You are here: Home > Blogging > It’s Spam Jim, Whatever They Call It

Featured Posts

  • Interview with Greg from Twirling in the Light
    This week’s interview is with Greg, who will be familiar to regular readers as a commenter on this blog under the name of his alter ego, Steg. I wasn’t at all surprised when he offered to help me out with an interview, he’s one of the internet’s good guys, and over the years has gone from being a fellow blogger to a firm friend! Greg is also a talented writer and poet, you can find his [...]
  • An interview with writer Kathleen Maher
    This is the first in a series of interviews with people who responded to my request for interviewees in this post. I was delighted to receive a response from the hugely talented fiction writer, Kathleen Maher, who was a finalist in both 2007 and 2008 in the Weblog Awards for Best Literature Blog. Kathleen blogs at Diary of a Heretic and The Vitruvian Woman, she also contributes to the magazine, The View from Here. Your [...]

    • It’s Spam Jim, Whatever They Call It

    Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 12:56
    Category : Blogging, Promotion
    Tags : , ,

    • blogger_permalink: /2008/10/its-spam-jim-whatever-they-call-it.html
    • blogger_blog: writinganddesign.blogspot.com
    • btc_comment_counts: a:0:{}

    OK Folks, back from my hols and back on my soapbox. This morning I spent a some time browsing a forum which offers advice to people wishing to promote their blogs and websites. Most of the advice on offer was good, but then I came across something that made me sit up and (almost) spray coffee over the monitor screen in exasperation. Some bright spark was telling readers that comment spam was a good way to get more visitors to your blog.

    Comment spam is the practice of leaving a comment on a blog for no reason other than to promote your site, product etc. You may have seen it recommended yourself, the person suggesting it won’t actually call it spam and will usually tell you something along the lines of:

    Leaving comments on other blogs is a great way to get readers for yours. Browse through blog directories and post to any blogs you find, not forgetting to leave your link so that others can come and visit you.

    It sounds like a good idea doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. Posting a comment on a blog you enjoy reading is fine, but posting purely for the purposes of self-promotion is spam, and anyone who has been blogging for more than five minutes will recognise your comment as such. The majority of spam comments I receive are obviously from people who have never read a word I have written, here are two typical examples:

    Great blog, why not visit mine at http://me.com

    We have a site about (insert subject here) at http://junk.com

    There are numerous reasons why it is a bad idea to use this method to promote yourself, and as far as I can tell, no advantages.

    First, you will be wasting your time, almost no one is going to follow up your link. Secondly, it is very likely that you will find the blog publisher blocks your ip address, and may even report you to your hosting service who could remove your site and add you to a blacklist. Finally, no one will ever take your blog seriously. You may have invested a lot of time and effort on it, but it will be seen as spam, and could even be dropped by search engines.

    If at this point you are feeling nervous about commenting on any blog, please don’t. Commenting is good! Bloggers love to receive real comments, I know I certainly do. By all means seek out and read blogs you genuinely enjoy, leave the blogger a comment and don’t forget to go back to read their response. Over time you will build up a relationship with that person and they will visit your blog too but as a reader, rather than someone who is looking for your contact info to include in a complaint.

    This post was originally published on September 6th, 2006

    I appreciate you dropping by,
    Please leave a comment, don’t be shy



    Comment policy: No spam, no hate, no flaming, just play nicely. To see this in more detail go here.

    One Comment for “It’s Spam Jim, Whatever They Call It”

    1. 1PinoyCopywriter

      wrote on 4 November 2008 at 10:23

      Nice post.

      This is not a spam comment. :)

      It says there that you published this post two years ago. Well, it still rings very true today. There’s nothing more that I hate about blogging than the usual spam that I get in my comments.

      I don’t mind if people leave a link to their site as long as they leave a good comment on my posts. Participating in the conversation through commenting on the posts is one of the things that make blogging fun and meaningful.

      I agree with you that spam commenting is a waste of time. I never followed a link.

    Leave a comment


    You can add a link to follow you on twitter if you put your username in this box.
    Only needs to be added once (unless you change your username). No http or @
     Twitter