Kimler Adventure Pages (http://randsco.com)

Your blog is your blog and you want people to comment on your posts, because you want to know what people think of your thoughts, meet new people, see familiar names and have guests add value.

Then along comes some schmuck who leaves a trackback or comment SPAM full of meaningless gobbleygook and you feel violated. What's worse ... it just keeps coming and coming.

Yes, there are methods to deter automated trackback SPAM and comment SPAM and I've even outlined some easy and effective methods on this blog. I've been fortunate, as we've never been hit with automated SPAM - knock on wood.

However, I set up a default b2evo site (Amsterdam version) in June, then went on vacation and didn't open it again for 2 months. By the time I did, it had over 10,000 referral SPAM records and nearly 5,000 automated comments/trackbacks.

Who uses automated SPAMming programs ... and Why?

Sometimes it's good to know the enemy ... so I went on a little google foray today. First ... keywords to find such folks seem to be revolved around "ranking" and "marketing" ... and searches led me to a few interesting sites (I masked the URL's to prevent giving them more of what they want - ranking and marketing).

If you're interested in scratching the ugly underbelly of internet marketing ... read on (it's a short story ) ...

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Two Blog SPAMming Programs:

1) Blog Submitter Pro - holygrailofadvertising.com

Goal: Getting SE (Search Engines) to list your pages in their directories, getting high positions for listed pages and getting a stream of non-SE related traffic.

They say "The Perfect solution ... is to post to other blogs, ping those blogs & not post on those blogs again"

They want the SE spiders to see their links on YOUR blogs, because it puts their link in a whole new light (because your blog isn't constantly being hammered with pings & posts ... so the spiders see THEIR links on YOUR page as "new" and will follow them). BOOM. Page Rankings.

COST - $247 (soon to be *yeah right* $347)

2) Blog Blaster - manifestingpower.com/seo/seo.html

Same claims, less detail, lower cost $49.97 (jan 1 06 - $99.97)

Even some marketers know when to draw the line:

I found this post at a web marketing site called "nowSell.com". It was a refreshing read. (Proving that some marketers are human beings)

And the Holy Grail for Blog Spammer s/w? *apparently* ... Own the #1 ranking for the search terms "top [search engine] position".

Got complaints? Send email to:

Oh ... send junk mail (er, email marketing offers) to Blog Submitter

It was interesting to note that the email address wasn't a direct link on their page. You'd think of all people to invite bulk solicitation ... it would be THIS guy). I'm only too happy to help him out there.

Blog blaster's email link is more readily available on their site (it's only a $50 program ... so maybe they're not quite as up on their stuff?)

Maybe the dev team should invest in a couple of copies and use them to test anti-spam techniques for the next release?