So being a user of a few social news sites like Digg.com, Mixx.com, HeavyAsHell.com, & the Stumble Upon toolbar, I have found a few types of people that seem to ruin things for everyone. They are strong in numbers and equally as hated. They are SEO bloggers, marketing bloggers, and those who dare to submit their own articles. Most of them are bottom feeding parasites who ruin it for everyone else. The honest ones get caught in the witch hunt the parasites created. Being one who submits from time to time, this ticks me off to no end. I have mentioned this in bulletin board posts, comments on story links on the sites mentioned above, and even a few times in instant message conversations. It all seems to be getting worse with no end in site. So I figured I would compile all my thoughts about this in one blog post. This way I can refer to this post whenever the subject comes up again. How’s that for SEO you unimaginative bastards?
Now let me make this clear, I have no problem with SEO journalists. I have learned much from those that have put tons of time into great articles full of information. Marketing bloggers are the same way. In fact my favorite Marketing blog is from the same person who is in charge of selling ads on my two biggest sites. Both www.HeavyAsHell.com & www.RockMyMonkey.com sell our most prime ad spots through a company called www.FixionMedia.com run by a guy named Rob Cotter. Rob has his marketing blog at www.CotterCity.com. So my ad rep is a marketing blogger. What puts him above the rest? He sell’s ads all day long. He has sold millions of dollars worth of ads in just a few years. Most of the marketing bloggers have never sold an ad a day in their pathetic life. If they know so much about marketing, why do they have google ads on their site? Google ads make webmasters less money then pretty much any ad network online! It is the bottom level place to go for ads. They accept pretty much anyone. I’ll stick with Cotter City thanks. I know he has real information and isn’t just talking out his ass!
So how do we separate the good guys from the worthless scum that make the rest of us look bad? With the marketing bloggers, see what kind of ads they use. If they just use Google ads they probably know nothing about marketing. Who do they work for and have you ever heard of the company? If they just use blogger (like I do), Word Press (like my wife), or some other service that hosts the entire site, be suspicious. Look to see what it says in the “About Me” page. Do a Google search on the companies they work for. See how those companies rank on Alexa.com. Now I am not saying that any one of these things means they are bottom feeders. Just a guide. Remember that a great majority of them are a waste of your time and can be trusted about as much as those who send spam and run phishing sites to make money.
With the SEO blogs it is just as easy. Do they do research? Are their posts longer then one paragraph? Do they compile a ton of info from a ton of different sources to make one article? Do you learn something new? Is the info they give timely? Is it ever news worthy? Did they just cut and paste from another site? Again, don’t dismiss a site if they fit just one of these things. This is just a guide. Most of them are worthless scum though. However, it was an SEO blogger that helped me find out that one of my sites was on the Digg autobury. So my goal is to call out the ones who make the good ones look bad.
Now for those who submit their own content to social news sites. I am proud to say that I am one of them! So again, do not go on some witch hunt. Look at what they submit. Do they only submit articles they are connected with? In fact is the majority of what they submit content they are connected with? Are they involved with the site in other ways? DO they vote for stories others submit or just their own? Do they comment on all different kinds of stories or do they just submit their spam and leave?
Now Digg went downhill quick because the Digg users started going on a witch hunt against anyone who even mentioned SEO or marketing. An army started rushing any story with “bury votes” that was submitted by it’s writer. With no thought put to how legitimate the article. I had some exclusive interviews with legendary musicians that were victums of the “Bury Brigade”. So let’s stop the witch hunts and work on ways to separate the good oens from the bad ones. If social news is going to work, we need to go beyond just witch hunts. Mixx seems to be getting over run by the SEO and Marketing blogs right now. Chances are that they have secret groups to ban together. So before Mixx gets the same witch hunt mentality going by it’s user base to save the site from going downhill, we need to look at Digg and ask if the cure is worse then the disease. Then we need to come up with some real solutions.
My idea is to use automation. Make it so you can’t submit links to one site more then two times in a row. Make it so that the system takes away points if you use the word SEO or Marketing on a majority of the articles you link to. Block someone from submissions if they don’t vote on more stories then they submit. Same with comments. Block submissions if they have not commented on more stories then they have submitted. If you have any ideas, I have comments open on this article. I will also watch what is posted when I submit my own article to Mixx. Yeah, I am using irony to drive home an idea that this is not meant to be just a slam against SEO bloggers. Just want judgment to be more fair then it was in the past. Thanks for reading the whole thing. I know it went long, but I have had this stuff building up for a very long time.
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1 comment:
"Now for those who submit their own content to social news sites. I am proud to say that I am one of them! So again, do not go on some witch hunt."
I was one of the haters. Wait, I a still am. But not of guys like you. It's one thing to submit your own site (and I think I've said as much at the Mixxing Bowl forum), but it's another to ONLY submit your own shit.
You're one of the good guys, and it sucks that you get lumped in. I look at every user who I think is guilty of such things and look at their history. If they submit good content at their site, as well as good content at other sites, all is well and good. If I see that they only submit their own site, I DO get pissed, and justifiably so.
Like everywhere else on the web, it's a handful of asshats that ruin it for the good eggs.
On to the SEO shit....you couldn't be more right. The bad far outweighs the good. Which has the unfair effect of screwing the good ones. I mean, I don't use the rules of SEO for my blog (because I is lazy), but that doesn't mean it's not a valid topic of a discussion.
Well written, M.
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