Trade Show Guru

I may be the trade show guru, but I’m not a blogging guru, and I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know a lot about blogging best practices. But if I wanted to know more about blogging best practices, I would certainly read the blog GrowMap. Not only does this most excellent blog cover the best practices for blogging success, but it is also written by a blogger who knows how to comment and has won my “Spam My Blog – Win a Free Link” contest. The contest was to come up with the best “generic spam comment”, though I later changed it to the worst generic spam comment, as I didn’t want to give the dammed spamming zombies any ideas. In my contest, I offered to give a keyword link to the commenter who who came up with the best/worst generic spam comment. GrowMap (aka Internet Strategist) wrote this most excellent “generic spam comment” to win my contest:

“This is just what I was looking for years ago when I first learned to use the Internet. I am so glad to have found out that you know all about just what I wanted to know. I really love your Theme. Maybe you could install it on my blog for me? I added you to my RSS reader and saved you in my favorites. Keep up the good work! I love blogging best practices.” ~ GrowMap (aka Internet Strategist)

Something I confirmed with my post “Spam My Blog – Win a Free Link” was that many commenters don’t read the whole post, and I suspect, many just read the title and then come up with a comment just to get a link. If I suspect someone is just trying to get a link and isn’t fully reading my amazing, insightful, enlightening posts, I seldom approve the comment… and I very, very seldom approve a comment by anyone that doesn’t comply with my very simple comment policy.

To see how many people actually read the entire post (and pay attention) I included a fairly simple rule in the middle of the post. The rule was this: after your generic comment, you need to show you actually read this post by writing, “I love [your keywords here].” I let my regular readers slide, but new commenters who couldn’t follow this very simple rule did not get their comments approved. I don’t believe in the saying, “rules are meant to be broken” (or ignored).

As I suspected, while several people submitted spammy comments, but only a few included the phrase “I love [keywords].” To reward those commenters that actually read the entire post and  followed the rules I have decided to hand out honorable mentions as well.

Mitch the prolific writer loves gladiators, and wrote this comment:
“Nice blog; I’ll be stopping by often. I love gladiators!” ~ Mitch at I’m Just Sharing

JD at I Do Things loves oxycontin, and wrote this comment:
“Thanks for sharing informations. Looking forward to more stuff. Is this blog updated? Good job my friend! I love oxycontin.” ~ JD at I Do Things

Tim, aka the King of the Rednecks, loves air, and wrote this comment:
“This comment is not spam! Thanks for sharing! I found this site with a web search and this article is exactly what I needed! I love air!” ~ Tim at the Redneck Bar and Grill

Ernie, the other King of the Rednecks, loves Rednecks for beer, and wrote this comment:
“hi, an interesting post by a blogger made me……here what you have posted is really good and interesting i love, you blog, for me the most important to speed up your computer is maintain a good registry maintenance thanks for sharing the information. I love Rednecks for beer.” ~ Ernie at the Redneck Bar and Grill

So there you have it, the winning “spammer” who spammed my blog and got a keyword link (one more time… best blogging practices!) out of it, and the runner-ups as well. But now the contest is over, so please don’t spam my blog anymore!