Here at SeanSEO.com we know that commenting on blogs can help your site’s SEO. We knew this already but we especially know this when we look at our spam filter in the back end of this blog!

If you’re not already commenting on blogs, you might consider doing so because:

• Blog commenting can get you relevevant links pointing to your blog which is good for SEO
• Blog commenting can get you reciprocal comments from the blog owner you visit
• Blog commenting can bring you new visitors to your site (when you post in relevant topics to your topic)

Some people go off and try to get their links at any cost. They simply go off and comment with links in their comments and little other value.  Chances are that when you do that, the blog owner is going to just zap your comment out into spam oblivion instead of approving it.  We get all sorts of comments from adult themed blogs as well as non-sensical comments and paragraphs filled with weird links or strange characters.  We don’t approve them.  We love Askimet (a free anti-spam WordPress plug-in! as it catches a vast majority for us so we don’t even have to look at 90% of the spam that comes in.

When we do get comment notifications, what we do approve includes:

• Interesting comments that provide value to our readers or the topic
• Questions that are genuine, not just an effort to get a link published
• Comments that aren’t filled with obvious self-serving links
• Comments relevant to our niche here at the blog

P.S: Don’t build nofollow into your comment. Talk about obvious!

When you go out into cyberspace to promote, look to related blogs and provide value when you comment. Not only does that value help you get your comment approved but you may also get interested people clicking on your link so see what your site is all about.

Happy promoting!

Have a most outstanding day.

Dana Prince
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008

Here at SeanSEO.com we get our fair share of spam!  Thankfully, we have Askimet. Askimet is a plug-in for WordPress that’s free to use and simply requires you activate it using your API.  If you don’t know how to find your WordPress API, go to your global dashboard and you’ll find it easily.

Askimet doesn’t stop everything and it can occasionally catch non-spam but it works very well at minimizing the amount of blog spam you get.

What’s Wrong With Blog Spam?

A lot of site owners are trying to buy quality backlinks to their sites.  Unfortunately, some of the services they use in order to try to buy those links will resort to very spammy measures.  A lot of spam includes links to pornography sites with non-sensical comments that are filled with obscene links.

Not All Links Are Good Links….

In terms of SEO, you want to be associated with sites that will help you instead of hurt you.  Sites that have good page rank and that are about relevant topics can boost your own site’s rankings.  Some sites allow pingbacks automatically so when you link to them in your site, a link will turn up on that other site.  Some website owners prefer to moderate these links to be sure that the site will add value to their on page and off page SEO.  While moderating takes a bit of effort, it is a good idea to do it otherwise you might not be getting all the attention from search engines that you want.

In your blog, you can decide if you want to moderate comments and pingbacks, allow them openly or block them entirely.  The choice is yours.  While different internet marketers and pro bloggers have varying opinions on the matter it’s important that you do take the time to make a decision because ignoring spam could cause it to spiral out of control and penalize your site’s reptuation.

Have a most outstanding day.

Dana Prince
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008

Social networking can make a huge difference in your success online but there is a bit of a fine line between marketing or networking and spamming.  Let’s look at some examples:

E-mail Marketing

Marketers build e-mail lists and market selectively. Spamming would include many tactics such as anonymous email blasts, ignoring those who try to opt out or selling lists. If you want to build an e-mail list, consider giving away something for free, having a valuable newsletter or doing something else to build a list of people who are likely going to be interested in what you’re selling.

Article Marketing

Valuable articles will give the reader some information and may direct them some place they can go to in order to find out more information. They don’t generally contain affiliate links and they do provide value. If you try to spam through article marketing you probably won’t get very far because most e-zine sites have requirements and terms of service that prohibit spam.

Blogging or Splogging

While it’s perfectly fine to do advertising on your blog, you want valuable information there as well otherwise it’s considered a splog (spam blog) and you won’t have too many repeat visitors. Visitors who do arrive probably won’t buy anything or return again. Give people value and you’ll have more chances of making sales and having them do some of your marketing for you through social bookmarking.

Social Media: Don’t Be One Sided

If you’re constantly asking people on social networking tools and forums to Digg or Stumble your entry but never do it in return and never participate in discussions in a reciprocal way, eventually everyone will just ignore you. Reciprocate a little in your online marketing efforts and you’ll find a bit difference in how people receive you.

(photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Have a most outstanding day.

Dana Prince
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008

Spam on your blog means a few things. On a positive note, people are finding you and that’s a good thing. It doesn’t sound like such a good thing when it becomes a pain to manage but one thing is for sure, your blog is valuable enough to make spammers want to utilise your site. They’ll post trackback spam and bogus comments filled with hyperlinks to their adult websites. You can’t let it go on but there are things you can do.

But what is an internet marketer to do?

If you are using Wordpress for your blog, consider using the Askimet plug-in.  This will catch a big portion of your spam and save you considerably on moderating time.  You can also set your your comments as moderated only which will stop the spam before it’s published. You can quickly view the comments and manually approve the ones you want to let through. You can set up some blogs so that commenters are approved automatically after they have one approved comment but be careful about this because some crafty spammers can take advantage of this loophole and post one useful comment only to come back later and try to post spam on your site. You might need to de-approve some commenters.

All in all, you want to be choosy about who is allowed to link to your site because association with certain kinds of sites can bring your own search engine ranking down. The good news is that search engines seem to be finding your site and people think it’s valuable enough to try and capitalise on your success!

(Image courtesy of sxc.hu)

Have a most outstanding day.

Dana Prince
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008