I’ve spent the past 3 or 4 years working in the blogging industry. Not the “blog for fun” game, but the “blogging for dollars” one. And I have learned a thing or two about making money from my blogs. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that it’s totally boring. But, the real trick is getting people to follow your blog. No readers means no dollars. It also means that everything you do is for naught.

Then, I decided screw it, I was going to do my own thing on this site. I didn’t care what happened, didn’t care about PR scores or SEO wordings, keywords, none of it. I figured that if I was going to spend all my time blogging, I’d blog about something I enjoyed, or that totally burned my backside. Then, I found the wonderful world of giveaways and contests. Well, ok, that’s not exactly true. I’d already found them, but finding my way back to them gave me a whole new inspiration to achieve.

I’ve had a ball the past few weeks finding new giveaway and contest blogs. I’ve listed most of them on my other blog, ChristineSenter.com. But, I thought I’d go ahead and list a few here. I love this blog, and it was originally supposed to be a review blog. But, I tried so hard to make it SEO precise and perfect that I lost interest. I’m so glad I came back to it. Especially now.

As I’ve been finding a few of these giveaway blogs, I’ve noticed a cute little button on some of them. It linked to a blog hop called Friday Follow. I wasn’t sure it was something I wanted to get in on, but today I changed my mind and said what they heck. Maybe it’s because everyone else in my house is gone and the quiet gave me the nerve, or maybe it’s because I’m a social creature and wanted to be part of something bigger than myself. Oh who am I kidding, I crave attention and that’s why I did it. LOL

Now for the kicker. I hadn’t even posted the link to my blog for a full 5 minutes when I had my first follower. Thanks Katrina for making me see that I’d made the right choice. I may not get anymore followers, but you totally made my day.

So, how does it work you ask??? I’m glad you did. Here’s how it goes. First of all, you check out the list of other bloggers on the McLinky list. Next, follow the first three blogs on the list as they’re the sweethearts who put this thing on. Nice ladies, the whole lot of ‘em. Then add your link to the list and see how many others follow your site. Follow a few others on the list as it really does something for the mind to know that someone out there is following you. And not in a creepy bad way like at the mall or something. It’s a good feeling. However, there are more than 400 links on the list, so take your time and really check out the blogs.

There are a lot of people in the SEO industry that will say this isn’t the right way to gain followers. I say, um, well just imagine me giving those people the raspberries (or the bird). Anytime you can become part of a group, go for it. And for any mommy bloggers out there reading this, this is a great opportunity for you. It’s a way to network, find new ideas, and you might even make some new friends.

In my previous post, I discussed the funnier side to comment spam. This time, I’d like to discuss the not-so-funny side of spam comments. The kind that make me want to slap the taste out of someone’s mouth. I’m usually a pretty laid back kinda gal, but there are some things in this world that just piss me off. One of those things are people who think they’re slick, when they’re actually just sneaky.

As I said in my last post, I always check the spam comments on my writer’s site. I had gotten a notice in my email that I had a real comment over there, so I had to go check it out. And true enough, it sounded like a real comment sent from an actual writer who had started their own site. Problem was with the post the comment was linked with. Don’t tell me that “you and your wife found this site both informative and deserves mentioning elsewhere”, especially when the post you’ve left the comment on has to do with writing ideas for the month of December. Would have made sense 2 months ago, but not in February.

So, I checked out my spam folder and found the exact same comment listed 7 times. Word for word, all from the same website, but all different names and addresses. Oddly enough, they all came from the same ISP address. Wow, that’s just fricking amazing. I know I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but come on. I’m not that fricking stupid. And yes, this pissed me off. Each of those comments was linked to a different post all around my site. Was almost like saying, if I work at it, maybe I can get at least one of them to go through. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I decided to go check out the site and see if it might be worth a shout out. Then I decided screw it, I wasn’t giving this person the satisfaction. What really upset me was the sneakiness about it. You’ll notice that I’ve not mentioned the name of the site, and I’m not going to either. Even without a link to the site, I’d still be giving this person free advertising, and I’m not going to do that.

Normally, it wouldn’t bother me a bit to help out a fellow writer. I’d be more than happy to check out a website and tell the rest of the world about it. But, because of the way this person went about it, I’m not going to help. Piss on ‘em. If you want my help, hey, just ask. But don’t try to sneak in through the back door and make a name for yourself through me. I’ll throw you out in a heartbeat.

Maybe I shouldn’t take this so personal, but I am really upset by this. Yes, the writing industry is a tough niche and it’s full of competition. Getting your foot in the door isn’t easy, and unless you’re associated with the right people, you might never get noticed. And more than that, I’m not exactly the most well-known member of the online writing community. But, I have built up quite a little following at my writer’s site and I don’t want a bunch of crappy comments killing that for me.

So, anyone out there actually reading this, if you have a writing related website and would like for me to check it out, just ask. I’ll be more than happy to look at your site give it a little free publicity. I can’t promise you’ll end up a giant in the writing industry, or that you’ll even find a way to earn money writing. The only thing I can promise is that you won’t end up a long-ass rant on this site.

I hate spam as much as the next person. No, not that crap our grandmothers tried to pass off as meat, (I hate that too, but that’s a different post). I’m talking about those stupid emails and blog comments that people send out in an attempt to get people to buy their crap. Now this post isn’t about the email spam, it’s about the stupid BS that people try to pass off as real comments on my blogs.

I have 5 different blogs, but my writing prompt blog gets about 25 to 30 spam comments a day. And I’m just weird enough that I actually go in and read them before I tell Akismet (or as I like to call it, Ass Kiss Met) to kick em out. So, this post is dedicated to the dorks, morons, and idiots who actually think that I’m going to fall for their BS and let their spam comments to get through.

The truth of the matter is that most of them crack me up. For instance, when I get 5 comments in a row that all say the exact same thing, and from 5 different email addresses, do you really think I’m gonna see that as real? Not a chance, my friend.

Then there are the comments that say things like, “I’m so glad I found your insightful article while searching for this issue in Google”. Then I look to see which post the comment is linked to and it’s posted to go to my site disclaimer, or worse, my contact page. Excuse me, what issue were you looking for?????

But, my all time favorite spam comments from my writing prompt site have to be the ones that say things like, “I left a comment once before but it must have been filtered into your spam file”. Duh!!!!!! Or the comments that say “I respect your opinion on this matter but think you should take the time to look at all sides of the issue”. That one really cracked me up when I found out it was set to go with a post about October holidays. Um, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that posting a list of International holidays would be such a problem for someone who wanted to get their crap posted on my site. LOL

I know there’s no real way to keep from getting stupid spam comments on any of my blogs. So, rather than get all freaked out, I’ll just keep reading them and laughing at them, right before I hit the delete button.