Drive-By Comments: Avoid Them!
Today I was looking for a royalty-free image to use on my site and I ran into a blog...from a member here, no doubt, and noticed all the comments below.
Well, every one of them were drive-by comments. How can I tell? Read on...
What Is a Drive-By Comment?
Many people have no real interest in adding to your site's integrity...only their own...and they do this very effectively. They will write some sort of cookie-cutter comment and put their time into going from blog to blog, no matter what it is about and make the comment, usually with their name or slogan hyperlinked to their website.
If the comment appeals to the moderator of a blog, especially moderators who are novices and don't know what these are, they may be flattered by the praise given and approve the comment.
I've done this myself, and probably so has many, many others here who are now highly successful.
Fly-By Comments Have Unseen Consequences:
They provides a backlink to the originating site...at the expense of the one who has just approved them.
A lot of people do know what these are and recognize them at a glance. It says much about the experience levels of the moderator.
It is an open invitation to other spammers who see these comments already on a site and start rolling their hands, going, "Mua-Ha-Ha-Ha!"
Your site will, in time, become a haven for spammers...and it's a too-common a problem!
How Do You Avoid Drive-By Comments?
It is quite simple:
First, here are three examples of drive-by comments:
- Aloha man! Great site! I really liked being here.
- I enjoy your piece of work, appreciate it for all the good posts .
- very cool post. Gave me a a lot better idea all the current economic climate. Thanks a lot buddy
For many, it is too enticing to approve any positive-looking comment because it appears to be innocent and new webmasters want people to comment on their content.
Before approving any comment, ask yourself,
- Does this comment really endorse my content?
- Does it support my content?
- Is it really adding anything to it?
- Do I know this person?
If you can't answer these questions with a yes, get rid of it.
If you don't have the Akismet Plugin, get it. All WordPress Express (Blog & Funnel, I'm not so sure about) have the Akismet Plugin already installed. All you have to do is activate it.
Hope this helps those of you who are getting spam comments on their blogs!
Daniel
[added] A comment below by DABK, brings up a GREAT idea in how anyone who needs comments on their site! First and foremost, and I add to this, delete the hyperlink so the commenting person can't benefit from that link. I'd go further by leaving the name on there, but making the comment relate to the content in some way, making the praise more specific to something there. All it would take is a word or two, strategically-placed in the comment.
This, of course would be a last resort effort!
It is certainly something you wouldn't want to do unless you are starving for commentaries as this, in my opinion, isn't a very ethical thing to do...but the person commenting might see this and it would act as a deterrent would most likely confound the individual from posting anymore drive-by comments.
Recent Comments
9
So I have a question on this blog. Are you speaking of people who put their web link in the comment content? We request feedback from associates here at WA and I think they would be insulted if we deleted or didn't approve their comment. I can delete a web link (OK) but are you asking us to delete the entire comment as harmful?
Thanks Daniel, I've been really debating If I should clean up my site of these comments and this post hit the nail on the head for me. I have noticed Askimet has been filtering out some of these comments.
This is really good to know, thank you! This should be posted on the give and take comment thread, permanently.
Tony.
thank you. I have received a lot of messages of this kind and didn't know what to think. :) It's clear now.
laura
If it responds to something specific in the post, it's a good comment. If it refers to nothing specific, it's a drive-by. If you're starved for comments, delete the link, the email, maybe change the name, and rewrite the comment, put one that's likely to spark responses.
The only exception to a comment not referring to anything specific if it is one from somebody you know, and this usually puts it out of the drive-by category. Wow! That's a great idea! I never thought of that being a way to leverage off drive-by comments! Thumbs up!
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I think I am guilty of this and will be more vigilant in the future. Thanks for your blog. Glyn