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Posted on Aug 05, 2008 - 6:35pm by John P. in Site Updates, Wordpress
Ok. Here is a question that is going to rile some people up.
So, there is a site that wrote an article titled “The Best Places to Get Quality Backlinks” that lists sites for people to leave comments on for the sole purpose of increasing their Google PageRank since they get to leave a link back to their site.
Guess which site is at the top of the list? Yeah. This one.
So, when I get comments from people who come directly from that site I think of them as disingenuous and completely discount their validity. I mean, I spend time to write articles for those of you who really enjoy the same general stuff as me.
Now, if ANYONE leaves a comment – no matter how brilliant – which contains a spammy link, I delete it as fast as possible. So the question is why should I treat bullshit comments any differently? Shouldn’t I just can them as well?
PS – How do I know when they arrive? Woopra.
By the way, I LOVE comments! Please feel free to leave one below!
well, it is natural that people look for places where they can have some nice link juice just by commenting. Sadly many of them make crappy comments and forget the blog owner can simply delete them.
That list potentially gave you some more readers, but i bet the amount of spammy comments increased just because of that post. in the end it is up to you to approve or delete. But in my opinion, you shouldn’t be that restrict in some cases. After all, comments generate discussions. And discussions are a fundamental part in blogging.
Hahaha! you know why I’m laughing!
Well, the funny thing is that the author of �The Best Places to Get Quality Backlinks� got a non “nofollow” backlink in this post!
I was wondering if you have setup a Woopra custom notification for people coming from that page, start a conversation with them and ask them kindly to get the hell out of your blog :)
@Elie: I’m expecting a nofollow on the link but I wasn’t expecting the nofollow on the commentator list. I guess I made a mistake to actually list a more recognized blogs.
Oh ya, I’m smiling now as I’m writing this comment.
Yan
My bad, I thought it’s not a nofollow :) anyway still funny!
I don’t really get why they’re quality backlinks if they’re all nofollow. Anyways, I feel guilty because I haven’t been as inclined to comment since you put the nofollow on your top commenters list. Haha but I have still been reading your stuff in my reader. I guess that makes me a poor participant, huh?
On another note, I definitely moderate comments. I can’t stand it when people leave spammy comments (even though they’ve still got the nofollow, I’ll often also remove the link). I guess it’s easier for me since I don’t get nearly the amount of comments that you do.
Hi John,
If there is a plugin out there that lets you decide if the commenters are worthy of not getting the nofollow then maybe that would be a good alternative.
Or maybe not let newcomers put a link up for the first 20 or so posts, that wil discourage most spammers :)
I must admit I found your blog and the meet the commenters without nofollow was a great encouragement for me to start posting here. without it I might not have spent the time reading your posts in the first place. Now I am hooked and I read your blog daily on my email feed and log in to comment when I see something interesting or something that needs my witty :) comments…
Kim:)
The Edit thingy is gone, so gotta add my additions here in a reply :)
I never knew the nofollow tag was on the commenters list until now, I saw a huge drop in comments and interactivity here now I know why.
I was enjoying the banter back and forth between a lot more people and that encouraged me to post more replies to comments etc. as well…
So I will not only miss the link juice I was rewarded with for being active here, I certainly also miss the regulars that basically stopped posting comments when the nofollow was added.
Kim:)
I wouldn’t say that anyone should feel guilty about not posting so often because the link juice is gone. It’s really ok. In fact, I like it better.
The thing is, previously there were more comments, but the majority of them were not really thought out and “engaging”. And I honestly still read every single comment, every day, even though with my two jobs (Layered Tech & Woopra) I just don’t have time to respond to them as much as I like. And by the way, this is the main reason that there aren’t as many comments as before. I haven’t had the kind of time I used to have to write articles that took 1-2 days, and therefore generated a lot of food for thought and quality discussion. Those are much more infrequent now.
The other thing is, previously when there was a short comment I always had to wonder if I was being baited so people could engage in a dialog just to drive up the number of posts, or if they really wanted to hear from ME.
Honestly though, Yan’s blog is the one that ruined it for me and everyone who actually cared about the NOFOLLOW. When this site started getting cataloged by different sites like this it really brought a bunch of low quality link seekers who just waste my time moderating out their comments.
I think you guys know that I really do appreciate my regular readers, because I tell you that all the time and I really mean it! But since this site is non-commercial I’m more interested in making friends and having an open forum for discussion than I am simply generating random useless comments and page views.
PS – I’m not going to disallow commenting on the blog. That would be silly. But I really don’t like being targeted as a place where comments can get you link juice. I just want to be known as a guy who sometimes has something interesting to say.
John
And you are a guy who has interesting stuff to say! Your life experiences alone are super cool to hear about! But the thing that makes it so cool here is that there is no one certain topic! I love that! I was feeling so pestered (for lack of a better word) into a corner to decide my niche for my blog. But my blog was just ‘my blog’. It just was what it was. A lot of it was/is about my kids, but, a lot of it is just varied stuff. And all that pestering was really getting to me about the time I found OMB. And that’s why I told Derek about your blog, too, because – he blogged with the same philosophy – whatever I feel like posting today! ;)
I cannot remember specifically if I found OMB becauseof the recent commenter links thing, but, when I got here – it was enticing, and led me to keep coming back. But I’m glad it did, actually – because, I’ve not only had tons of fun here, but, I’ve learned a hell of a lot, too!
I think, given your new circumstances, you could definitely change it to where you have to log in to post. That could substantially cut down on “That’s great!” “I totally agree!” lame comments accompanied by merchant site links.
[OT: Did you get my tweet about not getting to see you when I was in Dallas? Is your email the same?]
Lisa,
I do remember seeing your tweet a while back, and sorry we didn’t get to meet! My e-mail is the same, so drop me a line any time… but I’ve been working insane hours with both jobs (LT and Woopra), so sometimes it takes me a little while to reply. It’s a little different than when I was sitting around at home all day by myself! ;-)
Talk to you later,
John
Leaving a comment for a do-follow backlink in my opinion is for fools. In my opinion, if you live your life to get a do follow backlink from a comment, then you need to look for a change in lifestyle. I personally do NOT make my living based upon the money earned on-line and for that matter, I believe most people are like me. When I come across an article that gets my juices flowing either in agreement or disagreement, I leave a comment with NO (underlined NO ) expectations for a do follow backlink or no-follow link. I could care less about that. I agree that the author has spent time writing the post and comment on it only sensibly and for reasons other than backlinks. However, I also believe that brilliant commenters, regardless of why they comment, ALSO have spent precious time ( for me time is money and lots of it, lots more than what a backlink gives me ) leaving their thoughts and if the author deletes their comment, because he THINKS it is spammy then that author falls into the same trap as the commenter that hunts for backlinks. In summary, life is lot more than a backlink. Thank you.
Backlinks, always backlinks… Why should we spam you? I mean, why don’t you consider that spammers are not real readers? Do-follow is the first concept of the Web, the hypertext concept. Of course you have to check if comments are not spam or anything else bad, but whatever the link is, if the comment is nice you should not delete it. It’s my point of view and I understand that everybody can’t approve it: my blog is not not spammed as much as you.
Now John, take care of your Woopra members, one impatient guy (know as “geekandhype”) would like to use your fantastic tool and you to approve his website. Maybe I shouldn’t ask you like that, but you don’t know how I will glad. :)
jojo,
I just checked and it looks like your site is already approved and active on Woopra! If you are having some problems with it please send me a comment with the contact form above so I can give you a hand. ;-)
John
I am not sure if this comment will get through since I am coming from the said blog!!! But John I would like to mention while I do comment a lot I have never bothered about getting link juice. I do think you should allow for the fact that not everyone (not even from the said blog) will comment for link juice. There will be visitors like me who will visit links from a blog that we frequent just to discover new blogs and if we like the blog then we will also leave a comment. Not necessary that you agree with me here, but just stating what I am thinking.
From the first glance it might seem like these people are abusing your blog for backlinks, which might not feel right. I also used to catch myself thinking: “Ah, I know what you are doing there. You think you are clever but I know you are commenting just to get a backlink. Do you think I am some kind of idiot?” so I used to delete the comment. One thing I hate is when people take me for an idiot. I have changed my mind recently… At the end of the day it does not matter whether the comment was made in order to gain the backlink or not as long as the person is contributing to the blog, expresses his honest opinion and encourages discussion. Who cares really? Life is too short to play games with spammers and get upset about comments. You need to ask yourself this question: “Why do I let my readers comment on my blog?”. I personally like to hear feedback and as long as I get that feedback I don’t mind that the motivator for this feedback was a backlink.
I think spam is of course a subjective concept. That said one can enjoy blogging and also enjoy spreading the word on a personal endeavor. If you do it for fun no problem, if you do it for profit, I agree, get a life. Notable absentees from this thread may be suspect… just kidding.
This is the nature of the internet…there will always be people in the world that will take and never give anything in return, we just need to live with that. I have my own forum and I see it day in, day out. Sure we can follow them round and delete posts/comments or we can impliment tactics to forbit them it only spoils it for the rest. It’s a hard one to call.
If this is the case then John \”You should Not\”
How’s Woopra working out for you? I’m excited to get my website activated, but judging from comments on Woopra, I’m guessing it won’t be awhile till that happens (considering I just joined about 2-3 days ago)
I am finding very tough to get good quality backlinks and maybe that is why there are so many spammers. I understand the principal of backlinks and SEO but with all the link farms and paid directories it seems that the only way to get a good search ranking is either paying for it or attempting some black hat techniques.
I am glad this is an old post.