Seriously though. If someone happens across a blog, and an article catches their attention, because it relates to a product they sell, how is it a bad thing that they post about it?

Lets say you’re talking about looking for a new car, and a Jersey car dealer happens to do a google search and finds that blog entry. Granted he is /LOOKING/ for ways to make a buck, by searching out people that are looking for cars in blogs … but lets say he mentions his dealership, says to come down and even offers you an additional discount of some sort. Points you to a website (consumer reports perhaps), about the cars that he sells.

Or even just stops by and says “how about a toyota” and links to a toyota dealership?

I just don’t see something like that being a bad thing. Actually, if they do it somewhat tastefully, it could be a relationship building model.

On the other hand, blatant posting to sites without regard to the topic at hand would be extremely annoying, and should probably be removed in the interest of keeping a thread ontopic.

You did qualify your remarks with ‘sleazy’ … so, i’m really not sure if you were refering to any and all marketting, or just the annoying kind. Or is it all annoying?

Altp.

Mike, this is exactly what I’m referring to. I’ve had people show up at our site and post something like,

“great article! Look up zip codes [link to sleazy zip code product site]”

I’ve actually had one or two commenters link directly to porn sites, as well. This is inexcusable. I’ve worked long and hard on Our Story to have some joker come by and try to make a buck off of my work. Solicited suggestions to products are welcomed when I explictly invite them. Unsolicited comments that are trying to sneak under the radar are offensive and wrong.

This has been a prolific problem for Adam Kalsey lately: http://kalsey.com/2003/09/comment_spam/

Mark Pilgrim, I just found, wrote about this last year: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/10/29/club_vs_lojack_solutions/

…and appears to be dealing with the problem on an ongoing basis: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/05/03/the_importance_of_humanreadable_markup#c001754

“Ah, this question is definitely worth my time and considerati–DELETED!”