About two weeks ago, I started seeing a sharp increase in comments on the Others Online blog. The comment (content) was different, the people were different, but the comments all took a similar form. Here's an example:
-----------------------------------
rosejenifar
Best DUI
Every post ended with the same dotted line, a name, then a term for SEO purposes. At first I thought it was just a couple people from the same company visiting our blog (word of mouth), then I received more comment spam, which I reported as such to TypePad.
Then we received a partner application form from WideCircles. I went to their site and thought "hmmm, social media marketing ... could be an interesting partner." Then I saw their examples and knew they had been the ones spamming our blog. Now their robots are spamming our partner application form too (I continue to receive completed partner applications from them).
Since they've done a great job with their own SEO, it's pretty tough to find a non-WideCircles site listed in a Google search, so I thought I'd write a post. Maybe it will be indexed soon and educate others.
Come on people, don't fund this sort of shady business by buying automated comment spam. Other people see right through it, and social media is NOT about fake comments -- it's about authentic comments.
I received an apology from WideCircles?! I wrote them almost 3 weeks ago asking them to stop posting partner application (to www.othersonline.com) and comments to our blog too. Here's the response I received from a "Dave Cohen":
Our apologies for any problems and delay in the reply. We have excluded your website from all of our lists. Please understand that we are agency with over 45,000+ independant publishers. Sometimes not everyone follows very specific rules we outlined. Please contact me if there is any other issues.
I find it interesting that they refer to themselves as an "agency" and their spammers as "publishers".
Posted by: Jordan Mitchell | December 15, 2008 at 11:08 AM
I received an apology from WideCircles?! I wrote them almost 3 weeks ago asking them to stop posting partner application (to www.othersonline.com) and comments to our blog too. Here's the response I received from a "Dave Cohen":
Our apologies for any problems and delay in the reply. We have excluded your website from all of our lists. Please understand that we are agency with over 45,000+ independant publishers. Sometimes not everyone follows very specific rules we outlined. Please contact me if there is any other issues.
I find it interesting that they refer to themselves as an "agency" and their spammers as "publishers".
Posted by: Jordan Mitchell | December 15, 2008 at 11:11 AM