Thursday, November 6, 2008

Does Trackback Spamming Make Money Online?

submit-trackback.com and Trackbackspider.com - Two of the biggest scams online.

How much spam do you get? If you are using Blogger you probably don't get much - if any. I don't. Not so with wordpress blogs though.

Look at my spam from my Make Money Online wordpress blog.

Click all images to enlarge.

Wow 79 new spam messages - half in the form of comments and half from trackbacks. As I was scrolling through the assorted dr*g and S*x spam I came upon one that made me laugh...

Check out this loser...



The highlighted spam is from the dipsh*t who is responsible for most of the crap you see in your spam folder each day. If you don't see the irony then let me spell it out for you - this Trackback spamming software that he sells and others use doesn't work. His own spam talking about how his software can fool the anti-spam software like Akismet didn't fool ummmm... Akismet.

A lesson for all you aspiring spammers - pay attention because you are all noobs and haven't learned how to do a little research before wasting both your time and money on all the crap being pedaled online by arse-wipes like the owner of Submit Trackback. Never mind that this nose-wipe couldn't get past Askimet using his product - his own website is a failure which should tell you just how ineffective his product is.



You would think a guy bragging about getting "Millions of links" would have a PR8 at least and should have ranked himself for all the highest traffic keywords online thus bringing in thousands if not millions of visitors a month. I can get a PR3 with a dozen links and my Make Money Blogging site has an Alexa rank of 285,000 and it only gets 50-60 visitors a day. (Alexa is pure crap and has zero value but I'll use it anyway.)

This joker also brags about ranking #1 for the term "trackback software" which is funny as a quick check on Keyword Elite and Google's Keyword Tool shows no searches for that term.

I have talked about this before - before you buy anything that promises to drive traffic to your site or claims to teach you SEO or guarantees you a higher PR check out the site selling the product. Here is a prime example of what to look for. This website sells nothing but spamming crap including the Submit Trackback software just mentioned. The site is called getbacklinks.net and I love outing this kind of sh*t.


By all means check them out and ask them why they can't seem to rank higher than a PR1 if the products they sell are so effective?

If a site tells you how to rank number one in Google for a term like "How to Make Money" then they had better rank number 1 on Google or pretty damn close. If they do then maybe you should listen to them - if they don't then find the site that does. (hehe...)

If a site tells you to buy something from them then at least check to see if the product worked for the seller - 99.9% of the time it doesn't so save your money.

So does spamming make money online?

No!

And the sooner you noobs, who get sucked into this learn it - the better.



Alright - enough fun for one day - down to business.

The Asia'h Contest is Done.

I'm trying to give away $500 bucks and I need the paypal emails from the top three ranking sites for my Asia'h Epperson contest. It is officially over and while no one outranked me I still want to give away the cash.

At the moment I have heard from Elliot who sits in 8th spot with his Squidoo Lens http://www.squidoo.com/allaboutasiahepperson.

All those who attempted this contest get your results into me by Saturday November 15.

(Who knew giving away money could be so hard?)

email me with Asia'h in the subject line here Grizzly

That's it - except for a quick shout out to a new friend in Ireland that I have been getting to know over at Vic's Affiliate Academy. Dave has a quick wit and has just launched a new site called Niche Renegade and I want to wish him well.

On a related note Courtney Tuttle has been missing in action for a while and has come out swinging with a brand new site. He and long time collaborator Mark have just launched a new blog catering to a topic close to my heart - Keywords. Check them out at The Keyword Academy

Cheers,

Griz

45 comments:

DennisJr said...

Wow, First to arrive(maybe). Apparently I am learning because that is exactly what I would do. I also sent you an email earlier today. It has DennisJr in the subject line. I know your backed up. It should be easy to answer.
Thanks

Noob said...

Always glad to see a post from grizz. Nice use of the word arse to help bring in visitors from the UK, Britian england and Canada.
This comment should do a nice job of bringing make money searchers in Canada and the united kingdom to you as well.

Things are going well for me. Am now a fan of Vic as well, love his stuff. He is a very colour full guy Keep the posts comin, G day mate.

Niche Marketing said...

Wow Griz, so you mean that all those viagra and male enhancement products that are linking to my finance site aren't for real?

DaaammmnnnnnN!!!!!!!!!!

lmao...

Good post and I get the same as you do. I have just turned on comment moderation on all of my sites to avoid sneak throughs and set akismet to automatically delete anything older than a month.

I get tired of messing with it!

Frank C said...

Don't you have anything without any spam in it?

I've gotten to the point where I've turned off trackbacks on most my WordPress blogs except for OpTempo. The only thing more annoying are the "Great Post!" type autogenerated spam comments.

Indian Idol 4 said...

Griz,
I send you the mail regarding the free ebook. Can you please confirm if you have received it. ( Subject of email :- Offer for writing a free ebook )

Regards.

Aaron said...

Someone has to be making money with this crap though or else you think it would stop. Think about spam emails. It sure is annoying getting them though even if they never make it to the site. I'm seeing about 15/day on my digital tv converter site. I've toyed with the idea of turning trackbacks off completely, but I've actually had a few legit ones that have led me to some readers sites. And it's always nice to see who's reading your stuff.

figment said...

Spam is bad BUT if it wasn't making someone some money down the line, there would be no SPAM. And for the 100 sites that don't approve, there is always one lonely blogger who is more than happy to approve a comment...even if it is the bullshit "great post" kind of comment.

So for spammers, it is simply an act of volume. If you send enough shit, eventually something will stick.

Trent Brownrigg said...

You're right, I get no spam on my blogger blogs but a ton of it on my wordpress blogs.

Way to go on outing some more scammers. What a bunch of idiots!

Grizzly said...

Dennis,

I'll hunt it down and get back to you.

Grizzly said...

Noob,

Nice to hear from you and glad things are going well.

I hadn't thought of how universal that keyword was. Lol.

I was really just hoping to rank for all the spammers keywords and put a big dent in his sales...

Grizzly said...

Niche Marketing - Elliot,

Ha. The spam is good for one thing - it lets you know how popular your site is - the more spam the better you are doing.

Hey send me your Paypal - at this rate you may get the whole $500.

Terry said...

Sounds like you are slightly miffed by these ass wipes (sometimes the US spelling conveys the Beavis and Butthead slant a little better!) who are leaving their calling cards on your blog!

I get them in spades especially after I post, the latest flavour of the month seems to be the

????? ???????? ?????? ?????

comments. Oh yeah, they're sure to get approved! Actually, the spammer sending them does get past askimet, which just goes to show if these dick brains really knew what they were doing they could create havoc!

Ah the fun of having an online presence...

Grizzly said...

Frank,

Would you believe that this blog gets zero comment spam and only two troll comments in two years. No hate mail yet either. Man I love blogger!

It's too bad as there are legitimate trackbacks but I think most get deleted along with the garbage these days. I hardly check the WP spam these days - faster to just hit delete.

Grizzly said...

Indian Idol,

Yup - just found it - will get back to you.

Grizzly said...

Aaron and Figment,

Spam emails probably do make a few bucks from unwitting civilians but spam trackbacks are a different story. That is why I showed you just how ineffective they are for the creators of the spam software - Trackback Spider (I didn't show a screenshot) is only a PR1. If the developers can't make this crap work for themselves no one else is either.

The reason it doesn't stop is because there is always a fresh supply of noobs trying this out. It's not because someone is successful with it. The few links they get are from PR N/A noob sites that don't know any better.

Anybody with a site that has juice to offer deletes this crap and quite frankly I have reason to believe that Trackbacks and comment links are now completely ignored by G when it comes to serp ranking. (That's a subject for another post though).

In a nutshell - spamming for comments or trackbacks is a complete waste of time. Please - someone show me a single site in a competitive niche that ranks well using comment or trackback links. I'll wait...

Grizzly said...

Hey Trent - apparently Blogger isn't worth their time. After all there aren't any "real" blogs on blogger... hehe

Grizzly said...

Hey Terry,

Yeah, I've seen that as well - as I just mentioned it appears that G doesn't give much weight to trackbacks anyway. They could do everyone a favor and just admit it and the spam would dry up. Unfortunately G won't admit anything lest people start narrowing down on what does work. (contextual text links but you didn't hear that from me... wink)

Sorry we haven't had much time to chat but I imagine you are just as busy as me. Hope things are going well.

Coata Likes The 7 Dollar Script said...

LOL. Yea, Mr. Akismet, I remember him well. He stuck me into the garbage bin and I still do not know if i am out yet.

I used a plugin called pingcrawl a little while ago. What this pluigin does is when you publish a post, it will crawl the Net for blog with related topics according t the tags I used. It will then insert whatever it has found at the end of my post under "Related Blogs" thus automatically creating a pingback.

Managed to get a couple of linkbacks, but I also think that was what caused me to be thrown into Mr. Akismet's garbage bin. LOL. Stopped using it ever since.

Grizzly said...

Costa,

Nice to hear from you. Yes I remember pulling a comment from you out of the trash. Glad you figured out why. Have you asked akismet to de-spam you? Maybe tell them what you just told us in case they are hesitant.

Some clown (John Chow I think) sent me to the spam dungeon once (can't imagine why a comment from me would upset him... hehe) and akismet was quick to reinstate me when I pleaded my case.

Fiar said...

I use Bad Behavior in addition to Akismet. I usually get 10 or less sp4m trapped in a day, and they almost NEVER get through. Without Bad Behavior, it can be pretty overwhelming. I was getting hundreds per day, and dozens were slipping through.

As far as the giveaway. I think I would believe it. I tried to give away 5 dvds, and stipulated that I had them in my possession, so people needed to provide an address to send them to. I even took a picture to prove I had them in my hands. I emphasized that I don't care where people live, or if the address they were giving me is theirs or someone they know, their friend's work address, or whatever. I paid the shipping.

I succeeded in giving away 3. I still have the other 2. People are funny.

Grizzly said...

Fiar,

Well if you giving away dvd's... ha. (What is on them?)

I have two winners accounted for at the moment and I think the third should show up soon. (Denise are you out there...)

Nice to see you out socializing - I was worried that some of you may be suffering from post-election-heartless-liberalism syndrome...

(Just kidding of course - but I couldn't resist. That makes two socialist countries in N.America now - not really sure about Mexico. Ha.)

Oh Btw - in answer to your email - that little blurb at the bottom of the serp's has been around for a month or so. Seems they transferred the idea from their blog search serp's. It's a nice addition for getting some front page recognition. Not sure how they arrive at who gets a nod yet but worth pursuing an answer.

Thanks for dropping in Fiar.

Niche Marketing said...

Griz

It's funny that you mention Trackback Spider and some of the other backlink "producing" softwares. I tried out some of them and quickly realized that akismet is where you end up.

The problems that I encountered trying to get out of akismet pretty much put an end to my commenting days for backlinks. No amount of pleading would get my site out.

As for the spammers, it just amazes me some of the crap that I get that comes through each site.

There are certain things that you can use programs for to help you out, such as article submitters, or BMD or social posting software. G is catching onto these methods as well.

Pretty soon it will be that each person will have to create their own link farm to get their own backlinks from posts...

Grizzly said...

Elliot, (Niche Marketing)

I didn't realize that akismet was so hard to get reinstated on. I guess pissing John Chow off is considered a minor infraction then.

I must admit that social bookmarking doesn't seem to have a heck of a lot of clout either. G is constantly changing and eliminating many of the standard link building techniques. Of course we aren't supposed to be building links... a link farm? Now why didn't I think of that. Lol.

Simon said...

I just last month got my 50,000th spam message on my site...albeit, a do follow blog, that has been do follow for the last year and a bit. Spam drives me crazy, funny thing is I let people get follow backlinks with keywords on their anchors for free on the site, they just have to use the correct format. Jackasses!

Grizzly said...

Hi Simon,

Glad you stopped by. Love your site btw - I've been checking it out lately and thanks for the link. I will be returning the favor shortly.

As for the do-follow movement - it does increase comments but the spam must drive you nuts. Nice use of "Jackasses". This page has just about covered the various forms of the "ass" keyword - wonder how I'll rank... Lol.

Nice of you to drop in.

admin mymode said...

as far as i'm concern, 99.9% of the time SEO and Keyword Elite works for you all the time...and the best part is you don't directly ask people to buy them.. Now that's creative Griz! And you always update whenever some stuff got problem and I find that as "being honest"...

Fiar | Conservative Humor said...

Well if you giving away dvd's... ha. (What is on them?)

Glenn Beck's Unelectable. Any Glenn beck fans that want one, let me know. It's very funny. First come first serve.

I was worried that some of you may be suffering from post-election-heartless-liberalism syndrome...

Heh. No. The outcome was entirely expected and anticipated. No shocker to me, or anyone else that has ever actually paid attention to politics.

Whether it will ultimately be good for the country waits to be seen, but it is definitely good for the site to have the opposition in power. I expect big things in the future.

that little blurb at the bottom of the serp's has been around for a month or so... Not sure how they arrive at who gets a nod yet but worth pursuing an answer.

Now that is the question isn't it? How exactly do they decide what sources make the front page. It could be the top ranks that are identified as blogs, or it could be something else entirely.

Elliot, (Niche Marketing) said:
Pretty soon it will be that each person will have to create their own link farm to get their own backlinks from posts...

There's a type of link that will probably never lose it's effectiveness. The kind where you get to know other webmasters and agree to form a partnership and help each other out. (It can also help if you *ahem* already know that webmaster *cough*) I'm perfectly happy to let n00bs hyperventilate over concerns that this kind of link or that does not work. I built a high ranking site without knowing what I am doing and it was all based on working HARD to get links. Not working easy to get them. I'm not worried.

Frank at OpTempo said...

I've been watching the comment link thing and there doesn't seem to be anything consistent about it.

I do know that once the number of followed links on a page exceed a certain threshold they lose power and the page drops in PR (I call it the 'Vic effect').

Another thing I've seen is that comments get counted better on some themes and/or domains better than others. I almost wonder if Google uses the word 'Comment' in a H? header as the divider between content and comments perhaps along with a few other obvious identifiers.

Grizzly said...

Admin,

There is little point in trying to flog software to other internet marketers - why use my link if you can get a 30% discount buying it with your own. I'm not here to make money off of my readers and have stated often not to buy (most of) the stuff in my sidebar.

I put stuff on here to test on my search traffic who have the opportunity to read my blog but don't - they come, assume this is of no value and click away or click an ad - I make money and sleep well in the process. Those searching for a "get rich quick" solution deserve what they get - I do tell them to grab a coffee and do a little reading right up top.

Grizzly said...

Fiar,

I suspect that current news, relevancy and some degree of authority is involved but haven't seen a pattern yet. I'm pretty sure it isn't random. It may be as simple as what article has the most current backlinks - ie. twittered, dugg etc. Rumours abound that G is trying to integrate social factors into the serp's but this is pure speculation. In any event it is something worth dissecting.

Speaking of links - are you in the market for a change in keywords - ie. "conservative" humor - let me know.

Grizzly said...

Frank,

Interesting observation and you may be on to something. I agree that comment links are extremely inconsistent and I haven't really pursued this - probably as I don't use them at all in my own linking strategy. I tend to stick with the only tried and true method - as mentioned so subtly above in Fiar's comment. Lol. Should you develop a theory... ahem - I'm all ears.

ajak2003 said...

Thanks Grizz. I had come across a lot of these kind spam websites before you did mention in this informative post. Luckily I am not quite interested to this kind of money wasted scheme. Like you said in your greatest post before, there is no such shortcut to earn something. There are many steps and difficulties to be taken. Thanks again for giving me ideas and this useful knowledge in this online business and I love to be your online students. Good day Sir.

CSM said...

Regarding "two socialist countries in North America." Been studying your techniques in order to provide an antidote. For some years I had a site promoting an alternative to both the Right and the socialist Left. Problem is, it gets too little search engine love despite being an aged domain in DMOZ.

Been studying your techniques to fix the problem. And maybe even get paid enough for my efforts to allow spending more time on them...

Elliott said...

@Fiar,

*cough* need to hook up and work somethings out, I forgot about ya but thanks for reminding me!

@Griz,

Link farming...hum...wonder if we could supplement the income of the midwest farmers for those? lmao...

Norman Sheppard said...

I'm pretty new at this and the first thing I learned was how to make a backlink (I'm on my 2nd cup of coffee). I just don't understand the purpose of gibberish anchor text. I used to sit there and read them and think this must be some sort of secret formula, or maybe they're aliens trying to communicate. I think I understand now and will enter it on my list of symptoms of the rectal-cranial inversion.

Rhys said...

Hi Griz -

You said; "comment links are extremely inconsistent and I haven't really pursued this - probably as I don't use them at all in my own linking strategy."

Does the above imply that we are wasting our time planting comment backlinks? I know I've had measurable traffic from them.

Confused!

Grizzly said...

Hi Rhys,

As a source of traffic comments are useful - assuming one finds social traffic useful.

(I suppose this could lead to someone giving you a keyword anchored link in a post on a relevant site but this wouldn't be the norm)

As a direct means of obtaining backlinks with any useful juice in them then comments aren't so hot.

Paul said...

Wow, you really are pissed off... :) I can't say I blame you. The online world is just full of shit... 98% of it all. Just take a look at all the Internet Marketing gurus. Even thinking about them is giving me a stomach ache.

Mike McMahon said...

Just found you site, hope to find it helpful and cannot wait until my site is known enough to even worry about spammers and such.

I would think people would know the things you mention on your post is a scam. The old saying is true.. if it is go good to be true it likely is.

Fiar | Conservative Humor & Satire said...

Does the above imply that we are wasting our time planting comment backlinks? I know I've had measurable traffic from them.

Do remember also that comments can be useful in relationship building and networking. Often it can be easier to get one comment after another read, as a precursor to email contact. I metnioned in an earlier comment that forging alliances with others is a valuable strategy. So, take from that what you will to come up with a strategy. If you are merely talking about random dofollow comments to get links, it probably is not of much value, but if you are repeatedly visiting a particular site, in order to create a relationship it is not wasted.

It can also depend on the type of site you are building. A flagship site, like my political site requires brand building and name recognition. It requires reputation management, and publicity. A small niche site targeting a long tail term, does not need all that reputation and branding management. Just get links.

Rhys said...

Hi Griz -

You said; "As a source of traffic comments are useful - assuming one finds social traffic useful.
(I suppose this could lead to someone giving you a keyword anchored link in a post on a relevant site but this wouldn't be the norm)"

I get two separate results from Post Comment - 1. is the traffic that comes from surfers curious to see what I'm on about, or interested in the CommentLuv keyword link: and 2. is when they link to my articles having found them by following the original comment link.

And a plus benefit (3.) is of course, as mentioned by Fiar as well, is the building of relationships that result.

Sorry to have got off topic here, but this opened up as part of the discussion.

Sadly I have to agree that G doesn't seem to value Comment Links, but Yahoo and MSN have a very nice lists of my Comments

Anonymous said...

how much traffic from G does 'make money online long tail included bring in a month, day, whatever? Forbes is in the top 10 so you'd think if it was a good keyword all the big sites like those could easily fill up top 10 but they don't

Fiar | Conservative Humor said...

Look at the title tags Forbes uses. "Business News and Financial News." They rank 3rd for Business News and 9th for Financial News. They are not a Make Money site, they are a news site.

Anonymous said...

I know what Forbes is. I don't get how they can rank top 10 for make money if it is such a competitive niche and there are so many searches for it. I think a lot of internet marketing gurus may be taking people for a ride on how much traffic they get.

Anonymous said...

nevermind, Grizz just answered my question in his post. He's the first IM guru I've seen to show some credibility.

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