BloggingZoom, Social Media Spam
June 17, 2008 By: Justin | 6 commentsI just dropped by BloggingZoom and was a little disgusted by what I found. BloggingZoom is a digg-like social media site for bloggers where bloggers can promote their own content. In the past I have been supportive of this project, but may need to pull back a little on that.
The site is run by two people who I talk about a lot, Court and Vic. Court was the first blogger I came across who wrote about internet marketing. I have a lot of respect for him and his blog got me involved in SEO, but I’m really disappointed in what I’m seeing on BloggingZoom. Here is a post from Court explaining the purpose of BloggingZoom.
I have supported BloggingZoom since its beginning. I even created a Firefox Add On For BloggingZoom. I’m a regular reader of Vic’s and Court’s blog, so I’m not some random blogger being critical.
Ok, so what is the problem?
Well the bloggers taking part in Vic’s competition are spamming the hell out of this site. I’m part of the competition myself and Vic suggested using BZ to promote our posts, but many of the competition bloggers are crippling this site. The entire first two pages are nothing but competition blogs. This spam is flooding the site with useless trend posts. It’s preventing other’s work from getting exposure. Its increasing the number of crap posts legit BZ users have to sort through to find good content. I went on BZ to find some new bloggers who are new to the scene. I wanted to comment on their blogs and increase my networking, but I found nothing but spam!
Look at this screenshot, it does more to explain the problem than I can.
I may be shotting myself in the foot with the competition, but my name is on my competition blog and mass spamming a legit social site is not a practice I want to take part in. Gaming social media is one thing, but this is spammy. This also reduces the quality that BloggingZoom provides.
(I’m sure I’ll get some person jumping on me for being critical. This isn’t an attack, just my expression of shock. Also, since I’m taking part in the competition, I want to set myself apart from this type of promotion. Anyone who reads my blog knows I have no problem with gray/black hat SEO, but I don’t support spamming like this. I openly supported BZ and even provided a tool for the site, so I think its ok if I express my concern about the direction of BZ)
Filed Under Bloggers, Online Success, Social Marketing |
Tagged With Bloggers, BloggingZoom, Social Media, Spam, ZEO Zombie
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This is your blog. You can make any posts you like. I do not see that you are bashing BZ just expressing your concerns. You are not then only one concerned with this as BZ serves such a great purpose for bloggers.
I am sure this practice will die down soon and I would not be too concerned with it ruining BZ.
Just keep using it in the way that is most comfortable for you.
Yeah, on my other blog I made a post when BZ was first launched that it was a gray hat link farm. Vic and Court both came in and defended it. I know the purpose is to promote your own work, but I think the rate competition blogs posts are being added is insane. Its restricting other’s ability to receive exposure. As the site gets flooded, I think it loses quality. If Google notices its a free-for-all setup, they may discount its value if they know it is being used to game rankings.
Justin, I feel compelled to respond because I’m really not sure what you’re trying to get at with this post. You state that “mass spamming a legit social site is not a practice I want to take part in.” Yet in your “Let’s Get Social” post you list your social nicks so that you can form a coalition to do precisely the same thing. The only difference being that the other social sites you mention have a larger user base than BZ and thus your actions would be harder to detect.
Now I’m in the contest as well and it’s basically just a bunch of people trying to help others out; your intentions appear to be similar based on your previous post. So I ask, what’s the difference? Do you believe your content is a cut above the so-called spam you’re seeing at BZ? Are you saying you only bump or ask for social bumps on non money making sites? Is this just link bait? If so, I suppose it worked and you got some free content out of me.
I’ll let you have a chance to respond before making judgement but honestly you come off in this post as a hypocritical jackass. Most people don’t have a problem with a jackass, it’s the hypocrisy part they don’t like.
The reason I made the post here is because I get drama when I express myself in the competition forum. At least here, its my blog and I can say what I like.
In my opinion there are shades of gray and the actions at BZ are much darker than I agree with. Every SEO has his own hat that is some shade b/t black and white. I just think BZ stuff is too far in one direction for me. There is a difference between having a couple of friend to help out every now and then. If I produce something I think is link worthy, than I might ask a friend to Digg it for me just to get it started. I would not however use a team of 30 people to vote on every single post I make. I would not flood a site with 20 + posts a week.
I think there is a major difference.
And no, this is not link bait. I actually went to BZ and got frustrated with it. This is my expression of my experience and views. I’ve been supportive of BZ and felt the need to step back from it a little.
I don’t feel like I’m hypocritical. I am not against gray hat SEO. I am not against gaming a system. I don’t do it on a massive scale where I’d dominate the entire front page of a social site. If I make good content, that I think can get ranked on its own, I’ll ask 1 to 5 people to get it rolling… then leave it alone. I’ll let it sink or rise on its own. I won’t go out and get 20 more people to force it to the top. Most of the content on the BU blogs is bad content that would never make page one without the team of people gaming the system.
Sorry if I came off in a certain way. I see it as different and I wanted to express that. You’re welcome to disagree with me, you wouldn’t be the only one. Every SEO has to make his own ethical judgment calls, and this was just one I made.
Thanks for dropping a comment. I’m happy to hear others comments even if they disagree. I’ve learned a lot from debates on SEO. I think discussion in any fashion is a good thing
“I have no problem with gray/black hat SEO, but I don’t support spamming like this.” Well, you just jumped in your stomach with this line.
Good link bait though.
I’m not sure what you mean. Its a truthful statement. I am open to all forms of SEO. I’ve learned and played around with all types of methods to see how they work. I do not do blackhat on this site though. I don’t promote any of my customer’s sites with black hat. And I don’t support blatant spamming.
And its not link bait. People always think disagreements are link bait. This post hasn’t been promoted at all. I could have submitted it to BZ and Sphinn. I could have stumbled it. I could have pinged more people with the post. Vic has a ton of people who dislike him, that I could share this post with and ask for them to spread it. I don’t though. I like Vic and Court. I’m cool with Vic.
The post was for people from BU who know me and knew I had a problem with BZ. I stepped out of the contest and this post is to help explain my view on BZ for those people.