Hello,
I'm Mervi Eskelinen!
An artist, nerd and sorcerer, dedicated to make world softer and better for everyone, and to get you to make more art. Make art, change the world!
Comment like a human
Every blog gets tons of spam comments daily basis. If not tons then a lot compared to the amount of real, non-spam comments. Due to this blogs have different methods of catching, reporting and clearing away the spam. There are bloggers who moderate all the comments and those of us who have automated spam filtering. Though the automation doesn't catch all the spam and sometimes filters ham, the real comments that for some reason seemed spammy. If your IP address and other information have been marked as a source of spam before all your comments get filtered as spam from there on. Depending on the spam filtering service you may be blacklisted forever or for a while. When your comments gets caught by an automated spam filtering system it's at least send to the queue from which they may or may not be resurrected by the blog owner. A spam filter may also reject your comment altogether.
Spammers get more and more sophisticated about how to appear human, but sometimes human commenters appear as spammers too. This can result to an automated spam filtering catching your comment. For a blogger who has seen enough spam comments your innocent comment can easily seem like spam and end up being reported and trashed. Therefore in case you don't want to play with the fire there are some basic things you'll want to avoid when making comments on blogs.
Don't sell
Firstly you don't want to be selling stuff through comments. Or actually the blog owner doesn't want you to sell anything. By selling I mean any sort of promotion, even when it's something that's available for free. Refrain from commenting with any sort of promotion or what could be seen as a promotion. Comments that include links are especially suspicious and you should and must keep them out from the comments unless you were asked to provide any. This also is the case with email addresses or other kind of contact information. Selling and trying to create links to your site through comments of someone else's blog is a huge mistake. Commenting on blogs is not going to really improve your SEO and it's not a very good way to sell. Commenting someone else's blog posts is always about them, never about you or your business.
Introduce yourself
Spammers tend to use obscure names. Sometimes they use real names, but more often something completely else. Granted you may have a nickname or stage name or something like that you might want to use in commenting. If so use that with caution and don't be too surprised if your comment ends up in the pile of spam. Often I've been really close to report a comment because the commenter used a vague and spammy looking name, like "Your friend" or their business's or blog's name. Preferably go with your own name or if really necessary, your nickname. Also don't use your business's name or your blog's name solely as your name. As an example Mervi or Mervi of Made In Helmikuu are okay, but Made In Helmikuu is not. Imagine you are introducing yourself to this blogger when you fill that name field. Also provide a real email address. Spammers and trolls use fake emails. You aren't a spammer or a troll, are you?
Be specific
I know giving compliments is a nice thing to do. But the spammers have noticed the bloggers are vain and have started to give compliments too. Unfortunately for them they tend to get it a bit off most of the time. Their compliments don't fit the content they are commenting. So if you feel like giving a compliment make about the post in question. Be as specific as you can. Vagueness is a clear sign of a spammer. However repeating the title of the post is not specific and it's something the spammers do. In case you want to ask something not related to the post it's best to contact the blogger some other way. Of course if you are friends with the blogger or you are a regular commenter you can be less specific. When your comment reflects the content you are commenting you seem like a human who read the post. Spambots are even worse at reading than they are at writing. Read first, then comment.
Keep your advice
Spammers are also keen to give advice. I get lots of spam stating my (responsive) blog doesn't work very well on mobile devices and I should hire someone to fix that. Nope, not a way to get me publish that comment. Giving advice when it's not asked for is generally a bad idea. It makes you sound like a know-it-all and it's a trademark of a spammer. Only advice when the blogger asked for it and even then make the tone seem more suggestive than "this is the truth". It's not your place to give that advice. It really isn't. Spammers use a provoking tone, so that they can get the blogger all defensive and respond or even click the url(s) they provided. Unsolicited advice is not the way to make friends.
Drop the format
Copy+paste commenting is spammy. If your comments are always the same format it gets really suspicious. Of course you have a certain way of saying, or rather writing, things. That doesn't mean you need to go with the same wording and the same layout for every comment you make. Your comments don't have to all have the same length, the same appearance and the same words. Variation is human. Same format through all the comments is like speaking with a robot voice. Funny, perhaps, but really annoying and weird. Spam comments sound like repetition and if your comments are too repeating the spam filters start to catch you and the blog owner will become suspicious about you being a living and breathing human.
As you can see appearing as a human rather than spambot isn't only about not using some spammy words. It's about the way your comment appears as a whole. When you introduce yourself as a real human being, read the post you are commenting and make the comment as unique as possible you are less likely to end up blacklisted and your comments will be published.
What alerts you to think a comment must be spam? Do you recognise spam comments easily? Or do your comments often get filtered as spam and if so, why do you think it happens?
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