Kendall Card 2.0

I think people must love to screw up a good thing. It’s true. Case in point – blog comment spam.

If you’ve got a blog you’ll know that comment spam is getting out of hand. True to form Seth Godin saw it coming back in March of 2005. Good guys keep improving comment moderation tools and bad guys keep creating more innovative ways to screw up the good thing that is the ability to comment on a blog, thus spending your hard earned 2 cents.

But the bad guys are scared so they hide behind anonymous names and servers.

One of the blogs I manage is the Backcountry Blog, which posts Backcountry.com customer adventures, gear reviews, outdoor industry fodder and anything outdoor related that I care to discuss. Recently a company called CouponAlbum.com has been comment spamming the blog with offers for a competitor of Backcountry.com – Dick’s Sporting Goods. At first I laughed about it but after the 4th or 5th comment I moderated I wasn’t laughing.

It got me thinking – does your company have a comment spam policy? I’m sure it has a privacy policy which it likely created after the need arose. What about creating a policy, taking a positive position before the need arises? Your company may not even have a blog yet, like Dick’s Sporting Goods or CouponAlbum.com, but they should have a policy about comment spam.

So I dropped the folks at Coupon Album a note. They said they welcome it.

Dear Customers, we always welcome your feedback and suggestions. Your inputs help us in providing better offers / deals to you.

Although I’m not a customer they weren’t really a reader of the Backcountry Blog. Here is the message I left them.

I see that you have a privacy policy for your customers which protects their privacy and information. But do you have a blog comment spam policy? You need one.

I manage the Backcountry Blog (http://backcountryblog.blogspot.com) and I would appreciate it if you’d stop comment spamming the blog with deal offers. Since I have moderating enabled it’s NEVER going to get published!

What’s most ironic is that these offers are for a competitor of Backcountry.com who owns the Backcountry Blog.

You bring shame to internet marketing by your back door attempts. Do something remarkable not something repulsive.

Yours in the web,

Kendall

If you know of a company that has a blog comment spam policy I’d love to see it. I haven’t heard of one yet and the need for one has definitely arrived.