Right now, however, I'm feeling a bit guilty because I just did something similar to my blog, but this time, it affects another person.
I deleted a handful of comments. They were all from the same person, and relevant to the posts they were on, but they were also one-sentence affairs that ended with a link advertising the commenter's product.
On one leg o' the chicken, that was not particularly obtrusive, and at least the resourceful advertiser was taking the time to read my post and personally comment. I do appreciate that it wasn't a robot blindly spamming me.
On the other dirt-scratcher du poulet, my comment trail is for discussion. It's not anyone's billboard.
A lot of the people who visit this blog are writers, and a good part of why they're on Blogger is to network and--yes--to self-promote, but I really do buy into the idea that content is king. Promoting a weak product only makes it fail faster, so as far as I'm concerned, if you want people to check out your online presence, you accomplish that by commenting on their blog/website/forum and consistently saying intelligent or interesting things. Eventually, people will remember your name and get curious to see what else you have to say. At that point, they'll click your link.
Just putting the link in front of people's eyeballs doesn't garner much interest, because these days, we're all cynical about advertising. We don't click unless we have a reason to. Content trumps both temerity and ubiquitousness.
However! Having just made my own website, (whoops! Flagrant self-promotion; what a hypocrite) and having also learned most of what I know from The Site Wizard, I realize now there's another reason to put those adverts on the bottom of every post.
It ups your Google ranking.
Holy macaroni, that creeps me out. It had never occurred to me before that there might be another reason to advertise than--y'know--because you wanted to advertise.
Oh, self-promotion, you wily and disreputable temptress! Now that I actually understand why people slap a superfluous link at the bottom of their blog comments, I'm kinda considering doing it even though I still think this sort of thing is crass and transparent.
So please, lovely readers, tell me if this would be revolting:
That's a link to my website. No text, no self-promotion; just a splash of pretty. Would this be offensive to you if you saw it on someone's blog? If you clicked it, only to find it led to a self-promoting website, would that seem skeevy? (Assume the oh-so-hypothetical blog commenter actually said something of interest and wasn't just spamming.)
Also, does that little blip look like anything embarrassing? Go on, you can tell me.
9 comments:
I hate those comments that are just there to put a link in front of you and I delete them too.
I like your little logo. It looks like an Egyptian eye to me. I would prefer a word link though so that I know what I'm clicking on. I don't see why you shouldn't promote your website on your own blog, if that's what you're asking.
Or did you mean to put the logo in your comments on other people's blogs? That doesn't seem any different to putting a word link, except that it's less transparent.
If I'm interested in someone who comments on my blog I click their name and hope that they've set up a profile so I can find them. If someone comments enough to become a friend, or if they've got a spectacular blog or website, then I tend to put a link to them in my sidebar.
*scans previous posts to make sure all mentions of the McK challenge remain* Hah, but that's such an excellent product, why do I fear?
I think the pretty linkage works well. For those who don't know, it's just decoration. For those who click, it's a lovely surprise.
do you feel guilty about deleting there comments. Some blog readers/ posters let you set up a automatic tag line.
They may have put the link there and forgotten about it. You might have upset someone by deleting all there comments when they may have felt that they had found a blog worth following.
Not saying, just speculating.
Personally i don't mind the tag line links as long as they don't do things like pop up adds, or cover a quarter of the screen. I tend to filter them out on auto pilot now and only really ever see them when I want to find more about someone.
I like your Eye, I think if you did more of a BW one like the picture you did for me then it would be even less intrusive.
But looks good and is not as blatant as "Eat at Joe's" links.
FairyHedgehog: The nice thing about the eye is I can boost the Google ranking of my website (which is getting zero traffic, for obvious reasons) while blogging. As for drawing people to my blog, I'm happy with letting the link on my name do that job.
McKoala: Thanks for calling self-promotion "a nice surprise". :) I'm not sure other people would be so kind!
Sarf: Most of the entries I deleted had slightly-differently worded versions of the ad on them. I guess you could automate that also, but it seemed to me that the ads weren't accidental.
Do you think the eye is intrusive? I do want it to be noticeable, but not to scream.
Ads below the post bug me but ads in the sidebar are totally ignorable.
Your link icon is pretty but it doesn't look like a link. Your site is lovely. :)
No I don't think it is intrusive.
But you where sounding like you wanted to be stealthy. So a light grey watermark is stealthy, but still click able and a link google will see.
Your link is really cute in an elegant way. Looking at it makes me want to click--haha.
GOING to MEXICO!! GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!GOING to MEXICO!!
This is what you get for not having Skype running, last to know ...
I don't mind the advertisement comments unless they're blatant ridiculousness. "Great post. Come visit my site for licorice whips"
I don't see anything wrong with linking your website in your comments, especially if you're going to keep the blog here. Building a blog on your website, though, might be a better way to raise your google rating, as it's constant, or regularly updated content there, and your comments on other blogs will also lead directly back to your site instead of a separate blog.
And yes, I really like the design.
Post a Comment