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I co-author our company blog which is in a very targeted niche, so we don't have a huge readership. Comment spam is definitely an issue even for me. I would say I approve around 25% of the comments that come our way. It is a fine line, but I err on the side of being too strict. If I think there is the possibility of spam I delete it. I may delete some people who are not spammers but if anyone says anything relevant that adds to the discourse and conversation I leave it in. I always check the URL to see if it is a legitimate blog or website. Being a company blog, I would rather be more strict than allow spammers to have their way.

Posted by: Peter Renton on June 23, 2009

I write a professional blog, and I have a very small readership so far. But Even I get spam. I would say that my percentage is about the same as Peter's, and i approve about 25% of comments.

I don't worry about it. I set clear guidelines that state that if you have a question, (about the topic) or say something substantive, (again about the topic) then I will publish the comment. Otherwise it will not be published. So all of the "Nice posts" comments are deleted. This is not facebook or myspace, only on topic contents gets on the page, even mine.

Posted by: Roy Hayward on June 23, 2009

I always check the links in the name to see where they're going. If someone posts just a simple "nice article" and I see it goes to a legitimate website or blog, I don't delete it.

My blog is a Wordpress blog so it automatically filters the automated spam.

My position is, if anyone took the time to read my post, and even if all they had to say is "nice article" that's enough for me to let it stay.

Posted by: Ismail on June 24, 2009

SEO, linking, spamming is a big, big industry. It may be a nuisance but for a product owner, it is deemed important in trying to be relevant, current and out there. It also is being developed on a regular manner so it is every changing and dynamic.

Posted by: Michael Brown on June 24, 2009

Wow, you should see all the great content at http://www.biznology.com check it out!

... was that too spammy? in some sites it would be.

I err on the side of leniency for my blogs, but don't hesitate to be strict with a comment if it is too spammy.

What we need is a little widget for our blogs which would post "comments for review" and let visitors vote on which ones are legit and which aren't. Crowdsource the spam control.

That would be particularly useful if the voting mechanism was linked across sites so that a commenter db was kept which could be queried to block commenters who had a poor rating. (And "poor rating" would be a variable level defined by the subscriber to the service.)

We have the technology. Just not the motivation, but the more that people/orgs adopt blogging the market will be there.

Posted by: ejly on June 24, 2009

Your post made me smile.

I have the same problem, and am finding that the majority of my comments are now falling into what I would consider "blog spam". Aside from the regular spam filtering of Wordpress Akismet, everything else is manually approved, so like you, if the comment isn't substantive in nature, it's out.

All my links are "do follow", so those with real problems, add to the story, or spur a discussion are awarded with that little bit of link juice. Much of what I'm seeing nowadays are what I would call "aggregator" sites that simply copy portions of a post and trackback, also meaningless.

C'est la via, I guess.

Posted by: Garry Przyklenk on June 24, 2009

I would never build a blog without some kind of captcha facility. It's become an absolute essential.

I learned this lesson after building my daughter a wordpress blog and within days it was littered with spam comments.

However, I would never put in 'no follow' tags on comments because UGC is vital for most of my web projects and I insist that there should be at least a small incentive to making a comment.

Happy hunting,
Karl

Posted by: Karl Craig-West on June 25, 2009

You also have to look out for blog commenting services. People paid to post comments on blogs. I figure if you approve too many of these you encourage them to keep doing it.

Posted by: Brent Champage on June 25, 2009

Thanks for the feedback, Karl.

I've got a challenge question on my blog (like Search Engine Guide does), but I've shied away from an actual capcha where you are typing in the letters in an image, because I find them too annoying. I know that I sometimes don't comment on blogs that require a capcha and I don't want to discourage real comments.

I agree with you completely on nofollow being a real disincentive for real comments.

Posted by: Mike Moran on June 25, 2009

Hi Brent,

I have heard about blog commenting services but have no idea how to spot those kinds of comments. I tend to dump things that are really simple and off-topic, but should I be more aggressive? What do you do?

Posted by: Mike Moran on June 25, 2009

Mike,

Depending on the blog platform that you are using, you may have different opions. I use WordPress, and there is a plugin called Akismet that is pretty good at spotting and nabing spam posts.

I know there are many other options. Mostly it depends on your style and activity level you have on your blog as a moderator, and what you are comfortable doing.

Posted by: Roy Hayward on June 25, 2009

Everybody who comments has an agenda: a reason to comment.
A hidden agenda or a very obvious agenda.

One of the reasons is to attract visitors to their website.
What works to get clicks:
a) Controversial comments
b) Plain straight forward advertsing comments

Of course we never do this ;)

Posted by: Engago Team on June 25, 2009

We have a regular commenter that goes by Hanna @...... She represent a wide variety of companies from web hosting to manufacturing. She uses the same first name and the same email address. So she is easy to spot. I don't mind providing a link as long as she is relevant to the conversation, but often she is not.

It was been our experience that these spammers use the email address and that how I often catch them... However, it can be tough. Lately, I have seen some really great comments being used on specific topics such as Do Follow links. I have even approved these comments to have the same comment appear the next day.

We always check the site that we are linking to this also helps a lot.

Posted by: Gwen on June 25, 2009

Interesting subject. As a relatively new blogger (marnsmarket.wordpress.com) I am trying to get a feel for the "right" balance when I comment. I do read many blogs, and enjoy participating in discussions. At the same time, I admit that I AM proud of my blog, and would like to interest people in checking it out themselves. It's not the REASON for my comment, but I would hope if someone LIKES my comment, they will be inspired to read more from me.

SO....if I reference a post on my blog that is relevant to the discussion, does that brand me as having that as an agenda and discredit my comment?

By the way, on a company blog I used to post for (the B2B Marketing Blog at Proteus B2B Marketing) we would occasionally get those ridiculously obvious spam posts. It was downright fun to ignore those.....

Posted by: Mike Marn on June 25, 2009

nice post.

jk!

The internet is fun that way, that people can post whatever they want in a comment post. But ignoring short/dumb posts is just censorship...

It reminds me of the movies in the 1960's in Russia, where censorship ruled, so the guy added some stupid segments just so there would be something to censor, so the next episode, or in this case maybe, the next post, would not look so stupid and You, the blog owner will decide to post it anyway. Thus i get my opinion across.

Cheers

Posted by: Marissa on June 27, 2009

Hi
I write a regular blog and regularly receive what may or may not be spam comments. My rule of thumb is to publish if they are making some kind of thoughtful, relevant comment and delete them if they are simply making a comment that doesn't carry the debate any further, like 'nice blog' or whatever. I don't mind whether the comments are pro or anti but I see no poiint in wasting my readers' time with inanities, spam or not. At the end of the day, it is my blog.
P.S. The Engago Team may be surprised but I have no hidden agenda. This is simply a comment on something I happened to be interested in. More fool me you may say but I haven't even included my URL.

Posted by: Paul on June 29, 2009

For me, one of the killers of some comments is when people use obvious keyphrases as their name. Even if the comment is relevant and tailored just to my post, if their "name" is stuffed with keywords, I will often regard it as spam.

If the blog post is about how to get better rankings in Google, and the comment poster uses "cheap laptop memory" as their user name, they are just trying to get links, and not commenting solely based on the original blog post - hence, their comment probably will be deleted by me.

Its really a case by case thing though, but stuffing key phrases into the name field, irks me.

Posted by: Scott Van Achte on June 29, 2009

When I comment on a blog I try to make it relevant to the blog subject and add something to the conversation, and if I can I ask questions. I never post one word replies or a small sentence because it just isn't worth it.

Posted by: Oliver on June 30, 2009

Well I really face the same problem with my blogs. It may depends on the platform of service. Most people use Wordpress as I do and it has good options to identify spam.
The same issue can involve the degree of your live activity with eh blog as well. I used to delete coments I recieve bit irrellivent and does not consists substative stuff in it.

I

Posted by: Kado Hunza on July 1, 2009

I write a blog too and I haven't been spammed yet. I've received two comments so far; after the first one I called three people I was so excited. Now I just get a kick out of writing about randomness.

Thanks for the blog; I've heard about blog spamming but didn't really know what it meant, so I've been careful to only comment on blogs when I really have something to say.

Posted by: Kimberly Gauthier on July 1, 2009

I've been considered as a spammer few times asking something irrelevant from a blogger. Off-topic, yes. But not for just linking. It was a really upsetting.

But in my own blog I'm really strict and I delete all questionable comments in a blink of an eye. I have 'do follow' blog and I do not need any link weight to be divided between some doubtful and irrelevant comments.

Posted by: LinK on July 21, 2009

i change my blog dofollow become nofollow.. and activate my anti spam plugin and its works. i got no spammer anymore in my blog

Posted by: alfon on August 4, 2009

Well I really face the same problem with my blogs. It may depends on the platform of service. Most people use Wordpress as I do and it has good options to identify spam.
The same issue can involve the degree of your live activity with eh blog as well. I used to delete coments I recieve bit irrellivent and does not consists substative stuff in it.

I

Posted by: dfo gold on October 21, 2009

It sounds to me like you're being way to harsh. Many of those people don't deserve to be marked as 'SPAM.' You should simple delete their comments.

Most people, in my opinion, don't understand what SPAM really is. Of course, I understand that everyone has their own opinion, which they are entitled to. Along those lines, I consider SPAM to be 30 links to WOW gold or such with not a single credible word contributing toward the discussion. SPAM is NOT a comment that is self-promotional. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, who is commenting on a site has a motive for doing so. You can't expect someone to write great content for you (in the form of a comment) and not provide a return. Some commenters are just better at masking their motives then others.

I can't tell you how many blogs I see that have little or no comments. The blog looks dead. And why? Because their moderating their comments with a stiff arm. And consequently, there's no conversation going on. Just look at this page as an example. Every comment is from people in the industry, and I would say most, if not all, are looking to promote their business in some way, just as I am. And more power to the page! It has a PR 3 and I'm sure it probably ranks for some keyword phrase. This is pretty common from what I've seen--many pages that have many comments seem to do well in the search engines. So you may want to consider the positive effect of all those comments too, whether you deem them intelligent or not.

Posted by: Vertical Measures on October 30, 2009