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Blogging Dangers
By LizTomey | May 13, 2005
The latest buzz word that everyone wants more information about is “BLOG”.
What is a blog?
How do I set up a blog?
What do I write in a blog?
How do I get traffic to my blog?
And the list of questions goes on…
These are all great questions, ones that should be answered before jumping in feet first and setting up your own blog.
However, there appears to be a darkside of blogging sneaking up on us. This darkside has a name - one that every legitimate internet user knows and dreads…. “SPAM”.
While it is true that only people who subscribe to your blog will be notified when you update your content, and it’s also true that if you want to guarantee content delivery, blogging and RSS feeds are the way to go. It is also becoming clear however that spammers will stop at absolutely nothing to spread their garbage throughout the internet - not just to our Inbox’s anymore.
Email spam has been a problem for years now, resulting in spam blockers at the ISP, on website servers, and on everyone’s email accounts.
With the increased interest in blogging and RSS feeds, is it any wonder that spammers worldwide would turn their sights on this technology too?
Just how are spammers aggrevating the growing blog communities?
1. Comment Spam
Bloggers have the ability to allow visitors to interact by leaving comments about blog posts. The comment system is similar to a guestbook on websites.
Spammers are now taking advantage of this opportunity to leave spam comments (ie: Visit my discount pharmaceuticals site) in comments blog-world wide.
Google has created a way for many bloggers to stop search engines from indexing the links left in blog comments. Refer to Googleblog: Preventing Comment Spam, Jan. 18/05. By placing a “NoFollow” attribute in the blog code of the comments section, this will effectively stop everyone that leaves a comment from gaining page rank via inbound links.
This is all great, however it’s also penelizing legitimate commentors. Inbound links are something that every website owner wants to achieve in order to boost their pagerank within the search engines, and with Google and many other major search engines now on board with the new “NoFollow” attribute, this benefit of commenting is no longer present.
2. Blog Bombing
According to Quikonnex founder Jim Gray, Internet Marketing Guru Armand Morin seems to be leading the race by promoting new software that is nothing more than another form of Blog Spam or Blog Bombing as it’s also referred to. Jim has posted his own comments and opinions of Armand and his promotion of Blog Power in his Gray Scales blog. What’s worse is that with Armand’s Guru status, he effectively has a team of Internet Marketing Guru wannabee’s all set to spend the $197 (or more) for this software that will explode their search engine positioning.
What can be done to prevent Blog Spam? There are different options available depending on what blogging software is being utilized and where your blog is hosted, so be sure to read the installation manuals, or support pages and forums for assistance.
There are also blacklist databases online that will provide you with the domain’s of known spammers.
About the Author:
Dianne Fratscher is the founder and owner of www.WahmsUnited.com, a resource and networking website for work at home parents. A full time work at home mother of 2 children, Dianne strives to help other parents find their own success with home based businesses.
This article may be freely reproduced in ezines or on websites providing all links are active. An email to dianne@wahmsunited.com specifying the URL, or a copy of the ezine or newsletter would also be appreciated
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Topics: Blog Talk |
May 13th, 2005 at 8:53 am
Is it possible to stop automatic software from posting to a blog?
May 13th, 2005 at 7:20 pm
Hey Ed!
I’m not really sure about that.
I know depending on where you host your blog, you may be able to utilize different services to prevent it.
I’ll look into it more and let you know…
Liz