A Stupid Mistake
Recently you may have noticed the appearance of a new link on the left sidebar here at Say Anything. The link read "Sponsors" and was located near the top of the sidebar just under the chat room link.
The link was the result of an email sent to me by Business Barn LLC. The company offered to pay me $300/month for the use of a subdomain off of my "sayanythingblog.com" domain. I would point the subdomain to a page of advertising hosted on their servers and they'd send me the money via Pay Pal. I checked out the advertising and there was no porn or anything involved so I agreed. Seemed like a good deal to me and with hosting costs rising as this page gets more and more popular I'm not much inclined to turn down opportunities to make money from this page.
Turns out this was a mistake. This company is involved in something called link farming, a practice Google frowns upon. They frown upon it so much, in fact, that Say Anything has now been removed from that search engine's indexes.
Coinciding almost exactly with this removal from Google was an email from Business Barn stating that they were ending our arrangement together. Which makes perfect sense. They were after my Google page rank. Now that I have no Google page rank I'm of no use to them.
Looking back on it all I believe I've been more than a little naive. I should have known better than to trust in an unsolicited offer, but the money was enticing and I honestly didn't think that their methods were anything to be worried about.
I've removed the link and am in the process of killing the subdomain. Once that is done I'll be sending an email to Google begging for mercy. Hopefully they'll take pity on me.
So take heed, fellow bloggers. Before you accept any offers similar to the one I accepted be sure to check out the practices the company will be engaging in lest you face the same consequences I am now facing.
Update:
It looks like Captains Quarters has run into the same problem.
The link was the result of an email sent to me by Business Barn LLC. The company offered to pay me $300/month for the use of a subdomain off of my "sayanythingblog.com" domain. I would point the subdomain to a page of advertising hosted on their servers and they'd send me the money via Pay Pal. I checked out the advertising and there was no porn or anything involved so I agreed. Seemed like a good deal to me and with hosting costs rising as this page gets more and more popular I'm not much inclined to turn down opportunities to make money from this page.
Turns out this was a mistake. This company is involved in something called link farming, a practice Google frowns upon. They frown upon it so much, in fact, that Say Anything has now been removed from that search engine's indexes.
Coinciding almost exactly with this removal from Google was an email from Business Barn stating that they were ending our arrangement together. Which makes perfect sense. They were after my Google page rank. Now that I have no Google page rank I'm of no use to them.
Looking back on it all I believe I've been more than a little naive. I should have known better than to trust in an unsolicited offer, but the money was enticing and I honestly didn't think that their methods were anything to be worried about.
I've removed the link and am in the process of killing the subdomain. Once that is done I'll be sending an email to Google begging for mercy. Hopefully they'll take pity on me.
So take heed, fellow bloggers. Before you accept any offers similar to the one I accepted be sure to check out the practices the company will be engaging in lest you face the same consequences I am now facing.
Update:
It looks like Captains Quarters has run into the same problem.
[ Parent ] Great! (none / 0) (#7) by QuickFox (Sweden) on Tue Apr 26, 2005 at 01:04:25 PM PST Nice! It doesn’t show writer’s name, was that the problem? Which reminds me, the frontpage box Section Stories doesn’t show writers either.—Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he’ll eat for a lifetime, he’ll call you a miser for not giving him your fish. [ Parent ] Yes! (none / 0) (#8) by QuickFox (Sweden) on Wed Apr 27, 2005 at 04:06:10 PM PST I’ve also been meaning to rewrite the Previous Top Stories box, by the way, so that it shows new comments just like the other boxes do. A very good idea!—Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he’ll eat for a lifetime, he’ll call you a miser for not giving him your fish. [ Parent ] story sorting (none / 0) (#9) by janra (Canada) on Sat Apr 30, 2005 at 05:41:59 PM PST I’ve been thinking of a way to do that for my site as well. I just haven’t gotten to it yet. In a couple of weeks, when I’m off shift, I’ll have a crack at it, and probably put the result on the Scoop Box Exchange. At that point, you’d be welcome to take a copy of it. [ Parent ] Thanks for the offer (none / 0) (#10) by QuickFox (Sweden) on Mon May 02, 2005 at 01:07:01 PM PST Seems I beat you to it. Once I get a few improvements made I’ll post my solution on the Box Exchange.—Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he’ll eat for a lifetime, he’ll call you a miser for not giving him your fish. [ Parent ] Posted to the Box Exchange (none / 0) (#11) by QuickFox (Sweden) on Tue May 10, 2005 at 07:43:35 AM PST Posted to the Box Exchange.—Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he’ll eat for a lifetime, he’ll call you a miser for not giving him your fish. [ Parent ] Pagerank Spam in Old Stories | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden) Top Stories Japan To Hunt 950 Whales For "Scientific Research" Environment – Japan by Drog, November 23 The Irony In Iraq Politics – International by mikegreen, November 23 2 comments German BND Claims U.S. Exaggerated Iraq WMD Claims War & Terror – International by Drog, November 21 1 comment Save the World- A Gandhian Way (by Manu Tandon) Politics – United States of America by manu, November 16 20 comments Attitudes towards U.S. neoisolationism instead of U.S. empire Politics – United States of America by yankeecat, November 9 3 comments Chemical Weapons Used In Iraq By US Military, Says Italian… War & Terror – Iraq by Drog, November 9 9 comments Cheney Lobbies For CIA Exemption To Torture Ban Politics – United States of America by Drog, November 9 Gorbachev Warns Against Rapid Globalization Business & Finance – International by Drog, November 8 4 comments Nationwide Rallies Against Anti-Terror Laws Held In Australia War & Terror – Australia by Drog, November 7 Paris Riots Continue Into Eighth Day Crime & Punishment – France by Drog, November 4 2 comments More stories… Blogs RIP JFK Diary by Rokkitsci - November 22 5 comments An Illuminati Primer The World Forum by FreedomWarrior - November 20 Kingston Rally Diary by progovac87 - November 11 2 comments Exxon Mobil goes to Washington Business & Finance by progovac87 - November 3 14 comments What will Fitzgerald do this week? Crime & Punishment by kwsmith - October 25 1 comment Bush Body Count The World Forum by FreedomWarrior - October 14 Bush killed JFK jr The World Forum by FreedomWarrior - October 14 What’s happening to the GOP? Politics by xmlles - October 14 4 comments CEOs huge salaries = damage to economy = making people poorer ... The World Forum by FreedomWarrior - October 11 Government Earthquake Device, AIDS as a Bioweapon Based on… The World Forum by FreedomWarrior - October 9 More blogs… Related Links + spam problem + More on The World Forum + Also by QuickFox Login Username: Password: Signup to post comments, to vote on story submissions and to set preferences. All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 2004-2005 The World Forum. submit story | create account | faq | search [...]
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