Andy Beard - Internet Business Systems Discussion - Latest Comments in Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Tim — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:34:56 -0000

I've just finished reading over all of your comments and they are quite impressive. Certainly gives a better look into what the world of editing and journalism looks like. After reading through the article it seems that a link would have been warranted in this situation but not required.

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Tim — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:34:56 -0000

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Faina , Princeton NJ — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:45:04 -0000

I read all the comments to get to the point of view of the editors. Their practice is similar to the one used by US on line press. If it's something related to a lot of information on the topic (for example, S&P Case-Shiller index) WSJ would link to the relevant S&P site. Otherwise, their blog links to their articles on the subject. In their view, giving attribution in print does not take the person away from the page, on the Internet -it does. Respected bloggers(non-press)would always give the attribution with a link.

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Faina , Princeton NJ — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:45:04 -0000

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Flimjo.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:02:45 -0000

Yes, after reading these comments (great post by the way), I think some things might have been misunderstood. I think that Charles provides some useful information about how they use links and when they use them.

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Flimjo.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:02:45 -0000

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Flimjo.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:59:46 -0000

First time I come across this post. I think they should CERTAINLY have linked to Andy. He was a major source of information for the article. He deserves the credit and, thus, the link.

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Flimjo.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:59:46 -0000

First time I come across this post. I think they should CERTAINLY have linked to Andy. He was a major source of information for the article. He deserves the credit and, thus, the link.

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Timothy Lim, Singapore Chiropr — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 09:32:06 -0000

I don't there's a difference about stealing information regardless online or offline. But to make a quick buck and more people will find means to take whether by whitehat, blackhat or even greyhat.

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Timothy Lim, Singapore Chiropr — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 09:32:06 -0000

I don't there's a difference about stealing information regardless online or offline. But to make a quick buck and more people will find means to take whether by whitehat, blackhat or even greyhat.

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Christopher Kata — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:47:21 -0000

Andy - I completely agree with your article. Having invested that kind of time into an interview you'd expect that only natural way to "thank a blogger" would be to link to them in some meaningful way. It's saying thank you online!

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Christopher Kata — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:47:21 -0000

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Doug Heil — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:28:55 -0000

Andy; If you think it's fine that Blackhats steal positions that other sites might have just because they cheat the system, that's fine. To each his own. It makes no difference whether or not they work for clients or they work for themselves as they are still cheating the system. Would you also say that people who cheat at playing cards are also "gentlemanly" just because they are "nice"?

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

Doug Heil — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:28:55 -0000

Re: Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness

AndyBeard — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 22:11:54 -0000

Doug

I think almost all the blackhats I know don't work for clients, they earn their keep from affiliate and various CPA or PPC networks.

In general they don't break any laws in what they are doing, and are probably more aware about the law than most content producers online.

I would generally trust them with my email address more than many bloggers who feel quite free to add your name to an email mailing list just because you left a comment.

I am much more worried about Google Reader picking up content and not following machine directives to prevent sharing, or stripping out sharing and copyright information when an item is shared.

Google do not set rules, they set fairly vague guidelines that are very easy to interpret for everyone.... which is why I have no idea at what stage that tag cloud at the bottom of my page switches from being a useful usability feature for my users (with SEO benefits) to becoming keyword stuffing.

Danny, yes I was disappointed. I didn't ask directly, but I was also aware that The Guardian does give links and mentioned that in the preamble.

What your article doesn't really portray is that I frown upon syndicated content from the Associated Press more than rewritten private label rights content.

Some of the tools I mentioned, such as those produced by David Watson are more akin to CAT (computer assisted translation) tools (I used to help design and develop CAT software) and such tools are used by fortune 500 companies to speed up the translation of documents and software.

The aim of the content manipulation isn't to mutate it into rubbish, but to have it appear for search terms that it otherwise wouldn't.

I also mentioned products for landing page creation that substitute keywords for a specific purpose, such as meeting Google's Adwords targeting algorithms more precisely.

There are many legal reasons to use such private label rights articles, such as translation into another language, and many people use them to compile "white papers" ... ebooks for sale.

Charles, I have always wondered why you use TinyURL and not your own tracking script - you are probably throwing away 7 characters.
I now know that what I should ask is whether I should produce a "white paper" with links to resources for the article. I would certainly have produced at least an article on my front page to try to provide additional information for Guardian readers, with links to resources, but it is a little pointless as none were pointed this way.
Also, though I don't want to sound self-promotional, but you will find that any article when you actually link to someone who works in Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimization, you are likely to have a concerted effort to drive more traffic and links to the article.

It was quite funny walking up to David Watson, the creator of Website Content Wizard on Saturday and telling him he was in the Guardian on Thursday.