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On my niche blogs I see comment spam all the time. Akismet does a fantastic job of picking it up. Not sure how unless these people have been reported as spammers because the comments are cleverly disguised. I'll explain a few comment spam tactics that I've seen in a sec.
Part of the way I get back links is I use tools and search engines to find dofollow blogs related to my niche...and who doesn't right? Well... I take the time, read the article, read through the comments and leave a comment that either provides value or ask a question if I genuinely have a question. Then I add the blog's feed to my public Google feed and come back to the blog on occasion to read more posts and comment.
One other thing I do which is somewhat selfish and somewhat helpful is Social Bookmark the post that I commented on. Not only that, I mention in the comment that I Social Bookmarked it...hoping to entice the blog owner to accept the comment if he might not have normally. I've seen a lot of spammers use that trick now so I've since stopped. They say something like "Great post, I added to Stumble." Yeah, sure ya did!
Of course, the main selfish reason to Social Bookmark the post is to give it more luv, which may in turn give more luv to your dofollow link that sits on that page (in the comments). As pointed out on CowTV (JohnCow.com) it's more beneficial to do that when someone links to your from their post...but your link in the comments deserves some luv too.
The thing that made me decide to write this post is because of some comments that I seen in my diet blog a minute ago. The comment spammers are playing on the fact that most bloggers have a big ego and if they get put down they will fight back. So, they suspect that comments like: "I find your blog boring, I don’t think you are telling the truth.", "Your information is confusing, may be you need more information.", "I’m pretty sure some people will not like it." might have a better chance of being approved. All of these comments were from the same douche within minutes of eachother. He changed the URL/comment and that's it...kept his name the same! haha So it seems that enough people reported him to the Mr. Akismet and the douche is now dropped right in Akismet. He hasn't got to the point where he is auto-purged yet...maybe that's the next step...Maybe if enough people declare it as not spam he won't be flagged automatically...so slow your roll buddy!
Anyway...that's it...I just found it funny some of the tricks that comment spammers use....Albeit (is that a word? it looks weird) somewhat clever, sometimes they are done in a really stupid way.
I've turned off DoFollow in the comments, CommentLuv and KeywordLuv...we'll see how many regualr commentators still comment...I don't suspect it'll drop too much though because I do dedicate a post with some DoFollow luv to my regular readers..and the blogs I read...
Tell me some of the crap you've seen try to slide by as regular comments that were apparent spam.
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September 21st, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Yeah, I’ve had those guys come my way as well. They’re pretty clever because I have to re-read their short post to really decide if they’re legit or not. At least, that’s what I did before, but now I can pick them out pretty quickly. Gee, I don’t know, maybe it has to do something with their web address being totally blatant like “fixyourcredit.com” or something like that.
So is labeling them as spam in my blog the equivalent of reporting them to Akismet or do you have to go to greater lengths?
September 21st, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I’m just guessing, but I believe after marking it as spam a report is sent to Akismet…and that’s all you have to do…anyone know for sure??
And my theory is that…enough people mark something as spam…anything from that URL will be dumped in the spam box…if after awhile there aren’t a significant amount of people that “unspam” it, it will just be purged automatically.
Just a guess…I’m sure I can find the facts if I do a quick Google search…
Thanks for dropping by Mark
September 21st, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Hey Keith…yeah, I’ve been getting plenty of them. I’ve also got a lot of “nofollow” comments that are literally a mile long; nothing to do with the blog itself. They’re not even kind or rude enough to make a comment…just a mile long list of URL’s…FUN!!!
September 21st, 2008 at 8:09 pm
haha yeah, there’s nothing clever about that…geez…maybe there are a lot of people who don’t have any sort of comment spam protection enabled on their blogs so that approach may be effective…thanks Barb
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Yeah, I get tons of SPAM on my phpBay sites of all places. Submitting the commented page is a good idea. I’ll often ping it, but I haven’t submitted it before/
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:14 am
Hi Keith,
Even I get spam on my two blogs. And I hardly have anything added to them.
And yes they’re not comments but strings of nonsensical words and phrases.
Btw Albeit IS a word.
I’ll have to drop you a line on Facebook and a line to Donna too. I’ve been quite busy.
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Pinging is definitely a time saver over SBmarking ‘em and much better than doing nothing. More luv with the SB’s though.
Thanks for the comment Monty..
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Hi Joyce!
haha…yeah albeit just looks weird..and I feel weird using it in a sentence.
I actually fell off the facebook planet (except for my niche accounts)…Donna’s still on there though…
September 24th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Hahaha, yes, I’ve seen this crap too man! It’s crazy! They are getting sneaky.
I’ve seen some though, post the same exact comment on other blogs to which I am subscribed to comments! So, I see it in my blog, it’s in the spam, and I leave it there, till I decide if it’s spam. Then I get an email with the same exact comment on a buddies blog! So, he officially get’s spammed!
September 29th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Yeah, it’s amazing what people will do to get the attention and probably because they aren’t getting enough it that compel them to do so..:-)
They ain’t clever if you ask me…
YS