Has your publication noticed a recent rise in comments of approximately 1-4 lines in length filled with over-the-top but totally unspecific praise? Here at the SEOigloo Blog and over at Search Engine Guide, I have noted a rise in these over the past two months. Every day, I am spending time deleting comments that read like this:
Wow, I don’t know how you wrote this! It would take me weeks to write something like this. My girlfriend (brother, cousin, partner) has been looking for this information for a long time, thanks! You are brilliant!
The buttering up is as oily as melted margarine, but it’s the lack of reference to anything written in the article that is a dead giveaway.
Comment spam is as old as…well…comments, and I’ve seen different styles of spam come and go. I think this form might get past bloggers who aren’t paying enough attention because of its mention of relationship (girlfriend, brother, etc.). That almost doesn’t sound like spam, but you can bet it is.
It’s hard to believe people are out there wasting their time spamming comments like this, or worse yet, paying people to do it for them. Well-moderated blogs will simply delete these comments, so the investment of time or money will be wasted, but I guess as long as enough of it is getting by, somebody is finding it worthwhile.
Between this and all of those emails from offshore businesses who keep addressing me as ‘Dear One’, I’m sure wasting time dealing with garbage. How about you? Have you been receiving more comments like these ones lately?