Nobody Likes A Spammer

One real pet peeve that I have is people who post in a forum asking to have their site reviewed, when they really don`t want any feedback or constructive criticism.  All they want is the backlink and increased traffic to their website or blog.

One tale-tale sign that there only motivation is to increase traffic to their website/blog is that they`re new to the forum with very few if any other posts.  Or just enough posts to meet the requirements to post their site or blog to be reviewed.

Worse yet, they might leave useless, one line feedback and responses to other members posts.  An example of this is someone replying to a post with a comment such as "nice site", when in fact the website they're "reviewing" has A LOT of room for improvement.

Once the spammer has reached the required quota to post their site asking for feedback that`s the last you`ll ever see of them again in the forum.  I`ll assume that they have gone on to find another group to spam their web site or blog to.

I find this particularly annoying when I take the time to review the posters website/blog and never hear from them again.

There is nothing wrong with politely asking for your site/blog to be reviewed in a forum.  However, at least make the effort to participate in the group, or at minimum acknowledge the feedback that other members have left.

If you happened to read my post 10 Free Ways to Increase Traffic to your Website/Blog you might be thinking "hey, didn't this know it all say to submit your blog/site to forums such as Ozzu.com."

Yes, I did suggest you ask other members to review your site/blog to increase traffic to it.  In fact I've personally gotten a lot of hits to my blog/site by doing just that.

However, I didn't mean for people to become spammers, only posting to groups to try to get people to visit their site/blog.  Take the time to become an active member of your forum.  Turn into an expert in a newsgroup/forum related to your niche, leaving a hyperlink to your blog/site in the signature of your posts.

People, myself included, like to visit the site/blog of a friendly, helpful expert.  Not someone spamming the forum they belong to.

I know I'm not perfect, being guilty myself of asking for my site to be reviewed on forums that I'm no longer active in.  That said and done I'm certainly going to make an effort now to be a contributing, friendly, helpful expert in the forums I belong to, such as Webmaster Babble.

I've gained so much knowledge by being an active member in a couple of forums and listening to the feedback/advice others have given me.  I've also learned a lot by visiting and reviewing other sites/blogs.  We can learn so much from both the strong points and the mistakes of fellow bloggers and/or webmasters.

It is so much better to be a trustworthy friend to others in a newsgroup rather than a thoughtless spammer.  You'll gain far more traffic to your website/blog by being that trusted friend as apposed to the spammer.