Scam Alert:
There is a spate of comments on blogs these
days that come from anonymous sources that are designed to send your readers to
anything from porn sites to search engine optimization sales pages. They may
be convincing as authentic conversation, but they're usually not. Often you can spot them by the format they use, the fragmented English some are written in, and the separate line they use to tout their Web site.
I'd love to know of a great way to stop them, but for now
the only thing I know how to do is to turn on the blog filter that allows you to
accept or reject comments and vet each one. They can became truly a nuisance
with blogs getting 50 a day to sort through. If anyone knows a better way,
please let me know using the little comment link below. Now that would be a comment I'd love to get.(_: I'd be happy to run your tip in my next SharingwithWriters newsletter.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:
Nearly as bad as spam from 'Anonymous' are those comments that say 'LOL'. I guess the comment spammers are hoping to improve their back links and Alexa rank. Alas, it doesn't work :)
ReplyDeleteJohn, at least it doesn't work if we don't keep them out. But it appears that must still be done by hand. Where is Google when we need them! (-:
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a problem, but I find that enabling word verification and approvals on comments helps (though I also hate putting up impediments to comments). Wordpress has a great thing called Askamet which limits spam at the source, but I don't think Blogger has an equivalent.
ReplyDeleteComment spam is a real problem for Blogger. I don't get too much of it, thankfully. I get all comments sent to my inbox and if it's someone I don't know, I check it out - I click on all links from people I don't know.
ReplyDeleteFor the time being I'm avoiding putting on verification gadget.
Karen, I'm avoiding a verification gadget. I know they discourage me from commenting when I'm busy. And I check each one before publishing, too. I do find that some of my blogs on Blogger get many more spams than others. It seems the ones with the most subscribers are the ones that get the most spam.
ReplyDelete