How to Keep your Comments from becoming Spam.
Today I received a comment on my blog that was three sentences long. Two of the sentences contained links back to the writer’s “favorite websites”…her own. Rather than get angry or flag it as spam I thought I’d take a quick second to post a tip for folks who are new to the commenting thing or might be having trouble figuring out why they are not getting the kind of response they might like. I’m certainly no expert but here’s my take on comments and spam.
5 Simple Tips to Keep your Comments from being Marked as Spam
- If you’re posting a comment on someone’s website DO NOT use it as an opportunity to promote yourself. It doesn’t matter how enthusiastic you are about your new website. Take a deep breath resist the urge and post something that adds to the conversation.
- Almost every site I’ve commented on has a separate little area that allows you to include a link back to your site …If your comment is thoughtful and sincere people will use it to find you.
- Adding links back to your website in a comment is often viewed as annoying and/or spam unless it specifically refers to something mentioned in the article and is relevant to the conversation. So, unless the article invites you to post a link to your website, “Check out my website”, will probably get you flagged for spam.
- Please resist the urge to call someone out on spelling and/or grammar. I hated it when my 4th grade teacher did it and I hate it as an adult. If you spot an error an email or a private message is much more welcome then something posted in the comment section.
*I’m curious to find you what you guys think about this one. It’s kind of a pet peeve because I’m such a horrible speller (not to mention the grammar terrible being I am with). Am I being too sensitive or do you prefer be contacted privately about errors too? - If you disagree with the article be polite and state your disagreement. Abusive comments may provoke a big reaction on Youtube but most authors will only respect your position and allow it as part of the conversation if you are polite and back your disagreement up with sound reason.
Think of the blog you’re reading as a conversation. If you’d like to be a part of the conversation add something to it by asking a question or making a statement that shows you’re engaged and have read the article as well as other comments. While “nice work” or “enjoyed reading“, are cool a more thought provoking comment will include you in the conversation and eventually help you become a part of the community.
Did I miss anything? What kind of comments do you appreciate most? What kind of comments make you angry? What do you consider spam?
I agree with all of these especially #4. I had a guy email me about a week ago correcting a couple typos on my site. While I was embarrassed that there were typos I appreciated the opportunity to correct them (and that he informed me privately).
I do think that it may be appropriate to post public corrections if there are mistakes in tutorial posts that may affect other readers.
Even though I read everything 50 times before I put it up on the site I still find mistakes. It’s always appreciated when someone goes out of their way to be helpful and notify me by email.
Great article, but really just wanted to say how much I like your illustrations.
Very nice and polite approach you are taking here. I have to remind myself that some people that are new to whole comment posting thing are not aware that there are certain unspoken “rules of the road”. And for all the idiots who use auto-commenting plugins well you know where you can stick it.
I have just started looking into / researching the possibility of making some use of comment spam. Like for instance if the comment spam has a nice comment like “great site I’ll be sure to bookmark it” then what if i just remove their URL from the comment spam. Does Google give credit for just the comment post and not subtract for a URL going to a known comment spammer? And this approach might also serve another purpose if combined with a note about commenting. Example: “If you comment is flagged as spam we will keep your comment, but remove your URL. If you feel that your URL should not have been removed then please send and email to xxxxxx and we will add your URL back into your comment.”
Before I even consider doing this i will do some research to see if spam comments have any value at all if tallied by Google. The other thing is that I think I would not allow comment spam on posts where a serious discussions is taking place. Any way if this experiment is beneficial I will create a post about it. If it is a dead end well maybe I’ll still create a post just to let others now this idea is a dead end.
I’ve thought about a lot of the same things. Would be interested to see what you find out.
Are my comments working