I had a comment from someone named Jim Rivas today on a recent post - How Not To Set Up A Recurring Income Stream. The comment read as follows:

Network marketing mastery with JIm Rivas

Who really makes the big bucks in your company, and at who's expense? Can you handle the Truth? Do you want your piece of that pie? It won't come to you like you are hoping it will, you have to take it. Learn how 713-XXX-XXXX

I took the liberty of removing his phone number and the link back to his website, since I don't particularly think anyone should actually follow up with him for any reason.

The reason for this post however is to point out that this has got to be one of the worst ways possible to promote yourself.

I think it's safe to say there are more people who have bad feelings about network marketing than good ones. So right off the bat, he's swimming against the tide.

On top of that, he either didn't read the post he commented on or he didn't understand it at all, since his comment has absolutely nothing to say about the post itself. Either way, even if I was looking for a network marketing opportunity, his just got blacklisted since I would be looking for a person who had a bit of common sense as my upline.

I don't know if Jim is spamming my blog himself or if he hired someone to go out and do some blog commenting. It really doesn't matter which it is - he's ultimately responsible for it.

I doubt he'll ever read this - most blog comment spammers never check back to see what came of their comment. It's just a numbers game to them.

But if you are using blog commenting as a promotional tool, there are a couple of simple steps you should follow:

1. Read the post and leave a useful comment that is somehow on topic
2. Don't leave a post that has no bearing on the post itself or better yet, the blog in general. This blog isn't network marketing related. "Who really makes the big bucks in your company?" Me. I make the small bucks, the big bucks and everything in between. This is a company of one.

Ok, I suppose those two rules are really opposite sides of the same coin, so it all comes down to one thing - leave comments that add value to someone else's blog and you're probably going to be rewarded with a comment that gets approved and gives you some promotion in return.