Posts Tagged ‘spam’

« Older Entries

Will Google+ Fake Names Steal The Show?

Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

Google+ is now allowing pseudonyms. So does that mean we are now about to see an onslaught of fake Google+ accounts designed to trick you into receiving spam?

I doubt it. First, the idea is to give authors and artists a way to promote themselves using working business names. That’s a good thing.

I suspect that Google will have a way to detect fake names that are used for promotion of spam. This is something that Twitter has not been very good at over the years. Twitter has, however, in the last couple of years been able to crack down on spam accounts. Still, it’s far from perfect. I don’t think Google+ will experience as big a problem as Twitter has.

Why do I think that? I think spam will be less of a problem on Google+ because Google as better at technological infrastructure. You could say it’s search engine index is full of spam, which is true. But eventually Google gets rid of the spam. It’s difficult because of the scale and magnitude of the service. My bet is that Google+ already has a jump start on the issue with a plan in place to attack the problem should it start showing signs of getting out of control.

What do you think?

Tags: , ,
Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »

Why Good Comments On Irrelevant Blogs Are Still Spam

Sunday, July 31st, 2011

I recently deleted a comment that had it been submitted to the right blog would have been a great comment. Unfortunately, to me it was spam. So what made it a spam comment?

Here, I’ll let you judge it for yourself:

If you are looking for a way to change up your hairstyle very quickly and dramatically, you should consider African American hair extensions for an easy solution. You can choose to use single braids or clip on hairpieces to change the way that your hair looks Hair Extension Clips Hair extension clips.

If you don’t see the problem, let me spell it out for you. The comment is a great comment for a hairstyling blog, maybe an African-American culture blog, or something related to one of those two niches. Mine is a small business marketing blog, a completely different topic.

When you leave comments on blogs, try to find blogs that are within your niche and comment on them. If you do go outside your niche to leave a comment on a blog, at least comment on the content of the blog post you are addressing. I haven’t written any blog posts on this blog about African-American hairstyles. So the above comment was pure spam.

To top it off, the commenter sought to get an anchor text link by leaving a keyword phrase in the name field of their comment. That’s another sign of spam. Don’t do it.

If you leave these types of comments willy-nilly on blogs just to get a link back, then shame on you. Wise bloggers see through the ploy and will delete your comment. So you’re wasting your time. You’re much better off just not commenting at all.

Tags: , ,
Posted in link building | 5 Comments »

Stop The Spam, Please!

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

There are a variety of forms of spam. One particular type of spam that I find particularly egregious is blog comment spam because I see so much of it. Here are five specific ways I can tell a blog comment is spam and why I won’t approve it.

  1. Your comment is written by your company name or a keyword phrase. What this tells me when I see it is that you are looking for free link juice and aren’t really interested in engaging with me and my blog readers. If that is the case, then I’ll send your blog comment to the spam folder.
  2. Your e-mail address is from an obvious fake domain name or from a Web marketing company’s web address. If your Web marketing company can’t leave me your e-mail address or an e-mail address from your domain instead of theirs, then I know you paid someone to get you back links. You’re trying to game me. Your comment won’t be approved.
  3. Your comment is too generic. If the comment you leave on my blog is a comment that could have been left anywhere, then it won’t be approved. Address something that I wrote about in my blog post. Otherwise, your comment will be treated like spam.
  4. Your comment is full of links. Seriously, if you add your website address to the URL field of the comment form, you’ll get your link. You don’t have to fill your comment with multiple links back to different pages of your website. That’s obvious spam.
  5. It’s written in a foreign language. If I can’t read it, then most of my readers can’t either. The only person it benefits is you, and that’s questionable. Write your comments in English or they will be sent to the spam folder.

These are pretty standard blog comment approval policies. I don’t hold any ill will toward anyone wanting inbound links to their website, but I only approve comments for this blog if they are of some value to my readers. And I’m not unique in that regard.

Don’t be a spammer. Please add value to your comments or they won’t be approved.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Blogging for Small Business | 4 Comments »

Why Quora Is The New Twitter

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

Quora has become quite popular lately in the Q&A arena. There are good reasons for that. One reason I think Quora grew so fast is because it contained a strict “no self-promotional answers” policy. But Quora has recently changed that policy to allow self-promotional answers.

There is a robust conversation going on below the announcement regarding this policy change. Of course, there are Quorans who are for it and those who are against it. Not surprising, it it?

The problem is that Quora will run into some of the same problems that other websites have run into (namely, Twitter). It will become a haven for spammers. That’s not to say that spammers will be the only people using it. Twitter is still a good marketing tool, but spammers have exploited it to a large degree and it has only made managing Twitter more difficult for Twitter employees and for Twitter users. Quora is going to experience the same problem.

Now that Google is indexing Quora in its real-time search product, marketers have a strong incentive to hit Quora with link spam. If they’re not careful, Quora will end up being added to Google’s content farm list.

But here’s a question: Did Quora make its policy change because Google is now indexing the site in real time? Either way, it’s a great opportunity for marketers to increase their social graph and their search presence in one fell swoop.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »

Ode To Spam: Is It All Your Fault?

Monday, March 28th, 2011

A lot has been said of Google’s most recent algorithm change, which was designed to kill the content farms. They call it the farmer update. But what started this?

Google has always tried to control the spam. That’s its mission. The sole purpose of the search engine is to help searchers find the best information for their search queries. Spam gets in the way of that.

Consider this: You decide you want to buy a new plasma screen TV. So you go online to search for one. In the No. 1 position is a bullet point list of how to go about buying a plasma screen TV. It’s obviously very low level content. And it doesn’t help you. That’s the kind of content the farmer update was supposed to address.

Whose fault is it that the search engines are full of those types of useless web pages? Some people say it’s Google’s policies that have created the spam market. But I’d argue that the spam market would be a huge market no matter what the search engine policies were.

The reason we all have to fight spam in our daily lives is because there are people who don’t care about business ethics. They are greedy and seeking to make a quick buck and if they can get you to click on a link on their low-level web page so they can earn a .50 commission on that click, well, that’s just business. If they can convince 1,000 people to do it, that’s $500 in their pocket. And if they can make $500 per page on 10,000 pages in six months, that’s not a bad salary.

Once you get a view of the economics of spam, it’s easy to see who is causing the problem. It’s not the search engines. It’s people who can’t, or won’t, create valuable content, but who want to earn a living as if they do. How do you fight it? Don’t click their links.

Tags: ,
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »

Is Social Media Spam Here To Stay?

Friday, February 18th, 2011

It’s not often that you hear an online marketer complain about spam. After all, one man’s spam is another man’s content. But, Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim is pointing out a new Google algorithm that could very well shake up the search marketing world. For better and for worse.

I adore his conclusion:

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. If we accept that the days of everyone seeing the same ten blue links are over, and, we accept that spammers are still going to want to try and get their craptent in front of you; what do you think is going to happen? My guess? Spammers are going to do their best to weasel their way into your social network so that they can push their content higher up in your search results? (emphasis his)

Wait a minute! Isn’t that what we’re all trying to do? Isn’t that what social media marketers have been preaching about five years now? Some people’s Twitter marketing strategy is geared completely toward following in order to get a follow then immediately unfollowing after that has been achieved.

If Andy Beal is correct, search marketing just got more interesting. A few years ago, the most vocal voices in search marketing shouted loud and clear that they wanted Google to do something about search spam. They did (and to this day Google still struggles to fight search results spam). This move could very well make that fight even more difficult for Google, and for you and me.

This is where search and social media marketers have to weigh the consequences of our actions against the results of our methods. What we do to others will inevitably come back and be done to us. Want social media spam in your search results? If not, you’d better think judiciously about how you approach your social media marketing.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment »

Selling Online Does Not Mean Spamming Your Fans

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Many small businesses go online to attempt to market their businesses and increase their sales volumes. It’s a good plan. But what does it mean to “market your business online?”

Well, I’ll tell you what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean that you spam your fans or the search engines will a bunch of marketing and sales messages. But just in case you’re not sure if you know what that means, let’s review the definition of spam.

Most Internet marketers view spam as unwanted and unsolicited commercial messages. That means that people trying to sell stuff are being too pushy.

Online, it’s important to understand that people do not want to receive a bunch of marketing messages that interrupt their online viewing habits. If they want what you have to offer they will look for it. So how then can you go about selling your products and services to people online who are doing other things?

It’s called Pull Marketing, or Relationship Marketing. The idea is to focus, first, on building relationships and in the course of doing so you’ll attract a fan base from which your customer base will be pulled. Bottom line: Don’t push. Just pull.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 3 Comments »

Why You Need CAPTCHA

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

If your website allows people to add content, leave comments or fill out forms of any kind then I highly recommend that you use some kind of spam catcher to prevent spammers from introducing dangerous content to your site visitors.

It’s a sad fact that most spam is generated by bots, not humans. Therefore, if you allow a doorway for their malicious content then you are likely to be an easy target and you’ll receive more spam comments than you can ever filter through and kill on your own. That’s why you need CAPTCHA.

CAPTCHA stands for “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart.” There are a variety of these tests online, but they all have one thing in common: They are easier for humans to fill in correctly than bots.

Because CAPTCHAs are difficult for bots to fill in, they filter out the bot generated spam comments so that you don’t have to. That doesn’t mean you won’t get any spam. You’ll still get human generated spam, but there is a lot less of that than the bot generated spam. Get the CAPTCHA. You’ll thank me later.

Tags: , ,
Posted in website development | No Comments »

Why Spammers Are On My Hit List

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Spammers have always had a bad rep with me. I’m not fond of them, and I’m guessing they may not be too fond of me. I usually don’t approve their comments.

I’ve recently stumbled upon a new spam technique that is perhaps the worst that I’ve ever seen. It’s bad enough that the spammer is trying to finagle a link by offering up a crappy comment that provides no value to my readers or to me. No, that’s not enough. This spammer has to provide a crappy comment in an attempt to finagle a cheap link by assuming someone else’s identity and “borrowing” (i.e. stealing) their avatar.

It happened right here.

This is a new low. Even for spammers. And my question to you is, do you think this will start happening more often and should webmasters now be more concerned about reputation management as a result of this new spam technique?

Tags: , ,
Posted in Blogging for Small Business | 3 Comments »

Is Your E-mail Getting To Its Destination?

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

You did it all right. Took your addresses, made up your e-mail, sent it out, got your responses, double opt-in, the whole works. From the looks of things, you got a 98% delivery rate. All is good, right? Not according to this article in WebProNews.

It seems that less than 80% of e-mails sent are not delivered at all, with 17.4% not delivered with no return-path notices. What do you think of your open rate now?

This is common and what services are the biggest culprits? It used to be AOL and they’re still on the list, but not at No. 1 where they sat for the longest time. Now it’s Gmail. Thanks Google.

Gmail accounts for 23% of all nondelivered e-mail, Hotmail for 20% and MSN for 20%. The two biggest search engines account for 63% of nondelivered e-mail. So what does that do for e-mail marketing?

Comcast and AOL fall in at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively.

So is there a way to ensure that your e-mail IS delivered and delivered on time to the address that you sent it? Are there some best practices to follow for e-mail marketing so that your e-mails are received by those who’ve opted in to receive them? Yes, actually, there are some things you can do to ensure that your e-mails reach their destination, but remember that there is no fail-safe way and that there will always be some percentage of bounces. Here are a few tips to make your e-mail marketing go more smoothly.

  1. Be sure you follow all CAN-SPAM laws
  2. Ensure you mail your marketing messages to a list of subscribers who recognize your company name
  3. Segment your lists so that subscribers receive only the messages they are interested in receiving
  4. Use an e-mail service that is reputable and keeps a close eye on deliverability rates
  5. Get a custom domain name
  6. Avoid the use of the word “Free” in the subject line (it triggers spam filters)
  7. Send your newsletter at the same time and on the same day every week/month
  8. Encourage your subscribers to whitelist your e-mail address
  9. Use a spam checker on your e-mail before sending it out
  10. When you get a bounce on an e-mail address, delete it from your list
  11. Don’t send your e-mail in straight HTML, use multi-part MIME instead
  12. Go light on graphics within your e-mail
  13. Monitor the blacklists and make sure your name is taken off any list you appear on
  14. Use DomainKeys
  15. Respond to any spam test alerts you receive
  16. Offer text e-mail messages as an alternative to HTML (multi-part MIME)
  17. If you are accused of spam deal with it quickly and take the necessary steps to prove you are not a spammer (of course, if you are a spammer then this won’t help you)

That’s it. If you do these things then you will increase the likelihood that your e-mail messages get through to their intended destination.

Tags: , ,
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 3 Comments »

« Older Entries