Every day there are many comments left on each post I make and most I immediately delete.

Why?

Because they are spam.  See this blog post for a discussion on spam.
Spam seems to fall into 3 categories on this particular blog:

• A blatant unsubtle list of URLs - usually linking to online ph*rm*c**s or p*rn sites. (Sorry for the asterisks.  They are there to prevent this blog post itself being classed as unwanted.)
• A comment that is of such a general nature that it could be applicable anywhere. Usually these are accompanied by unwanted URLs as well.
• A very subtle form of spam which seems to have some sort of relevance to the post, but doesn’t really add any value. Such posts are really designed merely to create a link to the sender’s side and thereby increase the sender’s ratings.

Whatever form they take, this is comment spam - unwanted irrelevant comments - and I delete them immediately. There is a Wordpress plugin called “Akismet” which automates this process and I will probably start using it once I get tired of manually deleting the spam after having a good laugh at some of those attempts to be classed as legitimate.

Then comes a comment from WP eCommerce showing the way that it should be done.

Please take a look at the comment placed by Dan Milward. I have come across his name in connection with the WP eCommerce plugin discussed in yesterday’s post, but I have not yet corresponded with him directly. Dan works for the company that creates the WP e-Commerce plugin. Either he has been following this blog (unlikely), or he created a Google Alert for any new posts that feature the word “WP e-Commerce” (more likely). Google Alerts send you a daily digest of the latest web pages that Google catalogues which have a particular word or phrase in it.

Dan’s post typifies the real usefulness/business-aspect-trade-off that makes the Internet great.

• The comment is relevant to the blog post.
• It offers value to any blog reader who is also looking at e-commerce plugins for Wordpress.
• It gets his company’s URL onto my blog which the search engine takes notice of and he scores another inbound link.
• It provides a link to Wordpress’ plugin download site.
• His response immediately indicates to me that his company offers other services as well and is on the ball, which impresses me. As a result, I am very likely to do business with them one way or another.

All in all, a very effective win-win situation whereby his services are publicised without spamming and gives me a good feeling about them. You want to know how to publicise your site on the Internet?  That’s how it’s done!