For all you Blog Commenters - Akismet is Coming to get you

Let me clarify something for you. First of all Akismet does not block your ability to make comments with a certain URL.

Here is what can happen if you are reported by too many blog owners to Akismet as being spam then it will eventually label your url as spam that much is correct. However it does not block your comment all together. It will still be held in a spam que and the blog owner can go into the spam que and approve the comment if he wishes.

Now obviously this is not the best scenario. If you are flagged as spam by Akismet then it means that a number of people have reported you comments as spam. This isn't likely to just happen on accident so I would take a close look at your comments and ask yourself a few questions.

1 Did you actually read the post and leave comments that added value to the post or topic at hand? (answer should be yes)
2 Did you leave brief comments that add no value to the post at hand. (answer should be no)
3 Were you overly self promotions and/or did you leave extra links in your comments. (answer should be no)

The main point here being if you are getting a high number of people marking yopur comments as spam then it likely has something to do with the way you are commenting so take a close and honest look at that first.

PS: some people also feel that leave keywords anchor text instead of your actual names comes across as spammy so that is one other thing to consider. (however I think most blog owners are willing to allow the keyword as anchor text if you actually leave a thoughful comment that adds to the post) If you leave a brief comment and have keyword anchor text as your name you can bet your are going to get the spam hammer quite often.

I hope that helps.