How to run and moderate a follow blog on your website

By: Richard Beckett

Increasingly, people seem to be removing " from their blog comments.

The main reason for doing this is to increase both traffic and comments. A blog without comments seems rather a desolate place, and people are more likely to comment if there is SEO benefit for them.

The down side of this, however, is that most of their traffic is going to be SEOs pretending to be their client, rather than the intended audience. That said, as people become more aware of the link building side of SEO, then hopefully people will learn that they can do this for themselves, rather than pay an SEO to post on their behalf.

Here are some tips to keep control over your follow blog:

1. Moderate all Posts
Whatever you do, don't let people post straight to your site as any reasonable points will be lost in a mountain of spam.

2. Have strict moderation.
Don't publish any posts which fail to add to the conversation.
This especially means generic ones which say "Love the post", trying to flatter you.
Your post might be brilliant, but they are more likely just lying for the link.

3. Insist on real names, not keyphrases.
You don't want people to have the name "Cheap Iphones" - even Frank Zappa would not call his children that. Something like "Kevin, SEO for Cheap Iphones" is at least an honest name, and helps build up a feel of a community, rather than a spammers convention.

4. Turn off comments on old posts.
You probably only need to do this if you are getting overwhelmed with spammy comments, but a blog is generally to reflect your recent opinions, and you probably do not want to moderate a discussion from months, even years, ago.

5. Only allow people to post links who work in a similar area.
This means that you can build up a community of people who work in the field your blog is about. Most blogs don't appeal to everyone, so only allow comments from your intended audience.

6. Check IP addresses
If the same IP is posting many links, then they are likely to be simply spamming on behalf of clients. Ban IPs which do this.

About the Author

The author Richard Beckett is a Web Designer in Leeds. He does not sell SEO, but believes it is better to build SEO Friendly Websites and advise the clients on how they may do their own link building.

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