You all know how important comments are to me and how much I value them, and I’m sure a lot of you feel the same way. We instal plugins to help us delete spam and we moderate the ones that get through deleting them if they don’t come up to scratch. The problem is that I’ve now discovered some of those commentators who leave comments on our blogs are not who they say they are.
You may recall the post I did on My Experience With Real Writing Jobs where I mentioned joining Freelancer. As it happens they offer a wide range of jobs and some of them are from people who will pay others to leave comments on blogs. The obvious reason for getting someone else to comment in their place would be they don’t have the time, or couldn’t be bothered to do it themselves, That or perhaps their English isn’t all that crash hot. Here is a copy of one such task found on Freelancer.
We need 100 high PR (PR3+) blog commenting for 7 of our sites, the comments with our anchor text backlinks must be coming from PR3+ sites from the pages it self and not the domain name. Heres what to follow:
1) Must have your own list with 100 sites – All must be dofollow blog.
2) No Spam comment – quality only so the post/comment sticks
3) No blackhat method.
4) Must have the page rank of 3 plus
5) the page’s outbound link can’t be more than 25
6) spread sheet report is a must
7) Send 2 example links of where you will be postingIf you don’t have any experience in blog posting please DO NOT BID.
So what you will be doing is posting 7 comments with 7 of our different sites linking back to our sites via anchor text. We need 100 blog comments per each site so in total of 700 blog comments done manually on high PR sites.
Paying $70 for this whole project, must have your own list, please provide 2 sample links! Thank yoU!
So basically you’re getting 10 cents per comment which doesn’t seem worthwhile considering all the work that’s involved. First you have to find dofollow blogs, that alone isn’t too hard, but then the actual post you choose has to have a PR3 ranking, which could be a little more difficult. Now you tell me, if you’re getting paid peanuts, how much time are you going to spend on a comment?
I think its these very comments, that are of a very low quality, that are getting past the GASP plugin. I know there’s probably a lot that wouldn’t disapprove of this saying it’s a legitimate form of outsourcing. That may be true but as far as I’m concerned I wouldn’t take the chance of ruining all the hard work I’ve put into building my brand by letting someone comment in my place, and if you have to take the time of checking every comment individually you may as well do it yourself.
What say you good readers, would you outsource someone to comment in your name? Do you like the idea of someone commenting on your blog in the guise of someone else? Personally I’m not in favour of it and I liken it to be almost as bad as those robotic scripts that spam our blogs on a daily basis.
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Tagged with: Blog • comments • DoFollow • Freelancer • PageRank • Spam
Filed under: Blogging Tips • opinion
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I actually commissioned someone to do a similar task for me :S for my main site (my resource page). Though I did check a sample of their work and it did seem good.
Will get a report in 30 days so will see how they done. Learn from the mistakes you make…so think I can try and do a few more.
Though saying that, the comments I commissioned were keyword targeted and on ‘abandoned’ sites that they controlled. real ‘connection’ comments i.e. on blogs like yours. I do it all myself.
Twitter: AussieSire
Well, each to their own I reckon Don. Unless I had a site that was completely anonymous I couldn’t trust anyone with that task.
LMAO!! Oh my. The one that wrote that knows oh so little about it all.
Starting with the pay – A joke that ain’t funny.
1. Another one that thinks do follow is way more effective then it actually is.
2. For that pay, yer lucky to get one to stick.
3. Selling comments is a least gray-hat to begin with.
4. The funniest one of all – - for an inner page to have ANY PR it’ll be considerably aged for one thing, and 700?? Good luck with that.
5. Another sign of a do follow moron, and does he realize non-contextual links if your counting links? Probably not.
Wow.
Twitter: AussieSire
It is laughable isn’t it Dennis, and yet people have applied for the job. I honestly think they have no idea what they’re getting themselves in for. It’s hard enough finding one internal page with a PR3 ranking let alone 700. The other problem is if you were going to leave 7 links to seven blogs all on the one post I’m sure the blog owner would delete them.
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Hello Sire,
I think they specified that the freelancers need to have the list already made, so I guess that those that applied already have such a list…
Also, I don’t want to be racist or something, but people from India work for this kind of rates all the time and they are satisfied with the pay. I know that in America working for cents it’s something that people laugh of, but in other countries if they don’t do it, they don’t eat.
Also, Dennis, sometimes this kind of jobs are made by teams of people from less developed countries where 1 dollars gets them through the week, so people tend to do quality work for 0.7$ a link.
Ok this doesn’t mean that those links will actually count, or that the one who wins the auction will do a good job, but this jobs do exist and people are accepting them.
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Yes he did ask for people with a list but I doubt very much that anyone has that sort of list.
It’s also true that people from India would willingly work for such a low amount but the problem is that they usually ask for someone with good English and many would probably fail in that respect.
I’m also sure that people accept the job, all I’m saying is that I doubt the result would be acceptable as far as I was concerned.
Sire recently posted…Market Samurai Update Is It As Good As They Say
I would not want to hire someone to leave comments on my behalf. While it might work for some blogs as a way to get your name out there and build up a list of possible new readers, it seems to phony to me. If you don’t really care enough to read the content of what is written, then don’t both leaving comments… At least, that’s how I feel about my own blog. I’d much rather than have a real audience to my blog, even if it is smaller, than to have my audience appear to be growing and then find out it’s all under false pretenses.
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Yeah, and I would rather take the time promoting my own blog than commenting for someone else for a measly 10cents a comment.
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Hey Sire,
I would NEVER by any means outsource something like that, at least not on behalf of my name.
On the other hand, I would outsource this if it was on behalf of some small niche websites that had no public relation to my name.
I’m nowhere near to outsourcing so I have not spa.mmed a single blog and I’m not thinking of doing it in the future either.
Loved this post! ;-)
Sergio Felix recently posted…Follow the Right Marketer Online
Twitter: AussieSire
Sure as long as no-one knew you were connected to those websites Sergio because if they did it could still play havoc with your brand.
Sire recently posted…Blogging- Jogging And Sex
Hi Sire,
Yes, I know some people do outsource blog commenting. I would not outsource my blog commenting because if the outsource worker do something wrong or stupid, they’ll just ruin my reputation: remember the blog post by Brankica on human spammers.
If you are building links there are other means to do that without the risk of damaging your reputation: like social bookmarking I’d say outsource those job instead.
Ben Wan
Ben Wan recently posted…Changing Your Webpage URL is a Bad Thing
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I agree Ben, reputations are too hard to come by without giving someone the chance of ruining for you.
Sire recently posted…Put Money In Your Pocket And Generate Traffic To Your Blog!
Hi Sire,
I won’t hire anyone for blog commenting for my own blog. It’s possible only when you don’t have enought knowledge about SEO and don’t have time too.
Sam recently posted…Cheap Holiday Packages
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Good on you Sam. Personally even if I didn’t have the time I still would not outsource it, I would just do the best I could with the time I had.
How weird. And for such a low rate, I wouldn’t do it, but at least now I see how it could happen and what you’ve stated makes sense. It seems you can always find someone who will look at an ad like that and see it as a bonanza.
Mitch recently posted…What Is “High Quality Content”
Twitter: AussieSire
I can understand when times are tough you can be willing to work for less but what they’re offering is preposterous.
Sire recently posted…Market Samurai Update Is It As Good As They Say
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Hi Sire,
You know I have been looking at different sites that charge people to do blog commenting for them.
Me personally, hell no! I don’t want anyone speaking for me. But that’s me. I also agree that you get what you paid for.
I think outsourcing is a a good thing though.
For example: Say you own a hair salon and your main site is just a static site that showcases your products and services.
If you are a successful owner of that business you probably don’t have the time nor the patience to apply marketing strategies like blog commenting. However as we know getting those backlinks are essential for good seo..
Because the demand is there for people who need services like blog commenting, ghost writing etc.. There is money to be made.
I agree though that if you aren’t paying top dollar you aren’t going to get quality service.
When you outsource work that is going to have your brand name on it. You need to be very selective with the people you hire.
Cheap labor online is no different than cheap labor offline.
If I was to take a job blog commenting for someone I wouldn’t do it less than $10 a comment. Because I would have to research the topic so I didn’t sound like a dum dum.
I would make sure that my comment would be beneficial to both my client and the blog owner. This way its a win/win situation.
Thanks for the food for thought!
Larry
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I also have no problem with outsourcing as long as they do the right thing and don’t harm my brand. Take your hair dresser for example, 700 crappy links to her site may have some SEO relevance but it could also ruin some of the hard work she’s put into building her business. Imagine the impression people would get of her and her business from those very same comments.
If these people want to get a good job done they have to raise their rates.
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Hey Sire,
I’m not to the point that I am outsourcing a lot of work and I can see where time can be an issue. But if I need backlinks to my site, I would hire someone to create Web 2.0 sites for that. I wouldn’t outsource blog commenting especially if they are commenting on my behalf.
I sure as heck would never accept a job where I have to leave 700 comments at only 10 cents a comment. That is a heck of a lot of work.
Thanks for pointing this out. I have seen some comments recently and it’s obvious they haven’t taken the time and they aren’t auto generated. This is starting to make more sense now.
Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted…Drum Roll Please… My February Rocked!
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I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now and I think it explains a whole lot. At first I couldn’t work out why there are so many people who would leave such crappy comments, most of which I delete, and now I know why.
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In general, I do not associate my name to something I did not write. Period. Let’s face it, once you get your name / website blacklisted with Akismet, you’re looking at a hard road to get out of it, and that’s what these kind of spammers will do with sub-par comments.
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My sentiments exactly Kristi.
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You make an interesting point when you said this “Now you tell me, if you’re getting paid peanuts, how much time are you going to spend on a comment?” I wouldn’t spend more than 20 seconds on a comment if I was only getting ten cents per comment.
As a matter of fact I probably wouldn’t even bother to read the post before I commented. 700 blog comments done manually on high PR sites for 70 dollars is laughable. Anybody that takes on that job is a fool.
I’m with you on this Sire, it may be a legitimate form of outsourcing but I wouldn’t take the chance either of ruining my hard work by allowing someone to comment in my place.
And I also agree with your point that this is similar to the robotic scripts that spam our blogs on a daily basis. Thanks for sharing Sire, I’m sure the people participating in this will just have to find out the hard way I guess.
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The reason I posted this article was to let people know what was going on so they had a better idea as to why they were getting so many low quality comments. Perhaps if more people deleted or spammed these comments then those behind it would either stop setting such tasks or offer more compensation so that the quality of comments would improve.
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The story is do your own work, and you then know whats going on.
peter
Twitter: AussieSire
Can’t argue with that Pete.
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Hi Sire,
Outsourcing is a good idea if we have many blogs I guess, but only if we find a good source.
Since I am working with clients, I have tried to do outsourcing, and I am not very happy with the result. I guess because it was so cheap :-(
But if I look for a decent quality, that I might not have my profit LOL.
However, I would not do any outsourcing to do stuff related to my main blog which is in my signature, this is my main blog :-)
Thanks!
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I think you will find that a good reliable source that will do a good job is always going to cost more. The question is whether the results are worth the expense?
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I think these type of comment links are for blogs set up for high paying keywords and not like the personal brand blog you have here. If I made a blog about credit cards, and was able to get 70 dofollow links like that, I’d pay them.
btw.. I found your blog on a list of dofollow blogs. lol
Twitter: AussieSire
Well if that’s true I’m sure he would have mentioned it, which he didn’t, all he asked for is comments on a blogs internal pages that had a PR3 ranking.
I know my blog appears on a lot of those sorts of blogs. I don’t mind as long as people leave good comments. You’d be surprised at how many I delete.
Twitter: BlogStashdotcom
Sire, I agree 100%.
I for the life of me don’t understand why would someone put their reputation in someones else’s hand by outsourcing such an important part of their online business. I mean, commenting its not just building links to your blog (I guess for many especially those who do outsource it, is), its a way of building relationship, its a way of establishing yourself as a voice in your niche, its making people become familiar with your brand.
Outsourcing blog commenting to me is like reputational (I know its not a real word, but couldn’t find alternative, lol) suicide.
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Twitter: AussieSire
That’s precisely why I personally would never outsource that particular form of blog promotion.
Agree with you, Sire. I think that such people are cheaters. If you try to get some backlinks, do it in right way, honestly, reading and commenting. And having fun and finding out something new.
Twitter: AussieSire
I wouldn’t say cheaters, it’s not something I would do but I’m sure they’re only getting what they paid for.
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I think outsourcing that type of thing for that amount of money is likely to get you some unanticipated consequences in your SEO endeavors. Take a look at the recent articles about JC penny and Overstock.com getting hit hard for shady SEO practices.
Twitter: AussieSire
I think that like everything in this world you need to work at it. You can take shortcuts but when you do you want to make sure you get your moneys worth.
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I don’t outsource blog comments yet, but I might at some stage. It’s just the nature of how the Internet works. Links are paramount to a websites success to be found via search engines.
The more links, the better. The reason why I don’t at the moment is because I genuinely like reading content, and making a contribution.
Cheers
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Well, when you do decide to go that route make sure they do a good job otherwise they will just get spammed and ruin all the hard work you put into building your blogs up.
Wow. Just…wow. I’ve heard of teams commenting with an assigned URL, but in a these teams it’s always the commenter representing themselves, not someone else.
I suppose it’s the best way to assure that you don’t get nailed for bots and spamming; now humans are being hired to be spam bots.
Delena
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Yeah, shocking isn’t it Delena?
No sir! I would not hire someone to make comments for me any more than I would hire someone to give a presentation to a potential client for me, or to take my wife on a date.
Obvioulsy these “employers” are the sleeze-ball flavor MMOers whose only interest is traffic via links.
I have gotten a couple of comments on my blogs that skated along the edge of being spam, but were BARELY acceptable and I wondered if they weren’t these “hired guns”.
I’m not sure what to do about that except watch and see if the same names start showing up promoting different sites. If so I’ll block their IP address and the URLs they’re promoting. If search engines take notice of blocked URLs, and if enough people block them, then maybe this hired gun tactic will come back to bite them.
Now, to the second part: Companies frequently hire marketing personnel to represent their companies. Is this any different?
Bloggers frequently leave a comment on my blog, and your blog, and his blog and her blog, because they know we will go leave a comment on their blog. Or at the very least, because we allow them to leave a link pointing back to their blogs. We actually encourage this by using CommentLuv and DoFollow. Not everyone who comments has a genuine interest in what we said. Is a “hired gun” commentor any different?
I think it is, but can’t come up with a rational reason for why I feel that way. It just smacks of fraud somehow.
Twitter: AussieSire
Hey Allan, I don’t mind having the same name promoting different sites, heck I do that myself on occasions seeing as how I own so many blogs and all, but I do take exception to those wankers who use different names for each site but are obviously coming from the same IP address. I doubt that search engines look for blocked IP’s so I send those comments to Akismet Hell so that it knows what to look for next time around.
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Not surprised Sire
Whatever the system there are always those who will take advantage.
We all know about high PR and dofollow sites but paying someone to comment for you!
Anyway… you look pretty real to me. LOL
Thanks for the heads up.
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Twitter: AussieSire
Thanks Keith, I do try to keep myself real LOL
Hello, Sire. I don’t wanna sound contra here but I don’t totally disagree with outsourcing my blog comments. I think you just have to choose very carefully the person you would allow to do the task for you. Still, you must check it up once in a while to ensure the quality of his/her work.
Twitter: AussieSire
That’s fine Charlene, there are obviously a lot who feel like you, judging by some of the comments I’ve had to delete lately. Those comments I’ve either deleted or spammed of late haven’t helped the person who’s paid the commentators to work for him/her.
I’m a little torn on this topic. I’ve never outsourced commenting in my name, but I’m certainly not against trying the venture. In my mind though, I’d have to hire someone I trusted completely. I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting someone comment in my name any other way.
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It’s definitely not a good feeling to have someone comment on your blog when that person’s not who he says he is. That is, if you ever find out.
But despite that, comments do help, regardless of who they come from. I hear they provide some google boost, they get you visits and even more, they boost morale.
Trying to filter them and find out who those people really are is not worth the effort since the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
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Maria, regarding filtering comments, I do it on a daily basis and I do so because I try to keep them to a high standard. Many a commentator leave a comment of no real substance just to get a link. They are deleted or spammed. Some do not stick to the comment policy and they also must go.
I agree, that level of filtering is needed, but trying to figure out if the rest of the comments (those you find valid) are written by people that are who they say they are, that is another matter.
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