There are basically three words that can describe spam accurately: desperate, manipulative, evil. While that may sound like the resume of some soap opera villain, it rings true for every one of us who have ever been burned by spam. Spam is an example of why sometimes, the means does not justify the end.
True, the aim is to build buzz for your blog but the technique used is just plain wrong. If you’re planning on leaving spam comments on other websites any time soon, know that it’s not the way to promote your blog. On the contrary, you might even do damage to your blog without knowing it.
Understanding spam comments
Spam comments started sprouting their evil seed when online guestbooks began appearing on websites. Unscrupulous site owners and marketers bombarded these guestbooks with links (many even used purely links) back to the spammers’ websites. If any comment is included at all, it may contain highly generic ones such as ‘cool post’ or ‘great website’ or ‘nice page’.
Spam appears in just about anything these days, including blogs, often in the form of a comment. How this is done is quite simple. Any blogger who wishes to promote his blog can simply write down keyword-heavy texts in the guise of a comment and then post it at random on another blog or website. Sites that allow hyperlinks to be displayed are usually the prime targets.
The problem here is that this type of commenting is not purposeful at all. It’s done at random, similar to throwing darts at a huge dartboard while wearing a blindfold in the hopes of hitting something, anything.
Why spam commenting will not work for you
Leaving spam comments to promote your blog may seem tempting enough but it’s best to avoid it. That is, if you want to be taken seriously and see your blog last long enough for your grandchildren to appreciate. Here are reasons why leaving spam comments to promote your blog are NOT the way to go:
You’re being watched
These days, you spam someone once and you’ll be branded for life. Or at least the blog or business you’re trying to promote will be. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 makes sure spam is controlled and no one can wave it around like a weapon.
Becoming associated with spam is bad news for your blog. People hate spam… period. They will be more than happy to report you to your host provider or even your affiliate companies and avoid your blog altogether. And yes, Akismet and a host of other plug-ins designed to fight spam will be watching.
You will be penalized
By leaving spam comments on another website with the sole purpose of promoting your blog, you give that website’s owner the permission to become a witness against you. Your host provider will cut off ties with you and if you’re using your blog to promote an affiliate’s products, even your affiliate will drop you.
Should this happen, you will have to start all over again, from square one, with a tarnished reputation. If you leave more spam comments in the future, you’ll only be repeating the cycle all over again, all to your detriment.
You’ll be seen as unprofessional
Leaving spam comments to promote a blog is for the lazy, the uninformed and the desperate. Why else would you use a technique that is generally viewed as unsavory? If you’re unprofessional, your visitors will find it difficult to trust you ever again.
You’ll be violating certain unwritten codes
The reason why comments are allowed in websites is to provide people a platform with which to interact. Blogs, forums and discussion boards are large meeting places, open to people regardless of their age, sex, location or personal beliefs, with the implicit agreement that those who participate will be respected for their beliefs.
By leaving spam comments on these sites mainly to promote your blog, you break this code of trust.
Leaving spam comments can increase your blog’s ranking… artificially
Although an artificial increase in ranking can mean good news for your blog (it will allow your site to appear high in search engine rankings), this is only an initial effect, sort of like anesthesia. Soon, it will wear off.
This is particularly true if your blog has nothing else to offer. Visitors who have been driven to your blog through search engine links (which you were able to achieve artificially) will sniff around your site and if they find nothing there, they’ll leave soon enough, never to come back.
Worse, word might even get around that your website is filled with nothing but air. If you must promote your blog this way, make sure you have the content to make visitors stay.
The power of regularly leaving comments on other blogs
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Comment Posting: A Power Blog Promoting Technique
You keep on hearing bloggers marvel about the wonderful benefits of leaving comments on other blogs but you’ve yet to try the tactic yourself. If you still aren’t sure about the wisdom of following their steps, here are a few reasons that could convince you to take that final step.
Show Your Expertise
Everyone prefers to listen to an expert than an amateur. With an expert’s advice, you spend your time wisely and get to learn something in return. Unfortunately, there isn’t always an opportunity to show your expertise.
As such, you have to create the opportunity for yourself once in a while and you can do that by leaving comments on other people’s blogs. Try spending a few minutes visiting other people’s blogs. Go around the blogging community, and once you’ve found some questions you’re very much in the position to answer, go ahead and share your wisdom.
Giving advice whenever it’s solicited is so much better than bragging, don’t you think?
Show Your Charm, Eloquence, and Wit
People can be terribly greedy. To please them, you not only have to be intelligent but you have to be articulate and witty, too. If you had a choice between visiting the blog of an extremely smart but humorless Internet marketer and one who’s moderately smart but witty, which blog would you choose? Many would choose the latter, don’t you think?
Now that you know what’s demanded of you, the next thing to do is determine how to prove that you indeed have all those great qualities. Again, you do that by leaving comments on other people’s blogs.
It’s very important not to overdo your bit when you’re out to display your wit. While providing excessive information can be seen as simply being detailed, being too funny could make other people you’re trying too hard to be so.
There’s a right time, place, and reason to be funny. Make sure you know when such moments occur!
Reciprocate
If other people left comments on your blogs, you owe it them to return the favor. Technically, you’re not obliged to do so but good business dictates reciprocity. And it’s really not that bad. Leaving comments on each other’s blog regularly will soon lead to link exchanges, another factor that can generate more traffic for your respective blogs.
If you continue to nurture your partnership after that, it can lead to even greater collaborations that would benefit both of you.
How to Make Your Comments Effective for Internet Marketing
All three reasons below are able to achieve the same goal: catch your target market’s attention and make them visit your blog. To increase your chances of success, you must make sure that your comments follow the tips below.
Write courteously.
Remember the usual rules of courtesy when you’re posting a comment on someone else’s blog.
Don’t be argumentative
Not everyone welcomes a debate so if you truly believe that there’s a need for you to propose an opposing view, make sure you do so politely and be very clear in saying that you only wish to expression your opinion and nothing else.
Don’t forget to link
Lastly, remember to provide a link to your blog whenever you leave a comment. This may be standard procedure but a lot of first-time bloggers still end up forgetting to do so. If you don’t want to risk losing any opportunity, never forget to post your link!