Blog Comments are Not a Free Meal, They’re a Potluck

Apr 7, 2010
42 Comments

Spammy Keyword Comment Names: STOP IT!

Two big huge rip your face off reasons:

  • Nobody is going to visit your site because you used a keyword instead of your name in the comments. For real.
  • You will get no PageRank authority from your spammy keyword anchor text, because 99.99% of blogs nofollow comment & trackback links.

All you are accomplishing with this tactic is:

  • You now look like a spammer. Congratulations. Not exactly the golden path to traffic-building nirvana, my friends. Starting your “trust” account with a negative beginning “balance” isn’t a smart idea.
  • Even if you said something decently valuable in your comment, it will not be taken seriously because of your spammy keyword comment name.  You’re not just wasting everyone else’s time, you’re wasting your time.
  • Whatever “goo-roo” you paid to teach you that this was a good idea is smarter than you: he got your money and you got a shit deal.
  • If your mother found out you were doing this, she would be really disappointed in you.

This isn’t one of those, “Well everyone else is doing it so it must be working” kind of things. It doesn’t work. The reason you keep seeing it is because what really keeps working are snake oil programs designed to part fools from their money.

There are people who read this blog who do this. Don’t take it personally. I’m not saying  things about your mom, here (well, except I did… but not like that). You’re not bad people. Inside where it counts I believe people are good, and goes for you spammy keyword comment namers, too. :)

Alright, enough with the bitching.

Here’s what does work:

  • Being human, showing you’re a real person: name and photograph for your Gravatar (the pictures of comment authors you see on blogs are all run by the amazing Gravatar service—sign up if you haven’t yet).
  • Sticking around for the long haul. Fans of a blog know each other to a greater or lesser degree. They all know who’s for real because they’re the names (real names, mind you) that keep showing up every day.
  • Come to give, not to receive, and you’ll get more than you ever hoped for. Think of it as Komment Karma (which of course simply must be spelled with a K). In other words, it’s not a free meal. It’s a potluck, and everybody brings something.

What are you bringing?

  • Guest
    I found out there are people offering 'commenting service' where they'll place the company links on DoFollow blogs with a payment!!
  • remarkablogger
    Yup, it's really just spam, since these comments are often irrelevant, badly
    written, and promotional. Doesn't matter how the spam comment gets to you,
    it's still spam! :)
  • I guess I'm guilty of the whole "keywordy name" but it is how I set up my Disqus profile, and being that research and learning through blogs is part of my job, so is the profile name. Do you really thing that if I changed it to Cheryl | Web Development Company, it would make that much of a difference?
  • remarkablogger
    Yes. It would make a difference in the thing that matter most: getting
    traffic from your comments. Because people don't respond to companies. The
    respond to other people. Where it makes the least amount of difference is in
    SEO, which, ironically, is the main reason why people think they need to do
    this. Except blog comments are no-follow and people think you're spamming.
    It's just not a winning strategy for several reasons. If I were you I'd
    change my Disqus profile info. :)
  • It's frustrating from a reader's point of view because I read through the comments because they often contain some valuable additional insights.
  • I love reading comments, sometimes learning a lot from them or being amused by them. However, I do get bothered by snarky comments, so if a site gets inundated with them perhaps turning off the feature is best or letting readers report the abuse with a click to help the site monitor junk comments.
  • "Blog Comments are Not a Free Meal, They’re a Potluck"....Hmmm butt some are even try it to get a free meal.
  • You are probably right about 99% of blogs nofollowing links. I am researching this right now because I use the Do Follow plugin on my WordPress blogs. You don't follow links in comments - you probably know that. I think 99% of bloggers do not know that the default of WordPress is to not follow links in comments so unless they change by adding a plugin (or there may be other ways to change this), they nofollow!

    Personally, I think people will continue to spam whether you do follow or nofollow. That is why I prefer to turn nofollow off in comments.
  • Thanks again! comments powered by Disqus . And they're free and all around us! We do not recommend eating anything you are.
  • Something very less heard of what you are saying. But comment spamming is something each blogger faces. Cant help it i guess
  • Hi Michael,

    Its certainly one of the quickest ways to get deleted from my site. I want real people with real names giving me an opinion on what nonsense I am spouting at that point.

    And I've used blog commenting as a great way of getting visitors to come over to my site but by doing exactly the things you have spoken about. I read the post and make a comment based on what I have read. Simples!

    Andy
  • Couldn't agree more. Recently my blog is bombarded with a lot of nameless, gravatar-less commenters who seem to be commenting about the subject, but refuse to 'show' themselves as an individual. Most of their links go to some company sites that have nothing to do with the niche at all. Later, I found out there are people offering 'commenting service' where they'll place the company links on DoFollow blogs with a payment!

    It really puts off the reason why we allowing DoFollow & KeywordLuv in the first place to reward loyal commenters. Since then I'm more skeptic about approving comments. Just sad to see how commenting has turned out these days.


    @wchingya
    Social/Blogging Tracker
  • Yes, this is one of the reasons i disabled comments in my blog.
    And now with the automatic tools they just keep spamming.

    anyway i hope this post will reach the eyes of the spammers.

    Greets Bruidstaart
  • It's funny to think that there are still many people who use spammy keyword names even if the entire Internet community already knows about it and how it won't do anything good to the site owners and the ones doing it.
  • Excellent post, Michael - I agree 100%. I removed the 'nofollow' attribute from my comment links code because I want to reward commenters who contribute to the conversation by sharing their advice or experience (even better, there is a WP plugin that does that after 'X' number of comments to reward frequent commenters) but I am pretty adamant about removing any that won't use their real name (or, like thriftgirl62, a legitimate pseudonym).

    If more blog owners would be as adamant, this problem might someday go away. When I see it on other blogs, I'll sometimes bring it their attention, but I get the definite impression that some bloggers would rather have spam comments than no comments.
  • Thank you for this important reminder, Michael. As someone in the "more mature" age group who has embraced the social media revolution because at its core and at its best, it brings business interactions back full circle to good old-fashioned values of trust, transparency, and authenticity, I applaud your effort to keep thoughtless people from ruining it.

    It is also a reminder that when we're new to anything, it's easy to make a faux pas like this without realizing it (and we've all made embarrassing mistakes at one time or another) or because, as you mentioned, some unscrupulous "guru" has told you it's okay. It highlights the importance of following quality people like you, or Denise Wakeman, or some of the other online experts among your followers who teach and lead by example. Good mentors are invaluable.
  • beingruth
    I used to follow links in comments on my old site, but I started getting a lot of those spammers. The funny thing is that once I turned it off I got fewer human spammers (still plenty of bots). After talking to a few friends, I decided that some spammers may share who's following links. Those are the slightly smarter ones.

    The line about disappointing your mom made me laugh...I actually used that on a blog scraper once. Told him that I didn't care if he wrote the theme for the blog it still wasn't his content...and it was a pity his mother didn't raise him better. He got really angry. It was hilarious! (I have even less love for scrapers than for comment spammers and even less love for the ones who are dumb enough to try to justify themselves when served a DMCA notice.)
  • Oh dear, please don't tell me the name I've been known for since 2003 on ebay is considered "spammy" - I just thought my ebay user name would be okay to use across the internet. It's my Twitter name, Facebook, it's everywhere I go, it's my name, darn it!! So, I think I'll keep it after all...Leah aka thriftgirl62
  • remarkablogger
    No, you're fine. :-) I'm talking about names like "Free Credit Report" and
    crap like that. User names and pseudonyms are a longstanding internet
    tradition. I don't consider them spam.
  • Right on! I went on a rant about this awhile back. I no longer approve comments with spammy names, no matter if they seem legit. I won't do it. I want REAL NAMES.
  • Couldn't agree more. And it's even worse on Twitter. It's frustrating from a reader's point of view because I read through the comments because they often contain some valuable additional insights. Having to wade through spammy stuff is annoying and a time-waster.
    I certainly wouldn't give those comment authors the time of day.
  • "Come to give, not to receive, and you'll get more than you've ever hoped for." This is so true. Taking the time to truly read a post, commenting when you have something real to offer, and helping others succeed . . . . good business practice and good life practice!
  • Hey Michael,

    I'm pretty strict about it myself - I'll occasionally let a business name slide, but only if it's a true brand or legitimately describes the person. Like I wouldn't mind you putting "Michael Martine - Blog Consultant" since that's who you are. But if you instead put "Wordpress SEO Secrets" even though that's your product, that might bother me. I guess I wouldn't mind if someone puts "Joe - Shoe Salesman" put "Nike Shoes" really ticks me off

    I do love though that with DISQUS I can easily mark it as spam via email - check it on my iphone, reply with with spam and poof it's gone!

    I'm trying to build a name for *my name* (Sid Savara) though because I've noticed that people who Google for me specifically spend much longer on my site. Maybe thats by seeing me mentioned on Twitter or other blogs, but that means I *want* people to see my actual name in the comments now - hopefully that'll get them curious to check out the person behind the comment =)
  • I am bringing a big portion of enthusiasm ... :-)
    I always hate it when I get ONE comment, but then realizing it's spam :-(
  • Oh, I'm so wishy washy about keyword comment names. I feel like a lot of the time they are just misguided and what does it hurt to let them through but then sometimes I also feel annoyed. This is the kind of thing I was born to over analyze.

    I do have this one post where I talk about my rice cooker in passing that gets just a staggering amount of those kinds of comments. Who knew the rice cooker spam blog industry was so big? So, it these kinds of comments can be fun and educational for me even if I don't let them through.

  • Very astutely observed, Sir.
  • I love these debates!

    I absolutely allow linked "First Last | My Business" provided:

    1. There's a real person there, the gravatar matches the person.
    2. The link actually is a real business and not a spam blog.
    3. The comment adds to the discussion with something interesting and relevant.

    Then again, I'm in a cohort (more on cohorts later, right after my yet-to-be-finished article on art blogs) which hasn't turned the corner on traffic or business, so we're all on the hamster wheel racing each other. Heh... I've seen a few get spun off already. I'm accelerating.

    Since I'm currently paying the rent with face-to-face clients, it's not hurting me at all.

  • But... But... all your no follow link belong to me.
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