Blogging, Comments, SEO And Circus Poodles
SEO, Blogging August 6th, 2007
What does this post have to do with circus poodles? We’ll get to that later. The points that I really want to talk about here are blogging and the comments that readers post on blogs. Blogging for me is a hobby of sorts, something that I do because I enjoy blogging and the relationships that it can build. I also enjoy the business side, sharing business ideas with others, the providing and sharing of information, etc.
The point that I’m trying to make here is that blogging itself is a natural exchange of ideas and information between individuals with similar interests. Should it be left to that natural state or should it be altered? Some bloggers, especially those that do it from a profit standpoint are very concerned with what’s on their blog. You can comment on some blogs, go back the next day, only to see that your comment has been altered or removed. This can be a little frustrating from a commenter standpoint, considering you have put time and thought into what you had to say. Would you feel ripped off if your spam free comment was deleted from a post or would you be able to understand the situation that the blogger is in?
I personally feel that blogging should be left in it’s natural state, comments and all. I am one sided on this mostly because I think that blogging is not the best way to make money online. For those of you that feel the other way I understand that blogging is your livelihood and that comments can have an impact on rankings, optimization, etc. I just really want to know how others feel on this topic.
To show the readers here how comments can have an impact on your blog and your blog rankings, do a search for circus poodles on Google. If you look closely, this blog happens to be near the top of the search results. Thanks to Charles over at Open Source Marketer I now rank quite well for the search term circus poodles, it’s too bad I don’t breed them on the side.










August 8th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Thanks Chris for the mention and the link.
I prefer to leave comments on OpenSourceMarketer as they happen to appear. Sweating over comments is not a good use of a bloggers time in my opinion.
As long as the comments are not clearly spam then they should stay regardless of blogging for profit or not. Comments add an element of genuineness to a blog that only comes from two way communication.
By the way, I stumbled this post as a shameless plug for both of us, http://charlesmckeever.stumbleupon.com/favorites/ so let’s see what comments come out of that?
Keep asking the hard questions.
Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com
August 8th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
“I personally feel that blogging should be left in it’s natural state, comments and all.” You say that… but you “nofollow” the links in your comments.. that is unnatural… and a piss poor way to control spam.
Though I agree other than the stupid “I agree” and other spam comments, they should be as made.
A few comments, or even 100% of the comment disagreeing with a blogger is hardly going to diminish his commerical concepts… and might even improve things… less boring!
August 8th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Wilbur,
Personally I would rather provide my top commentators a link on my homepage than just a link in a comment somewhere. See this post:
http://www.businessblogger.net/top-commentators-plugin/
I control spam with Akismet.
http://akismet.com/.
August 9th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I totally agree. Even having to wait for you comment to be moderated is sometimes a pain, if the blogger doesn’t moderate often. Then after you wait and still see no comment, it sucks.
August 10th, 2007 at 3:27 am
Hi Chris! Followed your post from a forum entry at V7N, yep it was the circus poodles that caught my eye (and sorry but I am not a fan of poodles LOL!).
Anyway, thought I’d add my two cents by saying if it looks like the person has given some thought or just paused to say “nice job” or what have you, I let the comment stand.
If, on the other hand, it is a blatant spam post off it goes. Allowing a backlink is also a kind way for the blog owner to say thank you back to their reader(s).
And enjoy your circus poodles, back to v7n :)
August 11th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I agree Theresa, spam is a no go, on the other hand if the comment was thought trough, what then? I’m sure that “circus poodles” will be bringing me some great quality traffic.
August 17th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I agree about the comments. It’s also frustrating to see someone pull a comment from their blog if you disagree with them. A row of rubber-stamped approvals may be good for one’s ego, but does little to facilitate a real exchange of ideas.
And I just have to say it: Circus Poodles. Keep it up!
August 17th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I agree, Angie. Bloggers that remove comments are doing themselves a disservice. If I do or don’t agree with someone I hope that at least they take a look at where I’m coming from, as I did take the time to comment.
On the other hand if a comment is vulgar, or what have you, then by all means it should be edited if you are offended by it. If it’s a legit comment let it stand!
Now I just need to rank for “circus poodle” so that I can cover all of my bases.