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There Are Some Things You Just Shouldn't Automate
September 19, 2005
I know that automation can really be the name of the internet marketing game sometimes. I have a whole list of things that I would really like to get automated. Mostly minor little things that add up to a whole lot of time. (My dream? Filling up my Wordtracker keyword basket and then getting competition results for every single keyword with just a click of a button. I don't care if it will take eight hours, just as long as it's not me going through every 100 keywords during those eight hours.)
But you know, there are just some things that shouldn't be automated. And right now, automated blog comments is way up there on my list.
Let's face it. Automation and blog comment are two phrases that really don't go together. I want you to comment on my blog (and yes, I do! I do! I do! so please do) because you've read what I've just written and you want to add your thoughts. I doubt I'm that different from most bloggers in this respect.
So please don't tell me that the blog comments that get submitted through automation software are great for my blog because they provide relevant comments and makes it look like people read what I write.
First, they're not relevant. How can they be?
Second, I'm not exactly so concerned with appearances that I would rather have bogus comments about my wonderful, fantastic, amazing blog to cover up the fact that no-one comes by. After all, I know what my visitor count is, and I can't very well fool myself, can I?
I wish deleting blog comment spam worked like Adsense - you know, I get paid XX cents for every comment I delete. Especially for every comment that says, "Wow, what a great blog you have there! I'm sure glad I came by. You might want to try out this."
Did you see how I mentioned the spam word just now, by the way? That's really what automated blog comments software is - it's software for spamming, pure and simple.
I know. I log onto my email and delete a gazillion spam email messages. And these days, I then log onto my different blogs and delete a gazillion spam blog comments.
It really is spam. Because if people want a link from my sites, we can do an exchange, or I'll sell advertising space.
And if you come by one of my blogs, read one of my posts, and make a comment because there was something about that post that you just had to comment on, I really really appreciate it.
After all, it's nice to know that I'm heard in this big wide Internet world.
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Posted by BJ at 11:07 PM in On Blogging | Permalink
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Comments
BJ,
I am your readership. Spam comments are a growing problem. I have noticed several blogs recently closing down their comments due to spam.
You can get around it by having users type in a code from a graphic. There are free plug ins for Wordpress, not sure about TypePad though as I do not use it.
Posted by: allan | Sep 20, 2005 5:55:28 AM
Thanks Allan. The great thing about Typepad is that I don't get many spam comments on my Typepad blogs at all. I do get a lot of spam trackbacks, though, but I guess you can't win them all.
I found a plugin the other day which I'm going to try - I've heard it's supposed to be great for getting rid of most of the spam comments. It checks each comment against a set of spam words, as well as seeing how many links are in the comment.
I did download a plugin a while ago that would require commenters to type in a graphic, but it required some other things to run it so I never did get around to trying it out.
Posted by: BJ | Sep 20, 2005 9:19:09 AM
BJ I recently posted my birth story on my blog and was SO ticked to see comment spam on it. I thought it was the height of disrespect. :(
I'm with you sister!
Posted by: Carrie Lauth | Sep 20, 2005 2:23:21 PM
That is really awful, Carrie! I loved your birth story, though - my last one was a home birth too (not a water birth, though) so it brought back memories.
Posted by: BJ | Sep 20, 2005 5:07:19 PM
