Business Blog Wire

I found a nice little post at Zerotasking.com today about how to fight spam comments on your corporate blog.  (Of course the same tips apply well to personal blogs.)  I agree with the post’s primary recommendations:

1. Read every comment carefully.
2. Don’t just disable commenting.

Here’s why these tips are important:

1. Read every comment carefully - Many business bloggers allow spam comments to stay on their blogs simply because they look genuine.  The fact is that there are unscrupulous spammers out there who will try just about anything in order to create a link to their desired URL (often a splog) on your blog.  Check each link in a given comment.  It doesn’t matter if the text is relevant to your discussion - you have the right to delete any comment you wish.  (Of course, this may upset people if you delete their comments simply because they disagree with you or want to take the conversation in a direction you are uncomfortable with.)

2. Don’t just disable commenting - Doing so would be like shutting off your phone, TV and Web services in order to avoid telemarketers or undesirable callers, programs and websites.  Of course it would work … but your blog would suffer as a result because people would no longer feel as confident about talking to you.  Many readers would probably stop visiting your business blog because they could no longer add to the published conversation.

If you’re getting flooded with hundreds of spam comments a day, you should consider getting some kind of spam filter for your blog.  I recommend reading the TypePad FAQ on comment spam.

I welcome your tips on how to combat comment spam.  What methods work best?  What filters or techniques do you use to get rid of spam on your blog (or blogs)?

Tags: No Comments