Comment Posting Software Equals Comment Spam

Comment Posting Software = spam = not being successful…

There was a comment left on one of the posts on TrafficFolder.com yesterday trying to inform me that I could get thousands of backlinks per day (!) through automatic comment posting software that leaves comments on thousands of websites. I deleted it. When will people wise up?

The most successful websites are successful precisely because they use legitimate methods: such sites become tried and trusted sources of real information and services. Websites that pollute blogs and forums by posting the same comment (or sets of comments) on thousands of sites are obviously not responding to the posts on those long-suffering thousands of sites. Comment posting software does not add anything of value to those sites. Rather it attempts to diminish them, to reduce their value and effectiveness for their visitors and the web in general.

Comment posting software exists to serve only the purposes of the person operating it and it does this by damaging the work of legitimate sites. Self-serving people not caring about others but just wanting to further their own cause (invariably, their cause is making money for themselves, which sometimes means at others’ expense).
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The reality is that the most successful websites, businesses and organisations are successful precisely because they aim to serve a need, in effect to help others. Think about it, why are Fed Ex so successful? Because they are serving the need to transport mail. They would not be successful by ignoring the needs of their customers and fellow citizens.

This is of course an ethical stance, but for those who need a business reason to follow it, it is a highly successful approach to business too. I have heard it said many times that once a business puts the needs of its visitors and customers before its own, then financial success will follow.

So, comment spammers, please wise up. If you want to be successful then buying comment posting software that spams websites is not the way to achieve your goals. What is more, I know of successful websites that do not have hundreds of thousands of links, but are successful with only a couple of thousand links gained over time, or even just a few hundred links in some cases (gained through legitimate linking methods plus natural linking to the good content on those sites).

This leads me to believe that thousands of links all of the same kind are not going to be of significant benefit, but rather that fewer links, of various kinds, more naturally gained over time and spread across different types of sites will be of more use in getting your site ranked well and keeping it ranked well month after month and year after year.

Look at it from Google’s point of view. Which kinds of sites would you adjust your algorithm to favour if you were Google? Those with thousands of links of a single kind (and perhaps all coming into existence in a short time-frame)? Or those with fewer, more natural links, and a variety of link sources spread more realistically over time? Bear in mind too that Google has a network of human beings who check websites manually and demote or de-index those using illegitimate methods.

This does not mean that I am against automation per se — automation is a great thing if it serves you by speeding up legitimate tasks you are performing anyway. Some legitimate website promotion methods can be sped up by automation, others can’t. In some cases the medium becomes the message and automation of the wrong kinds leads to poor business practices that have the effect of hurting someone’s business, not helping it.

A final word on blog posting and forum posting if done manually. This can of course be a good method of promoting your site IF — and it’s a big ‘if’ — you are making a valuable contribution to the blog or forum you are posting to. This means that you contribute information or advice to the blog, not that you try to take something away from it by adding ‘non-information’ or just promoting your own site. Often, if you have something valuable to say, a signature link to your site or product is accepted.

By far the best scenario is if you post these comments yourself — but you have to become a regular at such sites. Posting comments yourself is best, however, that is not to say that someone working for you who is knowledgeable in the area concerned could not post the comments. There even exists a service that will do this for you — but you had better check out their sample posts thoroughly first and make sure that they are really contributing to the forums they post to before you consider using such a service. Get this wrong and you would be contributing to comment spam and doing your website or business no good at all.

© 2009, Lawre. All rights reserved.

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