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Why do people use blog auto-commenting tools?

by Anna Johnson
35 replies
Without passing judgment, can I ask anyone who uses some kind of tool that automatically posts blog comments:

1. Why?

2. How is it working for you?

I get literally hundreds of comments automatically posted to my blog each day. Because I approve all comments before they're published, most of these are marked as spam, and the ones that slip through as 'comments pending approval' get trashed as soon as I see them.

Bottom line: auto comments go nowhere on my blog.

I can only imagine that some blogs don't filter auto comments so they do get posted... but since most blogs have 'no follow' links and I'm guessing most people wouldn't even read the auto comments... I'm really dubious about how effective this approach is.

So what is the thought process behind auto-commenting... or is this another case of people buying into the myth perpetuated by some marketing 'guru' selling a tool 'guaranteed to get you tons of traffic' (yeah right)?
#autocommenting #blog #tools
  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    Why do people use blog auto-commenting tools?
    The thousands of easy backlinks at the click of a button. Simple as that.

    since most blogs have 'no follow' links
    Wordpress isn't the beginning or the end of the blogging universe. When I was using these tools extensively I didn't even bother with wordpress sites.

    So what is the thought process behind auto-commenting... or is this another case of people buying into the myth perpetuated some marketing 'guru' selling a tool 'guaranteed to get you tons of traffic' (yeah right)?
    It's really no different then if you were to search out blogs and leave compelling and interesting comments. A backlink is essentially a backlink.

    It has nothing to do with traffic, it's all about creating a massive number of backlinks in order to boost your SE rankings.

    It works, or it did work. I haven't bothered with this stuff in a while since I've moved on to other projects that aren't SE dependent.

    It's really a small part of gaining a large number of backlinks from a diverse number of sources. Blog commenting, profiles, aritcles, 2.0 sites, social networking and a bunch of other odds n' ends that allow backlinks to be added. Google seems to love sites that get a lot of backlinks from a lot of places.

    It's the same as asking why are people using article spinners and auto submitters... people like an easy button that does all of the work for them.

    I still have my own list of thousands of pages from a couple hundred blogs that I've filtered down to around a 90% success rate... should I give it a spin and see what happens?
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by Anna Johnson View Post

    So what is the thought process behind auto-commenting...
    If millions of people read blog X, and you can stick your link in front of them, at least a few hundred of them will click it.

    It's the people who think IM is a numbers game.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jim Gillum
    My blog has a great delete button...it is a pain in the rear....but delete...
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    Fact is the people buying the bots are a buncha lazy people who thinks money will come with a click of a button. I can prob say about 1-2% of the people who actually bought scrapebox are actually making good income off it.
    This is a fact?

    I have several sites that rank very well and bring me money every day thanks to the hard work of a click of a button.

    Has nothing to do with lazy, it is a means to an end, it's working smarter, more efficiently and accomplishing in a day what would take weeks to accomplish by hand.

    According to your logic we should use shovels when a bulldozer would get the job done much faster.

    Fact is, you have no idea what you are talking about.

    Fact is, money can and does come at the click of a button.
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by jasonmorgan View Post

      This is a fact?

      I have several sites that rank very well and bring me money every day thanks to the hard work of a click of a button.

      Has nothing to do with lazy, it is a means to an end, it's working smarter, more efficiently and accomplishing in a day what would take weeks to accomplish by hand.

      According to your logic we should use shovels when a bulldozer would get the job done much faster.
      Yes, if you're shoveling nothing but sh*t for other people to have to clean up, you should use a shovel instead of a bulldozer, and yes, it is the lazy spammer's way of "marketing".

      Most people who receive this automated BS just have to find better spam filters for their blogs and spend time to manually remove it ... just pest removal, that's all.
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      • Profile picture of the author mijagi
        I understand people want backlinks, no problem with that. But doing it this way is really annoying for me as a blog owner.

        What bothers me eveb more is that this software (and people running it) are making same comments on the same blog multiple times.

        Luckily there are wordpress anti-spam plugins we can use to prevent it.
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  • Profile picture of the author entrepreneurjay
    I get so annoyed by spam blog comments do unto others as you want done unto yourself. What purpose do they serve building backlinks and that is all half of them will not get approved even. Take the time out to make an educted post on a blog and you will receive targeted traffic, a backlinks, and a surge in visitors.

    All it takes is a few minutes to make a real comment. Do not spam the drawbacks far outweigh the positives! Internet marketing is a business not a spam machine!
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    I get so annoyed by spam blog comments do unto others as you want done unto yourself. What purpose do they serve building backlinks and that is all half of them will not get approved even. Take the time out to make an educted post on a blog and you will receive targeted traffic, a backlinks, and a surge in visitors.

    All it takes is a few minutes to make a real comment. Do not spam the drawbacks far outweigh the positives! Internet marketing is a business not a spam machine!
    You're missing the point.

    Why spend all day writing well thought out blog comments... how many could a person write a day? 100? 1,000?

    The whole point of automated blog commenting is so someone doesn't have to spend all day writing blog comments.

    Scrap up your list and hit go. Go watch a movie. Come back and you have maybe a hundred or a thousand blog comments that have been accepted.

    I'm not defending the practice and saying it's right or wrong but you have to understand how it works and what it accomplishes.

    Sure, some people do delete spam comments. It doesn't matter because there are plenty of other blogs that don't moderate at all.

    Even if 75% of the comments were deleted (my success rates were much better), that 25% are easy backlinks that were generated at the click of a mouse and required no additional work or effort.

    It's a douchebag method for building backlinks but it does work. It's on par with article spinning as far as I'm concerned. It's all spam.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anna Johnson
    Hey Jason, thanks for your explanation - much appreciated.
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  • Profile picture of the author mmurtha
    To the people who use these tools -

    How many of you thought about the owner of the websites you are spamming before clicking that button?

    You may think it's smarter to work like that but it's a pain in the a*s when you have to clear those comments out.

    What is worse is you are biting the very hand that was feeding you. That's because all those comments and links devalue the sites they were posted on eventually. So what you guys do is suck someone else dry then move on so you can make your so called living.

    Lol these are great tools aren't they?
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      Mary,
      How many of you thought about the owner of the websites you are spamming before clicking that button?
      You're kidding, right? These ignorant *******s aren't going to care how much they damage someone else's property until someone finds a way to make it physically painful.

      There's no sense appealing to the morals of a leech.


      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
        Fun Thought...

        There are countless people that use these automatic commenting tools so they don't have to spend their time actually writing real comments on blogs.

        There are countless people that use automatic blogging tools so they don't have to spend their time actually writing real blog posts.

        So, there are probably countless blogs out there receiving countless comments, and no one is actually reading any of them.
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      • Profile picture of the author rsmllc
        Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

        Mary,You're kidding, right? These ignorant *******s aren't going to care how much they damage someone else's property until someone finds a way to make it physically painful.

        There's no sense appealing to the morals of a leech.

        Paul
        What about the damage done to 10x as many internet marketers in wasted time and energy doing all the manual commenting, manual content creation, manual everything else that has proven so ineffectual for 95% of those who have done so? How much of the IM universe has been damaged by over-promotion of manual techniques that don't actually work in the real world?

        The grim truth is a much higher volume and quantity of actions have to be performed to improve the traffic, rankings and conversion rates of many sites than is feasible with time intensive methods stressed by most of the gurus and WSOs. It's not a morals question, it's an efficiency issue. If others dislike receiving content automation in an automated medium, they should be welcome to use automated countermeasures to stop the automated comments, but those auto-comments do not amount to 'property damage' simply because they don't like them.
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        • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
          Banned
          Originally Posted by rsmllc View Post

          If others dislike receiving content automation in an automated medium, they should be welcome to use automated countermeasures to stop the automated comments, but those auto-comments do not amount to 'property damage' simply because they don't like them.
          So, you're telling me that the scourge of spam does not damage websites and forums and blogs that they infest? And that somehow because you are too lazy to market the right way, that you have a right to blast other people's sites with your spam? Yes ... I do have plenty of defenses against pests like you, including filing complaints with your host to get you shut down as well as get your Adsense banned and every other method I can to make you uncomfortable about your invasion. I've been pretty successful at getting hosts to shut down people who spam my sites. Just got one's Adsense account shut down the other day.
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        • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
          those auto-comments do not amount to 'property damage' simply because they don't like them.
          Oh?

          I'd love to have a full list of the resources I've had to take down because of this stuff. Or get the time back that I've had to spend over the past 15 years to keep things useful for actual human beings in the face of these scumbags.

          Hear this: We don't care if you think it's justified because it makes things easier for you. We don't owe you a damned thing.

          You are not magically entitled to make money because you have an Internet connection and some scumware. You are not entitled to spray graffiti all over my sites, damaging their usefulness for others, just to increase the rankings for your own sites. No amount of rationalization makes that okay.

          If you can't make your business work without being a vandal, there is something wrong with both your model and your mind.


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        • Profile picture of the author agc
          Originally Posted by rsmllc View Post

          It's not a morals question, it's an efficiency issue. If others dislike receiving content automation in an automated medium, they should be welcome to use automated countermeasures to stop the automated comments, but those auto-comments do not amount to 'property damage' simply because they don't like them.
          It's not a morals question, it's an efficiency issue. If others dislike receiving graffiti, they should be welcome to use automated countermeasures to stop the graffiti, but those graffiti paintings on their property do not amount to 'property damage' simply because they don't like them.

          Hm.
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      • Profile picture of the author mmurtha
        Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

        Mary,You're kidding, right? These ignorant *******s aren't going to care how much they damage someone else's property until someone finds a way to make it physically painful.

        There's no sense appealing to the morals of a leech.


        Paul

        Paul,

        Lol it sounded good at the time I wrote that comment.

        Btw are you offering to go and beat them up?

        (Writes note to self stating never get on Paul's bad side ... )

        Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

        This isn't about automation. It's about property rights.

        Would you like to know why most people fail at the ways that are often taught? They don't have the skills needed to create value. Plain and simple. Suggesting that they have the right to steal from the people who do is absurd.
        Exactly!

        That's part of the problem - automaters believe it's about automation and we say it's about property.

        I swear they have no common sense ...

        I've been doing things manually for years now - I rank fairly well for most of my sites and get sales, so I know it can be done that way.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anna Johnson
    What is worse is you are biting the very hand that was feeding you. That's because all those comments and links devalue the sites they were posted on eventually.
    Great point.
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  • Profile picture of the author rsmllc
    Hear this: I'm saying 'the right way' as you call it has NOT worked for a whole lot of UNlazy people who HAVE invested a lot manual hours on it, with no results. There has been a lot of damage done to those people in wasted effort and time, and lost money from buying courses from experts who stressed this so-called "right" but ineffectual way. Just saying automation is a cost of doing business in a automated medium, and shouldn't be cast in moralistic terms by those who don't like automation.
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by rsmllc View Post

      Hear this: I'm saying 'the right way' as you call it has NOT worked for a whole lot of UNlazy people who HAVE invested a lot manual hours on it, with no results. There has been a lot of damage done to those people in wasted effort and time, and lost money from buying courses from experts who stressed this so-called "right" but ineffectual way. Just saying automation is a cost of doing business in a automated medium, and shouldn't be cast in moralistic terms by those who don't like automation.
      You hear this. Most of us could care less what works for you and what does not. I personally do not care if you ever make a dime doing anything. Your inability to make money does not give you the right to put your garbage on my sites or anyone else's. Your incompetence is not justification for your vandalism.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      Just saying automation is a cost of doing business in a automated medium, and shouldn't be cast in moralistic terms by those who don't like automation.
      This isn't about automation. It's about property rights.

      Would you like to know why most people fail at the ways that are often taught? They don't have the skills needed to create value. Plain and simple. Suggesting that they have the right to steal from the people who do is absurd.

      Think about this for a minute or two: What do you imagine this place would look like without people spending time cleaning out the spam?


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  • Profile picture of the author Pauline60
    Well I am new to the whole blogging and comenting for backlinks world but it seems to me that if I want a backlink from someone else's blog,which they have put a lot of work into thereby making it worthwhile for me to get a link from, then it seems only right to leave a decent comment which is of some value to the content of that blog. That way both parties gain not just one.

    Leaving useless spammy comments on a good quality blog just seems wrong.
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  • Profile picture of the author txconx
    Along those lines - what IS the point of those comments that are nothing but unrelated garbage words strung together?? OK, they're all links - but the anchor text is pure garbage.

    Here's one I recently deleted from one of my PR4 sites:



    bucco di beppo
    79 cherokee craigslisttx
    1 oz equals how many ml
    whirlpool dryer lec8858eq0
    1oz equals how many cups
    alemanas casadas infieles follando
    abuelitos y abuelitas cachondos sexo incesto gratis
    best buy hr support
    2 tsp equals
    35Ã--12 50 15 mud king
    alpo drug dealer harlem death
    6 5 wsm ballistics
    380 titan ii clip
    50 dtc rifle
    22 magnum zero at 100 yds
    catchy one word phrases
    ch texas pete pedigree online pitbull
    aang ****s katara video
    background courthouse efacts
    562 item list runescape

    What purpose does this serve? I'm hoping for enlightenment! In the meantime, I continue to block whole country IPs.
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    • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
      Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

      I got one of the link spamming places to stop posting here by doing just what you suggested would happen. I started calling their US clients and politely informing them how the "service" they were paying for was being done. I included some not-too-subtle hints that I might need to contact their web host if it continued. Then I told the link spammers what I was doing.

      "Want it to stop? Take this place out of your list of forums."
      Really neat. Too bad it can't be done with smaller operations but what a nice move.

      Originally Posted by txconx View Post

      Along those lines - what IS the point of those comments that are nothing but unrelated garbage words strung together?? OK, they're all links - but the anchor text is pure garbage.

      <snip>

      What purpose does this serve? I'm hoping for enlightenment! In the meantime, I continue to block whole country IPs.
      I've been considering blocking the whole internet!

      I get stuff that makes no sense at all too. Some people are bored, lonely, and have absolutely nothing better to do... That's about all I could conclude.

      There is so much variety in human beings and toward the bottom end there is a chunk that isn't even sane.
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  • Profile picture of the author abnation
    Seems to be a hot topic that...
    Mass auto-commenting is pretty much blackhat IMHO.
    It certainly works though. Especially if the footprint is kept low. Whether one should do it or not is another question.
    BTW: There are a ton of new autocommenting tools coming out nowadays, all trying to emulate the success of scrapebox. Poor blogengine blogs... They will be spammed to death...
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  • Profile picture of the author kittyflip
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      I sell services to local businesses.

      Imagine the reaction they would have if, in order to promote my business, I hired a bunch of teenagers to spray graffiti on all the businesses in town in order to promote my business.

      I bet I would get a lot of phone calls, but I'm not sure they'd be the kind of calls I was wanting.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Grant
        Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

        I sell services to local businesses.

        Imagine the reaction they would have if, in order to promote my business, I hired a bunch of teenagers to spray graffiti on all the businesses in town in order to promote my business.

        I bet I would get a lot of phone calls, but I'm not sure they'd be the kind of calls I was wanting.
        What the hell kind of comparison is that?


        That's like comparing apples and llamas, my friend.
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      • Profile picture of the author tkboy101
        OOPS.

        I JUST posted a thread on this like... 2 seconds ago. So, my apologies, I didn't know this thread was here. Maybe the people who put hard work into building a good blog (including myself) are really getting tired of all the quick fix, easy backlinks. In my opinion, a high PR backlink would be worth the extra 5 minutes to read and comment on a post organically.

        I own a few sites that get about 20 of these spam comments every day. they have nothing to do with my posts and they only contain like a sentence. There's no value in these comments for my blog. Personally, I just delete and spam them all.

        TKBoy101
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      • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
        Dan,
        Imagine the reaction they would have if, in order to promote my business, I hired a bunch of teenagers to spray graffiti on all the businesses in town in order to promote my business.
        But it takes so much effort and money to pay for billboards and broadcast advertising. Look at how many people fail because they can't make that work. Look at the damage to all those people!

        Better to just have an army of kids spray painting ads on people's homes and fences.

        Back in reality land... I got one of the link spamming places to stop posting here by doing just what you suggested would happen. I started calling their US clients and politely informing them how the "service" they were paying for was being done. I included some not-too-subtle hints that I might need to contact their web host if it continued. Then I told the link spammers what I was doing.

        "Want it to stop? Take this place out of your list of forums."


        Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    moral of the story:

    pissing in the pool gets the job done, but that doesn't mean everybody else in the pool appreciates it.
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  • Profile picture of the author txconx
    May we conclude that those defending these crappy auto comments are the ones using them?
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Grant
      Originally Posted by txconx View Post

      May we conclude that those defending these crappy auto comments are the ones using them?
      I don't use them, but I go with the ones backing the tools.

      There are tools that easily combat this, and make this problem disappear completely.
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      • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
        Originally Posted by mgtarheels View Post

        There are tools that easily combat this, and make this problem disappear completely.
        The problem doesn't go away because there are tools. They just move the problem. If someone posts lots of spam comments on my site, I get to choose one of two problems.

        Problem A: lots of spam comments are on my site.

        Problem B: I have to get and use tools that remove spam comments.

        The problem goes away when these *******s stop spamming my site.
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        • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
          Mary,
          Btw are you offering to go and beat them up?
          There've been times I considered finding a few of them and introducing their knees to old Louis V, but that just steps down closer to their level of incivility. That doesn't make the temptation go away, though.

          mgtarheels,
          I don't use them, but I go with the ones backing the tools.

          There are tools that easily combat this, and make this problem disappear completely.
          Then you're right down in the muck with them.

          Anything that adds friction to useful communication and slows down the system hurts everyone in the end.


          Paul
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