Posted on Sunday, 24th January 2010 by CopywritingCat
I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing more and more creative spamming on my blogs. And they’re getting more creative. For example:
- Hello. This is kind of an “unconventional” question , but have other visitors asked you how get the menu bar to look like you’ve got it?
- Well I was just searching on Google for some researches and songs of my favorite singers and just came across your blog…
- I admire the valuable information you offer in your articles.Just thought you’d be interested to know that I have added you to my bookmarks …
- Hi, I have been visiting your site for some time, and would like to to ask you a question if I may. I’m just starting out blog and seeking ways to advertise my blog in Google….
Each of these opening lines goes on to a whole paragraph, sometimes with embedded links. Akismet kills most of them, but a few of these folks sneak through. They are surprisingly easy to spot. Anyone who teaches soon learns to spot a plagiarized paper in seconds. And after keeping a blog for awhile, it’s remarkably easy to spot the spammers.
So what’s in it for the rest of us - those who diligently do our work and hate spammers?
Every so often I do a double take. I look at a comment that appears spammy but then I recognize a name from my list or classes. Yikes - I almost stigmatized them forever.
What did they do wrong?
Writing comments on blogs, Squidoo lenses and Faceboook pages is a good way to promote traffic to your own site. But your comments have to be meaningful.
“If you can’t say anything specific, don’t say anything at all.” Refer directly to the content of the blog post. You could:
Suggest a new insight into the issue. For example: “Your point about health care is well taken but have you considered seniors and single people?” You would then go on to show how these target markets have unique needs. If your own business happens to target seniors and/or single people, you will gets some nice exposure.
Feel free to disagree with the blog post author. Of course you need to consider that your comment will most likely be viewed by the blog author’s most loyal fans. But most bloggers I know would rather have intelligent, persuasive disagreement than no comments at all.
Avoid embedding links to your own site in the middle of the comment. We are supposed to be putting on a show of friendliness, even with total strangers, even if everybody knows we’re in this for the promotion. You can link your signature to your own website in just about every blog, including this one.
Got some (non-spammy) comments? Post away!
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Posted in Professional Services Marketing, Social Marketing: Blogs, Tweets, Facebook & more, website marketing
