Blogging Ethics
July 26, 2007 by Lillie
After I finished my series on writing ethics, I read about several schemes to pay for blog comments and StumbleUpon stumbles.
Since these actions are similar to the marketing tactics I’ve been writing about, here are some links to read about the ethics of these new blog tactics:
Buy Blog Comments – A Sick New Comment Spam Service Launches
Just Why Would You Buy Blog Comments?
Paid Comments – They Can Be 100% Ethical
Stumbleupon Gamed by Paid-to-Stumble Service
When, if ever, is it ethical to pay for blog comments, stumbles, and whatever comes up next?
Updated 7/29/07: Another great post on a related subject: Scratch My Back and I’ll Fame Yours
[tags]comment spam, paid comments, StumbleUpon[/tags]
I would say never is it ethical! You go girl! I do not even think about those things….it does not bring regular readers, just clickers.
I did answer your question on my blog by editing the post. I hope that helps you. Since you are not using Blogspot, you may need to read Feedburner’s forums to find the help to redirect your blog.
Bloggers often complain to me they get few comments so I can see why they might be tempted to pay for comments. But paying for comments is missing the whole point about social networking. I don’t get a ton of comments on my blog, but what I do get are authentic and I’m building a genuine network which is what social networking is all about. In fact, as I was writing this comment, one of the first commenters on my blog, Manchild is his username, called to talk about printing his books. Manchild left his first comment 4 months ago, but today we closed a deal. Real success takes time.
Hi Lillie,
thanks for adding my entry to the list. I’m really pissed about the paid comments issue, but not really in the way you highlight it here. I am pissed about bloggers who ask their commentators to pay to get the nofollow removed from their links. That’s really sick. I mean: a commentator brings value to my blog. He/she comes with new ideas, enhances the content on the page, etc.
I read a lot of things about this lately. I just stumbled upon John Warras site, and I must admit that I don’t have a clear opinion about the subject.
Is leveraging your efforts spam if you just don’t add junk comments? I don’t know… I am thinking about it.
This is an interesting debate. I have a few clients I write web-text for and they often use different types of SEO services from various companies. Forum and blog posting are among the things they use but unless it’s done properly, without spamming, I believe the long time positive aspects are relatively small. When paid to do stuff, especially on an industrial scale like posting on 100 blogs, the people doing it will resort to short and spammy comments, which won’t stay up that long.
I agree with Philip. Comments need to be genuine. It would be cool though if anyone knows of a comment aggregating service that will show me all of the comments I have made all in one place. I read a lot of great blogs and try to comment when appropriate. If there was a tracker out there that would be a good service.
This was an interesting article.
I’ve never taken the time to read anything about spam because it really does piss me off and cause me to waste precious time deleting it from my in-box.
Edith Browns last blog post..Spam
Edith,
I know what you mean. I’ve got really good spam filters on e-mail so I don’t get a whole lot of e-mail spam. I used to send spam to a mailbox on my hosting server but got tired of deleting hundreds of messages every day so now I have the server delete anything marked spam. I still get a few through to Outlook, but those go to junk mail. The biggest problem I have there is that Outlook is too aggressive. I have to look at the junk mail before deleting because legitimate messages do end up there.
Akismet does a good job on the blog, but I delete several hundred spam comments from Akismet every day, and there are always a few that slip through. That’s why I moderate the first comment on every commenter.
Thanks, Hummie, for agreeing with me and for answering my question on your blog.
I believe I may have come across your blog because of comments you left somewhere else. I’ve subscribed to it quite recently and don’t recall for sure how I found you. But that is one way I find new blogs. Leaving comments on other blogs is a good way to build traffic, and ultimately comments, on your own.
Glad you and Manchild hooked up. I read his blog as well.
I agree with you on bloggers asking commenters to pay to have no follow removed! You’re so right that commenters bring value to a blog. They should be rewarded for participating in the conversation, not asked to pay for a link.
I think for me the two major problems with paying a company to write comments on other people’s blogs are: 1) it is deceptive for someone else to say it’s you, and 2) you have no control of what is said, and the comment may or may not present you and your opinions accurately.
I have no problem with leveraging your efforts by paying an assistant or someone to post comments if you discuss with them what you want said and where you want the comments so they are really speaking for you, not making something up.
Right. Just think of the time it takes to visit 100 blogs, read enough to respond appropriately, and write a meaningful comment. Anyone who would do that at the prices quoted for commenting would be making pennies an hour.
Dan,
I haven’t tried this, but I recently read a recommendation for co.mments, which lets you track comments you’ve made as well as other comments in the same conversation. I have the co.mments site bookmarked to try it out but haven’t signed up yet. If you try it, let us know how it works.