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Nam sodales mi vitae dolor ullamcorper et vulputate enim accumsan. Morbi orci magna,tincidunt vitae molestie nec,molestie at mi. Nulla nulla lorem,suscipit in posuere in,interdum non magna.
OK- I have been rocking the paid blog posts lately. I mentioned a few weeks ago (in the post:Wasted effort pays off) that I have a bunch of old blogspot blogs that I’ve brought back to life for paid blogging,since they all have PRs of 2-5. Yes,I am a sellout! But it’s all in the name of research,right? Here are some reviews of paid-to-blog websites. Keep in mind,you need to set up your own blogs,whether they’re on your domain,blogspot.com or elsewhere.
There are a few “industry standards”that apply to each company
Payout is 30 days after the post is approved although some companies don’t pay on weekends
The post must be visible during the entire 30 days,they WILL spot-check and you can lose your fee if they can’t get to the post. I discovered 2 of my sites were down a few days ago when I got notified that they couldn’t access my posts. Luckily,they were nice about re-instating it after I fixed the problem
The higher your pagerank,the more you can be paid. A brand new blog with no pagerank and no readers isn’t worth as much as an established site with readers and a higher rank
You can get referral commissions for referring advertisers,but not other bloggers
Your blogs need to have content with recent datestamps. Nevermind that you can change that datestamp in blogger,because that is frowned upon. You should add new content,preferably ten posts in the past 90 days. Roundup articles work well,so do half-articles or excerpts from your other sites with a “read more”link at the bottom
Blogsvertise Review
This company is fairly easy to work with. Their office works quickly most of the time. When I submit a post,it’s generally reviewed within 24 hours. I do have a few that have been awaiting review for 2-3 weeks. When you consider that they’ve been visible and live on my blogs during that time and the advertisers have likely already had their backlinks indexed- it kinda sucks that the posts may still be rejected. It’s also a bit sucky that I won’t be paid for these until 30 days after approval,so delaying the approval process is pretty crappy. I’m not sure who is responsible for this,but I also haven’t complained about it. Every interaction I’ve had with the company has been polite,professional and I can only assume there’s a valid reason.
The signup at Blogsvertise is easy,you submit your blog for review and once it’s approved,they email you assignments. If you ignore them too often,they’ll delete your account. When you get the email,you can either accept the assignment or decline it,so that it may be re-assigned to another blogger. Most of the assignments include 3 backlinks and 2oo words. Use the details in the email,since each advertiser sets his own terms.
My biggest criticism of Blogsvertise is that TWICE now,I’ve taken the time to write a post and submit it,only to have the advertiser cancel the request,so then I have to take the time to go back into my dashboard and delete the post. Even after the post has been sent out on RSS and indexed with the backlink. I get no kill-fee and basically just wasted my time &energy that could have been spent studying or hanging out with my kids or whatever else I choose to do for free. Writing lame blog posts for companies that mooch a day’s worth of pr4 backlink is NOT on the list of things I’d choose to do for free. It makes me wonder if that’s some black-hat marketing technique,to “take a chance”on bloggers being too lazy to remove the links,or hoping that they’ll still get the google juice even when the post disappears a day or so later. Either way,it sucks.
Social Spark Review
At Social Spark,(also by Izea) you’re paid in points which are each worth a penny. So a post that’s worth 1500 points is really worth $15, 1250 points is $12.50 and so forth. You must get to $50 before you’re paid out and payout goes into your account 30 days after the post is approved. The new site has a feature that I just KNOW a lot of bloggers will be uncomfortable with. You enter your admin username and password and they post it for you automatically. So you write your post from their interface (and theoretically,they can change it but I’ve done like 30 so far and they have never changes anything) and it doesn’t go live on your blog until it’s been approved by the client. They won’t reject it if you’ve followed all the rules. After it’s live,you can enter your own dashboard and add a category or tags if you want. I only have a few of my sites set up through the new Social Spark. For the WordPress ones,I added a second user with permission to post. I’m always worried about the one angry or unethical employee who steals passwords and hacks people’s accounts for his personal benefit. Maybe I’m crazy.
PayPerPost Review
I’ve actually been with PayPerPost since like 2007. They’re owned by Izea,the same company that owns Social Spark (above) and several other sites. PayPerPost has seen several incarnations. The oldest version I know of featured endless lists of opportunities,some as low as a nickel each. The newest version operates differently. Clients send out their opportunity (called a lead) to bloggers who meet their guidelines. You review the opportunity (including proposed fee) and either say “Yes,I’m interested”or “no.”Then,the results go back to the advertiser who chooses from the list of interested bloggers. If you’re accepted,it becomes an opportunity for you. I have four sites listed,with PR’s of 2,2,3,and 4 and none of them have had opportunities,though I’ve accepted ten or fifteen leads. I don’t know how long the process takes,or what other blogger’s success rates are.
Izea has some awesome opportunities for bloggers,including a “university”where bloggers can learn about blogging for money. I haven’t checked those classes out,though. Even i it just helps you sift through all of Izea’s opportunities and resources,then it would be a smart thing to look over. Izea has their own rankign system that takes into account your Alexa rank,your Google page rank and a few other factors. It’s called “Real rank”and it’s worth checking out.
One very strict rule Izea has is that you may not post back-to-back sponsored posts. So you need to sandwich your paid postings with actual unpaid content. I’ve seized that opportunity to post little blurbs and roundup posts of articles on other sites of mine,and to create more incoming links to my revenue share articles on other sites. The hidden bonus in this is that all my old “wasted”blogs are now seeing traffic (duh) and even getting adsense clicks (not much,but more than nothing)
BuyBlogReviews Review
OK,this site was apparently given a makeover recently because I just logged in and it does NOT look familiar. Honestly,I haven’t written much for them- it looks like you need to browse opportunities,and then bid for the work. For the sake of this article,I peeked at an opportunity. It looks like they take your Alexa ranking into account,as well as “link popularity”which I can’t find a definition for,so I’m not sure hoe they determine this. I did see that they pay 15 days after approval. They claim that their 30% cut is the lowest in the industry. It makes me wonder if they take their cut after the opp is approved,so you only get 70% of what you bid,or do they add it to the top. Perhaps they’ll answer that for us.
Sponzai
Sponzai is another Izea property. The signup is really simple,but I haven’t taken any opportunities through there. As we speak,I am adding blogs to their database. I will let you know if anything interesting arises
So- what paid blogging programs are you familiar with? Which do you love,which do you hate or have you simply not tried any. If you’re a niche blogger already,there’s no reason not to sign up for paid postings,I get $8-$20 per post,depending on the pagerank of the website. These are QUICK posts that take little or no brainpower. All they want are incoming links using their keywords,in most cases. If you,like I,have a bunch of old blogspot blogs on your account,gathering dust,then register them for paid blogging. It’s so easy .
It’s called the Happier Kids Now 2010 Online Expo and it’s designed specifically for Parents,Teachers and Homeschoolers. And it’s a way for you to not only make a difference,but earn profitable commission.
Rhonda Ryder and Patrick McMillan,two Parenting authors have lined up incredible speakers like Marianne Williamson,Bruce Lipton, Marci Shimoff,Robin Sharma,Bob Doyle and well known childhood psychology,education and self-esteem experts.
These leaders will cover current challenges such as child obesity; child/teen depression;ADHD,autism and nutrition;struggling students;classroom chaos…and solutions such as teaching kids the power of their minds;emotional intelligence,character building, positive parenting and so much more.
Your friends and subscribers will LOVE you for telling them about this event because they’ll receive all sorts of goodies for FREE including:
**Patrick McMillan’s ebook,The Ultimate Kids Guide to Happiness (37 pages) **Interview with New York Times Best Selling author Peggy McColl (47-minute audio) **Interview with Bob Doyle (8-minute video) **Plus FREE access to the Online Expo and all the Interviews
Remember,this is an opportunity for you to not only make a HUGE difference in the lives of kids,teens,parents and teachers all around the world,but also earn incredible commission as well.
Rhonda and Patrick have created a GENEROUS commission structure.
Check out all the details right here (make sure to watch their 40 second video!):
Once you sign up,they’ll take you by the hand and lead you every step of the way. If you can cut and paste,you can participate in the first ever,Happier Kids Now 2010 Online Expo.
Find out the incredible featured experts they’ve got lined up and the topics they will present. Make sure you sign up and become an affiliate so you can start receiving all the important details about the launch and find out how they will reward you for your efforts.
Every now and then I find my content on another website,without my permission. It’s rude,it’s plagiarism and it’s illegal. Unfortunately,it’s usually an overseas site that I don’t have much control over. All I can do,quite often,is report them to Google and have their adsense account pulled for DCMA violation. Other times,if their host is in the US,I can have the host take down the site.
That’s where we’re at today. Homeschoolninja.com (Please do not click on their ads,or you’ll be rewarding them for being asshats)
Anyhow- they’ve stolen several of my Suite101.com articles. Their entire site is filled with stolen content and I’ve found several other bloggers and web writers complaining about the theft. All the articles are credited as “by Lemon.”
So- I’m going to post entries here,every step of the way,to document the process of fighting back against content theft. It’s not cool. And I’m not putting up with it. This is my family’s income,and copying my content is like sneaking into my purse. Screw that.
I suggest you read this thoroughly if you’re battling content theft.
I also plan to contact every site that’s linking IN to this HomeschoolNinja idiot. The site is set up to automatically scrape content from other sites,then at the bottom of each STOLEN article,it links back to the original. Thsi fires off a ping,which looks like a comment on some sites. It’s an easy way to get an incoming link. But- then,not only are they stealing content,then they’re also stealing the google juice of a dofollow comment ping? How f’ing rude can you get?
So- apparently they’ve stolen a lot of content from homeschoolblogger.com and I am writing Homeschoolblogger a note asking them to remove all the incoming links (from the pings) to homeschoolninja. Otherwise they’re promoting stolen content AND giving their blessing to the jerks who steal from them.
I’m also going to use the ping trackbacks to find other sites they’ve stolen content from and encourage them to file charges,too.
It just pisses me off –A LOT- that anyone would be such a jerk,by stealing articles from MOTHERS and it’s not like they don’t know what they’re doing. There’s no contact information on the site,no “about me”page that tells me the name or identity of the thief,no “click here to contact us”nothing. They’re hiding. Thank goodness they’re hosting here in the US. I will TAKE THEM DOWN. Don’t mess with a mother,you idiot.
So- the first step I have to take is to record the URLs of my original articles and their corresponding STOLEN copies on homeschoolninja
Then,I’m sending a notice of cease and desist to the site and their hosting company.
AND- this is complete BS,too. I shouldn’t have to do all of this. I should bill them for the time it’s taking. Their ad networks should be able to tell how much money they made from my content and send it to me instead of to them. I just can’t believe someone would do something like this,so blatantly dishonest and deliberately deceptive. Usually the ones I find are honest mistakes. Like maybe someone doesn’t know it violates copyright to paste the article into a message board,or on their blog. That’s an honest mistake. I can’t expect EVERYONE to understand copyright laws. But this person knows what they’re doing,they know it’s illegal,they’re hiding behind a private registration,listing NO contact information on their site,copying everyone’s articles and profiting from the adsense.
Not on my watch.
I’ll keep y’all posted here,with the progress of this. Stupid jerks.
UPDATE- because their site has private registration,I had to contact them through their host. I sent a C&D letter. The one Suite101 has is a bit soft,in my opinion,and hasn’t been updated since 2007,so I reworded it –beefed it up a little bit. I’m sending one for each violation,and also forwarding the information to a few other Suite writers who have been victimized by this. Seriously- they’re stealing content from a little girl’s unschooling blog,plus several other mom-run sites and even large homeschool organizations,like ThisOldSchoolhouse,HomeEducatorFamilyTimes and small local support groups,plus several more,the amount of theft here just sickens me.
So their domain name is managed by 1and1 but their hosting is at ThePlanet.com so if I need to notify either company,that would suck. But I don’t think jerks like this back down unless they’re forced to. I hope the content will be removed without a struggle.
Update- before I even finished copying and pasting the URLs into the cease and desist letter,I received a note of apology,as follows:
Sincere apologiesTuesday,September 14,2010 10:01 AM From:“Lemon” To:lisalisarussell@yahoo.com Dear Lisa,
Apologies for using Suite101 content without permission –they have been removed and this will not occur again in the future.
Sincerely,
Lemon Myers
So thank you,Lemon (if that’s your real name),for doing the right thing (after you got caught)
Note that the site hasn’t removed ALL of the stolen content,just mine. Or maybe everything scraped from Suite101. I sent notes to other Suite101 writers this morning,whenever I came across stolen content that wasn’t mine. So if you got a note from me and your content is still posted on that site,please let me know.
If you find your articles stolen from homeschoolninja.com I will be happy to share with you the procedures outlined in their hosting program (linked above- ThePlanet),as well as the TOS for all of the ad networks they’re using;Infolinks,CommissionJunction and FireLead.
If you’re trying to use a similar technique on another site,you can use this rescued article to find out who hosts the ad (because they’re all like fdivghk.com and things like that) And even though that document is copied &pasted,I’m not hiding behind anything,if the real person (whose site is down) wants to come forward and claim it,I’d be more than happy to provide an honest link,thank you
So when I was new to blogging,I set up several blogspot.com sites in various niches,to test the waters. None of them were very successful,but I was diligent about adding content regularly for about 2-3 months before I started launching sites on my own domains and I haven’t deleted any of the blogspot sites. Thank goodness for that.
On a whim,I added them to my socialspark and blogsvertise and buyblogreviews accounts (each of these are.com –I’m in a bit of a rush and I’m sure there are affiliate links I could be using,but I’m skipping it for a minute,just to get this message out)
Anyway- to my surprise,I’m suddenly getting offers of anywhere from $5-$25 per post to add content to these blogs. Can you imagine? All this time they’ve just been sitting there,collecting dust (and pagerank) and NOW,over 2 years later,I’m kicking butt,to the tune of nearly $450 in one weekend.
A word of warning- before you try this at home,you might need to…
Update your privacy policy
Learn how to disable text-link ads from kontera or infolinks
Add additional blog posts (or change the dates) to bring the sites up to count (you’ll probably need 10 recent posts in the past 90 days)
Sandwich sponsored posts with “real”posts because some agencies will reject a blog if it’s got nothing but back-to-back paid content
I’m sure this isn’t a long-term gig,because I have a feeling the sponsored posts will kill the pagerank. Currently,most of them are at a PR3. I’m sure I will update y’all if anything strange occurs.
On another note,I went ahead and created a few more blogspots,to store overlapping content from some of my other sites. Maybe 2 years from now I can do this again.
The downside is that I don’t get paid for a month. For some reason,all of the companies pay 30 days after post approval. The upside is that a month from now I’m going to Trapeze school. This is me- living my fantasy Thank goodness for the Internet and work-at-home opportunities.
My story has been repeated a hundred times this week,by other niche bloggers- but if you’re not reading them,you might not have known. It starts like this-
I’m building a niche site (first new one in 2010)
I need to choose my categories. I want them related. I want google to see me as an authority in my niche,so the keywords I choose for my categories need to be related in google’s eyes. Plus,I need them for my articles,tags,etc.
So I head to the wonder wheel,where google gives us all a graphic representation of what they think is relevant.
But it’s gone. I suspect it has something to do with the badass new instant search feature which changes the search results as you type- but I’m not sure.
So I use the “latest news”feature to search for wonder wheel and sure enough,other niche bloggers and affiliate marketers are discussing the issue.
I have no idea who made the video below. Usually I won’t share a video here unless the source of the video is someone I believe in and want to promote. But the fact is,I don’t have time to research this one,I have a site that I want to see live in 3 hours.
SO- the short answer is that you need to log into google,then go to google.com/preferences and turn off the instant search option. When you return to the search screen (may need to re-search) the wonder wheel will be an option again.
I use the chrome browser,and I wanted to watch instant search results for some of the keywords before I settled on keywords for the site,so I opened up an incognito window,since it won’t access my browsing history or acknowledge that I’m logged in on the normal window. then,I can google in the incognito window to see the live results as I’m typing.
Anyway- here’s the video about how to switch away from instant search. Enjoy
So- now that the wonder wheel issue is all cleared up. What do you think of the instant search feature? Love it? Hate it? Confused? Addicted? I think I’m addicted,but that probably doesn’t surprise you,does it?
I’m weird,I know it. I’m not a consumer. I don’t spend my weekends at the mall. In fact,the only time I go to the mall is when my teenagers are there hanging out with their friends. Sometimes we trick-or-treat there,but not every year. I hate it. I hate the smell of plastic. I hate the cloned clothing hanging on every rack. I feel nauseous when I walk through the perfume section. I think the make-up ladies look like f’ing clowns. I wonder if the people who buy the children’s clothing realizes that a $20 kid’s t-shirt will still get dirty (or do they not let their kids play in dirt?)
Anyway- so yeah,this is me- and I hate malls,department stores and superstores. We thrift-shop for clothes because it’s just smarter. My teenagers prefer it because they have more options. Malls have clothing displayed in prescribed outfits (this shirt goes with these pants) but thrift shops allow you to see each item as it really exists. The odds of an article shrinking or bunching up after washing are slim to none,they’ve already been washed several times,by their previous owner and then again,by the store. Let someone else pay $50 for a pair of jeans,I’d rather pay $8. Shoes are another story. We buy most of our shoes new,at payless,and my kids don’t wear them here at home very often. I think we each have 2 or 3 pairs of shoes. Certainly not what I see in other families. I’d like a shoe collection,but honestly I’d probably only wear the same 3 pairs anyway.
I take the same approach to vehicles,we buy our cars used and we don’t use bank loans to finance them (why pay MORE?) We grow our own organic foods and whatever we don’t grow we get from the farmer’s market or the grocery store. I do not eat processed foods. I eat real food. Fruit,vegetables,grains,nuts,some meat,dairy and eggs. I don’t eat things that come in boxes or cans very often. We have our own flock of chickens. I do this more for health reasons than economic reasons,but obviously it makes a HUGE financial difference. Did you know that when you eat real food you’re hardly ever hungry. Processed foods make you hungrier,and you have less energy. We’re fit,strong and energetic. How many women with 6 kids weigh 120 and play on the trapeze? It’s the food,people. Processed foods are toxic.
Anyway- so I get this email from a site I write for that completely pisses me off:
(the site you write for) is excited to offer a valuable new benefit to active Correspondents. (the site you write for) Marketplace is a Correspondent Discount Program with discounts at over 28,000 retailers nationwide to help you reduce your personal expenses. With (site) Marketplace,you will save on everything from groceries,movie tickets,clothing and accessories to electronics,vacations and personal care items.
What the hell? This has got to be an all-time low. You’re not saving me any money,boneheads,because I don’t buy that crap. And furthermore,are you a media source or are you a shopping mall? Lucky me,I got this personal invitation to SHOP. Like the entire Internet isn’t already there for me to shop? They’re going to reduce my personal expenses- w0oHoO. I dare you.
I wonder how many people read that email and didn’t see the obvious- this site is PIMPING its writers out to retailers and likely getting fat commission checks for it. DUHHH.
So excuse the hell out of me for not getting all excited about
Overwhelming Offers 50% Off or More,Every Weekday In-Store Events Exclusive,RSVP-Only Private Events Limited Time Offers Top Brands,Deep Discounts,Ending Soon Shopping Goddess Write Reviews,Gain Followers,Get Rewarded
Honestly- is anyone fooled by 50% off? Come on. Like these corporations are so generous to be making such sacrifices for us lowly writers? Oh praise Jesus,how blessed we are that they’d sit in their boardroom and say “I think it’s worth it to profit less in order to make sure these writers can keep their kids clothed. Mr Filthpot,call the sweatshop and see if the girls can each donate an hour for the writers. We can do this,boys. The writers need us.”
Limited time offers- oh shit,maybe I am missing out.
A Shopping Goddess? Well,I’m not really religious,but obviously the rest of my country worships at the mall,so maybe I should win the favor of the shopping goddess. oh wait- they’re saying I could BE the shopping goddess,I see. By writing product reviews (for free,I’m guessing) and gaining followers (I better email all my friends,I hope they let me connect with facebook) YES- so everyone can know what a shopper I am. I’ll spend more than ANYONE. And I’ll get rewarded- yippee. I sure hope it’s a progressive system of stars that their reward system is based on. Maybe I’ll get coupons,too.
This is so unprofessional. It bothers me that it exists and it bothers me that I might be the only one who thinks it’s stupid. I’d love to talk to a writer who is excited about it. Not to make fun of them,but to understand their motivation. Once I’ve heard them out,I might still find it stupid.
I’ve been having a lot of fun making easy money with Blogsvertise,a paid blogging site. It’s easy to register,then add all of your URLS into their system,so advertisers can make you offers. Sometimes they want links,sometimes they want to post poorly written “guest blog”entries. Honestly,I don’t care what they want me to post,as long as it isn’t obscene or offensive. I have a few awesome plugins I use to keep the paid blogging situation under control…
Kontera WordPress Plugin
I have Kontera’s text-link ad system running on several of my sites. I also have Infolinks running on a few. The Kontera WordPress plugin allows me to disable the intext ads for all my sponsored posts. The terms of agreement with the post-sponsoring companies are that the post must stay on your site for 30 days,sometimes 90 days,depending which agency you’re using. Sometimes I delete the posts after they have matured,other times I don’t. I have no rhyme or reason,but I guess I should. Either way,using this plugin,I can specify that newer posts under x days old have no Kontera ads (thereby ensuring readers aren’t ambushed with ads on the latest articles and my paid post isn’t rejected due to the placement of additional ads) I chose to disable all ads in the sponsored category. I should have a more official policy on deleting paid posts,but I don’t. I’m not that organized. When I add new ones I tend to peek for mature sponsored posts to delete. I guess that’s a system,right?
Advanced category Excluder This allows me to keep the sponsored posts off of my RSS feed. As a matter of fact,I’m also using it to keep this very post available ONLY through RSS and direct link. I wouldn’t want paid advertisers to come here &see that they’ve been swindled. It isn’t exactly swindling- they’re advertising here so they can get a dofollow link from a PR3 site. And they’re getting one. Search engines still crawl the page that has their post. But I definitely don’t want my regular readers to think that I’d let such a lame guest-post exist,or that I really think sports equipment is a big deal.
So this plugin allows you to exclude certain categories from- RSS feed,home page navigation,archiving,search engine indexing,widgets and site search. It also has some functions for links,but I haven’t explored that. the setup is easy- categories don’t show up unless there’s a post in them. So I had to go to an older post and add the ‘sponsored”category to the post,then go back into the plugin setup to exclude the category,then when I added my sponsored post,it was excluded right away. Then,I went back to the older post and removed the sponsored designation.
In order to make this post only visible to my subscribers,I have excluded its category from the homepage and made sure it was visible to RSS subscribers.
So which wordpress plugins do you find most beneficial for paid blogging? Don’t tell me you’re not getting paid to blog? that’s one of the coolest things about niche blogging,once your site reaches a decent PR,you can get paid to post things sometimes. Visit this company to get started. They send you emails every time you have a new task. You can take the task or reject it,you can also ask for more money and set a minimum. I set my minimum at like $10 and so far I’ve gotten at least 10 offers each week. Can’t beat that And some of them are for $20 posts. It’s so much fun
A boycott of Amazon- she must be kidding,right? Relax- I wasn’t calling for a boycott,I was just asking you to never simply type Amazon.com into your browser,that’s all. Whether you’re spending $5 or $500- somewhere there’s a work-at-home mom who could conceivably make a few pennies from the sale. My Amazon.com earnings are enough to pay for my school books every month,plus some other books I want to read just to keep my mind sharp. I know moms who save their Amazon commissions all year long just so they can do their Xmas shopping online.
But when you use your browser to visit Amazon.com instead of clicking on the link in a mom-blog,no mommy benefits. No matter what you buy on your visit,Amazon gives a small (very small) percentage to the person who referred you. If no one refers you,they keep it. It doesn’t cost you any more to shop Amazon from a mom-owned-blog- and it doesn’t cost you any less to go straight to Amazon.com directly.
SOoooo- Bookmark your favorite mommyblog- and change the name to AMAZON SHOPPING in your bookmark menu (or something like that) and next time you’re tempted to shop Amazon- share the commission with someone you care about.
If that’s me- first make sure you’re visiting the permalink for this post (instead of the main site) by clicking here –(permalink for this very post)
Then- access amazon through the magic doorway below- which is a completely random book you don’t even need to order because the minute you arrive,Amazon will KNOW that I sent you and whatever you buy,I will get a small (very small,like 6%) portion of. (to end with a preposition,sorry)
Thanks- AND- I’ll never know who ordered what,but I can see what was ordered. So if you plan to purchase something naughty don’t worry- I’ll never know it was you. all they show me is the name of the item ordered and how much I received for the sale.
Do you get these? Here are a few I’ve gotten lately. I’ll tell you what they’re all about in a minute…
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Wow. It’s easy to be flattered when I see that finally someone appreciates the ”unparalleled lucidity”in my guidelines. Is this some kind of joke? A few years ago,I would have assumed it was from someone who didn’t speak English very well. Today,I know better.
What makes it so obvious that the comment is SPAM?
The commenter’s inability to communicate in English
Excessive compliments on a rather mundane topic
The fact that their URL was listed as something like buy cheap viagra online
It all adds up to SPAM. Here are a few other ones I’ve received lately:
This is very good article,I am very interested in its topic and read them was a pleasure.
This is a good blog. Keep up all the work. I too love blogging and expressing my opinions. Thanks
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I find these bogus compliments amusing. I once wrote a post about analyzing blog stats and received,from one of these geniuses,a three paragraph comment of praise,all about how much of an inspiration I am,and how generous it is for such a busy businessman to devote so much time and energy into helping the less fortunate.
These people are paid to sit in cybercafe’s in a third world country,creating backlinks to someone’s (poorly written) niche blog.. Some bozo buys software that collects the submit code for the comment fields and these guys copy and paste their useless comments into as many blogs as they can,in an effort to get their spam website ranked higher in the SERPS. The comments are nonsense for a few reasons.
They’re not really in response to your post (even though you really are awesome)
The original author probably doesn’t speak English
The comment is “spun”several times,replacing random words with their synonyms until they no longer make sense
Sometimes they’re just a bunch of random URL’s,without any comment text
Sometimes the commenter’s name is actually listed as “Asian models”or “Paxil refunds”
Excessive praise is often SPAM. You know your posts,you know your style. Some posts easily lend themselves to excessive praise. ”How I saved my daughter’s life”and “Why I became a marriage coach”are two such titles that might inspire readers to heap praises upon you. ”How to strip the paint off your barstools”and “Easy mac and cheese recipes”are probably not things that will change a reader’s life. If you get a strange comment with excessive praise,you might want to mark it as SPAM. With WordPress,you can edit or remove the URL from the comment and approve it anyway if you want. Sometimes that can be funny. You can also change the URL,if that’s your style. You could possibly use it to create incoming links to your own articles and be your own spammer. You could even respond to your bogus commenter for the amusement of your readers.
But you have to do something. You can’t reward their spam-linking efforts by leaving their comment intact. Linking away to crappy sites can bring down your ranking,too. Even if it’s a nofollow link,you look like a loser in Google’s eyes for linking to garbage.
The dofollow sites I own tend to get more junk-spam-comments than the nofollow sites. Akismet blocks most of them,but not all.
I have my sites set up so that regular readers’comments are automatically approved. Whenever I log in to add content,I check the pending comments. I also have them sent to my email so that I can approve the good ones instantly.
Anyway- what’s the funniest SPAM comment you have received?
Roundup articles are a little like “freebies”for web content writers. Presumably you’ve been writing in the same niche for a while and have several articles about a few very precise topics.
Mini Touchscreen Laptop - irrelevant but awesome
A roundup article is basically a compilation of all those articles,with links to several of them.
An example of one of my roundup articles is Financial Literacy for Kids for the record,it’s making absolutely no money on Squidoo,in fact,my Squidoo income for about 7 lenses is less than $5. I’m not saying they suck,because I do get clickovers,but I also have not gone through their training yet to see how to maximize income there. I know other writers who do well with the site,but that’s not my goal or my point there. I like them for roundup articles because I can organize excerpts and links to my other work in one easy set of incoming links. It’s all about the incoming link. It also provides me with an easy place to look up my other work on the subject,so I can see what else I’ve done.
OK- so if you take a look at it,you’ll see that I’ve linked to articles on Examiner,Suite101 and eHow. I’ve also linked to an Amazon aStore,embedded into a page on one of my other sites. I also have a paragraph on the bottom with several Amazon links embedded.
Squidoo wants new content added regularly,I fail at the “regularly”part,but I do update them whenever I add a new related topic to my body of work.
If you’re using my “ALL my URL’s”spreadsheet,that should be easy- just by searching the spreadsheet for your keyword or subject,you’ll be able to find related articles for a roundup post.
Other places to publish Roundup Articles:
Examiner.com is an excellent place for roundups because they encourage outgoing links
Your blogs and niche websites are great places for roundups
SheToldMe and Bukisa are also suitable places for roundup articles
1- gather the URLs,titles and excerpts for articles in a similar niche
2- compile them into an article for whichever site you’ve chosen (no rule against publishing elsewhere,but you should probably reword them or rearrange the content to avoid duplication. I can think of three techniques for this:
a-write a fresh,keyword-rich introduction paragraph and then use each article for its own paragraph,posting excerpts and hyperlinked titles
b- write an original article and work in the hyperlinks organically,using meaningful (keyworded) anchor text.
c- write an original article and list “You might also like”or “For more information,check out…”or “resources:”at the end of the article
3- tweet,Facebook,Stumble,Digg or something. Whatever your social promotion technique is,apply it to this article just like the others.
4- enjoy the little rankings boost and publicity your other articles get as a result of this “freebie”
