How To Hijack Blog Traffic and Get Away With It
You’ve seen it before. You find a link on Google promising what you’ve been looking for. So you click on it only to find a short introduction with another link to the original article. No comments of any real value to speak of. Just an intro with a link.
Something like… hey, check out this great post by so and so. Or, here’s a list of some of my favorite posts on the topic of…
Is there anything wrong with that? After all they haven’t copied the content have they? Well maybe (so it seems) there’s nothing wrong on the face of it — but why even bother?
I’ll tell you why they do it. Because if the blog hijacker writes a snappier post title than the original writer did, they are probably getting more traffic from the search engines than the original writer is.
Ultimately the blog hijacker might even get a higher ranking with the SERPS, so in effect they have hijacked the original writer’s traffic without writing any content themselves.
Or in other words the blog hijacker is piggy-backing off the intellectual property of another blogger. They end up benefiting with free traffic and pagerank thanks to the original writer (and maybe even to their detriment).
The original blogger might not care because he or she is still getting the traffic diverted to their blog, albeit from a third party. Ironically, they will also probably be flattered that someone else has noticed and thank the blog hijacker for the link. Ha!
"Now wait a minute Bloke (you might say)! For crying out loud, aren’t you pooing on linky-love? I thought you said that was great."
Yes, of course it is. I’m not talking about legitimate bloggers who have something intelligent to add to the conversation. What I am talking about are those unscrupulous bloggers who don’t add any value.
You will also notice that the majority of these types have wallpapered their blogs with ads.
Ok, now here’s the killer statement — are you ready for this? You had better sit down first.
There are many so-called a-listers and their wannabee minions who are doing the exact same thing. In fact some are making lucrative careers with this technique.
After all, why do you think there are so many bloggers out there who are using this technique? Because it works, that’s why.
But my question is — do we really need the blog hijacker in the first place? (Another word for hijacker might also be a middle-person).
Just like in the real world where we have middle-people inflating prices … in the virtual world they are diluting our pagerank, costing us extra clicks that are unnecessary and riding off the backs of original content writers.
Is it legal? I suppose so. Is it ethical? I think not. So speedlink this!
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7.jpg "The guy behind Blog Bloke")
Thanks for saying this, Bloke. I have a lot of my posts being referenced by sites that are nothing but a whole bunch of links to other places but no actual content. I have a few of my postings, though, that I have found copied verbatim elsewhere. At least they cite where they took it from. But, it does cut into my traffic, and traffic is important in the internet world. In some cases, it is simply a case of poor netiquette, but in other cases it is exactly as you say: people living off of others.
It adds a whole new dimension to the term “link love” don’t you think.
maybe i would like to try it out as a joke in my humor blog and see what will happen?
I didn’t hear that
Hi
I am enjoying all your articles - a sign of a good site - I stop by, read one, another catches my eye and read that - thanks for the info contained. I don’t think I will ever suffer from link hijacking, first my site is nowhere near important enough and second my content is nowhere near as good as some of the top sites - but hey, its for fun really until I learn how to do it.
Thanks
Les
http://www.myradicalblogs.com
Hi there. Like I’ve said time and again, the true measure of a successful blog is if you are enjoying it.
Thanks for dropping by and I hope to see you again soon.
Hi Bloke,
Should I worry about it? What can be done about it in your opinion?
I’ve had this problem with all my blogs…Minutes after I publish a post, it’s in someone else’s site through RSS. Comments are simple spams, no value at all.
One thing very obvious—100% of these “hijackers’” sites are FULL of Adsense ads. So called “Black Hat”???
Frankly, there’s not a whole lot that we can do. Outside of having your lawyer contact them with a demand letter, you might also consider contacting their web host provider (like Google for example if it is a Blogger blog) and complain.
In one case where it was one of my posts, I just left a comment on the offending blog beneath my copied post and within a couple of days it was removed. But to tell you the truth I’ve given up on tracking them down. It’s just too time consuming.
Take a look at the bottom of this post and you will find at least one link to a post that has copied this post verbatim. It is exactly what I’m talking about. Talk about adding insult to injury
Bunch of sickos they are!
Each time I login to WP, Akismet caught “x” no. comment spams.
I guess the best way is just to ignore them altogether.
Just too many of them—too much time to waste just to post any comment to warn them.
Have a nice day!
That’s the conclusion I’ve come too. But it’s still annoying isn’t it. Thanks for dropping by Stanchee and I look forward to our next conversation.
…BB