Link Dropping; Should you delete those comments
Feb25Written by:
2010/02/25 08:06 AM 
There are millions of blogs out on the internet. Every one of these bloggers wish to promote and market their
blog. They wish to increase their page rank and back link count. What better way to do this than by leaving a link in someone else's comment.
That’s what link dropping is all about. But it is more than that, it’s more about just dropping a link in a comment that is totally unrelated to the comment tread and or the topic and subject of the original post.
A lot of people consider this spam and delete the comment immediately. What are your thoughts? How do you handle link dropping in your comments?
How can we discourage link dropping. Here are some thoughts.
Don’t allow comments
Very drastic but will sort the problem out. Not a good suggestion as this will cut you off from the blogosphere. Most likely your readership will drop.
Disallow links in your comments
Comment add-ons like Disqus give you the ability to monitor links and approve comments that have links in them. While others do this automatically disallowing links in comments.
Turning off HTML in your comments will certainly sort this problem out.
Monitoring each comment.
Easier said that done. Especially if you get hundreds of comments a day. But for the smaller blogs, one can indeed monitor the comments and make an informed decision on each comment. Delete or not delete.
Add comment Luv
Commentluv and Linkluv are two add-ons or plugins that one can add to your blog and comment section. What they do is include the links to a posters comment that links directly to their latest blog post. Thereby encouraging traffic and content sharing.
It helps give something back to every single commentator as well as entice them to come back and visit more often by automatically adding a titled link to their last blog post at the end of their comment.
Don’t worry about it, business as usual.
The other thing to do is not stress about it. Just let it be. Allow the link dropping to continue.
Conclusion
For me, my blog is not a free advertising platform. It is not there for other people to hock their products. I think it is very unethical to hijack a blog comment for your own gain. In the past I have been deleting such comments.
What are your thoughts? what do you do? Can you add anything more to this conundrum?
Related reading:
YouTube censoring profanity in comments.
Your comments make content more valuable
10 Rules of blog posts and comments.
Should I reply to every blog comment?
Why do we comment on other blogs?
Remember you can win a weeks worth of free ad space just for commenting. The best comments during the week will get a weeks free advertising space. Check out: Win free advertising for your blog
New here, or perhaps you've been here a few times? Like this post? Why not subscribe to this blog and get the most up to date posts as soon as they are published.
Get involved in our community. Help promote other bloggers. List your blog in our directory for bloggers.
Blog Directory for Bloggersblog comments powered by