One thing about New Blogspot is that it's now showing me a batch of comments I never saw before. Google automatically filed these comments as stuff that needed some moderation, but heretofore Google did not notify me that I needed to be moderating them.
Though some questions reappeared with a frequency that made me suspect that a lot of spammers have gone to Spammer School and memorized a list of questions to ask before pasting in an irrelevant link, the questions seemed to deserve answers. Here is this web site's current FAQ sheet:
1. Why doesn't Google rank this blog higher?
Google has been deliberately trying to keep personal blogs at the bottom of search results for more than ten years. The thinking is that people use Google when looking for material to cite in term papers, so Google ought to show them professional journals and textbook-type books first, then business sites, then personal blogs. I think personal blogs are likely to be more reliable than business sites but I'm all in favor of Google showing phenology posts by professional meteorologists ahead of phenology posts by ordinary nature watchers. It's a nuisance for writers, whose degrees, if any, might have been in English Literature but who might still have read more about, say, spider monkeys than a professional zoologist who's specialized in tigers. Ce sont les breaks.
There used to be a site called Twingly that specialized in searching personal blogs only, for those who didn't want to wade through all the commercial garbage from business sites when they were looking for a friend's content. I think it fell apart. I don't suppose it made much money for anybody, but it was a useful site while it lasted.
Because "search engine optimization" is so important in some people's business strategy, I want to emphasize that it will take you only so far. Google uses ever-changing algorithms that search for the best use of search keywords in the posts it puts at the top, but Google also considers who's publishing a post with factual content. They like to see the names of universities and professional societies in the meta. I did some science posts for a business site that put that site ahead of Wikipedia in some search ratings, last summer, partly because I used SEO writing techniques but more because the site was owned by a scientist with an appropriate Ph.D. Google will likewise try to keep "fitness" sites owned by doctors ahead of "fitness" sites owned by bike shops, and so on.
This is a personal blog so I seldom try to use SEO strategies. This web site decided some time ago that we weren't going to try to become huge. I can write SEO content about your product--say flowers--that will put your site at the top of Google search ratings within its class. If your site is just the blog for The First Street Flower Shop, that still won't boost your site above sites owned by universities or the National Horticultural Society.
If, however, you are a Ph.D. flower expert from Japan, and you want SEO-oriented blog posts written in casual U.S. English, it would make sense for you to e-mail me about boosting your blog ahead of Wikipedia. That I could do.
Meanwhile, it's still likely to be the case that if you're searching for one of my blog posts, and you type into Google something like "priscilla king blog post about calico cats on petfinder," you might get links to the King Street Furniture Store's sale on calico "priscilla" curtains, last year, above any links you find to any of my Petfinder posts.
2. How do you stop spam from popping up on a blog?
Someone Google identified as "Unknown" commented:
"
Howdy, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam remarks? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can advise? I get so much lately it's driving me crazy so any help is very much appreciated.
"
I've plugged Akismet into a Word Press blog, and I've used Live Journal's system (e-mailing all comments to the blogger for "moderation"), and I've plugged Disqus into Blogspot, and I've used what Google builds into Blogspot, and Google's spam filtering system rules. Hands down. Except that it took me almost two years to find what it had been filtering.
3. How do you discourage plagiarism?
"
With havin so much content do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright infringement? My site has a lot of exclusive content I've either created myself or outsourced but it looks like a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my authorization. Do you know any methods to help protect against content from being stolen? I'd really appreciate it.
"
Having a little-bitty web site that serves little-bitty niches really helps, Unknown. If I were posting about "How to Get Rich Fast Without Working" and getting gazillions of page views, I'm sure I'd be plagiarized daily. There is not much of a market for plagiarized posts about knitting.
4. Do you have to learn to code before you launch a blog?
"
Heya this is somewhat of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I'm starting a blog soon but have no coding experience so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
"
Blogspot, Word Press, and Live Journal all have WYSIWYG systems with the option of going into HTML to find out why something you wanted to post isn't coming out right. Using any of the major blog hosting sites is a great way to ease into understanding HTML.
5. How Can I Send a Message Directly to You?
Scroll. Down. There is an e-mail address at the bottom of the page.
How to Convince Google That Your Comment Needs "Moderation"
The main way people get routed to that "Awaiting Moderation" file is by posting links. Links are not bad things. I like to see links to posts that cite mine, links to data that you think might change my opinion about an issue (and it might), even links to sites that sell something that's been discussed in the post. If you blog on Blogspot Google will automatically give me a link to your blog, but if you link to your blog on Word Press or Live Journal, Google may decide you need moderation. So I'm doing that today.
How to Convince Me That Your Comment Needs to Disappear
The main way comments get moderated off the site is by containing uninvited, irrelevant links to sites that sell stuff. Some of the sites may be legitimate and some of the stuff may be good, but you're supposed to pay me to post something on a topic into which your site and merchandise will fit. This can be done; I'll not pretend I've used your product or recommend it, but I can do, and have done, posts that contain things like "Have you ever seen a banana slicer? You can see one at example.com," or "Speaking of amusing socks, check out example.com."
Some of the links are just plain spam. I do understand why people bother typing this stuff. They're beginning hack writers, penniless and desperate, and a client hands them a list of blogs in languages the client doesn't speak, languages most of them don't speak very well either, and says, "Your assignment is to post comments on these 200 blogs this afternoon." So they think of something in the appropriate language that sounds polite, "Good afternoon Sir I enjoy very much your post," and without even checking whether the blogger sounds like a "Sir" or a "Ma'am" they bang in those paid links to the irrelevant and possibly nasty sites.
I feel for these commenters. They tend to live in global poverty pockets; they may have hitchhiked forty miles on the back of a farm truck to get to the cafe where they post these pathetic comments. I don't want to report them to anybody. I hope they're being paid enough to take more English classes and get better jobs. But this web site can't display their comments. Grandma Bonnie Peters wouldn't have allowed it, while living, and Google doesn't like it either.
Especially the poor soul from India who wanted to post a list of the services his friends and relatives offer, from Refrigerator Repairs to Call Girls. Lines must be drawn somewhere. In my twenties I was part of a group of bright young things who liked to wail about being just the sort of prime-grade sex workers who get paid just for looking cute, not actually having sex. We meant jobs like "waiter" and "receptionist," where having the right look is emphasized more than having any actual skills, but we egged each other on to advertise jobs that in some cities tend to be fronts for prostitution. In Washington, at that time, prostitution was decriminalized, so "masseuses" actually worked the knots out of people's muscles, "escorts" actually walked around with nervous people, and "models" actually wore clothes and demonstrated gadgets. Parents of students who won high school writing contests really did pay me, as an "escort," just to meet their children at the train, walk across Union Station with them, and put them into taxis. So we did those jobs with great glee and considerable profit. But there must be standards and one of them was that people who were actually selling massage therapy, security, or product demonstrations did not tarnish our act with any public support for people who were selling a different kind of thing. No Call Girls need apply.
Is It Over?
No. I will continue sorting through the comments that Google thought needed moderation, and answering any questions that have not been addressed here. Some comments may even pop up on the posts where they were typed.
Spammers should know, however, that Google automatically breaks several kinds of spam links, so if you took the trouble to write a reasonably cogent comment and then paste in a link, I may be seeing the comment without the link.
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