Written on April 8th, 2005 at 09:04 pm by Darren Rowse
Blogger Supports Comment Spammers?
Duncan from the Blog Herald is on a Comment Spammer Hunt with two of his late posts - (here and here). Go Duncan Go!
Following the links in his posts I found a post at SEOBook (http://www.seobook.com/archives/000776.shtml) which left me feeling disturbed. Aaron writes it with qualifications that comment spam brings ‘negative 1000 karma points’ but he links to sites that sell comment spam technology and in reading his post I can’t help but feel he’s almost promoting it as a viable option for Search Engine Optimization.
I’m really shocked by this - I’ve been a reader of SEOBook for some time and have even linked to it in the past because of some of Aaron’s better posts - but this latest post disturbs me. As a blogger, as a reputable SEO operator - I would have thought that Aaron would have taken a different approach to this post.
His post title leaves me wondering if he’s actually hoping to get ranked well in Search Engines:
‘Cheap Blog Spamming Script, Blog Spam Comment Submission Software, & Lists of Spamable Blogs’
You can imagine what kind of traffic he is going to get to this post. Then he links to the sources of comment spamming scripts (giving those searching for the technology what they want) and building the page ranking of the comment spammers pages.
He then goes on to list the ‘quality features’ of the spamming script which includes - ‘autosubmit to unlimited sites’ and the ability to extract 1000 URLs to spam to in 20 seconds.
He compares the price of the script to Yahoo Directory submission and points out that with the comment spam technique you end up with loads more links.
Then he asks people who try the scripts to give him feedback. He writes
‘I also think there are many valuable techniques to the art of effective blog spam. Some people probably are better at getting their spam to stick than others are. Its all about relevancy and providing useful content. hehehe :)’
Aaron has some comments challenging this post in comments - I am one of them. Yes he softly says that comment spam is bad (in a vague way) but the overall tone of his post says otherwise in my mind and is irresponsible and frankly makes me sick as someone who has spent many hundreds of hours over the past few years deleting and working against spammers to keep my blogs free of the filth that they spread.
I detest comment spam for many reasons - they are parasites who suck the goodness out of sites and exploiting the hard work of others. Many of their work is in promoting what I consider to be junky sites, many of which are utter filth in every sense of the word. Anyone who supports comment spammers should be treated with suspicion in my mind. I’m disappointed with Aaron and won’t be gracing his site with my presence in future.
3 Responses to “Blogger Supports Comment Spammers?”
Ugo Cei
April 8th, 2005 10:35 pm
I don’t know who this Aaron guy is, but to me it seems like he’s totally full of sh*t. And for anybody who falls for his “I’m just providing information” line, I’ve got a nice seaside property in Nevada for sale.
Jarkko
April 8th, 2005 11:10 pm
Many people are pondering whether Google uses filters to diminish the value of links that come alive suddenly and in numbers. I doubt that comment spam will gain much foothold in engines for those who do it. Still, I think that as a cosmetic, disruptive and administrative problem, comment spam will beset blogs in a similar manner as spam is doing now.
What does it help, if I set my blog to only accept comments from other Bloggers? I regularly get comments from tim, tyra (no offence ment for any actual tims or tyras) or who ever, saying Vioxxin or some other wonderful thing is the best there is and in the end they enclose a link. They are just made up profiles and the tracks stop there. We need better personal identification in the net, that should deter all but biggest spammers. Then, would information be free anymore? Maybe not, so I guess I am out of options. Maybe established blogs could set up free membership to fight this problem. Automatic spamming would end at very least. Added benefit would be the acquired email address, which could be used for some informative/educating marketing.
Now as a mini publisher/blogger, I have to check those comments to see if they are valid, it is really tiresome task. I don’t care if my mailbox is full of junk, it is only my friends who know the real address. But it is impossible to ignore my blogs. I feel that if my tiny kingdom gets any bigger, I have to hire a moderator that keeps things neat and tidy.
Wayne Hurlbert
April 10th, 2005 7:39 pm
Link comment spam, like guestbook links, has little real value in moving up in the Google rankings. The algorithm is set to ignore it, and the fresh link dampening filter keeps it from providing any immediate link boost that it might have that slips through the cracks.
Comment spam is very inefficient as a link building program at best. More likely, it provides very minimal value. At worst, it could result in a penalty to the comment spammer’s site. None of these scenarios makes the practice even worth the time or effort.
The time would be much better spent developing some good quality content for the site. Attracting natural incoming links is always the best short and long term method for effective SEO.
Leave a Reply