I often see a lot of paid to comment jobs on Freelancer.com, a href=”https://fiverr.com”>Fiverrand so even though there are a lot of spammers, I have been noticing actual legitimate comments from businesses that normally I would find as spammers. In fact, these comments are real and I cannot deny it – even if I reply to their comment and they never respond.
How are they real?
They actual show depth in thought and also provide feedback concerning the topic. It is not a lame comment at all!
I can see why paying someone to go around and comment might be nice, but is it truly effective? Are these people actually given a list of sites that might convert visitors into customers. If by what I have seen lately with these people leaving real comments, I think there may be a real case.
The purpose of these comments are primarily placed so the blog owner and readers of the site will by chance visit. It seems harmless and I have no problem with that.
However… how do we define that versus comment spam? Do you just delete an honest comment that has everything to do with your post just because you have a feeling it was actually a paid comment, or do you keep it?
Obviously, it is easy to spot comment spam. A lot of it does not make any type of sense. Some of these people are asked to use a different email address and such. For me, I have a problem with that because you should proudly represent your comment, even if it might be paid. I like it when a company is open about their dealings and this would be hiding it. Is it shady? It depends on what your preference is. Right now, I am just coming to acknowledge this slowly growing trend.
I am almost wondering if those comments will eventually need to be disclosed like paid posts.
What are your thoughts about people getting paid to comment on sites? If the comment seems legitimate, should it be allowed, or should it be considered comment spam?
I don't really mind the paid comments. As long as they pertain to my post and I don't disagree with what their link is peddling, I will approve it. I won't visit the site myself (unless it's to check on what it is), but if they are willing to take the time to post a real comment and someone else that sees my blog wants to click on their link, I don't see why it should bother me.
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Is this really happened? I didn't know that there are people paid to comments. I left comment around everyday, I'm sure I'll be rich through my comments 😀
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Yes, this does happen everyday. lol… that would be cool for those wanting to make some cash.
Hey I know that there are freelancing jobs which pay for making comment on dofollow blog. On DP forum you can see many deal on this topic. Freelancer even fix their price according to the number of comment they will make on dofollow blog. This is for the purpose of building link to the websites.
I get paid to comment by two different comments. I'm allowed to use the title of the website as my name, and the "contact" email address associated with the website, which in my particular case does make the comment look more authentic. And even though I'm being paid to comment, I do put my heart into writing comments that relate to the blog entry and are worth the space they take up.
On that note, I don't mind paid comments on my blogs, so long as they are genuine, and show that the person who wrote them did take the time to read my entry and come up with a worthwhile response!
I get paid to comment by two different comments. I'm allowed to use the title of the website as my name, and the "contact" email address associated with the website, which in my particular case does make the comment look more authentic. And even though I'm being paid to comment, I do put my heart into writing comments that relate to the blog entry and are worth the space they take up.
On that note, I don't mind paid comments on my blogs, so long as they are genuine, and show that the person who wrote them did take the time to read my entry and come up with a worthwhile response!
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how on earth would you prove that you've made a paid comment? especially if the comment got filtered by something like akismet or other spam guarding plugins O_o seems like it would be a really hard thing to make money off of. not to mention, it also seems a bit shady in my opinion!
Exactly… unless you watch where your referring links come from. However it happens everyday. I see it in the freelancer forms way too often.
The buyer pays usually for so many comments to be posted. Some give a list of sites to comment on and some allow the user to do what they like.
To me, after so many years, it is usually obvious if it was comment spam or even a paid comment considering the majority of my visitors are usually within the blogging community.
Yup, it is happening. I my self even get some offer for this paid commenting. As my experience, they usually target dofollow comment form.
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Hi Nile, Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I think I've seen these comments before but now I will be more on the look out.
I find it amazing to learn all of the various ways someone can get paid online and this is one that I might look into. Do you have an idea how much the commentators are paid per comment?
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Oh my goodness, paid comments??!! What will they think of next? And paid legitimate comments too???
I don't like the sound of it, but I won't say I'm against it. I think I'll rather not know whether it's a paid comment or not, ignorance being bliss and all.
I think as long as the comment is legitimate then it shouldn't be classed as a spam comment. And by legitimate I mean the comment showing that the commentator has actually taken out time to read the post, not just something like 'Nice post…' 🙂
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Okay, I think you need to do something about your spam filter, it just says here that my comment (which I actually thought was insightful) has been deleted!!
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i am happy as far it is related to my post may it be positive or negative.
As long as you have no-follow comments you don't have to worry about paid for comments 🙂
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I think this: somethings are just outright ridiculous, and this "paid to comment" stuff is pretty ridiculous. In some ways, it's worse they leave thoughtful, interesting comments. People need to be paid to read, critique and comment properly? One needs to be paid to be a "rational animal?"
That having been said: if some business is crazy enough to pay for this, good for the people taking the money, and I do hope thoughtful comments flow. Maybe we can get colleges to pay for thoughtful comments, so that way they can pay their students back for the debt-load they gave many of them.
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Good point that you brought this up, I have seen lots of comments that are very legitimate and even show the person actually read my article, yet I can tell from the URL left that it is just a company looking for a backlink and advertising. In these cases, I still approve the comment and I only reject or block if the URL is one that is something really awful.
I really agree with that type of policy in regards to paid comments or obvious link juice marketing. Some of the ones I have seen that were comments I knew fell in this category were done right and makes me wonder if there is hope yet. Even in most spam filters, or even plugins, some will get by… so this makes me have to go through my spam folder just in case.
Good point that you brought this up, I have seen lots of comments that are very legitimate and even show the person actually read my article, yet I can tell from the URL left that it is just a company looking for a backlink and advertising. In these cases, I still approve the comment and I only reject or block if the URL is one that is something really awful.
Companies that are large enough probably just have their own staff to handle social media, commenting…etc. Small companies with only one or two employee's may not have enough time to build online presence and have to outsource, in this case I don't see any problem with it as long as the comment left isn't from a specific person (like an impersonation of the company owner). That is just my view, but from the point of the commenter if you can make some extra money just visiting websites reading a bit and leaving a comment (why not right?)
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For some reason my comments say "This comment has been deleted by the administrator." the moment I click the submit button, am I banned?
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Your comment is up… I went ahead and even you you on my Whitelist so your comments are automatically approved. Somehow I think there is a glitch or some of the Intense Debate settings in general were changed. However… your comment is showing up. 🙂
I tried using my site URL of DragonBlogger twice, was going to share my input on the paid comments thing. I was saying that I think its fine for companies to hire people to leave breadcrumbs as long as they are legit comments and don't impersonate a specific person. From the side of the commenter, if you can get paid just to read some posts and leave comments why not?
For some reason my comments say “This comment has been deleted by the administrator.” the moment I click the submit button, am I banned?
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For some reason this has been coming up. I am not sure if it is an Intense Debate glitch.
I have to go through my spam folder every day, I find some people who comment always have their comments end up in my akismet spam bucket and I have to mark them "not spam"
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If you are getting paid to comment on blogs, you *must* disclose that. That's one of many reasons I turned commenting off on my blog.
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You do not have to disclose there. However, if you have a site, you should have a disclosure policy that also contains that you may take paid comment opportunities. Also, for taxes too.
I do not close off my comments if someone came by and put a real comment. I do not agree with turning off comments unless it is not necessary to receive feedback from clients and readers. Believe me, I have seen some paid commenters come by who were not spamming and left legitimate comments, even coming back to reply.
This is still a new concept to me, but as I have been looking around, I have been seeing exceptions. Same for paid to blog. There are even guest bloggers getting paid too. A lot of things are changing in the blogging community.
I can not see myself paying to someone to comment on my blog or getting paid to comment.
The only thing I can justify (up to a point) would maybe be paying someone to be an assistant and comment on blogs for you.
But this is something I would not let anyone do as there are certain blogs I love to read and love to leave nice comments on. So paying someone to post "Great post" instead of me probably would not work.
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Hi Nile, Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I think I’ve seen these comments before but now I will be more on the look out.
I find it amazing to learn all of the various ways someone can get paid online and this is one that I might look into. Do you have an idea how much the commentators are paid per comment?
Valid points you are sharing here. A blog is a very powerful platform you can use to build long-lasting relationships with your readers and keep them coming back for more.
Thanks for sharing your insights.
Good thought on paid to comment. Yes, before sometime i visited freelancer and seen there were bids on the project that included blog comment as part of the project. Seeing to this i can guess that people pay for blog comment and probably this could be one of the ways of spamming. But i don’t believe in paid to comment because this job needs care and i love to do it manually.