When it's OK to allow spam

I wrote an article a while back on getting linkbacks from forum posts and later wrote one on the proper techniques of getting links from blog comments. Of course I think both articles are simply fantastic, but you’ll need to check them out yourself, but plugging those is not really why I am starting this thread. I am here now to reverse engineer them so I can help you know the difference between good and bad spam.

There really is only one rule, and that that is Content is King.If the spammer is adding to your forum or blog in some fashion then their post (and link) should be more then welcome. Of course that content should be on topic, and the link should be relevant to said content.

There has been too many times that I’ve logged into my forum or blog to see a random comment or post about Nokia Phones…both my blog and forum are Occult/Pagan in nature and there is no way that any cell phone is on topic.

On top of that, the posts are either a list of pointless products and project numbers (I assume to pull in individual SERPs) keyword stuffing (listing of keywords) is expressly frowned upon by Google. Allowing such things puts my entire site in jeopardy so there is no way I’d allow it even if my forum/blog were about cell phones.

On my blog the other day I posted about Stumble Upon being added to my site I got a series of comments about learning more about Newfoundland dogs. Yeah, that’s topically accurate for an occult site talking about social bookmarking. Did these commenters really expect me to keep such nonsense?

I do believe that most spammers are nothing but automated spambots looking for open blogs or forums to post in…but even then, do they really think people want to know or even care about such a tight niche? The person sending out the bots would likely fare much better if they simply posted honest comments (with link) on relevant blogs.

Then again, I am glad such things happen. It keeps forums competing with me off-line or so bogged down with spam that Google things it’s a cell phone site, and keeps lazy bloggers from getting any type of actual reader base. Blessed is Askimet and Captcha for making my job easier… but as an admin/moderator I need to keep a diligent eye out for the few that still get by.

I look forward to reading your comments with content

 

You have some really great points on both of those articles as well.

Yea - its amazing how these spammers work,

I personally think that if they spent if a few seconds making those messages a tad better they would get through a lot more, NOT that I personally want that but I mean , shit no matter what business you are in you should at least do good with it right?

As for the plugins for WP , yea " askimet" works like a charm for sure,

I have to disable it once a month thou so I can "save now on xxx"

But great post man!

Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks!

I got a funny email spam starting with the line "There is a devil in every berry of the grape" It almost made me want to open it to see what else it had to say. Though I've yet to see something worthy of interest in my forums or my blogs. I've only seen three instances of spam being on topic, two of which I simply think the bots got lucky, and the 3rd was a human promoting some festival. I deleted the bot posts, but actually allowed the festival posts based on checking out the site myself and thinking "if this was closer, I'd actually go".

Three out of hundreds...that's a HORRIBLE batting average in my opinion.

I'd love to see more worthy of being read spam....it would revolutionize the junk mail industry!