Hundred Dollar SEO

credit: vagrantant

This morning I sat down to coffee and blog administration when I saw this:

• Monte Dyer | kzix@eezxu.com | josephite.com | IP: 200.63.42.136
• antihumbuggist chou hobblingly hypotensor jumpseed pavy hafiz protomeristem
• Consolidated Press (http://www.consolidatedpress.net/)
  http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/08/25/inner.city.film.school/
  Lucan Basketball Club (http://homepage.eircom.net/%7Elucanbasketball)
  http://www.contrinex.com/
  Don Bender - Bender and Associates Realty (http://www.benderrealestate.com/)
  http://www.zadokco.co.il/
  Static Electricity Projects (http://www.amasci.com/emotor/statelec.html)
  http://www.musicfanclubs.org/davematthews/
  Not Spam — Aug 18, 3:18 AM — [ View Post ]

And these two, probabply from the same person:

New comment on your post #173 “How Do .Gov Sites Use Robots.txt”
Author : glassland (IP: 58.65.235.211 , 58.65.235.211)
E-mail : rtzedsr@gmail.com
URL : http://www.nybgshop.org
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=58.65.235.211
Comment:
steven usa see student cube microsoft you home

New comment on your post #173 “How Do .Gov Sites Use Robots.txt”
Author : redwaterkeyb (IP: 58.65.235.213 , 58.65.235.213)
E-mail : hgsoevygyt@he.com
URL : http://graysonstone.com
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=58.65.235.213
Comment:
student cube keyboard boy minor australia wood

Why Are You Being Spammed?

In total this isn’t a horrible day for comment spam; I have had worse. But today it felt right to do something about it. To ask the question why do people drop garbled phrases and links in your comments?

You will notice that the last two spams are from the same IP, and for different sites, so I figure this is an agency or individual who is spamming on the behalf of Grayson Stone: Natural Stone Countertops (Denton Tx) and New York Botanical Garden (New York City). The first spam comment contains 8 links to seemingly unrelated sites. So, it is probably also an agency or individual.

They have chosen well trafficked pages that have both received some attention. Often spammers choose older pages that are less likely to be noticed by the blog owner. They come in and leave a randomly assembled set of 6 -12 words to mimic a short comment. Mixed in with the words is usually a link, or just a link through their posting name (usually a mid-to-high competition phrase).

Through this they hope that you will not filter or notice the wonky comment until after Google has noticed it. These spam blasts hit thousands of sites everyday counting on unused and under-administrated blogs retaining some of the links long enough to be spidered.

What Can You Do About Comment Spam?

I think the simplest way to cut down the spam is to help people understand that spamming is bad for their business. When I get a comment that is obviously 3-rd party to the link I actually call the business. Today I called Don Bender and Associates and left a message with Dave Dicky, CTO United Country Realty. I gave him my phone number and let him know that someone is spamming people on his behalf. He called back to let me know that this was NOT a behavior that the business sanctioned. I let him know that the most likely culprit was someone hiring a low-ethics company to do link building.

By letting people know that they are being grouped in with spam you often find they find the practice reprehensible, and want out. Politely letting people know how their efforts are appearing on the Internet helps to expand baseline knowledge of  how the Internet really affect their business.

If you are running a blog that gets spammed regularly you should call 1 person this week and let them know that they are funding the spam that they hate. Most of the time these people are more than happy to get more information.