Written on January 10th, 2005 at 10:01 am by David Shawver Stanton
Why Comment Spam is Dangerous to Our Blogs
Comment Spam is a terrible thing. I feel like I’m constantly fighting a battle against the slime that leave unsolicited, irrelevant and often degrading comments filled with links to disreputable sites on my blogs. It comes from the automated bot spammers but also from the small blogger who think that a comment like ‘nice site’ with a link back to their site is any better. I delete them all and add them to a blacklist.
There have been mornings that I’ve logged onto my blogs after peaceful night’s sleep to find thousands of comments on my blogs. It can be down right depressing - especially when you think you’ve finally installed that tool to stop spammers in their tracks only to find that they’ve found a way around it.
However I fight on. You see I believe that if we don’t delete and fight comment spammers then we’ll do ourselves a disservice. Comment spam left unchecked can not only bring your own site into disrepute and degradation, but I believe it can also decrease your site’s standing in Google and other search engines and that in the end we all suffer from it.
This morning I was doing some surfing and I thought I’d stop by Blog Search Engine to see what was happening there. I ended up on their blog and was really disappointed by what I saw. It wasn’t that the blog hasn’t been updated for a few months (that is their prerogative) but it was the 142 comments on the last post - all of which (bar one that I could find) were spam to poker, finance and drug sites. Unfortunately this was the tale to virtually every post on their blog - between 80 and 160 spam comments everywhere you look.
Whilst I can understand the frustration of dealing with spam I worry for Blog Search Engine when I see the way they’ve let their blog go. I worry for them on a number of levels:
1. Comment spam damages reputation - Imagine a first time surfer’s reaction to stumbling upon their blog (like I did this morning) to seeing some of the links that their site now points to. I’ve had a number of emails over the years from readers of my blog that have found comment spam on my site (which slipped past my detection) who expressed disgust and concern over what they’d read. I doubt they’ve ever come back to my sites.
2. Comment spam could damage Search Engine Rankings - You see the evidence is pretty clear that Google decreases the page ranking of sites that link into dodgy sites. They frown on a variety of systems including some link trading programs and I suspect the day will come when they find a way to combat comment spammers by adding them to their disreputable site’s list (if they havn’t already) - when this day comes, those of us with masses of links to them will no doubt suffer.
I’ve also noticed that lot of comment spam links are broken links. This also doesn’t help your site with search engines. They dislike broken links and if you end up with a site full of them then you’ll be penalized.
It also concerns me that there is anecdotal evidence surfacing in forums that comment spam works and that a growing number of sites that do it are rising in the search engine results. This worries me because for every site that goes up, a site must go down. There can only ever be 10 top 10 sites for a search term. Your site will suffer as a result of this tactic of search engine optimization. The day will come when a site you’re proud of and have put a lot of legitimate hard work into will fall a place, or two, or ten in the search engines because another site run by spammers rises above it. If you don’t fight spam you’re part of the problem and you will suffer the consequences along with the rest of us.
3. Comment Spam hurts the blogosphere - I want to argue that bloggers not only have a responsibility to their own blogs but to the rest of the blogosphere. If a site allows comment spammers to overrun them it is like saying to comment spammers that they have won and they can continue to do what they do. If one site doesn’t deal with it the spammers win and they will continue to spread their filth across the rest of our blogs.
I can just imagine how many dead blogs are out there which are filling up with comment spam and it makes me quite ill to think about it.
I would suggest that if you’re going to allow your old blogs to die that before you do you either delete the whole blog or that you disable comments on it. Otherwise you’ll just be adding to a growing problem that is going to impact us more and more.
Written on January 10th, 2005 at 08:01 am by David Shawver Stanton
Tips and Suggestions for Launching a Successful Blog from the Evangelical Outpost
The Evangelical Outpost has a great series of posts on How To Start a Successful Blog that might be worth checking out if you’re towards the beginning of your blogging journey. His tips cover the topics of:
Part I - Before You Begin
Part II - The Beginning Bloggers Toolbox
Part III - How to Become an A-List Blogger
Part IV – The Art of Marketing Your Blog
Part V - Owning a Micro-Niche
Part VI – Three Essential Elements of Blog Design
I particularly find part IV useful as he explores the idea of owning a micro niche which is an approach that I myself subscribe to in most of my blogging. Rather than blogging on a wide variety of topics it is much easier (but still not simple) to establish a reputation in a smaller niche with a blog.
Some of his other posts on blogging are also quite insightful including How to become a Higher Being (a look at the top ten blogs on the ecosystem) and How to get linked by Instapundit (a look at who Glenn links to and how to get his attention).
Written on January 9th, 2005 at 06:01 pm by David Shawver Stanton
The Risk of Blogging a Scoop
Apple’s recent decision to sue fan site Think Secret for publishing rumors (which look like they were too close to home) about an upcoming Apple product got me thinking this week about where I as a blogger who rights about technology would stand with regards to publishing such information. On a number of occasions in the past two years of blogging I’ve been given significant information on yet to be released products including specifications, names and even photos.
Some of this information comes from within companies, others from anonymous tips and sometimes they are from mistakes companies have made in publishing pages on new products too early. Its a real buzz when you get such a scoop but what are the ethics of it? Just as an important question is what are the risks involved with such scoops? Is it worth publishing such information if we could be sued? As smaller operators could we even afford to foot the legal bills for such legal action?
This week I received an email from an employee of Samsung who requested that I take down information that I had posted on my Camera Phone Blog on three ‘concept phones‘ (or phones in development) that Samsung had not officially launched. I did not obtain the information or pictures that I posted illegally, but rather from another site that had published it (with links back to them).
I considered my options and ended up deciding to remove the content of each post and replace it with an explanation of why I had done so for readers. My decision was not really based upon my relationship with Samsung or because they asked me to - but because I could not afford to take on the expense of a legal bill for leaving the information online.
Whilst I can understand Apple and Samsung not wanting technical details of their unreleased products appearing online I am left wondering if it is actually in their best interests to take such an approach with publishers. Whilst I’m committed to reporting news in an objective non biased manner - I wonder what will linger in the back of my mind next time I come to review a Samsung camera or phone. I wonder what suing one of their most comprehensive fan sites (which has tens of thousands of avid apple fan readers) is doing for the publicity of Apple this week?
Jason Calacanis has an open letter on his blog to Apple after the Think Secret debacle which sums up some of my own thinking on the matter:
‘You’ve worked the public into a frenzy over your products, and we as the press are covering that enthusiasm. Your employees and partners send us tips all day long, and we as journalists cover those tips. That’s what we do!
Sometimes those tips pan out, most times they don’t. It’s all part of the pop and circumstance of the technology industry.
Don’t you think it’s fun that everyone is playing this game of cat and mouse? Don’t you appreciate that people are so obsessed with your work that they launch a site called Think *Secret*? Most companies would love to have this attention, and your response it to sue the press that feeds you?
If you want to sue someone sue your employees who send us the leaks, or your partners who tip us off. They are the ones who sign agreements with you not to talk—not us!’
What is your opinion on this topic? What would you do if asked by a company to remove content on an unreleased product?
Written on January 9th, 2005 at 11:01 am by David Shawver Stanton
Long Term Blogging Builds Credibility
Holy Weblog Batman! T.L. Pakii Pierce is writing some great articles these days! His recent one on Cracking Credibility & Why Internet Marketing WILL Change is worth the read and talks (as the title suggests) that credibility is an essential element of effective blogging.
Blogging is not a silver bullet solution - it takes time to build an audience, time to build relationships and time to build credibility as a source of information that people will keep coming back to. Its common sense really. T.L says it much better than I do:
‘When you consider the cost of blogging and the return on your investment, the ROI of blogging is phenomenal…BUT…it comes at a price.
But doesn’t everything?
The price is that you must commit to a relationship that will require ongoing attention. Blogs will amplify your message and your reach in a powerful way and at near zero cost when compared to other means of reaching a market with your message. But the price of relationship is the need to continually connect with your market and develop your social network in order to build an authentic and authoritative voice that can be trusted.
This is an extremely important message to receive and digest for newbie marketers and newbie bloggers especially. You cannot approach blogging thinking you will set a up page and sell tons of items. You have to properly prepare a message that helps carry your product to a targeted niche audience….’
The rest of the article is excellent - but for me this is one of the major pieces of advice that I give new bloggers with dreams of fame and dollar signs in their eyes - it won’t happen over night! Are you willing to work hard on your blogging, for a long time? Are you willing to slave away at something with the risk of being ignored by the blogosphere? Are you willing to make blogging a daily part of your life?
Credibility doesn’t happen quickly. Think about those that you respect the most in your real life? Why do you see them as credible, respect worthy people? I can’t answer for you, but for me its simply that over time I’ve seen behavior from them that consistently impresses and assures me that they are people of character who not only speak the truth but who live it. It takes time - I don’t trust just anyone in real life - it has to be earned - and in the blogosphere this lesson is also true.
I wrote a few months ago that:
‘Unless you have an absolutely brilliant concept or strike it incredibly lucky it will take you time to build your blogging up to a position where it earns you a decent income - even then you still need a bit of luck, many hours in front of the computer and a few intelligent strategies in place to make it worth your time. I spend at least 30 hours a week blogging - I treat it as a full time job - if I’m not willing to put substantial hours into it why would I expect it to reward me with a substantial monetary reward?’
So take a long term approach. Build your blogging over time and remember that a constant daily posting approach builds over time into something quite substantial. It will build you a substantially sized blog - but more importantly it will build the size of your credibility.
Written on January 9th, 2005 at 11:01 am by David Shawver Stanton
Are Explicit Copyright Notices Necessary for Weblogs and Web Pages?
Dave Taylor answers the question “Are Explicit Copyright Notices Necessary for Weblogs and Web Pages?” and writes:
‘This means that you do not need to have an explicit copyright notice for you to have a legally enforceable copyright, as long as your name appears on the work as an author. Anonymous material is covered too, but you can read about that yourself if you’re interested.
The US Copyright Office clarifies how the Berne Convention applies to U.S. Copyright law: “The use of a copyright notice is no longer required under U.S. law, although it is often beneficial.
Continuing to quote from the Copyright Office: ”Use of the notice may be important because it informs the public that the work is protected by copyright, identifies the copyright owner, and shows the year of first publication. Furthermore, in the event that a work is infringed, if the work carries a proper notice, the court will not give any weight to a defendant’s interposition of an innocent infringement defense—that is, that he or she did not realize that the work was protected. An innocent infringement defense may result in a reduction in damages that the copyright owner would otherwise receive.“’
Good answer which is what I was advised by my own legal investigations. Dave goes on in the article to write about what makes a good copyright notice. Well worth the read.
Written on January 9th, 2005 at 11:01 am by David Shawver Stanton
:: w.bloggar :: version 4.0 released
PC users might be interested in the latest release of :: w.bloggar :: which has just been released.
:: w.bloggar :: acts as an interface between you and your blog, acting as a post and template editor. It allows offline editing (of course you have to connect eventually to update your blog).
The latest version (4.0) supports MovableType advanced post options and new tools like WordPress, SquareSpace, B2evolution etc. Get a full list of the update changes at their What’s New page.
Looks like a good system - but unfortunately I’ll never know as I’m a Mac man and they have not and will not ever release a version for me. Instead I use ecto which supports both Mac and PC users. If w.blogger is anything like ecto I’m sure its a very useful tool!
I’d be interested to hear from w.blogger users - how do you find the new version? - write us a short review of the interface and I’ll gladly publish it here or link to it on your blog.
Written on January 9th, 2005 at 11:01 am by David Shawver Stanton
Word Press - Web Application of the Year
ars tecnica has just announced its awards for 2004 and has named WordPress as Web application of the year.
Let’s face it. Blogs are in fashion, and why not? Vanity knows no bounds, and there are some people who actually do something productive with theirs. From the influence of blogs on the coverage of the US presidential elections to every random teenager who has problems with their partner/parent/teacher/cat, blogs are out there allowing your most intimate feelings to be shared with random people at wifi hotspots. WordPress is the most prominent rising star of weblog software, completely free and with a large and Active community. Styles, plugins and hacks are readily available, with problems such as comment spamming being addressed far more rapidly than competing applications.
I have to agree - WP is moving forward very quickly and is a highly useable application for blogging. I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops in 2005.
Written on January 9th, 2005 at 10:01 am by David Shawver Stanton
New Adsense Format in Testing - 7 Ads per box
It looks like the people at Adsense are trialing a new format of ads again. Actually its not completely new - the size is the normal wide skyscraper (160 x 600) but the difference is that they are trying 7 ads in it rather than the usual 5.
The font is smaller and there is no URL on the design. I found it on one of their tester sites, sitemeter which runs Adsense ads on their stats pages (like this one).
Adsense have tested numerous formats on these pages and only some of what I’ve seen trialed there has ever gotten through to the rest of us so don’t count on seeing it as an option too soon - but you never know.
I’ve included a screen shot of this skyscraper (left - click to enlarge) because these tests always last too long.
What do you think of the new format? Theoretically it should increase the click through rate for ads as there are more chances of ads being relevant for readers - however the font is smaller which decreases the chances of users seeing them.
The other initial thought I have is that most of my pages already have two ad sections per page and Google struggles to fill them both already as it is. I worry that if I moved to a 7 ad format whether the other ad section would more often than not be empty.
I guess we’ll find out how useful the format is by whether they offer it to us.
Written on January 8th, 2005 at 06:01 pm by David Shawver Stanton
Breaking News Blog Collective FAQ
Fredrik over at CorporateBloggingBlog takes a look at our new Breaking News Blog Collective and writes:
‘I like the idea of developing the group blog concept and “collective blogging” is an interesting thought. But what on earth does medical research have to do with Jessica Simpson? Or credit cards with MP3-players (unless you use the first to pay for the second…)? And why can’t readers subscribe to the collection of blogs with one feed?’
I appreciate the critique of what we’re doing but wonder if I communicated clearly what we’re hoping to do with the collective when I announced it. Let me make a few points to try and clarify things a bit more:
- I agree with his observation that the spread of topics are quite eclectic and largely unrelated to one another. This is intentional as it represents the interests of the bloggers who write for us (who are a rather eclectic and interesting bunch).
- The reason we don’t offer an RSS feed that follows all the latest posts across each of the blogs is for the exact reason that Fredrik states - the blogs cover such a wide variety of topics that it would be a very strange individual that would want to follow them all (I know I wouldn’t - because some of the topics I have little no interest in). Rather each blog has its own RSS feed which is clearly identified on each blog.
- We chose to use the word ‘collective’ to describe us instead of network for a number of reasons but perhaps the word causes some confusion. By collective we don’t mean that we’ll necessarily all be working collectively on projects (each blog is run by an individual or in some cases in the future a defined group). The word collective was chosen because there is an element of revenue sharing and commitment by members to promoting one another’s blogs.
- Why didn’t we choose the word ‘network’? Well it may actually be a better word - however in my mind I was wanting to differentiate ourselves a little from the other emerging blog networks out there like Gawker and Weblogs Inc. Not because we don’t like what they do - they are inspirational - but because we operate a little differently to them. From what I can see they are owned by an individual or small group of individuals who engage bloggers to write for them. The model we are currently operating with (and it may change as we experiment) is one where a small core group of individuals started BNB but where the ownerships of blogs is actually held by the bloggers themselves who each contribute back to the collective a percentage of their earnings for shared costs.
- The central home page may also be causing some confusion for some. A number of people think that that page is a blog in itself - its actually not and is made up up the last few entries of each blog in the collective to give an example of the topics we’re covering. This central page is not intended to be the only thing that people read and it is not expected that it be the dominant focus of the network - rather our hope is that each blog will be the focus and that the central page is just a reflection of what is going on around the collective. I suspect this page will change and evolve as the collective continues to grow.
Having said all that we’re still experimenting, exploring and creating on the run. It is not perfect and we’re open to feedback. Things are growing fast and we’re hoping the collective will emerge and evolve into something worthwhile for all involved. I’d be interested in your critiques, reflections and suggestions.
Written on January 8th, 2005 at 06:01 pm by David Shawver Stanton
Weblogs Inc announces SCM Wire
WeblogsInc have announced another blog (seems to be a weekly occurrence now) called SCM Wire which is dedicated to supply chain management. Its currently in beta but is functioning well. They describe the brief of the blog as:
‘The Supply Chain Management Blog is dedicated to reporting on and exploring the world of the industrial and consumer supply chain, including purchasing and procurement, distribution, logistics and traffic, e-commerce, outsourcing, customer relationship management, and a bit of operations management. We’ll also touch on some supply chain related general management and business topics such as human resources, negotiation, and training and development. Supply chain management is one of those less than glamorous topics and professions that seemingly works in the background. But, it is the glue that holds business together. We all experience it on a daily basis….’
Not sure I’ll be adding this one to my RSS feed but its sure to tickle someone’s fancy and by the little digging around that I’ve just done on what ‘Supply Chain Management’ pays on contextual advertising I’d say it’ll be a pretty worthwhile venture for Weblogs Inc.
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