Screw the Blog Hustlers: Introducing The Blog Parasite Hall of Shame
Today I was reading a post by Justin Tadlock who is a gifted Wordpress designer and gives his themes away for free. In fact this blog is based on one of his designs.
The post title was “Screw the premium theme market” where he criticises blog designers who charge for their so-called “premium“ themes. I couldn’t help but think of the similarity between his views and the struggles that I’m also having with my own blog niche.
This is what he says:
WordPress was built from a community of people willing to share freely. Yes, even themes. What? Yes, themes were free at one point.
GoodGreat themes were free at one point.I’m not going to beat around the bush here — stop releasing pay-for-use themes…
This was my comment:
“Hi Justin. You are breath of fresh air amongst all of the hucksters out there. I’m in complete agreement with you and kudos to you for standing by your principles.
I’m having the same problem with my niche that I created. There are so many hustlers out there trying make a fast buck out the pockets of the gullible that it just sickens me.
The blogosphere was built on the principle of sharing and helpfulness towards our fellow bloggers. Wordpress was born out of that conviction.
But today we find everything from the corner racketeer to mega corporations trying to exploit our beloved blogosphere. Stick to your convictions and keep setting a good example.”
Wordpress is free and a labour of love just like the vast majority of bloggers’ work out there. So consider the irony that many of these hustlers are choosing to exploit Wordpress as their blog splog platform.
Did I say irony? It’s more like an insult.
You know what I’m talking about. Those low-lifes who have no compunction to plagiarizing content or whose only purpose for blogging is to exploit it. They give little or nothing back except for maybe a thank you for bolstering their bank accounts.
In my opinion these jerks are anti-blogosphere. So as of today I’m calling for a boycott of these parasites. I’m unsubscribing from the newsfeed of anyone who fits this profile.
You know who they are. I’m recommending that you also do the same.
Introducing The Blog Parasite Hall of Shame:
I’ve already written a lot on the subject of money and blog ethics so I was thinking it might be helpful to name names. It would serve them right don’t you think. So do you have a parasite blogger in mind who you think might fit the profile? Or perhaps you might have something to add to the profile that I haven’t yet thought of?
If you do then I’m all ears…
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7.jpg "The guy behind Blog Bloke")
You can find a lot of these guys on BlogCatalog, begging others to visit their websites and clicking on their ads.
Gotta get back to watching EuroCup its minute 24:00 between Swiss and Czech, both at 0-0
Yeah, BlogCatalog and other SNs are now choked with the hustlers just like I predicted — including some a-list types. So what’s the score now Jaffer?
The Czechs won the game scoring 1 goal.
We just finished watching Portugal vs. Turkey. Portugal 2, Turkey 0.
I’ve been streaming live game updates on my Twitter
Jaffer’s last blog post..Football Fever 2008 !
That’s a cool trick changing you avatar on the fly.
Blog Bloke reply on June 7th, 2008 2:10 pm:
That was no trick bloke … I didn’t even notice ! I have no idea how that happened.
Now let me see: Will it be Gravatar or MyBloglog this time ?
Oh ! This is so much like playing Roulette !
I think I will put different a photo on all of them and start a collage effect. Eat your heart out Flickr.
Blog Bloke reply on June 8th, 2008 8:21 pm:
Jaffer reply on June 7th, 2008 2:25 pm:
Jaffer reply on June 7th, 2008 1:54 pm:
Blog Bloke reply on June 7th, 2008 1:25 pm:
I think premium themes can be great, but I usually leaned towards customizing a “free” theme and if the site is successful, then I will hire out a wordpress designer (like ewebscapes) to take it to the next level. Some premium themes, shouldn’t be premium at all….
Susan’s last blog post..Blue Min
This blog could be considered a “premium” theme. I took a free template and just jazzed it up a bit and it didn’t cost me a dime. I did it at my own leisure and made it the way I wanted it.
Someone called me about tweaking this site but I could do it myself with just a rudimentary knowledge of CSS, HTML, PHP and some great plugins. So can you and that goes for all of us too if we just take a little time to learn some skills.
Thanks for dropping by Susan.
Blog Bloke reply on June 7th, 2008 1:21 pm:
Oh what a let-down! Where are the names?!?!?!?! LOL
Hey, for some reason I can’t even get my avatar to show on 99% of the blogs…grrr
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..New Category - FREE Marketing Membership Sites
Chickens!
Blog Bloke reply on June 7th, 2008 10:20 pm:
Ok, I’ll start the ball rolling with names. Besides my ongoing brooha with Darren Rowse over plagiarism, I recently found this guy from Malaysia who has copied at least a dozen or more of my posts without my permission or acknowledging me as the author.
http://www.senghooi.com/blog
This guy blatantly breaks international copyright laws by stealing my content (and probably others) and has refused to remove my content despite my repeated requests.
Feh!
Screw you Senghooi. I guess all Malaysian/Chinese are same - they pirate stuff and feed off other’s creativities.
I feel so sorry for you bloke. I had some of my articles stolen from my blog and contacted that guy. He was nice enough to remove them from his blog. Heh. I contacted Google Adsense next and his Adsense account was banned. BAM. That’s how you deal with jerks.
Mushfiqur Rahman’s last blog post..The New And Improved GamesRadar : A Look At What They Did Right And What Needs Improving
Lets see here, first you insult the entire Asian culture…..I’m not even Asian and feel a long blog post coming.
So, you contacted the man, he immediately took down the posts, THEN you get his adsense account banned…..you’re just a swell fella all around arentcha.
Hi Dennis. I think you are reading more into this than is necessary. I don’t believe Mushfiqur meant anything racist in his remarks. I believe the reason he mentioned Chinese is because the owner of the site in question is in fact Malaysian Chinese. I know this because I checked it out myself. Perhaps however in hindsight he could have worded his comment better. Since the offending party took down his posts perhaps he should have also left it at that. However in my case I think contacting Adsense is probably a very good idea and I believe that was the advice he was trying to express.
I should also mention that my wife and step children are from Malaysia. I have also lived there and I can tell you for a fact that piracy there is a really HUGE problem.
Blog Blog reply on June 12th, 2008 9:14 pm:
Hi Dennis,
Sorry if I have offended anyone. I’m an Asian myself, so everything I said also applies to me.
And, nope he didn’t take down his posts immediately. After giving him a warning with a 2 day period, he just said to “do your worst”. Well now look what happened to his Adsense earnigns.
And besides, his entire site is full of plagiarized content. So, I guess it serves him right. And he also got banned from Google’s search index for duplicate content.
Mushfiqur Rahman’s last blog post..The New And Improved GamesRadar : A Look At What They Did Right And What Needs Improving
No worries Mushfiqur.
Blog Bloke reply on June 13th, 2008 1:47 am:
Then I apologise, but ya left out some pertinent info lol.
I woulda done the same to him…
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..10 General, Useful Tips To Add To Your Bottom Line
Dennis Edell reply on June 13th, 2008 2:50 pm:
Mushfiqur Rahman reply on June 13th, 2008 1:24 am:
Dennis Edell reply on June 12th, 2008 8:49 am:
Mushfiqur Rahman reply on June 12th, 2008 4:20 am:
Thankfully the majority of hustlers and content thieves gain no favor with bloggers. As I consider blogging to be as much about creating relationships with readers as it is about writing, then I would not class these people as bloggers at all.
Sueblimely’s last blog post..Zac Browser for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
What concerns me most is the duplication of content and its SEO consequences.
Blog Bloke reply on June 14th, 2008 10:34 pm: