DEATH OF AN ANONYMOUS POSTER

One interesting discovery in my blogging adventures is how many spammers use other people's blogs to try and promote their own totally unrelated products--everything from laser hair removal to selling life insurance policies. God knows it's never anything interesting. Let alone relevant.

I can't imagine this is very effective advertising, since (speaking only for myself--but I know I'm not unique in my disdain for spam and the inbred halfwits who perpetrate it) I instantly delete these idiotic ads the second my email alerts me that they've been posted (which is about ten seconds after they show up).

Like here's an example:

ANONYMOUS SAID:

"I just came across your blog about ebay selling techniqueand wanted to drop you a note telling you how impressed I was with the information you have posted here. I also have a web site & blog about **keyword** ebay selling technique so I know I'm talking about when I say your site is top-notch! Keep up the great work, you are providing a great resource on the Internet here!"

Uh, well, I like to think so, but it's not actually a resource for ebay selling techniques. In fact, anyone who follows my technique is in for trouble--and probably refinancing. My dear Anonymous, can it be that you did not actually bother to READ WHAT MY BLOG IS ABOUT????

Golly. Are you just targeting every place on the web that mentions eBAY selling? Is your winning strategy truly no more sophisticated than random machine gun fire? Is this how financial wars are won and lost--and fiscal security achieved? You simply spam everyone on the web who mentions eBAY in passing?

Interesting.

(Kind of like newbie writers who send book announcements to an entire mailing list directed towards "everyone who loves a good mystery!" Yes, there are still people out there that...gosh, what's a nice word for it?...Naive?)

I know some of these goofs aren't even that subtle. They merely watch to see who has recently updated his / her blog, and then they add a little congratulatory post (often in broken English) with a spurious link to some weird product or service that only someone like themselves would be interested in. I mean, seriously, if I was going to indulge in laser hair removal, I wouldn't be scouring the web for a provider.

Does any of this stuff work? That's my question. These people must imagine it does.

Question of the day--heck, let's hear what the spammers themselves have to say, because after I post this, we'll get a couple of the usual "YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB COME SEE MY SITE OF SWEATERS MADE FROM HAIRBALLS COUGHED UP BY PEDIGREED CATS." Or the like.


Sorry. So the question of the day is...do you respond to spam? Those email offers or blogged advertisements: do you ever click through and check 'em out? And say you do, have you ever bought anything from one of those sites?

Speaking of which, think about it. It's not like we're exactly high traffic here--the spammers are our most faithful readership. So how sad is that? They're wasting their grand promotional efforts on each other--and something tells me they're not the best listeners in the world. They're wasting their time and energy on every little blog or site that happens to mention keywords like...eBAY???? That's a lot of hopeful clicking and clacking.

But getting back to Anonymous and his (her?) recent post. You've got to wonder if these random acts of spamming reflect the avaunted (Avaunted? Is that a real word? Did I just make it up?) bidding technique. Or was it her selling technique? I forget. I mean, if she's (he's?) so successful wouldn't she at least have written a book that she could be spamming us about on discussion lists?

Anyway, let's go fishing and see if Anonymous will show up on cue and prove my point. I feel like we're after the Loch Ness monster or something!