Comment Policy

Just Ask Kim is my personal professional blog and as such I welcome you into my home.

I am blessed with many many awesome community members like you here at Just Ask Kim that bless me with your time, feedback, insights and comments on a regular basis.

That of course makes me hesitate to even want to start a document like this!

However, until we are able to get the principles of “how to give value in comments” taught in more schools ;) I believe this will remain a necessary for the individuals that are starting to wonder where their comment with all their juicy link love has gone!

I greatly appreciate the effort that goes into leaving a high quality comment, one that makes the grade and passes the rules below, and as such I’ve done my best to reward commentators with a combination of plugins including commentluv (for a free second backlink), keywordluv (so your main url may have correct anchor text), TwitterLink (gives a link to your twitter account to help your grow social media exposure) and DoFollow (so that you are able to more quickly gain SEO value through the comments you leave here than you might on a no follow blog).

Comments are the life-blood of a blog and they bring a blog to life as much if not more so than even the best content. I sincerely appreciate the time you take to comment and I want to be able to continue to reward you by leaving Keywordluv and DoFollow enabled for as long as possible!

Comments have the ability to build up or tear down your reputation. They are a permanent record – not easily removable by you – of who you are and what you stand for – so take care – be gracious – make sure they add value.

The goal of this site is to connect others that have personal and personal-professional blogs with each other in a way that fosters personal relationships. As such you will find that the rules surrounding what is/is not acceptable flow in accordance with that. It is also important that I do the best to make the links that come off of this blog worth the most SEO value possible and that means running a clean house.

Now lets take a look at what makes up an acceptable comment.

  • If you have anything to add, discuss, encourage or share, please say it with a comment!
  • If you don’t feel like you know what we’re talking about – that’s OK – ask, or just start typing! Jump into the middle of the conversation! Seriously, come hang out with us!
  • Comments must be on topic in some shape or fashion, even if its just to the other comment you are replying to. Reference something in the post or comment you are replying to. Including the name of the post author or comment author vastly improves your odds of making it through the spam filter.
  • The first two, and any comment with additional links, will always go to moderation. Additional comments may be moderated on an as-needed basis.
  • It’s ok to include a direct backlink in your comment, to another post by yourself or others,  long as it’s relevant, adds to the conversation, and you explain how the link is related. (In fact, I encourage you to share related links!
  • Use of a registered Commentluv/Comluv account is another way to improve the likelihood of I and other bloggers also seeing you as a non-spammer, the inverse is also true. This is also the best way to take advantage of the second free backlink, please register with commentluv’s main site comluv for an account. Randomly dropped signature links may be removed.
  • I reserve the right to edit comments for clarity/readability as necessary but generally I refrain from it. There is no need to apologize for “broken English” as we are a global community. All are welcome here as long as I can make heads or tails of the English, it gets approved. English however is required. Many of my best friends are international so I understand the situation!
  • I reserve the right to break any and all suspicious links, incomplete sites, blatant impersonal affiliate sites, Google unfriendly sites, risky neighborhoods including gambling/sex and including both url and commentlinks when deemed necessary. (And if I break the link to something that was foreign/etc and I could not understand what it was, and you feel it was clean, get in touch with me and if you can explain it, I’ll fix the link, easy peasy!)
  • No Straight Anchor Text in Name Field… KeywordLuv is enabled to allow you to include your real name AND up to 3 keywords. Use it or lose the comment. (You may of course always post with your actual name!)
  • Keywords follow the same rules for approval as links, tasteless, risky, Google unfriendly or otherwise objectionable keywords may not see the light of day.
  • Dissenting points of view are always fine – just be respectful of other readers and our authors. No insults, meanness, or flaming – or you will be promptly deleted, moderated or banned. (PS This does not give you the right to come follow up to a review about the competition strictly by promoting your own company or employer. You are welcome to join the discussion but not strictly as a self-promotional platform.)
  • By submitting a comment here you grant this site a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name or link in attribution. If you’re not cool with this, please DO NOT submit your comment.
  • If you are a spammer, you’re wasting your time. Anti-Spam plugins mean your comment never sees the light of day. (False positives do sometimes happen and if you see something never publish that shouldn’t been spam let me know and I’ll try to rescue it before the trash button eats it!)
  • If you are a sneaky spammer, we will look at what you’re linking to before we publish your comment. If you say something like “Great Post” then link to Casino Central or Seduction Today, consider yourself banned.
  • I know a lot of my readers are actively link building to their own personal-professional blogs and I respect that. Please respect that I am community building and do not routinely leave one line comments or you will make me frown at you among other things. I also tend to be far more lenient with these rules with anyone that is actively helping me build engagement and dialog by replying to other commentors and returning to follow up to replies on a regular basis.
  • Leaving at least three solid comments would be good insurance against future spam rates forcing me to remove DoFollow from first time spammers. I have no plans to return that route, but the future of any plugin on my blog is not guaranteed.
  • If you are an aggressive affiliate marketer, I encourage you to plant your affiliate links on your own site and not here, or you can consider yourself moderated.
  • A gravatar image, which is the pictures that appear next to comments, of yourself will greatly improve the likelihood that I view you as a real person rather than a spambot. It takes five minutes to register a gravatar account and fill out your profile there and gains you a lot of credibility. Unless your a spammer go get one!
  • I run a plugin that notifies you of comment replies via email. Often times, I will use whether or not you return with a follow up reply, particularly to a question I might have asked, as additional basis for whether your were simply spamming me.

Just Ask Kim is not responsible for the content of comments left on this site by parties other than Kimberly.

For most of you, you don’t even need to read this page, because you already know how to add value.

Please catch the spirit of these rules, rather than necessarily the “letter of the law”, and understand why they are what they are and what they are aimed at accomplishing.  Majority of these would have exceptions in the correct context with regular members of my community.

You are my welcomed guests. I invite you into my home. Please make yourself at home, have a seat by the fire, enjoy a good read and there is fresh tea in the kitchen for anyone that would like some.

If I can be of any further assistance… or you have an questions… I look forward to hearing from you!

Kimberly