I wrote this article in response to an NPT reader who asked:
I recently read a strategy put forth by a "guru" (ugh!) ...One of his suggestions for getting traffic to your site was to join forums and blogs whose topics were related you your sites subject matter and to post even generic responses to a previous post.
He put forth that if you didn't have substantial knowledge to post a meaningful response, you would post something like "You have made a very good point" or "Thanks for the information, I didn't know that was the case" etc.
Obviously if you do have knowledge of the subject matter you would make a more meaningful response.) Of course you would do this with links(s) to your website(s) in your signature.
Is this considered "spam"?
Ugh! indeed! That's TERRIBLE advice!
Posting "Thanks for the information, I didn't know that was the case" comments to forums and blogs wastes everyone's time that will catch up with you in the long run.
Listed below are 4 link building strategies that I consider to be a complete waste of time and effort.
- Buying Links on Spam Directories - Some webmasters make a LOT of money selling 10, 15 and hundred dollar links on their spam directories to newbie netpreneurs who are led to believe that they will actually receive some traffic. Don't believe a word of it. If you do get a hit, it won't be worth spit. Save your money and buy a Yahoo! listing instead.
- Sending Automated Link Exchange Requests - Here's an example of "I posted a link to your site on mine, now you post a link to mine on yours" - a.k.a. Link Exchange Request Spam.
The webmaster obviously used software to automate the process. Would you respond to a request like that? I sincerely hope not! And if you wouldn't respond to such a link exchange request, then don't bother wasting your time with the spammy technique either.
- Spamming Forums - How many "me too" posts complete with link-rich signature lines do you have to read on a forum before you close the browser window or click the "Back" button? Ten, twenty... a hundred?
Do you like having your time wasted by such drivvel?
Moreover, are you tempted to click on the link of someone who has nothing more to say than "I agree with the previous poster" or who asks the same tired old question on multiple forums?
If you did visit their site out of curiousity, is it likely that you'd ever buy something that they're selling?
My guess is that the answer is an emphatic "NO!" - especially in relation to buying from someone who is obviously spamming a forum, or hasn't learned how to tie his webmaster shoelaces.
Savvy surfers and researchers know how to scan past the link-builders posts and find the worthwhile stuff. Furthermore, good forums are heavily moderated to prevent abuse. Our NPT forum has 3 excellent moderators - Dan Reinhold, Brad Haslam and Lowell Rieger - who do their best to eliminate spam and give our visitors a worthwhile experience.
If you really want to ruin your reputation as a knowledgeable personal in your field, get ignored and eventually banned - forum spamming is an excellent way to do it.
- Blog Comment Spamming - At the time of writing Akismet has caught and killed 28,364 spam comments since I installed it on the NPT Blog.
That's a LOT of spam (mostly posted by spam bots) and I'm glad I didn't have to delete each one of them by hand. My visitors appreciate that they don't have to drill down through comments consisting of 20 to 30 links to find a comment worth reading.
Those "You have made a very good point" comments that show up 'Awaiting Moderation' may or may not get approved depending on the author's comment history. If they've contibuted worthwhile content in the past, then I'll approve it, otherwise it gets deleted with dispatch.
I'm even more ruthless about deleting trackback comments which most often lead to a post that replicates my original post but contains no additional information.
On the other hand, I love finding comments made by informed webmasters who go out of their way to share good information with my visitors or who present an alternate point of view well worth considering. They DESERVE the links they get from my site.
There are so many good ways to build links to your web site that you don't need to waste your time with spammy link building practices advocated by those who apparently care more about the chance of a getting a click than their reputation or the sustainability of their business.
Link-building practices such as informed blog comment and forum posting take time and effort. However, the pay-off is a solid reputation within your niche and long-standing links that do result in free targeted traffic to your site.
Isn't that worth the effort?