Submit Blog Comments and Getting a Blank Page?
When it comes to link building, a great way to develop links is to comment on blogs. Now I’m not talking about comment spam, but real genuine comments to the posted article. Quite a few people do this, and many are finding that when they submit their comments they are going to a blank page.
Spam is a huge problem for bloggers. Just last week I received over 3,000 spam comments. Fortunately I run Akismet, a plugin for Wordpress that is intended to combat the onslaught of blog spam. The downside to this is that good/genuine comments can be returned as a false positive.
Last week I was doing some solid blog commenting for one of my sites and noticed that on most blogs I went to a blank page after submitting my comment. Curious as to what the problem was, I decided to comment on one of my blogs. I got the same result! Now the detective in me came out. I wanted to find out what the problem was.
I used a different variation of my name to submit a comment on my own blog. I still went to a blank page, and the comment was not recorded in my admin. I then changed my E-mail address, and the same thing happened. The comment still did not appear in my admin area to approve/deny. I then changed my domain, and presto! The comment went through.
In normal situations, the post would just go into the Akismet comment section of my admin area. But in cases where Akismet thinks you are a spambot, your comment never even hits the admin area. With a little research, I found that Akismet dishes out one of the following to spambots:
delay a response
HTTP error 503 (Service Unavailable), showing a simple blank page.
HTTP error 403 (Forbidden), showing a simple blank page.
HTTP error 403 (Forbidden), showing a Drupal generated page.
Ok, now that we know Akismet thinks we are a spambot, can we fix the problem? The good news is yes, the problem can be corrected. The bad news is that Akismet is typically very slow to respond to “unblock requests.” By slow I mean people have waited months to get unblocked.
If you find yourself in this situation, here’s what you should do. Contact Akismet and provide them with the following information.
Your IP Address
Your E-mail Address
Your Website Address
When you contact Akismet, let them know that you are a human and are getting a blank page after submitting comments. Also indicate that your blog comments are genuine and that you read each post before submitting a comment.
As I noted before, Akismet can be slow to respond to unblock requests. To speed up this process, provide them all the information you can as noted previously. You may find that they unblock you with a day or two. 
Tags: Akisment, Blank Blog Pages, Blog Spam
September 17th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
So, do you know how you got onto the list at all? Or how easy it is to be blacklisted? Does it take severaly posts spread out over several blogs, or what.
I use Akismet myself, and click spam on quite a bit of ‘nice post friend’ comments. So I am curious if these guys will get blacklisted quickly enough to teach them a hard earned lesson.
Ronnie T. Dodger
September 18th, 2008 at 12:15 am
It’s very easy to get blacklisted. Bloggers police the system, and each time they remove a comment as “spam,” it is reported to Akismet. There’s the flip side to this though. If Bloggers find a comment in the Akismet comment section, and report it as not spam, that too gets reported to Akismet.
All those “nice post friend” comments you click as spam, most likely will result in them being blacklisted.
From a user standpoint it is discouraging to see blank pages. I’m sure some people that comment think the blog script is broken and never return. And since these comments don’t end up in the Akismet spam folder, there is nothing for a blogger to approve as not being spam.
Akismet needs to rethink this system and give users an onscreen message. This would not only give users knowledge of the problem so they can appeal, but also helps to prevent people from thinking the blog is not properly functioning.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:46 am
HI SEO +
Thanks for your post, I had same problem before! I never spam. But when you leave a message on other’s blog, and the owner doesn’t like it, they will mark it as spam. It is very hard to avoid, I think.
September 20th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Hi Search Engine Marketing, and thanks for your comment.
First, your comment was in the Akismet folder. Your comments apparently are still getting tagged as spam. I obviously un-tagged your comment as spam, so hopefully that helps.
Some blog owners insist on using real names for the commentors name. You may want to consider using your real name so that your comments don’t get flagged as spam too often.
December 11th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Thank you for your post. My Get Rid of Acne site was recently blocked so I guess I should probably send them a shout and see if they can get it fixed asap.
December 12th, 2008 at 3:31 am
Taylor, your comment made it through my Akismet filter just fine.
I moderate all comments, so nothing in out of the ordinary. Nor was your comment in the Akismet spam folder. Looks like you’re in good shape.
December 16th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Great article. I’ve run into problems with akismet but I seem to remember it giving me an error. I had a few really frustrating days.
So I’m posting this comment here to test it. I guess if i get the blank page then I’m in trouble.
Let me know where it goes if you don’t mind.
Phil
December 17th, 2008 at 3:25 am
Phil, your comment was not flagged or tagged by Akismet. Since I moderate all comments, it was right where it should be in my admin. You are in good shape.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:04 am
thanks for the info, will contact askimet now
February 9th, 2009 at 2:52 am
I am glad I came across this, I often get a blank page after writing indepth, relevant comments and I was wondering why that was happening and whether there was something wrong on my end. Now I know that I am considered a spammer.
February 9th, 2009 at 2:58 am
I wonder if good content four word keyword domains too get into the trouble automatically. They are thought as keyword domain spamming but there is another side to the coin. What if the webmaster who started this domain wasn’t sharp or experineced enough that this thing can be regarded as bad tactic in future.
Akismet needs to get smarter for sure.
February 9th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
This happened to me. I wondered how I am getting a blank page several times. I contacted even a blogger to report this problem thinking it had something to do with coding of his blog. He said everything was alright with his blog. After some research I found that the real problem is askimet. Thanks for the detailed info about this problem and solution.
February 21st, 2009 at 2:00 am
Thanks for the Resource, Great Work
Patrick Thomas
March 22nd, 2009 at 11:29 pm
On Friday night my daughter was posting on some blogs and she got the blank page thing.
I’ve asked her to use our website for the website field so I guess we’ve been flagged.
Thanks for the details, I’ll email Askimet.
March 22nd, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Thanks very much. As I delve deeper into the SEO world, I’m finding that there are many companies that promise big results by using spam software to create backlinks. The end result is that I can get banned all over the place. This will help me show my customers that it is more about the quality of links rather than the quantity.
JP
April 1st, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I am finding a few people with this same problem.
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:21 am
Thanks dude! thats what i was wondering that why the hell I got a blank page when there is a comment made on very same date.
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Do you think it’s possible to get banned from just one person reporting you, or do you think it takes a few separate reports? I sometimes get the blank page after commenting and I didn’t know what it meant until I read this. I don’t do much blog commenting, but the posts I do leave are relevant and definitely not spammy. Now I’m wondering though if I’ve been unfairly banned…
Steve
April 6th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I just started to hate akismet. But i dont understand i dont get always blank page sometimes it goes through.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Thanks for the post SEO +. I’ve actually seen the blank screen myself, but just figured is was some browser wierdness. Unfortunately, I don’t have the sleuthing skills you did to be able to figure it out.
I agree though that would would be nice if Akismet would at least show a “you’re a spammer” message so we could investigate the problem. Otherwise, many of us that are legitimate and can only afford shared hosting may be penalized for doing nothing wrong. It would also be nice if the Akismet people gave you some sort of way to lookup your name/domain/email to see if you would be blocked or not.
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:38 pm
There is no doubt that Akismet Marks Valid Comments As SPAM even googling it would show hundreds of bloggers being frustrated because of it. I spent my entire day today googling to check results for..
1) my site wrongly spammed by aksimet
2) my site wrongly spammed by wordpress
3) my site wrongly flagged by aksimet
and various other terms and landed up to many blogs which had many bloggers complaining.
See even here i have not added my website url while commenting coz when i do so my comment won’t show up..it gives a blank page what you are talking about so i know the problem and i read your entire post without missing anything.
Akismet is hampering the blogging experience of many blog commenters who love to gel with others even though they are relatively new..this is really lame
I have even taken this whole issue to a next level..ya that is on Forums where it would gain a lot of exposure and maybe akismet would try to learn from it.
I write to webmasters, moderators that if my post goes through with the my website url in the website field then please mark it “unspam” but with the url the post doesn’t go through forget about moderating it
Thanks
Ryan
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:55 am
Unfortunately, not all of the “spam” comments that Akismet catches are actually spam and could actually be doing you a disservice if you want your blog to eventually rank for any keywords in search engines. They may be posting to your blog mostly to create a link back to their own site, BUT people like myself who actually make informed posts on blogs instead of one liners like “nice post, lol” or just a random set of keywords are actually doing bloggers a service. By making an informed post that is actually related to the blog and the topic posted, people like me are trading you content for your site (since comment text is searchable) in exchange for a link back to our site. We help you, you help us.
As long as the comment is relevant and a decent post, it isn’t spam and actually helps your blog rank in Google or Yahoo or any other search engine when someone searches for your blog’s topic. Most people don’t understand this and assume that just because a link goes back to a commercial website, that the comment is to be considered spam and that isn’t true. This is why I don’t go around posting random things on blogs that I find; it’s always related and it’s always a decent sized post, never keyword stuffing or anything related to that.
April 25th, 2009 at 8:13 am
A year ago I was banned by Akismet , amean all my comments were filtered. I don’t know why, I usually comment on topic. Maybe in time, some blog owner reported some comments as SPAM and that’s why. I never tried to contact Akismet to remove me.
Now, I’ve created my own blog besides the other websites, installed Akismet and see how good their service is.
April 27th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Wow, really nice post, so is that means always use proxy to get rid of this issue?
May 7th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Seriously. That is the problem?
I have been confused by this blank page for a while.
Is there any way to get around it besides waiting for the slow removal from the blacklist?
May 10th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
great post. I learned something new some this post because I did not realized that there was a blacklist that u had to be remove from to continue. thanks for the info
May 11th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Yes, thanks for the great post. I have had several ‘blank pages’ before and had no idea how to fix it. Now I know how to get around this..
May 15th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Mate, Akismet is stupid, they really do spoil the commenting system I think. Many post I find in my spam folder are legit comments and I instandtly put them on, but I know many people who dont even check and just put it delete it straight away!
May 18th, 2009 at 6:39 am
Thanks for posting this, I also often get a blank page when submit comment
May 21st, 2009 at 8:49 am
I think Askimet must block on the exact URL, not the domain. I comment on blogs and link to about 4 different domains (not in the same comment of course). I was blocked yesterday when trying to link to a sub page, but when i change the URL from the subpage to the home page (e.g. yourdomain.com/page1.html to just yourdomain.com) the comment submitted fine.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:50 am
Akismet sucks! They block a ton of relevant comments and if the blog owner is too lazy, it gets reported as spam. The latest news is that most blogs are getting away from this software. Not only does it block legit comments, it will run your SEO into the ground. Blogs that are using it are falling from Google and other search engine rankings. There are other software and new wordpress ways to deal with spam that don’t kill legit comments and traffic. Even if the comment is a one liner like “nice blog” if the link is to a relevant site this helps your SEO. I am probally blocked and I don’t even care. I removed this crap from all my blogs and hope you do the same if you want any rankings and traffic in the future!
May 24th, 2009 at 3:19 am
I want to go into detail with what I said above, if it even got posted. The reason Akismet is very bad is this example. Let’s say that I come to your blog at least 3 times a week and read what you have to say and leave comments. You love me because I add traffic and participate in discussions with the comments feature. Now you are running Akismet. One day I am surfing the web and I find another blog site. I visit it and find that an article has very wrong information. I comment that I don’t agree and that blog owner gets pissed and marks my comment as spam. Guess what, I have been banned from leaving comments on all blogs running this script, including yours. I come back to your blog and get a blank page when I try to leave a comment. I come back thinking it was a glinch and try again. Now I think you hate me, and I am not coming back to your site. But you don’t hate me, you love my traffic and love my comments, but some other jack ass got me banned and your blog suffers. You see it doesn’t just catch and mark who you tell it to, it takes info from all blogs running the script. Worse scenario is the same situation as above, but instead I leave a comment on another blog with a backlink. With most sites running this script, anyone that leaves a website is automatically put in the spam folder. I would say that 60% of blog owners are too lazy to go through the spam comments and they mark all of them as spam. Doing this stupid, stupid thing will cost your blog traffic, big time. I promise that if you run this script and I come to your site and get a white page, I won’t be back and neither will tons of other people. It doesn’t matter how good your site is, no traffic = no money, no readers, eventually no blog. Trust me I watched many of my blogs peak, then fall from rankings. They were getting traffic, then went to nothing. I thought it was the search engines fault until loyal commenter’s and visitors started disappearing. When I emailed them they said they no longer could comment on my site. You will not even know that normal commenter’s have tried to leave a comment if they are on the blacklist. This script will ruin you and your site! Do a Google search on how many people have been blacklisted and don’t know why. I will also put this out there. Since this script grabs info from all blogs running it, your blog can get blacklist by competing websites. I know webmasters that love this script. They take their blog spamming software, enter their competitor’s url and go to town. I promise it also won’t be long before a massive, massive lawsuit is place on this software script and owner. I wouldn’t want to be a major blog running this and getting called to court to explain why you marked this as spam and that as spam.
May 26th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Thanks SEO+, I have this issue from the office and hadn’t had the time to check into it. I am glad I stumbled across a link from DP. I will be mailing Akismet.
May 31st, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Mike, I agree that Akismet will eventually find itself in court. Just look at the E-mail spam blacklists. They are closing because lawsuits threatened their very existence. Surely Akismet will meet the same fate because it does not discriminate.
Those requesting removal from Akismet are being met with an E-mail response that states they are clearly not a blacklist for spam. Despite what they say, that is exactly what they are. And Akismet is moving onto bigger and better things the blogs. One can use Akismet on forums as well.
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Thanks, great post. I’ve been suffering the same problem, have been trying different browsers and really had no clue about what was happening. I was considering to uninstall quite some new SW on my PC to see if this would improve things, luckily I read your article just in time.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
A short update: I went back to one of those blogs and tried to link to my homepage in stead of a deep link - and now it works! So it’s not only being listed as a spammer that gives you the blank page, it’s also if you try to enter deep links to your site, maybe depending on the blog.
June 14th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Thank you for your post and I was trying to contact them but I’m not sure which option I should choose as purpose as none of them is related to unblocking domains.
Most likely my comment will not appear, could you please, please let us know where the comment went. It might go to spam as we tried to use some freelancers in the past, not any more and never will be as they get you banned.
July 18th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I have encountered similar problems quite a few times when my comments simply did not go live because I had a hyperlink on my comment.
If this is the only parameter that anti-spam tools use to judge spams then I am afraid, I will never go for akismet on my blog.
I hate Akismet
July 23rd, 2009 at 4:37 am
Thanks so much for your information. It seems that I was consider as spammer
September 1st, 2009 at 6:53 pm
This is the second comment im trying to post, It appears the first one I left was blocked because I get the white page. I still would like to know if it shows up in your spam folder, or if it just goes to no where. Thanks for you help, below is my original message:
I have had this problem for a while, when after I hired an “seo company” to do some work for my website. I came across this website well trying to fix the problem, can you please let me know if the comment makes it to spam?
October 13th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
My site is a las vegas real estate related blog and I used to do regular blog commenting and suddenly one day I got the white screen of death
yes that is what i call it. The blog in which I posted is of my friend’s and I immediately nudged to him check if she had anything to do. Surprisingly she said all your posts are reaching the spam folder and each time she has to dig out it from the spam bin and make it live. Then I made a research to identify the problem. Sent an email to akismet and they responded that is how they work. It was due to extensive usage of the words “las vegas” and unfortunately they thought my site deals with casino. But after they released my site from blockage I never had any hassles. You have explained it very patiently and vividly. thanks buddy.