Aral Balkan

I hate blog spammers. Unfortunately, you normally don't know who exactly is responsible for blog spam and so there's usually very little you can do about it beyond getting angry, deleting the comment, and feeling wholly inadequate about the whole thing.

However, today, I saw some spam on my blog from a company called First Rate, promoting the web site of a certain photographer (Update: name and spam comment removed to protect the photographer who is innocent in all this, read my follow-up post for First Rate's reponse).

I'm almost entirely sure that the photographer in question has no idea that the firm he hired to market his web site is engaging in spamming blogs in his name but that is exactly what First Rate are doing.

What this company, First Rate, is doing is stealing space from my blog. They are advertising their message without compensating me.

I hope that this blog post raises awareness about their activities and I hope that their current and future clients think twice about employing a company that engages in spamming blogs.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what, if anything, we can do to hold companies like this responsible for their unethical actions. Naming and shaming them whenever possible appears to be a good start.

Update: The photographer emailed me today. As I'd thought, he had had no idea that First Rate was spamming blogs to advertise his business. Here's what he told me:

Thank you for letting me know as I was completely unaware of this. I have got someone looking into it right now and will come back to you as soon as I have some more info. Please accept apologies in the mean time.

And this is exactly why it is so important to name and shame these companies that engage in such unethical behavior: people have no idea of the underhanded tactics they use when they hire them. It's my hope that if they do know, they'll take their business elsewhere.

I'm sure this is not the kind of publicity that First Rate were looking for when they spammed my blog.

Comments

• I despise blog spammers too. But illegal? You offer comment space without registration - to anyone willing to take the time to comment. You willingly allow for any type of advertisement on your site -- without compensation. Turn moderation on, go back to a subscription rights model, or do something else to stem the tide. Otherwise your site with open comments is merely an open wall waiting for the occasional graffiti artist to do their thing.

  by eric dolecki on 2008-05-10 13:30:20

• Doing some additional reading, it appears that you're probably right, Eric, in that it's not necessarily illegal in the UK. It _should_ be however. I've changed the blog post to read "unethical" instead. To further the argument, it is at the very least misleading advertising (see http://www.out-law.com/page-7556).

  by Aral on 2008-05-10 15:49:58

• shame on them

  by abbac on 2008-05-10 15:37:44

• Sorry for the hijack/pseudospam, I just had to post that given the irony... I guess you could just delete it... My view on the article is that the web is still wild - don't complain about the freedom - it comes with the territory. Let's just be smart and use technology to nullify it (there are enough ways to do this!) and forget about it and move on... Fred

  by Freidrich on 2008-05-14 00:53:38

• I'm happy that Askimet is so good at trapping spam - on our blog we've just logged 100,000 spam comments. That's not funny. However, I often think that a lot of comments we receive are just there to add an extra link to the commenter's website rather than to add anything meaningful to the post / debate. That said, the occasional 'gem' does come along: when you get a lot of people making valid comments and responding to what is being said. Is it wrong to remove a person's URL from his or her comment if you believe it is their primary reason for commenting?

  by Rob Scott on 2008-05-12 16:43:19

• I really hate blog spammers! My blog was removed from Google search because I was using inadequate words... spammer's comments.. unbelievable... http://www.google.com.br/search?q=site%3Afelipeandrade.org%2Fblog&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_pt-BRBR250GB250

  by Felipe on 2008-05-10 14:17:31

• Thanks for the heads up -- I've reported them to Google. Let's see what happens.

  by Aral on 2008-05-10 19:35:42

• It may or may not be illegal, but I see that they are a Google Adwords Qualified Company, and Google usually don't like the wool being pulled over their eyes by a marketing partner. I personally know they pulled a large Adwords contract from a company called Geosign in Canada, that cost them about $160 million. A different tactic being employed here by First-Rate.com, but equally as sneaky, so I'd say report it to Google.

  by Ill on 2008-05-10 18:03:59

• Hi Marcus, I don't think it does. This is _not_ the kind of publicity they want when they get new clients. I'm sure that many of their clients do not know or understand the underhanded tactics that they use to "optimize" their sites.

  by Aral on 2008-05-11 11:24:08

• * * ***** * * ********** ** * * * * * * * * * * * * **** * * * * * * ****** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *** * * * ** * * * * * *** * * ***** * * ********* ***** Sorry poor Joke,

  by Smart Alec on 2008-05-14 12:07:05

• Oh, how weird... I received this golden reply from my friend the other day - his name has been deleted by his request. It's a small world, eh Michael? Fred ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Date: 2008/5/13 Subject: Re: SEO Training for Web Developers-Monday To: Michael Brandon You're correct that if my email is published - then yes it is technically legal. However, can you show me the page where you got my email from? I haven't been operating my web development business for a while so technically you are spamming me. I also would never be interested in hiring you to teach me SEO. At the risk of sounding cocky, I probably have more experience than you. Just to clarify, I think you're a bit of a w*nker for harvesting addresses like this. But I feel good to see the calibre of your clients - your probably not going to get anywhere with getting a decent sized SEO project. Especially by grabbing web development companies email addresses off their sites. Also a piece of advice - take away the photos. No one wants to see your beard. 2008/5/13 Michael Brandon : Hi The interesting part of Marketing ;) You have a web development website and you have your contact details available. And SEO is rather web related. Close to but technically not spam. Sorry to be intrusive - the unsubscribe button also exists. Need to get the word out somehow. Kind Regards Michael --------------- From: Sent: 13 May 2008 5:03 p.m. To: Michael of SearchMasters Subject: Re: SEO Training for Web Developers-Monday Did I signup for this? 2008/5/13 Michael of SearchMasters : Hi Search Engine Optimisation Training - this Monday 19 May, Stamford Plaza Hotel, Auckland http://www.searchmasters.co.nz/seminars/ The key to achieving better results in search engines is search engine optimisation (SEO). If you or anyone in your team is looking to up-skill in SEO, you have the opportunity to learn from the best - SearchMasters. <-- note the ego. Blah blah blah dull dull buzzword weasel-speak dull blah. Yawn. Give yourself the skills to deliver results for your clients! Kind regards Michael Michael Brandon SearchMasters

  by Freidrich on 2008-05-14 00:40:33

• Eric: Yes, illegal. The comments are for people to contribute to the discussion, not advertise their goods. You know those advertisement billboards on the streets, where anyone can walk up and post things up on them. Try posting something one day and make sure a cop's watching before you do. I'd love to hear how it turns out. And don't even try to argue that blog spam is graffiti. Graffiti is not advertising. Banksy doesn't go around painting Tesco ads on walls. Grrr!

  by Aral on 2008-05-10 15:25:40

• I hate to be a party pooper, but doesn't the fact that you dedicate an actual blog post to them sort of make them win? I agree though (how can I not?), spamming - wether it be on blogs or not - is a pain.

  by Marcus Stade on 2008-05-11 00:02:39

• Should be illegal, I agree. I just got my first spam comment on my blog today, and I am afraid it's just a start of a struggle I will have to carry on. For the moment I think deleting spam comments + some antispam plugins is the only way to fight with it.

  by Bartek Drozdz on 2008-05-10 17:19:56

• Getting inbound links is an incredibly hard business. But getting links from blogs such as this that have nofollow on the links "a rel='nofollow' href=" is rather a waste of time. There are blogs around that are "dofollow" blogs (nofollows not added) where the links give Google Page Rank and link text voting for the links. But getting links from such blogs is not easy for exactly the point that you raise. It looks rather spammy. However, dofollow blogs by there nature invite comments from people, and comments make a community. When other people see comments on a blog, it invites more comments. So while such comments can be a little left field, it can be something that you can let slide on occasions. Personally I have dofollow on my the Search Engine Optimisation blog which is part of my site. If comments are interesting then I take off the nofollow and even allow link text as well as having a persons name.

  by Michael Brandon-SearchMasters on 2008-05-12 00:13:12