File this one under the "bad ideas" folder. If you thought PayPerPost and ReviewMe, which some have likened to payola, were bad, get ready for Buy Blog Comments, a service that lets marketers pay for comment spam.
Darren Rowse calls Buy Blog Comments "one of the worst business ideas [he has] heard for a long time," and I am obliged to agree. This is not only a monumentally poor idea, but one that is potentially dangerous for the blogosphere as a whole.
Comment spam is a big problem, and it comes in a few different flavors. There's the type that looks like spam (just a lot of links viagra or porn) -- this type is usually caught by anti-spam plugins for blogging engines, such as Akismet. There's the spam that consists of a generally plauditory generic comment followed by link -- though slightly more readable, this is still clearly spam and easily removed. Then there's the type the Buy Blog Comments is purportedly peddling. These comments are generally on topic, but have the underlying purpose of self promotion and not of improving the conversation.
Buy Blog Comments charges $.20 per comment for what they say are "quality blog comments." To write truly quality blog comments that won't be flagged by site owners as spam like the site promises one would have to find related blog posts, read them, and compose thoughtful, on-topic replies that subtly weave in a marketing message with a link that is worthwhile to readers. If we can assume that takes at least 10 minutes per comment, then this site is paying its writers probably less than a $1/hour. That makes me skeptical that the site could deliver on its promise of comments that don't look like spam. But I'll let the site speak for itself and you can judge the "quality:"
We dont use people who cant even speak english. It is important to have well written blog comments so that they wont get deleted by the blogger. All of our trained staff are currently from the USA and Canada and speak english very well.
The site is run by Jon Waraas, a 20 year old entrepreneur who in the comments of Darren Rowse's site admits that he's "just not very ethical." Waraas adds to the shadiness of an already suspicious endeavor by quoting himself on the Buy Blog Comments web site in a manner that looks like a customer testimonial. The site itself says that it specializes in selling to "blackhatters" (a term used to describe people who use search engine optimization techniques that are frowned upon by the search engines or outright against their terms of service), which is a good way to attract negative attention from Google.
As Search Engine Journal notes, there is value in comment links, but paying someone to spam blogs (or doing it yourself) is not the way to go about building backlinks.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Terrible Idea: Buy Blog Comments Sells Spam.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2349
Darren Rowse from ProBlogger is bringing some attention to a new service called BuyBlogComments (I’m not going to give them a link) that is aiming to sell blog comments with his “Buy Blog Comments - A Sick New Comment Spam Service Launches&... Read More
Don’t you hate when you see 10-50 comments and then you have to go though all and find which ones are spam and which ones are actually human comments! Now imagine this there is a site that actually support’s spam how awful is that? I mean ... Read More
Remember PayPerPost and Paid Posting Tools? The bad idea that refuses to die? Yet another idiot (this time it's twenty-year-old... Read More
This list is a group of companies we wish would just go away. Their basis is controversial to say the least. Recently, Wired published an article Exploring The Dark Side of Crowdsourcing, which shines some light on some shady startups.... Read More
Comments
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Josh you just did them a service.
Posted by: Avi Charkham | July 10, 2007 1:28 AMEach time one of you guys blogs about such a service you give it the visibility it so badly needs.
I wrote about them too, but refused to give them a link out.
I agree this idea sucks.
Posted by: Ali | July 10, 2007 1:35 AMIt's not fair to say that such comments will not add value to the conversation. But ya, the intent could be money drive and still those comments can fit into the conversation. Why not?
Posted by: Internet Evangelist | July 10, 2007 2:34 AMi dont agree with these sentences"We dont use people who cant even speak english. It is important to have well written blog comments so that they wont get deleted by the blogger. All of our trained staff are currently from the USA and Canada and speak english very well."
Posted by: fluencev | July 10, 2007 6:03 AMno Chinese!
Hey Josh...a lot of people would also say blogging is a bad idea but is that stopping anyone? It's a huge space and with so many blogs one has to ask who will be left to do the commenting.
Giving the site time to speak for itself (as you have said) is the right way as opposed to deeming it a failure even before it gets off the ground.
Posted by: Adrian keys | July 10, 2007 6:50 AMI’ve never understood the point of comment spam, at least as far as SEO goes. Google basically ignores links on pages that are below about PR4, so a comment on a typical blog post is worthless in terms of draining PR juice from a site.
In contrast, multiple comments on a site like sciencebase.com that runs the Top Commentators Plugin will allow a dedicated commenter to get their link right on to the blog homepage (which is a PR7). Now, if you were unethical that plugin would be the way to go to game sites like that.
Of course, Akismet and a wary and sharp-eyed moderator will see right through the cr*p-flood, anyway.
db
Posted by: David Bradley | July 10, 2007 9:28 AMI too think this is a terrible idea that threatens the integrity of the blogosphere.
Also, please take the time to visit my v1@gr@ store!
Posted by: dr chadblog | July 10, 2007 12:06 PMDavid: Huh?
If that were true, no page would ever have reached PR4, since there would be no PR4 links to start with.
Every link is valuable.
Posted by: Dan Grossman | July 10, 2007 12:07 PMThere's even a 'buy Twitter tweets' service out there!
Posted by: Andy Pipes | July 11, 2007 1:48 AMcorrect this service will be horrible and this jon guy will definitely be the most hated person in the blog community
comments are meant for discussion and explaining your ideas and concept not now random comment about your post
plus this will kill any authors brand if they decide to do this
Posted by: Iantrepreneur | July 11, 2007 7:48 AMJust use "no follow tag" for your comment section and let those spammer know.. They will not bother with commenting on your site .. :)
Thanks
Posted by: Lee Wong Seoul | July 21, 2007 5:18 PMMy main concern is that you can't guarantee every page of your website will be included in the SERPs. Considering I'm constantly adding new products to my company's website, I need to be sure that customers can find them as soon as possible.
Posted by: SEO | July 23, 2007 4:42 AMI just got caught by one of these at my site. I noticed a complimentary comment from "jackee" about a mushroom risotto recipe I'd posted, and which mentioned white wine. I automatically replied in an encouraging manner, then thought to check the link to the name. Yep, a site that sells wine.
So I checked my sitemeter stats, and found a Google search that included "typepad.com" and white wine. Curious, I decided to see who else this jackee might have targeted, and found two comments at Chez Pim, and another at another site. But, I'm sure it took less than 10 minutes for the spammer (based in Pakistan, btw) to make all four comments. So, at the going rate in Pakistan, it might be profitable.
Posted by: KathyF | July 27, 2007 1:03 AMFirst there was paying for posts, then paying for text links. Now there is paying for comments. Surely this is the end of the line!
Posted by: Matt | August 13, 2007 8:58 PM