Much ado about nothing
Yesterday, I took the day off from blogging, much to my surprise, there was a buzz floating around the blogosphere. Jon Warass started a service that will allow you to buy blog comments. Notice that I did not link to this guy. Unfortunately, other more popular bloggers did.
This has drummed up the exact amount of marketing that Jon didn’t have to do to achieve his goal of getting the word out, with very little effort. He made something so devious and leaked word about it, only to get linked to by a lot of well-known bloggers.
I will not use this service, so if you ever get a comment from me, know that it’s legit. I will never recommend a service like this, it’s ultimately a really bad move for anyone looking to keep any credibility regarding blogging.
So, I’m going to treat Jon Warass like Paris Hilton, if I ignore him, maybe he’ll go away.
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12 Responses to “Much ado about nothing”
By Liz Strauss on Jul 10, 2007 | Reply
Hi Roberta,
I knew full well I was giving him publicity and I did it anyway.
Why?
Sometimes I have to talk things to understand what I know and what I don’t know. And teachers never pass up an “opportunity to learn.” The opportunity was worth more to me than the loss of giving him some linkless publicity.
If you read through the comment box, you find these points:
His business plan is sloppy — 100 comments is the value. Shows poor thinking. His business plan is sad.
He gives himself a testimonial.
He vouches for the English of the commenters, but doesn’t have the skills he vouches for.
He claims quality commenting, but at the price he would have to pay one couldn’t afford to more than copy/paste.
And more . . . not all publicity is good.
I wanted to examine it for what it is. That’s something better done with more than myself.
The comment box IS my blog. When someone threatens so boldly, I want to talk about it. It’s not nothing to me.
We don’t talk enough about what to do about spam — and more about talking about the ethics of the blogosphere.
I take your point. I can see where it would be an emotional response in many places, but for me, it was not.
Smiles,
Liz
By Rhys on Jul 10, 2007 | Reply
What Liz said, but I’m looking at his Jon Warass name, and surprised nobody has come up with a play on his last name
By Roberta on Jul 10, 2007 | Reply
Liz, I wasn’t digging on you for warning others, just the opposite!
I just think that he thinks that all publicity is good publicity, that’s all….You’re right, though, this makes us need to talk more about combating spam and the new ways that people try to get around it.
Necessity is definitely the mother of invention, so I’ll definitely look forward to see if someone can come up with an idea that thwarts his commenting spam….
Rhys, funny, I was thinking the same thing
By ms danielle on Jul 11, 2007 | Reply
from what i understand, you pay for them to comment on your own site, which they charge for — so you’re basically paying to have them spam your own site. (most bloggers can spot out comments that aren’t genuine) honestly, if you are that desperate to get comments, it would be cheaper to just fake them yourself.
By Roberta on Jul 11, 2007 | Reply
Agreed, MsDanielle, it would be cheaper to do it for yourself. Also, no one else shares the same ideas and opinions (to a T) than I do, so I wouldn’t want somebody else commenting on something then attaching my name to it.
By ms danielle on Jul 12, 2007 | Reply
so i went to the site and read how it works. and from i gathered from some other people, i thought they would leave comments on your blog. but the service actually does target other blogs that don’t observe the “nofollow” for you to get back links. gross…
By Malin on Jul 12, 2007 | Reply
“So, I’m going to treat Jon Warass like Paris Hilton, if I ignore him, maybe he’ll go away.” That sounds like a plan. That’s what I’m going to do
By Angie on Jul 12, 2007 | Reply
It’s a service that is 100% centered around exploiting the dofollow movement. I’m pretty sad about that and hope it is not the death of the movement. I’m disappointed, because I have really actually loked reading Jon’s blog in the past.
I will always follow. I just strip out spammy URLs.
By Caitlynn on Jul 24, 2007 | Reply
LOL. What a joke. Paying for comments? Tsk.