Several comments to my last post, “Comment Luv – Linky Love – NoNoFollow” inspired me to dig deeper into the subject of blog spam (also referred to as comment spam). I wanted to know why blogs get spammed, and what we can do to prevent it.

Today’s Lesson

Wikipedia, states spammers are on a mission to elevate their websites in the search engine rankings. By linking to blogs they obtain more links pointing to their sites. Apparently this method is working. Spammers are gaining sales/income via clicks from visitors. Spammers hit the “jackpot” with the creation of blogs.

According to Wikipedia,

In 2003, spammers began to take advantage of the open nature of comments in the blogging software like Movable Type by repeatedly placing comments to various blog posts that provided nothing more than a link to the spammer’s commercial web site

Several of the solutions listed by Wikipedia to block comment spam, include

1) Keyword blocking – blocking words such as viagra (spammers know of this practice and will intentionally misspell words)
2) Using the “rel=”nofollow” code. Wikipedia states the argument against this is:

Some weblog authors object to the use of rel=”nofollow”, arguing, for example, that

* Link spammers will continue to spam everyone to reach the sites that do not use rel=”nofollow”
* Link spammers will continue to place links for clicking (by surfers), even if those links are ignored by search engines.
* Google is advocating the use of rel=”nofollow” in order to reduce the effect of heavy inter-blog linking on page ranking.
* Google is advocating the use of rel=”nofollow” only to minimize its own filtering efforts, and to deflect that this actually had better been called rel=”nopagerank”.
* Nofollow may reduce the value of legitimate comments

3) Validation, or the use of a potential commenter to provide an “answer’, such as “is fire hot or cold”, “2+2″ or to retype a series of numbers and letters (CAPTCHA)
4) Disallowing links in post comments
5) Using a spam blocker such as Akismet
6) Turning comments off.

Short of turning comments off, it appears blog spam (comment spam) is here to stay.

Today’s Assignment

How do you deal with blog spam?

Do you use a spam blocker or hand moderate each comment?

Do you have any other ideas of how spam can be eliminated?

How? You ask.

I will start with a short story.

Today’s Lesson

Years ago, a friend was starting a new real estate business. She had sold real estate in the past, but now wanted to have her own office. Being a great sales woman, she “sold me” on joining her, by becoming an agent in her new office.

Although I had protested, saying “I’m not a sales person”. Her answer was, “You don’t have to “sell”, the homes will sell themselves”.

So….,I signed up for real estate school.

Having made the commitment, I got excited, thinking I was now going to learn how to sell real estate, and earn what could be big commissions.

But…..that didn’t happen.

In real estate school, we learned, “how to pass the real estate exam”.

But, I was now a Realtor.

I had my license, officially “hung”, in my friend’s office.

I assumed the rest would be easy. It wasn’t.

First of all, I was in a new office…an office that needed to build name recognition. Fortunately, my friend, the broker, made that her mission. But, my work was cut out for me.

Since real estate school only taught me how to pass the exam, I still had to learn how to deal with buyers, sellers, banks, appraisers, or home inspectors. I also had to learn how to fill out listing forms and/or earnest money agreements. It was imperative to use the correct wording, to insure the the buyer and/or seller were “protected”. My buyers and sellers looked to me for advice. One wrong word, or a missed sentence, and a buyer or seller, could be “locked into” a deal. Aughhhh…the power of a signature.

I spent many days waiting for the phone to ring, and for clients to walk in. I also spent many hours “cold calling” FSBO’s (For Sale By Owners), in hopes of “converting” them to let me list their property.

In real estate, making a first impression is also very important. Fortunately I had my wardrobe from working in the corporate world, but my car left something to be desired. It was a two door Ford Escort. I would sheepishly apologize for the compactness of my car, but most of my potential buyers didn’t seem to mind. (Or, so they said…)

I would then proceed to spend hundreds of dollars on gas (and sometimes lunch), as I drove buyers around town, showing them dozens of homes in their price range. Sometimes they wanted to “look” at homes that were way above their price range…just to see how “the other side” lived. I happily accommodated their wishes.

Sometimes they bought, sometimes they didn’t.

Now keep in mind, in real estate, you don’t get paid unless a sale “closes”.

I also had deals “fall” (not close). Hours of work…………for nothing.

Now, to those big commissions.

Commissions are not all they are cracked up to be. Commissions are split between the listing and selling offices, and then split again (between your broker and you). So what started out to be a 6% commission on a home, was often a 1.5% commission to me (before taxes ).

In real estate, most people don’t look at, or purchase properties, Monday through Friday, from 8-4. No! Real estate happens on the weekends, or evenings, when buyers have free time to look. My family time, was often put on the back burner.

And….as in many businesses, I soon found out, the real estate world is filled with lots of politics, and many unscrupulous individuals.

For two years, I gave it my all.

I had made a decent income.

But, a new dream began calling me, so I gave up my license, and never looked back.

Now you may be asking, what do blogging and real estate have in common?

Let’s take a look.

1) To get a blog (some are free), or a real estate license, is fairly easy.

2) Once you have a blog, or real estate license, that’s when the real work starts

3) Blogging software does not teach you how to deal with comments (positive or negative), just as real estate school does not teach you how to deal with good or bad clients. Nor does blogging software teach you HTML, CSS, XHTML, etc….You are also on your own when it comes to plugins, widgets, addons, favicons, etc…

4) Making money with blogging takes time, just as earning commissions do

5) Traffic to a new blog comes slow, as do buyers and sellers to a new real estate office

6) In real estate, you may encounter cheats and liars. With blogging, many websites do not provide accurate information

7) To succeed in both real estate and blogging, patience, perseverance, and endurance are required.

8.) Unless you are retired, or have flex time, as in real estate, you will be blogging on nights and weekends.

9) Success in real estate and blogging, is measured by the number of deals/posts you have.

10) What appears to be high earnings in real estate or blogging, can be misleading. (1.5% commission vs $0.03 for an ad click)

11) Just as buyers may only “be looking”, visitors to your blog may not be clicking on your ads – no conversions.

12) The quality of what you write in your blog, is as important as the words you speak to potential buyers and sellers (integrity)

13) Just as you may, or may not, “hit it off” with a buyer or seller, your blog may not appeal to all readers

14) It takes time for a new business to develop name recognition, just as it does a blog

15) With both blogs and real estate, the first impression is the most important. All the more reason to have a professional looking site.

16) Blogs have spam, real estate has unscrupulous individuals. (Wouldn’t it be great to have a spam blocker for those type of people? ZAP!!!)

17) Just as real estate has high and lows, so does traffic to blogs.

18) Being a blogger and/or a Realtor is not for everyone.

19) Just as a home sells itself, so does your blog.

Will yours get “top billing”?

Today’s Assignment

Do you see similarities between blogging and a profession you are in, or have been in?

Did you think blogging would be easy when you started?

What is the greatest obstacle you face with blogging?

Do you see yourself blogging in the future?

Today’s Lesson

When a person is new to blogging, learning all there is to know, can seem overwhelming.

First of all, you have a new “language” to learn.

But, what do all of these words really mean?

Today’s Lesson

Definitions:

Post

a) A post is something you use to hold up a fence
b) A post is a tall columnar piece of wood or marble, on your porch
c) A post is a combination of words and/or photos on a blog page
d) All of the above

Page

a) A page is one piece of paper bound in a book
b) A page is a person who works on the floor of the Senate
c) A page is a combination of words and/or photos in a blog, that remain static (doesn’t change)
d) All of the above

Plugin

a) You can “plugin” a lamp, if you want light
b) You can “plugin” when you really want to hear what someone is trying to tell you
c) You can use a “plugin” for your blog, to add new and exciting features
d) All of the above

Trackback

a) This could be a typo, and it should be “back track”
b) You can trackback to your desk, and get to work
c) A trackback, is a way of notifying another website, that you linked to their blog/site
d) All of the above

Spider

a) A spider is a black furry thing, with eight legs, that scares you to death
b) A spider is an unattractive vein in your leg, i.e. spider vein
c) A spider is a type of computer generated program that browses the web, and can find your blog for updates
d) All of the above

Now, I bet you want to know the correct answers.

If you answered “d”, that is correct. However, for new bloggers, the correct answers are all “c”

How did you do?

I bet you all aced this one.

I tested both of my sites on their meta tag analyzer. I ended up making a few adjustments, plus added a robot meta tag to my OM blog.

Having researched meta tags, I know that not all search engines recognize them, but even if just a few do, I would like to know that I have included them in my blogs. Being a newbie to blogging, every little bit helps.

Submit Express also has several other freebies worth checking out.

I sure appreciates all of the support and free advice that has been extended to us newbies in blogosphere. I’ll be the first to admit, I could have never done it on my own.

1) Start with a good blogging software program. I use WordPress
2) Install a good spam remover. I use Akismet,-caught 96 spam so far
3) Post often. Post valuable data
4) Research what you don’t know
5) Take time to learn HTML and XHTML
6) Set up your statistics. I use Google Analytics, Awstats and Webalizer
7) Post often. I know, I said that, but it’s worth repeating
8.) Have fun with your blog. Don’t take it so seriously that it stunts your creativity
9) Learn from your mistakes. We all make them
10) Post often. In real estate, it’s location, location, location. In blogging, it’s post, post,post.
11) Most importantly, remember to send out a thank you to all of your readers. They are the building block of your blog. Without them, your blog could remain in the “sandbox” forever.

With that being said, Thank you to all of my dedicated readers. Thank you for returning and/or subscribing to my blog. Thank you for supporting me as I enter this place called blogosphere. Your continued support is most appreciated.