Posties Paid $100 to Remove Links

November 12th, 2007

Comfirmed by Joe of Pay Per Post / Izea: Some publishers are paying posties $100 to remove paid links. The discussion takes place on this thread.

Here’s an interesting tidbit: Several posties wouldn’t have been able to find the paid links to delete without the spread sheet provided in the request!

So, if your a postie, you might want to ask yourself: If someone offered me $100 to remove a link, could I find it?

How to make it easier to find your own paid links without publicizing your archive of paid posts.

  1. Place all sponsored posts in internal hidden categories.
    Do this by creating a “sponsored posts” category, then using “Hide Sponsored Categories Plugin” to prevent the category from showing in the main portion of your blog. You can create as many internal categories as you like, which will help with book keeping on your side and reduce the number of post you need to sift through to find the link you want to delete.
  2. Use WordPress’s built in search tool to find urls inside links.
    Which search tool? Where? Log into your Administrative area in wordpress, then click “Admin”. Near the top left, you’ll see “search”. You can enter searches like “thepaidlink.html”, then click “search”. Wordpress will return every post containing thepaidlink.html, even if string is contained inside a hyperlink. (If you’ve marked the post “sponsored”, you can be certain you are deleting the correct link! :) )

Interesting Lesson: Not being nice pays.

A nice postie who honored an earlier request writes:

well darn, if that is regarding the biz rate opp, I should have just left it and then I would be getting this $100 too now I guess, but NO, I removed it on the 1st email I received…lol

October’s Google fall out shows that it can be profitable for some posties to risk their page ranks and not delete paid posts. It can be even more profitable to refuse to remove them unless the advertiser pays! Hhhmmm….

Proof that Nofollow = Quality Comments: Visit the Best Science Blogs.

November 9th, 2007

Do you remember Shoemoney’s Pamcake’s eyerolls at the idea that “Nofollow” blogs have good comments? Well, if you need any proof, visit the two blogs currently neck and neck in the “2007: Best Weblogs” contest. At both Climate Audit and Bad Astronomy, you’ll find plenty of heated debate.

The things you won’t find are:

  1. Automated Spam Comments
  2. Over SEO’d comment “names” and
  3. Pink link condoms on the author url links.

In fact, while you will see link condoms in the comment content at Climate Audit, it appears that “Bad Astronomy” is full boar nofollow, giving real “follows” to links in author names, in comment content and trackbacks.

What are the two blogs discussing currently?

To some extent both blogs are discussing the 2007 Weblog awards which became rather contentious. (In comments on some blogs, some are acting as if the outcome of this blog award will determine national policy on Global Climate Change.)

The winner of the competition was scheduled to be announced last night- but the decision was deferred due to voting irregularities which included voting that continued for as much as four hours after poll had closed. The organizers are evidently combing through the data in an attempt to figure out which of the tens of thousands of votes cast were cast by zombie ‘bots.

The winner will be decreed on Monday! (Update, Friday 3:26 pm CST: WeblogsAwards has just officially decreed the “race” a tie.)

Zombie ‘bots voted?!

For those of you wondering whether ‘zombie bot voting was possible, evidently, it was easy! No-Oblimimal has described how to hack Weblog Awards (2007.weblogawards.org/) flimsy ballot security, and what Webblog Awards’s programmers could have done to prevent the ballot stuffing by ‘zombie bots. (It seems the voting system was less secure than my blog comments!)

Hmm…

Political Controversy +Internet voting = Zombie bot ballot stuffing.

I think I’m now against internet voting in real elections. (Not that I was ever for it.)

Oh, and despite Pamcakes eyerolls, I am keeping the “follow” on my comments. :)

TrafficJam.com Is Coming! Can It Save Blogrush?

November 8th, 2007

John Reese, the promoter who brought “Blogrush” recently announced “TrafficJam.com”; evidently TrafficJam will help our blogs even more than Blogrush. The Blogosphere seems to have ignored the announcement. . .

But I won’t ignore it! John Reese is now promising loads of traffic through “TrafficJam”, requesting bloggers be patient and telling us feed back is positive. He has also closed comments at his blog. Given this marketing push, I think, bloggers do need to make decisions based on data; sharing information helps other bloggers make decisions.

What’s Blogrush done for Big Bucks Blogger?

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