....The cloaking prevents both unauthorized agents (though anyone "unauthorized" is also likely to ignore robot commands) and discourages potential spammers from tossing their links on the site.Emphasis added by me...
Now, when you're spamming, as far as I see it, you've got a couple of options. The first is to go for quality targeted backlinks. This is usually very difficult for most folks because they don't know where to find those tasty high PR links.
As a result, the majority of spammers end up using the high volume approach. They'll throw up tons (billions in some cases) of pages and go for as many links as possible. They'll use bots to search the net looking for places they can insert their links into and typically will use custom scripts to exploit popular tag sites, blog sites, etc.
So what's the big deal with the comment above?
Well, most of the spammers who are going for the volume approach are not going to even bother looking to see if their links are getting blocked or not. To be sure, some will notice, but for the most part, they'll simply scrape like mad looking for what they want and pinging/commenting/posting away to get those backlinks.
Witness the number of spams in guestbooks that put nofollow in their backlinks or the number of spams that are blocked by akimet<sp>. Throw enough crap against the wall and some of it will stick...
Interestingly enough, I'm in the process of moving away from the bulk process myself. I'm sure some are going to wonder why and, to be quite honest, I'm really not sure. Perhaps I'm tired of the treadmill that it's become. Perhaps it's something else. There are some other things that are appealing to me at the moment so for the time being, Google et. al are safe from my billions of pages of spam.
Now if I can just figure out this PPC arbitrage game. I think it's got some bang for the buck left in it ;)
G-Man
> But the simple fact of the matter is that as long as there's a profit to be made people will continue to do it.
Well, I think it would be fairer to have that read: *some* people will do it.
Others will not want to conduct themselves in a manner that benefits themselves to the detriment of the owners of the websites they spam -- regardless of any justifications. That, too, is fact.
That said, I've always found blogspamming particularly tacky and uncreative, neither of which I'd care to be known for.
Interesting. After I posted my above comment (at 5:01 a.m.), I received three email notifications of additional posts in this thread. Turns out they're posted above mine, and are the work of one "lucky adams -- the son of a rich cocoa merchant" who wants to transfer money ...
excellent post
I personally think that PPC arbitrage is ethically quite different from Link Spam. Link Spam is, essentially, the web equivalent of vandalism. PPC arbitrage is really no different from any other form of advertising - renting visitors with the hope of selling something (whether that be a product or a click).
PPC arbitrage certainly does not suck for "all the publishers". What it does is allow publishers to not worry about paying out the wazoo to some ppc firm find all the subterms out there that people search for. They bid on the big terms and get click throughs when arbitrage experts drive traffic from sub-terms to the correct major term. It may be an extra click and lessened user experience, but it is not a complete loss.
I guess I naively ignored the fact that the people making the BIG money from PPC arbitrage, the contextual ad providers, have major economic incentive to turn a blind eye to MFA.
In cahoots or not, it still sucks for all the users and publishers.
Well, I understand that lots of folks don't like the various forms of spam. But the simple fact of the matter is that as long as there's a profit to be made people will continue to do it.
Does that make it "right" or "wrong" - I honestly dunno. We can debate the morality of it 24x7 but that's not going to fix the problem.
It's rather amusing really. As a user I abhor the sites that make me jump through hoop after hoop to get to something I'm trying to buy or find information on. As a business owner I look for these opportunities because I know there's a profit to be made.
On another interesting note, has anyone noted the hypocrisy of Google in that they didn't cancel the ads that they thought were of low quality...oh no. They raised the prices so *they* can make more money :)
G-Man
P.S. It's ok if you don't agree with me guys :) My feelings won't be hurt. Ya gotta have a thick skin if yer a black hat.
Yeah, I wondered why as I was reading but I came up with a reason pretty quick as to your motivation - my guess is that you are moving away from the 'bulk process' as it is less effective than it once was. It may not be dead yet, but it is getting harder and you don't like the direction it is going in. I figured that is why you are also considering the PPC arbitrage game.
Care to comment if that is (part of) the motivation behind branching out?
G-Man, I am curious to know if you think that the openings to practice BlackHat in the search engines are rapidly getting fewer and smaller. It seems to me that the easy spam days are about over and a very high level of savvy will be needed to succeed in the future. How fast is this closing? Or is it not closing for those who have high talent?
As you suspected, it's getting much more difficult to spam the search engines. All of them, in my opinion, are doing a good job of detecting the spam that's appearing.
That's not to say, however, that there isn't any spam in the search engines and that some of the programs that are available out there do not work.
I would say, however, that the days of spending $1000 to get a few programs and turning that into $30,000 in a few months are over.
G-Man
Thanks G-Man. I think that it is interesting that you say "All of them are doing a good job".
They all certainly have their own set of problems but as a whole I think they're doing rather well. I'm sure there are some spammers who would disagree with me because the techniques they're using are still effective but those holes will probably get closed in time as new ones open :)
G-man,
I do appreciate your posts and insights on this blog. I also understand that *sometimes* you gotta break the rules to get ahead. But I also must express my distaste for comment spam and PPC arbitrage.
It's not just sticking it to the "man" like other kinds of underground hacking; it's false profit scraped from inflicting losses and headaches on everyone else. It's lower than the worst kind of corporate greed.
Imagine the hassle-free, interactive pleasure of Web 2.0 without it. Imagine how much more real publishers would earn if the masses didn't quickly associate clicking on AdSense ads with sleazy lead generation and arbitrage sites. It would be paradise!
No offense intended in my comments below, G-Man - you always have some great insight on this blog.
That said, I have to agree with Brett - it would be nice for the internet to be spam free etc. It well never happen, however, as long as greed is a factor. It is also useless to try to appeal to their good sides with statements like "Imagine the hassle free..." - they don't care about other people's internet experience. If they did at all, they wouldn't be doing what they are doing. I'm sure many blackhats think they are just part of the darwinian process of the strong getting ahead. What many of them don't realize is that they are just sad for thinking so.
I'd have to disagree with Brett & Caydel. The responsibility for making a great user experience lies with the search engines and issuers of advertising. As long as the practice of arbitrage is a market where profits can be made, even if it is to the detriment of the user, it will exist and there is no shame in capitalizing on an inefficient market - in fact, it's the only way markets get fixed in the capitalist world.
The notion that honor should put one above the rules of the free market economy seems a tad over-reaching. I'm certainly no advocate of arbitrage, but I also find it exceptionally hard to criticize the practioners at the website level, when it's the contextual ad providers who are making the bulk of the money, know that the user experience suffers and keep it up anyway.