If you read blogs on a regular basis, you've seen comment spam. There are the obvious offenders (those people, for instance, who work their way around the blogosphere leaving generic cut-and-paste lines like, "I love your blog, check mine out"). Then there are those who rub other readers the wrong way by couching their self-promotion in a superficially relevant—though not particularly insightful—comment.

In a post at his blog, Jim Connolly discusses why comment spam doesn't work, and offers some guidelines for avoiding the practice:

• Refrain from commenting unless you can add to the discussion. Online forums become hostile to someone who looks like nothing more than a self-promoter.
• Remember the long arm of Google. Assume your customers and your boss will see everything you write.
• Don't include a link to your Web site or blog in your comment; it's not only redundant—since you can hyperlink with your name—but looks desperate.

"I believe that if a comment spammer could see themselves the way you and I see them," he notes, "they would stop instantly."

The Po!nt: "There are many ways to professionally position a person and/or a business as a valuable must have for one's target market," says Connolly. "Comment spam is not one of them."

Source: Jim's Marketing Blog. Click here for the full post.

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