First off, I'm not saying that spamming people's sites is a good idea at all. I am wondering though, if going on a massive linking campaign by making posts on every forum, guestbook, blog comments page you can find would yield some good results. I think there is nothing more annoying than people spamming blog comment pages, etc, but I feel like this could be pulled off tastefully. What's everyone's thoughts, is this a legitimite SEO move or just another blackhat gimmicky trick that e shouldn't even be thinking about. p.s. the eagles are going to get spanked
Mind explaining why it wouldn't work in the long run? I first thought it wouldn't, but then I convinced myself that forum posts, comments, guestbook pages, etc don't get deleted from servers these days with the size of drives these days.
If it was a gimmicky trick it wouldn't be happening on such a grand scale - It can't hurt you - otherwise guess we'd all be dusting off our blog spamming scripts and setting them loose to damage our competition! I agree it's not gonna work in the long term - but a links a links and the more you get the better you feel - am i right?
Spam is hard to define. I myself look at spam like this: what is the intention behind your actions. If it is to trick a search engine, the search engine will ice you. One way or the other. You don't want to mass post about anything. It is a tactic that will bite you back when you least expect it. If you are a realtor and post in real estate forums, your backlink should count. It is specific to what your site is about. Text links embedded in text work the best. There are ppl on DP welcoming everyone to get BLs and it seems to work but the question is for how long? Same with blogs, if I have my real estate blog and comment on other realtor's blogs, guest books and forums, I believe there is nothing wrong with getting a validatiton if you contribute to the online community about something you know a lot about.
Basically, what your going to find is, yeah, you get backlinks, but not quality backlinks, so your anchor text isn't heavily weighted, and therefore, you won't see much difference in your ranking.
Very well stated, Sitetutor. I agree with the above point wholeheartedly. If you can contribute to a community, you get double the benefits. First, and most obvious, would be backlinks from .sig files and comment posts in blogs. Second, you gain respect and recognition in that small community. The second item is just as important as the first in any branding efforts.