The Power Of Desperation Or How Bloggers Encourage Comment Spammers
- Image by thespotter via Flickr
Oh, Yeah! I said it!
Your eyes are not deceiving you because I do believe that Comment Spammers are directly encouraged by bloggers driven by a desperation to get activity on their blogs.
I have no plans to lay the blame here but instead encourage those just starting with the wonderful form of online publishing that blogging has become to stay strong and resist the urge to approve those few first comments on your new, shiny blog.
I know exactly how it feels when you labor on idea, you do the research, you work hard to create content that you KNOW worth the attention and yet…
Nobody comes, or what is even worse – people do come but don’t participate!
No comments left on your blog and you left to wonder if what you have created is even provides the value you thought it does. This is where the dangerous zone begins.
Since you have put some much work into your content – it will begin to score well with Search Engines and comment spammers often are some of the first people to recognize it. They swarm a new blog producing high quality unique content and start leaving crap comments just to get their links on your pages.
They know that in time – your content will give them benefits of quality links to their spam sites!
And I also know how hard it might be to send that VERY FIRST comment on your blog into spam folder, where it belongs! After all, it’s just one… right?
Wrong!
Once your blog is identified as accepting spam – you will get more, a lot more and can actually hurt your blog overall quite badly as linking out to bad sites can lead to penalty by Google.
How To You Get More Participation On New Blog?
There are several things you can do to get more comments on your blog, no matter how new it i, as long as your content is good. People love sharing opinion – you just have to give them a reason!
But before you do anything else – you need to create a clear Commenting Policy. I’m not going to go into details as I have previously shared how in this post – Create Clear Comment Policy To Avoid Spam.
Once that in place – you have several options to consider and one of the most important is How Do You Reward Commenters who take the time to take part on your blog, interact with you and with other readers?
I’m a HUGE advocate of rewarding people with quality links for the time they took out of their life to contribute to my content and I do using several plugins, which I can recommend:
- LuciaLinkyLove - allows me to provide DoFollow links to comments who have 3 or more approved comments on my blog. I provided direct link to plugin file but developer stopped supporting it, although in my experience it works just fine with latest versions of WP. If you discover that link no longer works – search for other DoFollow plugins in WordPress Repository.
- CommentLuv – this one gives people links to their latest blog posts. I have covered it step-by-step in my previous post and if you are interested to learn – read details about it in CommentLuv Plus DoFollow Equal Unlimited Link Love post.
- Comment Relish – this is a superb little plugin that allows you to send a thank you email to a first time commenter on your blog. Even though it is an automated reply if you do proper customization – it doesn’t have to be a dry message, it can be fairly personal! Great plugin to have on your blog to encourage people to return and comment again!
There are a few more plugins you can use but those 3 I think should give you the base functionality to reward commenters and now you only have one thing left to do…
Get People To Comment On Your Blog!
Hmmm, seems like we are back to square one, huh?
Well, not really, because now your blog is READY TO REWARD people for taking the time to provide valuable comment and you just have to let them know about it. While doing proper on-page SEO is a MUST – for a new blog it might not generate the results you are expecting.
But this is where the power of social networks comes into play! I know many people disregard Social Networks traffic as useless and I have to disagree with that statement. I have always strongly believed that matching traffic type to the action you need is crucial for a traffic to be effective.
Socail Networks exist for one main reason – people want to interact!
And what does your blog need? Comments, interaction! Seems like a perfect fit to me and all you have to do is bring the people from social networks to your blog pages!
Twitter and Facebook couple of the most obvious choices and if you don’t spam them – you can get people to come and participate. I think Twitter is especially effective. In fact I personally use it and describe how in my free report “Tweet Your Blog”
But you can go beyond automation and actually actively engage into conversation within social network and get a LOT more traffic from it. I have written one os the strategies you can use in How To Turn TweetDeck Into Blogging Inspiration – it is a VERY direct way to get people interested into what you have to say and I guarantee, if you do it effectively – you will see new comments
Hardest Part is to get commenting started on your blog but once you get few – power of Social Proof takes over and when people see that others are commenting, participating – they will as well. It is incredible on how seeding a few first comments can help you boost overall participation!
Whew…. did I ever stray from the original topic, huh?!
Well if you find this post useful – comment please and use the social sharing buttons to invite others to do same! Thanks.
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About The Blog Author
Alex Sysoef is an IT Consultant, Internet Marketer and ProBlogger who shares his passion and knowledge of WordPress, SEO, Social Media and traffic strategies on his blog WordPress Howto Spotter. Connect on Twitter or Facebook
Alex, this is a great post. I learned about LuciaLinkyLove, CommentLuv, and Comment Relish a while back from you and have been using them since that time. They seem to be working well for me.
I also use the two spam filters you recommend and get very little spam comments now.
.-= Herschel Lawhorn´s last blog ..How To Drive Free Instant Traffic To Your Affiliate Offers =-.
Hi Alex
.
I was unaware of the LuciaLinkyLove plugin , but anyhow i will be using in my blog after some time
Although i was using JR_NoFollow plugin , but it was a time consuming task for me keep on adding links for Dofollow or Nofollow attribute
Have you tried this plugin Alex??
.-= Sunil Jain´s last blog ..5 Things to know before creating a blog =-.
This year one of my goals is to increase the sense of community on my blog. As part of that commitment I have implemented kewyordluv, twitterlink-comments plugin to give back to my readers when they do comment.
The one thing above ALL others I’ve found that helps increase comments on my blog is ASKING.
Once I started asking people to participate, gave them something specific to write about in their comments, my comment numbers went up dramatically. 
Thanks for another great post Alex!
.-= Jackie Lee´s last blog ..Unrealistic Expectations ~ How to Break Them and Move Your Business Forward! =-.
I’m a fan of comment luv myself. Provide a call to action link even if its no follow. instead of a quick backlink which no one is likely to click anyways.
.-= Andrew Keir´s last blog ..The enemies of ideas =-.
Hi Alex,
Approving spam comments is something that shouldn’t be done no matter how much one wants the first comment.
Luckily I was warned even before I started my blog and thus the temptation to approve spam comments didn’t get me.
I use Akismet and it catches at least 98% of spam if not more.
In case of new commentators I always visit their blog first before I approve the comment.
Thanks for mentioning the Comment Relish plug in. I’m going to check it. It seems like a good way to welcome first time commentators.
Your points about twitter and facebook sound good.
I have yet to learn of people who use twitter without too much automation and enough personal participation.
It doesn’t mean that they aren’t there. I look forward to finding them.
As far as some people switching to no follow goes, it seems to me that they have achieved a certain position and now don’t feel like helping others anymore.
Like you say, Google does follow no follow links anyway. I’ve seen some evidence of that.
Vance
.-= Vance Sova´s last blog ..Get Blog Traffic Increase With Blog Comments =-.
I am sure you don’t ever have to worry about people not commenting on your articles !
Very informative,detailed and educative on the crucial issue of whether people willingly invite spam just to make them ‘appear’ in google searches.
As you wrote,the right things have only one way to work them out and that is doing the right thing and that is the only option.Comment rules and regulations go a long way in marking out a blog as serious or non serious.
Great writeup,I would recommend this to my friends to go through.
Comment Relish looks interesting… but I’ve made it habit to send a personal email to everyone that comments anyway. So it would be superfluous. Maybe once my traffic goes nuts or something. Definitely glad to learn about it, so thanks for that, and for a great article.
First time here. Looks good.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Your Next Killer Technique for Telling Compelling Stories (It’s easier than you think) =-.
Great insight towards spam comments, I think although making your blog “Do Follow” does mean a lot more comment moderation it can work well for some bloggers to get some traffic, it all depends if you think its worth the spam. Bloggers have an obsession with Do Follow blogs and they can be great for temporary backlinks and some temporay traffic but eventually your going to have to want to get permanent links that are of value to your blog, although do follow blog comments can fill the void for a while.
.-= Keith´s last blog ..9 Ways To Monetize Your Blog =-.
As long as you monitor the comments, your blog will be fine with full of interaction. I see blogs with auto-approve comments are full of spams. People will just say “nice post!”
.-= Kai´s last blog ..SEO Company =-.
I like the logic behind that statement. Yes, it’s somehow the blogger’s fault why spammers are everywhere. However, there are still ways to fight the spam comments. Don’t make an auto-approve set-up. I’ve seen so many blogs who moderated comments. In this way, a blogger can eliminate useless comments.
.-= Harrison Stuart´s last blog ..Spying on Your Spouse’s PC- Right or Wrong? =-.
Here is how I look at it… you start a new blog and are excited for people to comment. Relate this to being a young boy starting his teen years. As the young boy you are excited to meet your first girl. Well one day a young girl asks the boy to kiss her. What does he say? OF COURSE HE DOES. It’s his first girl and he probably doesn’t care what she’s going to be when she grows up, her morals and all the other stuff that becomes important later in life. He doesn’t care about any of that because of the chemicals in his body telling him to go for it! Relate this to your blog. You have all the young boy chemicals in your head telling you to accept it. DON’T! You will gain more respect and be rewarded in the future for not allowing spam messages on your blog. Anyway, that’s my take on the whole commenting on blog.
Here is how I look at it… you start a new blog and are excited for people to comment. Relate this to being a young boy starting his teen years. As the young boy you are excited to meet your first girl. Well one day a young girl asks the boy to kiss her. What does he say? OF COURSE HE DOES. It’s his first girl and he probably doesn’t care what she’s going to be when she grows up, her morals and all the other stuff that becomes important later in life. He doesn’t care about any of that because of the chemicals in his body telling him to go for it! Relate this to your blog. You have all the young boy chemicals in your head telling you to accept it. DON’T! You will gain more respect and be rewarded in the future for not allowing spam messages on your blog. Anyway, that’s my take on the whole commenting on blog.
Sometimes the spam comment sounds so real too!
When I first started getting them on my blog, I’d really wonder for a few seconds if it’s a spam comment or not.
.-= lazygirl´s last blog ..Loving the rain =-.
Thanks, Alex. I just discovered your blog, and there is a lot of great stuff here. I particularly liked the part about how to reward commenters and appreciate the link to Comment Relish. I am going to try that out with one of my blogs. I’ll keep reading and see what other useful tips I can pick up. Thanks!
Also, for those who have a bit more experience using or tweaking a plugins or WordPress itself, or know a determined topic well, can write about it and encourage questions. I think writing plugin reviews and WordPress walk-throughs are a great way to get people coming and commenting. It’s great to see that some bloggers, like Alex take their time to reply to other people’s comments on the article page.