Pardon me while I rant for a bit.
Over the years my blog has developed a small following, and currently I average about 40,000 hits per month. To me that's pretty cool, as I never expected to have a world-wide reach and dedicated readers. But with the success comes a down side.....spammers.
Multiple times per week I get "spam" comments, and often multiple times per day. Virtually every one of these posts contain a link to an outside website, and it's obvious that the person isn't really commenting on my writing. Occasionally I'll get a post linking to a website having nothing to do with animals, such as a human hairloss site after I post about skin problems in dogs. But most of the comments are related to the veterinary field, especially private veterinary practices. From what I've been able to learn, it seems that the people making these comments are involved in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For those who don't understand that principle, it's basically a way to drive traffic to a website and increase its presence on search engines like Google and Bing. If the SEO person puts a link in the comment, it gets that site's "presence" more on the Internet, and may cause some people to click on the link and go to their client's website.
I don't think most private veterinarians realize this is happening. Several years ago I ended up actually calling and talking to a practice owner after someone repeatedly and annoyingly posted spam comments. He was surprised and upset, and very apologetic. He and others pay a company to increase their practices website recognition, and one method is to make these spam posts.
The rampant spamming is the main reason why I now moderate each and every comment that was made. I hate having to do so, but if I allowed all comments to be published the problem would be even worse. What frustrates me is that the people making these posts don't even bother to read the statement just above the comment box where I explicitly state that their post won't be published and they're wasting their time. They do it anyway! I can't believe how ignorant and hopeless these people are.
Here are some examples of the kinds of comments I get from these people. You'll notice that they're very generic and I can promise you that they don't relate to the blog entry. Each one of these had a link to another web site related to pet care or a veterinary practice, or even a non-veterinary site.
you are just too cool. i really feel great to see such kind of outstanding stuff.
outstanding stuff. i just really don't have words to explain my feelings. please do have a looks into i.
Nice post. Thanks for sharing this blog. For any pet health issue I have recommend a well pet care specialist in Vista city, located in California. This is the best Veterinary Practitioners in California.
it is too good too much impressive. just simply loving it
Nice Post thanks for sharing information about hair loss and prevention tips more helpful for other persons. Hair Transplant in Bangalore
After a few blog posts on your website now, and I truly like your way of blogging about Scrubs Inc.
This is an interesting blog that you have posted, you shares a lot of things about Puppy Dental Care, Basic Puppy Training and Dog Vaccinations UK. Which are very informative to us (This one I've had in the comments more than once, with no change in the wording).
Some of the posts start out seeming to be related to the blog entry, but quickly become generic and then have a link to a business at the end. No matter how they state it, it's obvious to me that the ONLY reason for their post is to promote the website. And I'm not going to allow my comment boxes to be filled up with stupid spam.
Probably the single worst spammer is a person named Liama Jhons, who has a pet care website. Yes, I'm calling out this person by their real name because they have been such a headache to me. No, I won't post their website and I strongly discourage anyone from going there simply because of what an annoyance this person is. I get comments from Liama just about every week, often more than once in a week, all rather nonsensical with a link to their website. Liama has made more spam comments than any other person in the 6 1/2 year history of my blog. It got to the point where I found their Google Plus profile and wrote them, asking it to stop. I've now written a total of four times and have never received a response. I've reported them for spam through the G+ system twice, and will probably do so again. Despite all of these attempts to politely and not-so-politely ask them to stop making these comments, nothing has changed. To me this means that not only are they ignorant beyond hope of redemption (ignoring my messages and the statement above the comments that I won't allow their comments to publish), but they are very deliberately ignoring me and are heartless enough that they simply don't care what anyone thinks about them. Liama's only focus is to drive people to their website, and they don't care how they do it. Maybe a little public shaming will help. But I doubt it.
I know that my little rant won't make much of a difference, and these spammers will continue to try and make posts. In fact, I will find it extremely ironic and not surprising if one comments on this blog post.
Multiple times per week I get "spam" comments, and often multiple times per day. Virtually every one of these posts contain a link to an outside website, and it's obvious that the person isn't really commenting on my writing. Occasionally I'll get a post linking to a website having nothing to do with animals, such as a human hairloss site after I post about skin problems in dogs. But most of the comments are related to the veterinary field, especially private veterinary practices. From what I've been able to learn, it seems that the people making these comments are involved in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For those who don't understand that principle, it's basically a way to drive traffic to a website and increase its presence on search engines like Google and Bing. If the SEO person puts a link in the comment, it gets that site's "presence" more on the Internet, and may cause some people to click on the link and go to their client's website.
I don't think most private veterinarians realize this is happening. Several years ago I ended up actually calling and talking to a practice owner after someone repeatedly and annoyingly posted spam comments. He was surprised and upset, and very apologetic. He and others pay a company to increase their practices website recognition, and one method is to make these spam posts.
The rampant spamming is the main reason why I now moderate each and every comment that was made. I hate having to do so, but if I allowed all comments to be published the problem would be even worse. What frustrates me is that the people making these posts don't even bother to read the statement just above the comment box where I explicitly state that their post won't be published and they're wasting their time. They do it anyway! I can't believe how ignorant and hopeless these people are.
Here are some examples of the kinds of comments I get from these people. You'll notice that they're very generic and I can promise you that they don't relate to the blog entry. Each one of these had a link to another web site related to pet care or a veterinary practice, or even a non-veterinary site.
you are just too cool. i really feel great to see such kind of outstanding stuff.
outstanding stuff. i just really don't have words to explain my feelings. please do have a looks into i.
Nice post. Thanks for sharing this blog. For any pet health issue I have recommend a well pet care specialist in Vista city, located in California. This is the best Veterinary Practitioners in California.
it is too good too much impressive. just simply loving it
Nice Post thanks for sharing information about hair loss and prevention tips more helpful for other persons. Hair Transplant in Bangalore
After a few blog posts on your website now, and I truly like your way of blogging about Scrubs Inc.
This is an interesting blog that you have posted, you shares a lot of things about Puppy Dental Care, Basic Puppy Training and Dog Vaccinations UK. Which are very informative to us (This one I've had in the comments more than once, with no change in the wording).
Some of the posts start out seeming to be related to the blog entry, but quickly become generic and then have a link to a business at the end. No matter how they state it, it's obvious to me that the ONLY reason for their post is to promote the website. And I'm not going to allow my comment boxes to be filled up with stupid spam.
Probably the single worst spammer is a person named Liama Jhons, who has a pet care website. Yes, I'm calling out this person by their real name because they have been such a headache to me. No, I won't post their website and I strongly discourage anyone from going there simply because of what an annoyance this person is. I get comments from Liama just about every week, often more than once in a week, all rather nonsensical with a link to their website. Liama has made more spam comments than any other person in the 6 1/2 year history of my blog. It got to the point where I found their Google Plus profile and wrote them, asking it to stop. I've now written a total of four times and have never received a response. I've reported them for spam through the G+ system twice, and will probably do so again. Despite all of these attempts to politely and not-so-politely ask them to stop making these comments, nothing has changed. To me this means that not only are they ignorant beyond hope of redemption (ignoring my messages and the statement above the comments that I won't allow their comments to publish), but they are very deliberately ignoring me and are heartless enough that they simply don't care what anyone thinks about them. Liama's only focus is to drive people to their website, and they don't care how they do it. Maybe a little public shaming will help. But I doubt it.
I know that my little rant won't make much of a difference, and these spammers will continue to try and make posts. In fact, I will find it extremely ironic and not surprising if one comments on this blog post.
