When I started blogging in 2007, newbies who put links to their blogs in the text of their comments were quickly corrected. I’m talking about this type of\u00a0 “Click me!” plea:<\/p>\n
“Wow! I love that outfit!<\/em> More experienced bloggers politely told the newbies that they didn’t need to include their URLs — or sign their comments in any other way — because the comment form itself allows you to put in your name and link it to your blog. (I pointed this out in my blog FAQ<\/a>.) People got it and stopped including the unnecessary links.<\/p>\n I don’t know why, but in the past six months, lots of bloggers have begun signing their comments with their URLs. I LOVE all my commenters — do I not ALWAYS comment back on everyone’s blog? — but y’all are driving me crazy. Most comments with linked signatures wind up in my spam file, so, in the best-case scenario, I have to regularly check the spam file for legit comments. Once I move those comments out of the spam file, I think, “This is just ugly. The link is more visually prominent than the actual comment. Plus why does this person get extra advertising, while the people who DON’T create extra work for me get none?” Then I delete the URLs, creating yet another step for me and eliminating any benefit for you.<\/p>\n Of course, you should continue to include any and all relevant links (which nearly always get past the spam catcher) in your comments. If your comment is, “I love chartreuse skirts too!<\/a>“, I’d be thrilled if you included links to your chartreuse-skirt posts. For that matter, I enjoy irrelevant links too: feel free to link to random-ass topics that you think I or my readers might enjoy. But please skip the generic linked signature. I can’t always indulge in the best-case-scenario comment moderation outlined above. If I don’t have time to check the spam file, your great comment — the comment that would remind me to read your blog and comment on it ASAP — will die a lonely death there. I would hate for that to happen because I’d really miss some of you URL-addicts. So help me out here, okay? Thanks, bitches!<\/p>\n <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I started blogging in 2007, newbies who put links to their blogs in the text of their comments were quickly corrected. I’m talking about this type of\u00a0 “Click me!” plea: “Wow! I love that outfit! http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog“ More experienced bloggers politely told the newbies that they didn’t need to include their URLs — or sign…<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog<\/a>“<\/em><\/p>\n