New commenting policy.. use your name, please.
I moderate comments on this blog.
I also disabled “nofollow”, so links in comments count as a genuine link to your site.
I think that exchanging quality comments for a genuine link is a fair trade.
However, as of today, I will no longer be accepting comments that don’t contain your Name in the Name field.
Any instances of “Best Wii Games” or “Wonderful Depilatory Cream” in the name section will be deleted. 
I’d like to get to know my readers, so please, use your name in your comments.
August 31st, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I agree Neil,
With all the social networks available, people are getting more comfortable with having their identity online.
I think a lot of the keyword marketers will find the same thing I’ve been finding – Relationship Marketing is far more effective in generating sales.
If people know and like and trust you, they add you as a friend and they listen to what you have to say –
In addition, with the rise of social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, keyword manipulation that gains you a top ranking *still* won’t get my click if I see a search result that has been Stumbled by a friend of mine.
Neil – the real people who follow you are all nodding in approval, even if they don’t post it here.
Cheers.
Doug
September 1st, 2008 at 9:58 am
I think that’s fair enough. I’ve seen a lot of dofollow blog lists on forums lately, you click on the links and you can see the ugly spam lists that pass as comments. It’s surprises me that some of these respectable sites approve these so called “comments”.
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Oh i apologize for leaving a comment without my name in my first comment here. Never saw this post at the start. Respect your decision in using real names in comments.
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Hmmm…I suppose as an SEO Seattle company we’ll need to rethink our strategies if more bloggers folllow suit
I agree though, it gets a bit irritating when the comment name is “Download Our Free Online Software…Now!”
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Thanks Rif, I edited your earlier comment.
Yes, Ian, but as you saw, you can sneak a link into your comments still.
Neil.
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
I’ve been implementing similar policies on my blogs. I am *so* weary of seeing things in the name field like “Sweating During Sleep” or “cheap v1agra” and dreck like that. So I decided that if a comment doesn’t contain a name or at least a reasonable handle then I’ll change it to Anonymous.
If in addition to the keyword name thing the comment is more of the mindless drivel like “this learns me a lot”.. I just hit ’spam’ and be done with it.
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I agree that giving a live link for a quality comment on my blog is a fair trade. Had not thought of requiring a name although the majority of my commenters do use a name.
The ones that don’t for the most part are not taking part in the conversation so they never gt approved.
If more people would actually take part in the conversation it would benefit all.
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:40 pm
What really bugs me most is when people offer do follow links in their blogs and then don’t allow people to use keywords! People who market themselves by their name are laughing, whereas people who are genuinely interested in adding value but who really want to use their time wisely (and use relevant anchor text for their links) get a rough deal.
It’s great that you allow people to use anchor text links in the body of their comment (a lot of blog owners don’t) and I completely understand about all the v1agara and other spammy comments. Personally, I’ve implemented the keyword luv plugin on my personal development blog
and that ensures that I get a name as well as allowing people to leave anchor text with their link. Something to perhaps consider!
Regards, Dan
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Hi Dan,
Well, I didn’t originally mind it, and if you see the “Real Link Finder” posts, you’ll find hundreds of comments, many with keywords in the name field.
But, when I want to reply to someone’s comment, it’s hard to say, “thanks for visiting the blog, Goldfish Food, here’s what I think about your reply”.
So, if someone’s willing to leave a quality comment and add something to the discussion, I’d prefer that they didn’t spoil it by putting keywords in the name field.
At least, that’s my reasoning.
Neil.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:10 am
Dan’s comment: “What really bugs me most is when people offer do follow links in their blogs and then don’t allow people to use keywords!”
I agree, Dan. It makes it difficult when people with good intentions are posting relevant, quality comments in order to obtain a decent back link to their website. And by decent I mean using anchor text that is relevant to the theme of their website, rather than their name, which as we all know is not looked upon by the search engines as necessarily relevant.
I can understand Neil’s concern:
Neil’s comment: “Well, I didn’t originally mind it, and if you see the ‘Real Link Finder’ posts, you’ll find hundreds of comments, many with keywords in the name field.
But, when I want to reply to someone’s comment, it’s hard to say, ‘thanks for visiting the blog, Goldfish Food, here’s what I think about your reply’.”
But there are ways to get around this dilemma. One is to allow a partial anchor in the name field such as: Thom from 10 Minute Forex Review or some such. That gets the name in the name field along with a relevant anchor text for the person making the comment.
Another is to require the person using only anchor text in the name field to sign their name below their comment (or somewhere in the comment) so that yourself and others can respond using it. Just something to consider that might make a good situation better for all around.
Thom
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:42 am
Good luck with the spam fighting, Neil. What’s your policy on person’s name + domain?
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:08 am
Hi Allan,
I have no problem with that at all.
I also don’t mind people placing a link to their site in the comment itself, which, from an SEO perspective, may actually be more useful, although I haven’t tested it.
I guess I just don’t like people posting anonymously because it’s much harder to have a discussion with them.
Neil.
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Totally understandable. I’ve always removed comments that didn’t use a name for that field. It’s only acceptable if using the KeywordLuv plugin.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Hi Neil, i have seen blogs using name + keyword in the comment name field. Looks way better than just a keyword rich name. One good example will be Rif Chia @ Singapore SEO. In this way, it represents both the real name as well as a link back to the website. This is just a suggestion. Opps, i sneaked a link into my comment. Hope you don’t mind.