WordPressDirect - Spamming made Simple

Eric’s Note-
The post that follows is authored by Kevin Koitz. Kevin is a REALTOR and a friend. If you are in Maryland and looking to buy or sell a home give him a call, visit his real estate website, or visit his new Bethesda Maryland blog at . WHY? Because he is an AUTHENTIC person who cares about connecting with people. Thanks Kevin for making some great points here. AUTHENTICITY does not come from stealing other people’s content.

A quick thanks (or not) to Pete Cashmore, over at Mashable.com for introducing me to WordPressDirect in his post *”…Like Blogging Without the Blogging.” *It’s a great find because I now have my nomination for this year’s Worst of the Web Award….and possibly next year’s too!!!

WordpressDirect, produced by Blink Dot Software (?) has created the easiest and fastest way to steal other people’s content and clog up the web with spam using our beloved Wordpress platform (way to go, Blink!). According to their marketing video — a must-see (grin) — “…if you can click a couple
buttons, and type in a few keywords, then you can set up a truly sticky niche website in just a few minutes.” One could easily go in many different directions with this quote, but I think I’ll choose to take the high ground for today — oh, that’s “MORAL high ground,” Blinksters!

After signing in, it takes about 3 minutes to create a “sticky niche” Wordpress blog where none of the content belongs to you. Choose a theme, type in a few key phrases and WordPressDirect will pull data from every “relevant” YouTube or Yahoo Answers entry. And if you’re a “Gold” or ‘Platinum” member, you also have access to other feeds like Veoh, and Ezine. And here’s their biggest selling point…as they say in the video…”and you’ve done it without writing any content yourself…or doing anything
technical at all”. And, after all, isn’t that what we’re all trying to achieve??!!

Big surprise, Marty Rozmanith, creator of WordPressDirect(lyDevoidOfAnyEthical Principles), defends his product vehemently…”The way our users have been taught to use our service is to start with writing their own articles on their blogs.” Right, Marty, that’s exactly what 99% of your users have in mind using your splogtastic product. The ability to create unique content can be summed up in two words: plausible deniability. In the end, you’re delusional if you truly think you’ve created anything but a spam-filled fraud machine. Just writing about it makes me feel like I should take a shower. IMO, you’re just another hack who has found a way to take some of the best the web has to offer and make it truly ugly.

Generatus - Social Media Inflatable Doll (IMHO)

Just a quick rant on Social Media Status Generators like Generatus. Brad Coy over at BHB fired up on this one…then I got some tweets about it and I knew it was time for me to chime in as well. AUTHENTICITY, people! I connect with you online to get to know YOU. Not some canned response one liner! These things are the Social Media’s version of inflatable dolls (hang on - there’s more to this analogy!)

I try to take most everything offered online and run it to its obvious conclusion. WHAT IF EVERYBODY DID IT? Can you imagine all of the canned one liners going back and forth. Would we know TRULY who anyone REALLY is? (I think not…)

So…if you use generatus to make an inflatable doll out of yourself. And I do the same with myself. How is there going to be “chemistry” between the two inflatable dolls? Will anyone FEEL ANYTHING in the relationship? Don’t think so IMHO. There will be no happy endings there. (So to speak…do ya think someone generated that analogy FOR me? grin)

If you TRULY want to build your online status and you are not imaginative… then how about just being YOURSELF online. There are a lot of people JUST like YOU out there!!! (More than you can believe!) You will build status just fine!

If you use generatus and similar stuff as a crutch, are you compensating for the fact that you are unimaginative? or it is that you are just to doggone lazy to put some authentic thoughts out there–be they witty or not.

Here’s my opinion: Tell the truth. Be Authentic. Seriously. It is the key to LASTING online relationships and marketing yourself.

New Generation Search : My Thoughts

It seems that some people were listening when Bruce Clay spoke at PubCon about the newer generation of search and universal search and some of the things it might mean to SEOs and website owners in general. I was not there, but I get the general idea. One of my clients sent me an e-mail asking my thoughts on it. I thought it was a great question. And that it deserved an answer. So I figured I might as well make it public.

Here was the essence of the two part question:

Bruce Clay says that behaviour based searching will become a big part of how the search engines provide results and will dramatically alter how SEOs work. In short, I agree with the first part (we are ALREADY seeing it.) and would like to qualify the second…it won’t be affecting my clients much at all IMO. Especially not in the real estate sector.

If you look at Google and do a search as of today, you may well see a little piece of black text that says “this search customized based on user behavior or some such.” If you click “Search” again, that will go away and you will see Google’s true current search. How much change do you see?

I think in SOME industries and for SOME searches such as more generalized stuff, search engines may even try to help the user get more specific to find them what they actually want. Does this really change how a real estate (for example) site should be optimized. Not really.

Another interesting point. CUIL and SEARCHME jumped into the SE market with much fanfare. And Google increased its market share (according to comscore). New generations of search engines must retain relevance. And they must have the marketing muscle to take on Google if they want to be a long term player. Do you see anyone up to that challenge? I do not.

Could they erode Y! or M! and then try to hang around for a while? More likely.

Part 2 was about “Universal Search”. Again, we are already seeing SOME of this tried. Google occaisionally includes videos from you tube in the results of some searches. Let’s keep in mind that there are two aspects (IMO) to universal search..how the sites are ranked and how they are displayed in the SERPS. I care about the first. Many of the new generation search engines, like cuil for example and searchme display the results in a more visual format, but HOW they rank them (at the nub of it) doesn’t vary all that much.

Does it make sense to syndicate some video and include it in what you do? Absolutely. But this is as much for users as anything, and not solely for SERPS by any means. I have several friends who syndicate out video for the notoriety and traffic, with NO thought as to the search engines’ thoughts on the subject.

The most that universal search can mean in the short run is “do some syndicated video, hang back and we will watch and see. At least that is what I am doing with my own sites.

My Top 10 Take Homes from BHB Unchained Orlando

Here we go:

#10 - Kelley Koehler rocks at PPC. I love the way that she and her husband use page templates to create landing pages. That’s a to do on the list.

#9- Kelley also struggles with the forced registration decision. (Just like I did!) Good to know I am not the only one tormented by that. Do it, Kelly! (grin) I did starting in Oct. and it has made a world of difference. Glad to hear that others find this tough as well.

#8- Greg Swann can permanently change my neuro-associations with the word “grits” better than Tony Robbins! (inside joke) A waitress offered me some grits in Georgia on the way home…this vision of a credit report flashed in TECHNICOLOR through my head…(GRIN) Who’da thunk it?

#7- As a technology guy I have MUCH to learn about marketing and sales. Sean and Brian, I cannot thank you guys enough for you insights. I cannot list all of the things I learned from you guys, both from talking, but also from DOING. It was a lecture and lab. Highly effective.

#6- Teri’s Community Based Blogging points. Citing other local bloggers. Connecting locally with them. Being Authentic. Helped reaffirm my own view that this is the MOST Defensible form of Authority Building that can be done right now. Incredibly tough for others (read: National Websites) to duplicate. Time to double down on that one. It works.

#5- Shawn’s The Bloodhound Way…why the heck haven’t I urged one of my 110 agents to use signage that actually WORKS? I have read about it here at BHB…why was I too stoopid to bring it up to them. **Eric kicks himself**

#4- So many people are blogging on other people’s hosting and platforms…even using WordPress. Then they are dependant on these same people for hosting, upgrades…and what happens when servers go down? Solution? They need someone to help them set up their own hosting.

Oh yeah…I already do that! WTH was I thinking??….time to let people KNOW that I actually will set them up on their own SEO friendly WP blog / site. If they only knew how inexpensive and easy it is…time to communicate that to them!

#3- Regardless of the source of internet leads, be it HomeGain or PPC or SEO, one must have a comprehensive and straightforward plan for them to follow until they are clients. Drip e-mail is only so good. Dripping Property is more effective than dripping E-mail.

#2- When smart and passionate people with good ideas get together and share them openly with each other, the synergy is amazing. Years of progress can be made in moments.

And the #1 Thing I took home from BHBU? Brian Brady has learned the secret to cash flow positive KIDS!! (grin) With that Brian, I HAD to declare you the winner! (Note that I linked to Linda to show the follow up effort…nicely done!- great to meet you Linda!)