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Is This A "Cheesy" Link Building Tactic? Or Is It OK?

by Allen Graves
20 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I own several article directories and I have been watching a quickly growing number of people come in and make short, pointless comments on our articles and then leave a link or two to THEIR articles on OTHER article directories.

Obviously they are trying to build links without leaving anything in return.

So is this a cheesy tactic?

What's the difference between that and one-liners at the WF to get a sig link seen? Or leaving two word blog comments with links to your stuff.

And the worst part is that it not only hurts the author who's article they are trying to steal traffic from, it hurts the article directory because the link takes them to the directory's competition.

If the comment actually delivered some kind of value, I wouldn't think twice, but dang! These people are so bold as to comment something like, "This article is OK, but these are better --> link1, link2."

Am I looking at this one-sidedly? Is there another way to look at this that makes it OK? :confused:

Thanks!
Allen
#cheesy #thing
  • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
    Hey Allen,

    I think it is laziness. Why not try and give and get back? Provide a relevant and thought out response and get the backlink. I have had blogs where again and agian I get, "Sounds great." I guess it is to be expected but I do not have to like it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
    It comes with the territory IMO.

    Any site that caters to internet marketers is going to abused...

    Think of how all the profile sites feel now that us IMers are leeching links off them
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    • Profile picture of the author Ilya Feynberg
      Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

      It comes with the territory IMO.

      Any site that caters to internet marketers is going to abused...

      Think of how all the profile sites feel now that us IMers are leeching links off them
      Second this.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
        Sounds a lot like the comment spam I get on my blogs.

        Delete them and forget about them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nigel Greaves
    I don't think there's anything wrong with the way you're thinking at all Allen. I do think there's a hell of a lot wrong with the thinking of these sleaze balls though.

    Presumably they're article writers themselves from what you're saying so they know exactly what they are doing. Even for the crappy, backlinks only writers it's a lowball way of doing things.

    Nigel
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  • Profile picture of the author donmccobb
    It sounds like a cheesy tactic to me. There is probably no real way to stop it. However, it seems to me that it may be self defeating. Anyone who feels the need to use this tactic probably is not writing very good articles. So readers who follows these links will probably be disappointed in what they find. Hopefully, they will learn to ignore these kinds of links.
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    Yes, that is cheesy. And not so nice to say "these articles are better" Sheesh!

    What's the difference between that and one-liners at the WF to get a sig link seen? Or leaving two word blog comments with links to your stuff.
    The way I see it, is it isn't really much different with the exception that you are taking away from the original article (maybe).

    Then again, if the person leaving the cheesy comment then goes and bookmarks and links to that article, then maybe it benefits the original author too? As well as the owner of the article directory?

    Of course if the article is only written for back linking purposes then the cheesy comment really doesn't matter so much.
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  • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
    I don't let them stay - they are deleted ASAP. Forgot to mention that...

    Hey Lee! Sending you a PM...

    Allen
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    • Profile picture of the author debra
      Originally Posted by Allen Graves View Post

      I don't let them stay - they are deleted ASAP. Forgot to mention that...

      Hey Lee! Sending you a PM...

      Allen
      Does that mean you are allowing the comments to be auto-approved?

      Because of the same problem on my blogs(not neccessarily all mine) I have all comments held for moderation. That way I can mass delete in a heart beat.

      I do approve some that are a little cheezy though. Like the comments that actually have more than five wordss, are somewhat on topic and do not throw flames at anything/anybody. As long as they have a rated G link without a redirect set.

      P.S. let me know if you have the auto approve thing going on...cuz I think I'll be in your neighborhood soon.
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      • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
        Originally Posted by debra View Post

        Does that mean you are allowing the comments to be auto-approved?

        Because of the same problem on my blogs(not neccessarily all mine) I have all comments held for moderation. That way I can mass delete in a heart beat.

        I do approve some that are a little cheezy though. Like the comments that actually have more than five wordss, are somewhat on topic and do not throw flames at anything/anybody. As long as they have a rated G link without a redirect set.

        P.S. let me know if you have the auto approve thing going on...cuz I think I'll be in your neighborhood soon.
        Yea - auto-approve is on. It just seems easier for me that way. I can just leave all of the good ones alone - they do outweight the spammy ones.

        Let me know if you need anything!

        Thanks,
        Allen
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  • Profile picture of the author DPM70
    If they don't add value - delete them!

    Edit - just saw your last post.
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  • Profile picture of the author Boadicea
    It's spam, so just delete them. If it's a membership site I'd send them a warning too: two spams, and you're out.

    I'm not showing my sig beneath this post, because of the topic
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    I wouldn't call them cheesy because cheese is good food! I'd call them spammy though. Wait, spam is pretty good too. I'd call them thoughtless garbage comments. Yeah, that's it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
      Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

      Wait, spam is pretty good too.
      Oh my GOD, Dennis - do you know what's in that stuff? LOL



      Allen
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  • Profile picture of the author Trent Brownrigg
    Allen I would say you're looking at it correctly. Sounds just like comment spam to me and adds no value.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    It's a pity you can't have it set up so that the article owners can approve the comments on their articles.

    I'm glad you delete them although I know it's probably a real pain in the butt to have to keep going through and deleting comments.

    I think it's wrong but does come with the territory. I have one blog that is dofollow and uses 'keyword luv' but I still don't approve any spammy comments, I'll only approve comments that actually sound like they've been given at least more than 1 second thought.
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  • Profile picture of the author Groovystar
    I was thinking it'd be beneficial to you to either put nofollow or better yet be able to screen all comments before they go live.

    Deleting is almost as good. If you're diligent about it you can wipe them out before the search engines crawl it.
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  • Profile picture of the author hotlinkz
    Originally Posted by Allen Graves View Post

    I own several article directories and I have been watching a quickly growing number of people come in and make short, pointless comments on our articles and then leave a link or two to THEIR articles on OTHER article directories.

    Obviously they are trying to build links without leaving anything in return.

    So is this a cheesy tactic?
    These comments are pretty much useless if they provide no value to visitors/readers. It's self-serving and generally does not deliver successful results for the spam poster.

    Most expedient thing is to review comments prior to publishing them.
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  • Profile picture of the author CherylBarber
    I honestly think it's a form of spam. Especially if the linked articles aren't very closely related to the article to which they are leaving the comments on. It's sort of like when people create video responses on YouTube to other YouTube videos that aren't even related, just for the sake of trying to steal traffic. Or even worse yet, all of the blog comment spam that we see, particularly on WordPress blogs. Anyway, I think it is cheesy at best...and more accurately, should be considered SPAM.

    - Cheryl
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