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There’s been a big hoohaa over some sections of the (cringes) blogosphere regarding Jon War Ass decision to make a business offering paid comments. Some people are up in arms about it, saying “It’ll kill blogging” and “Undo all the hard work relationship building”. Here are a few of the posts from my feeds.
- Buy Blog Comments – A Sick New Comment Spam Service Launches
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Buying Blog Comments
- Now You, Too, Can Be a Spammer for $19.99
- Buy Blog Comments
I don’t agree with him, or indeed his business, but I do think certain bloggers (mentioning no names nor linking to them) are worried far too much about it, like somehow one comment will steal their meagre $3.29 they’ve earnt on Adsense.
Oh no, I don’t agree with Mr. War Ass, but I can’t wait for one of his drones to leave a spammy comment. I’ve got a tactic for dealing with it, and I want to share it with you.
The Lesser Blog Tactic – The Arnold Schwarzenegger Tactic
The lesser blog would probably do an Arnie. Basically, they would go overboard to achieve something. Like if Arnie was in a room and 50% of people have guns, and he had to get the President out, he would probably lock and load his AK47i, throw the President over his shoulder, and pepper the room with bullets, killing both bad guys and good guys. Lesser Blogs would probably delete a bunch of comments from non spammers and spammers alike, this is a bad idea, as you’re leaving a bad taste in some of your readers mouths.
The Fabulous Gospel According To Rhys Tactic – The James Bond Tactic
You know in James Bond films James Bond gets what he wants by sleeping with a girl who is the bad guy? Well my tactic is similar to that, only (unfortunately) less sex, and less Martini.
The paid comments are on behalf of another blog or company. They will have contact details either with the comment or on their website. By investing money in this service they show they are either a desperate blogger for readers, or somebody who really doesn’t understand web marketing but is willing to throw money at it. A quick email, like I do with all my new readers (and some of my old) to them will be interesting. If it’s a blogger, chances are after a few emails they’ll subscribe to my RSS feed, and bonus – I have a new reader. If it’s a company, a quick point to my Advertising Page and a little bit of selling, and they’ll start throwing money at me. If not then the comment gets deleted.
Personally, I think it’s genius, and along the oh so mature tactic of humously intentionally spelling Jon War Ass’s name wrong, I feel as I’m advertising my blog to people who use my blog to advertise their company, I have not sold my soul to the devil.
On the contrary, because the devilish paying company paid money to get on my site and I end up getting what I want from them, the devil has sold it’s soul to me.
Rhys Wynne, the author of this blog, is a 20 something web designer from Colwyn Bay.
Smart. Very smart.
I’m confused! My head hurts.
I will have to come back later today to try and make sense of it all. Its too early for this.
Thanks for the link love.
I really don’t understand any of this but i did laugh lots at the james bond less martini bit.
In fact people do confuse me with JB, got the fancy car, the mystic of knowing what the lady is thinking when it boils down to pick any card and draw a shape on it and the” look how it fits my prediction”; very erotic, got the non expressonate face, but the sence of on the go all the time with a smart outfit. I guess it’s because I don’t drink martini that I don’t get the rest of his life style. Didn’t realise that was all I was lacking.
Yet again the Gospel is as it says, THEE Gospel! Thanks Rhys, my problems have been answered!
That sounds like a good plan, Rhys. My plan is not nearly as sexy or complex, but I think it will be effective.
I plan to leave the spammy comments on my blog but remove the link. No link love = no value to the customer. People will quit paying if they are not getting the boost in Technorati ratings or search position.
Of course, there’s always the Al Pacino approach where you belittle them loudly in public.
Yeah.. I don’t have much faith in your plan but if it works, all the better for you.
Personally, I couldn’t give a monkeys if people leave comments on my website because they were paid to, as long as the comments are relevant and readable. It’s very rare that pagerank leaks into actual posts on my blog because I update relatively frequently and a backlink is almost worthless without pagerank, so I don’t think they’ll be getting much out of me. That and.. oh yes, I have more important things to worry about :p
That picture is not James Bond…
http://www.danielcraigisnotbond.com/
*flogs dead horse*
Z man you make me laugh… a lot
Rhys blog about something which doesnt cause headaches please!!
Good Plan, friend.
[...] as advertising unethical services, then people will never, ever want to look at your blog again. Rhys at The Gospel According to Rhys knows what I’m talking about. Read the bit about “War [...]
Ohhh yeah! Yes, that’s pure genius. Now, if you can just figure out how to work in the sex and martini part… No, seriously, this is the best tactic I’ve heard suggested yet.