. Really enjoyed reading your blog posts.”
5. “konnaily http://ctivkonscampi.cwahi.net tanakkro lbibseel alb-dniw”
6. “Want to have an affair? If you are looking for a secret encounter or extramarital affair, there is only one place to go to make sure it is as discreet as possible. Click for details.”
Question: Which comments are spam?
Choose your answer from the list, below:
- A. Number 5
- B. Numbers 5 and 6
- C. Numbers 3, 5 and 6
- D. All of the above
You guessed it, the answer is “D. All of the above.”
If this surprised you, is it because numbers 1, 2 and 4 seem so genuine? That’s a big trick of spammers: making spam read fairly well and convince you with their glowing remarks to approve their comment so others will click on their link.
So how do you recognize a spam comment when it looks genuine?
Look at where a comment is from to give you a clue as to whether it’s spam or not. All the spam comments above were actually left on this blog. Here’s where they were from:
- The first comment linked to buytramadolon.co.cc, a website which no longer exists.
- Comment number 2 was from anabolmarket.net, an online store for anabolic steroids, not exactly my industry.
- Number 3 was from forextradersreview.com, a review site for online stock trading software — also not my industry!
- Number 4 — the same as 3.
- The Number 5 comment came from ctivkonscampi.cwahi.net, a free web hosting site but not my affiliate.
- And number 6 pointed to fbimport.com a Russian heavy equipment sales site — kinda funny landing place for someone looking for a secret online encounter.
Another way to recognize spam is by carefully reading the comment. Do you know the person or business behind the comment? You want friends and peers to chime in on your post.
Do they refer to an actual part of your post? If I get a comment from someone I don’t know and they are specific about what they have to say about my post, I will check out who they are by clicking their link. If they seem genuine, I approve the content.
You might be thinking: What about the comments I leave on blogs; they’re not spam are they?
Leaving thoughtful comments on well-trafficked blogs in your industry is a great way to get people to visit your own site and create a backlink. That is not spam unless you leave the exact same comment on many blogs which means you are not interacting with other bloggers, just spamming.
If you haven’t yet, make sure to install the Akismet plugin; it comes ready to be installed when you set up your WordPress blog and will catch a large portion if not all of your spam.
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Very helpful – thank you. I am getting a lot of comments on my blog and very few seem to be from people who have actually read the content. Now I have a better idea regarding handling of the comments.