We have been closely watching a small group of Posties who are both openly and covertly attempting to falsify their Google PR and Alexa scores. We take this very seriously. While Google and Alexa may be slow to respond to these work arounds but they are pretty easily detected and we know who you are. Quite frankly I am saddened to see some of our long time Posties attempting to abuse the system.
By attempting to game the system you are entering into a transaction with advertisers under false pretenses. By knowingly taking Opportunities you don't qualify for you may make yourself liable to a legal claim by the advertiser.
Whether you believe in Alexa Score or PageRank or not it is simply not your decision to make as a Postie. It is the advertisers decision. They give credence based on what they perceive the value is. Attempting to falsify your numbers provides the advertiser with an improper representation of your blog.
We are giving everyone who is using redirects, beacons or any other form of falsifying your statistics 7 days to remove said code from their blogs. Next Monday we will run our scripts again. Those found to be gaming the system will be permanently banned from using PayPerPost.
But wait... there's more : )
Our competitors share the same issues we are dealing with and we are all sick of it. In the future expect to see a shared database and detection that allows us to collectively blacklist blogs. So not only will you be booted from PPP, you can expect to be booted from the other platforms as well. You can cutoff all your sponsored blogging income with one swoop! Think of it like the casinos sharing information about cheats in Vegas. We won't be sharing any personal information, just a blog url.
The bottom line is don't do it. You will be caught and at minimum you will be banned (you can also expect to not be paid).
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» Alexa Experiment and Paid Posting from Big Bucks Blogger
As my regular readers know, I am currently running public tests to see if rumored Alexa exploits work. Because Pay Per Post has discussed the issue twice, I want to also discuss my current views Pay Per Post.
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Thanks you for visiting. Please consider subscribing to the RSS feed.Around mid-day on Monday, 8/13, PayPerPost CEO Ted Murphy set off a firestorm with a tough-worded post throwing down the gauntlet to the folks that are gaming the Google and Alexa ra... [Read More]
Comments (RSS)
AnnaBella said...
What is a beacon?
Is the Alexa badge that Alexa provides and encourages people to use okay?
Aug 13, 2007 12:22:21 PM
Teresa said...
Hey Ted!
Could you clarify some of this for those of us that are a bit confused and aren't understanding the whole "beacon" thing?
Thanks! :)
Aug 13, 2007 12:26:41 PM
Amy said...
Interesting. I'm not sure what beacons or redirects on a blog are, so I hope I'm in the clear. This post is pretty harsh, though, and I feel like I just got scolded even if I'm not doing anything wrong.
Also, I wish you guys were this strict with the crappy blogs that are in the system.
Aug 13, 2007 12:29:46 PM
Andrew Ian Dodge said...
I must admit to be shocked about the public nature of some of these schemes. I think PPP needs to clarify what is not on and what is alright because there are a lot of people who are confused as hell about this subject.
Aug 13, 2007 12:30:56 PM
Kat said...
The alexa badges provided by alexa, are NOT gaming. Those are tools they created for websites to use to count and track visits to one's sites.
I would like to see all of these things clarified as well.
I have no clue what a beacon is, and how does one game PR?
I don't even understand how they count links and all that stuff, so gaming PR is like a big fat HUH? for me.
Aug 13, 2007 12:32:32 PM
Ali said...
What about the Alexa Widget, which is provided by Alexa themselves? I think that can stay right? It doesn't have any redirects etc...associated with it.
As for the gaming part, it's about time you spoke up about it - especially since it is being done by some of your "long time posties".
Aug 13, 2007 12:34:21 PM
Andrew Ian Dodge said...
I must admit to be shocked about the public nature of some of these schemes. I think PPP needs to clarify what is not on and what is alright because there are a lot of people who are confused as hell about this subject.
Aug 13, 2007 12:45:16 PM
Patrick D. said...
Your tone in this post in unacceptable. We're not 10-year-olds.
Aug 13, 2007 1:12:57 PM
Ted Murphy said...
If it is a tool being provided by the site such as the Alexa widget that is fine. What is not fine is trying to trick this widget through something such as a redirect.
In general you should not be using any technology that causes your site to report back a figure which is incorrect or inflated.
Aug 13, 2007 1:17:39 PM
lilian said...
This covers a very broad area. What about memes and carnivals? D-List and Z-List? Technorati, Digg, StumbleUpon, RSS bla bla bla lists. Are all these part of the 'forbidden scheme'? These are all things done by the blogsphere and not just because they are in PPP.
Aug 13, 2007 1:18:25 PM
Pete Wright said...
I'm honestly shocked to see so many people upset here.
First, on the GOogle side. You can trick Google with Javascript (I'm not giving away any secrets here by the way, it's common knowledge and has been for about 2 years). The Javascript just checks to see if the IP of the client requesting the page is Google. If it is, they are redirected to a much higher traffic site (usually a company or other big entity,like Amazon.com). The end result is that the Google Page Rank reported for the blog is actually the Google Page Rank of the other site. It's also dead easy to spot - but that I won't tell you how to do.
The Alexa thing works slightly different in that it provides a way for a number of sites to aggregate their traffic. Effectively you could end up with a bunch of sites all reporting their traffic as one, without going through the standard and accepted methods of 'assigning' traffic to an owner site. This was recently covered in a thread in the PPP boards. It's also very easy to spot.
Aug 13, 2007 1:23:40 PM
Kat said...
My hosting company does not allow blogs on the .com, they only allow it in a directory.
I am using a redirect in my control panel to push any hits to mysinglemomlife.com to the blog, mysinglemomlife.com/blog/
I have to do it that way, it's the only way my host allows blogs on their system. No main directory, only a subdirectory.
Am I completely screwed here?
According to Dan Rua, this is spoofing.
Seriously guys, am I screwed because I'm redirecting through my hosting company?
Aug 13, 2007 1:28:37 PM
tedmurphy said...
Patrick D,
This post must be stern as it is addressing a very serious issue. I am not addressing the people in violation as ten year olds, rather as people who I consider to be involved in activities that damage our company and community. We can't tolerate people trying to take advantage of the marketplace and our advertisers, it ruins it for everyone. A hand full of bloggers are at fault here. If that doesn't include you please don't take offense.
Lilian,
We don't take issue with Memes, carnivals, media buys, stumbleupon, etc. Those are all legitimate ways to generate traffic for your blog, promote away!
What we are taking about here is deliberate manipulation via technology of two of the scores that advertisers are using to base their offer on.
Aug 13, 2007 1:30:26 PM
Laurie said...
For clarification, if a Postie uses tag such as below on the forums or a blogroll, is it okay? It's obviously not the same thing you are talking about above, but I think it would help clear up confusion elsewhere too.
http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?http://theirsitename.com/
Aug 13, 2007 1:34:25 PM
Pete Wright said...
No Kat, you're fine.
Aug 13, 2007 1:36:02 PM
Kat said...
Taking your word for it that I'm fine then.
Aug 13, 2007 1:40:53 PM
Cass said...
If the post is directed at a select few, then maybe the blog post shouldn't be addressed to all of us.
But I di thank PPP for bettering my parenting skills. I now understand how my children feel when I say, "you guys and it's hacking me off."
Aug 13, 2007 1:45:39 PM
VC Dan said...
@Kat: My board reference to spoofing was what Cass described on the boards -- with an additional javascript step Pete referenced above. What you've described doesn't exactly match what Cass described. Either way, it looks like Pete has you covered here -- assuming your host's redirect isn't somehow via Alexa.
Aug 13, 2007 1:48:13 PM
Marisa said...
No, Ted. You are scolding us as if we're children. Karen said don't do it or you'll be banned. Why was it necessary for both Pete AND you to then address the issue as if we didn't get it on the boards? Did you think we were too stupid to understand or so incorrigible that we needed a triple dose of PPP's chastising?
Your "stern" tone is insulting.
Aug 13, 2007 1:48:32 PM
Pete Wright said...
Marissa - you have got to bear in mind that we have tens of thousands of bloggers and not all of them use the boards. You're right, this issue was discussed on the boards. The blog post was to raise awareness of it outside of the boards since we mirror the blog feed within the site on the blogger dashboard.
I jumped in to add some technical color to Ted's explanation.
This is actually a very good thing. There are number of people out there trying to actively game the system, and I've been working quite hard to identify those people automatically. Doing this gets rid of those people, freeing up slots in opportunities and of course relaying to the world that consumer generated content is self regulated, is mature, is not spam, and is concerned with quality content and bloggers.
Aug 13, 2007 1:52:51 PM
Loretta said...
If someone learned to game PR I'd say that anything PPP had to say would be the least of their worries as Google would be hunting them down and interrogating them. I don't think even the people that work at Google know a way to game PR! LOL It can be cloaked, but that's only temporary and if you get caught Google will ban you forever and ever, so what would be the point.
Aug 13, 2007 1:58:38 PM
Laurie said...
What about my question?
Aug 13, 2007 2:04:14 PM
Venomous Kate said...
Ted, I also feel your post was overly harsh and unwarranted. As you said, you KNOW who's doing it -- so direct your anger at them, not the rest of us.
And please keep in mind that we are CONTRACTORS, not your employees. Such "fire and brimstone" lectures may play well in the board room -- although I'd hope you have better management skills than to resort to them there -- but they're wholly inappropriate when addressing Posties.
Or have you forgotten that if you piss off enough Posties, they'll go elsewhere -- and so will your advertisers?
Aug 13, 2007 2:05:03 PM
AnnaBella said...
I'm waiting for clarification on the question Laurie asked since some edits to my blogs may depend on the answer. I'm not upset in the least - just need to know which direction to go in now. :)
Aug 13, 2007 2:07:36 PM
AnnaBella said...
LOL, Laurie and I must have been typing at the same time... sorry... :p
Aug 13, 2007 2:08:25 PM