This post will likely stir up a bit of controversy, but that’s ok. Your boy here has thick skin that has gotten much thicker these past couple of years thanks to my mom & brother losing their battles with cancer. It’s all about perspective sometimes, isn’t it?

Disclaimer: I’m not aiming to piss you off or encouraging you to take sides. I’m merely sharing my perspective in hopes that you’ll share yours in return. I may be totally wrong with my stance, but hear me out before you dismiss it as such. You may find yourself with a new outlook on blog commenting by the end of this post.

“Open Letter to Blog Comment Spammers”

On February 18, 2010, Lee Odden of Top Rank Marketing posted the above titled entry.  For the record, I have absolutely NO problem with Lee Odden or Top Rank Marketing.  In fact, I recently attended a Social Media Club event here in Louisville where Lee spoke and enjoyed his presentation quite a bit.  It was refreshing to hear Lee repeat a lot of the things I’ve been telling my SEO clients and prospects for quite some time since a lot of people look to Lee as an SEO authority.

I agree with a majority of what Lee says, but I don’t today.

Lee has taken particular issue with folks that use blog commenting to build links by substituting their keywords for the name field. (If you’re not totally familiar with blog commenting, the name field is typically hyper-linked to the web address you enter into the “website” field.)

Where Lee & I Totally Agree

I happen to agree 100% with a specific portion of Lee’s argument in his blog commenting spam post.  If someone comes to any blog and posts crap like “great blog; I just bookmarked it so I can come back to it,” that’s garbage that gets discarded as spam regardless of what you put into the name field. The comment doesn’t deserve to get posted much less warrant a link.

Where Lee & I Greatly Disagree

Here’s where I disagree, and this is one of those things that means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of life, but it’s a controversial topic in the Internet marketing community especially to SEO “gurus.”

Lee’s stance: always use your name or a “real sounding” name when you comment on someone’s blog or it’s spam.

My stance: If you take the time out of your day to go to a blog, read a post, then contribute something of value by commenting, you should get something in return for your efforts. If that something happens to be a link to your website, so be it.  After-all, it doesn’t cost me anything! If you’d rather focus that link on a keyword phrase instead of your name, and you’ve helped me help others or made my blog a better place because of your comment, have at it!

Chad Ocho Cinco is a Spammer?

Furthermore, who am I to say your name isn’t really “SEO Book” instead of “Aaron Wall?” I mean, Chad Ocho Cinco changed his last name from Johnson so technically, he’d be “spamming” in Lee’s world if Lee wasn’t apprised of the name change.

You’re starting to see my point, aren’t you?

Adding to that: many of us go by nicknames or terms of endearment that very few people know about, but should that be construed as “spam” should you use them as your name for a blog comment?  Technically, it’s what you’re called in some circle of life so you’re not being totally deceptive yet those nicknames or terms of endearment aren’t your real name, right?

Is the Name Used to Comment Really THAT Important?

That brings me to my main point: what’s so bad about using a keyword for the name when commenting on a blog? A lot of people use pen-names when they comment … far more than many of us would like to believe, but are they “spamming” by using their pen-name? The name “sounds” and looks real so how does someone like Lee know that’s not your real name? The same correlation could be drawn with keywords if you really boil it down.

Bottom Line

It’s up to every blog owner how they want to manage their blog and what’s important to them. To me, value and substance should win out over what someone puts in a name field when they comment.

Seriously … is it that big a deal?

What are Your Thoughts?

Where do you come out on this? Please share your comments below.

Filed under: Blogs

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