Is this cheating ... or smart?

This is cheating the smart way I don't see anything unethical in this.

The only thing I would be worried about is the fake shares harming the site in google.

Thanks for your input.

Even if everyone vilified me for it, the technique works to well to stop. The thread was mostly about getting people to think about what they're using fiverr to do. Lots of fiverr gigs are worth WAY more than the $5 cost.

The social sharing thing I just talked about pretty much always generates a few hundred extra in sales.

Getting a logo done for $5 ... I'll take that all day long and twice on sundays :-)

There's lots of REALLY great gigs on fiverr.

You're basically asking about ethics on a IM forum... People are here to find ways to make money or make more money...

Fake endorsements, fake likes, fake product reviews, fake income reports, it's all part of a days work for some people.
So short of landing them in prison, if it makes them money they'll do it, so don't be surprised you're getting all these pats on the back...

That's smart strategy and only few people are using it properly

Creating Social Signals always boost up your rankings . I tried it my self

It's fraud. It's lying. I remember when John Locke, a very successful Kindle author admitted to buying reviews. People here wanted to string him up.

Essentially, he manufactured praise for his book. That's what you're doing. You are getting fake "shares" translated as praise, for your product or whatever.

You can say it's a matter of degree but when I see someone admitting to something like that I have to wonder where they draw the line. It doesn't surprise me that so many people think it's okay though.

I doubt it's unethical. They're harmless anyways.

It's basically "fake it till you make it". Great method to go viral, good job on thinking it.

I have been doing IM for over 7 years now and I have discovered a simple answer to this question:

If you need too ask if a certain strategy is cheating - then it probably is.

I have done my fair share of things that were deemed not-so-clean, like buying links and creating fake forum profiles, etc. In the end it always came back to only hurt my business.

I wouldn't be surprised if Google found a way to detect "fake" likes and shares in order to sandbox a site. I wouldn't be surprised if social networks would start banning sites with fake likes and shares.

Just my $0.02

- Alex

Here's an interesting video I saw a few weeks back.

While It's about how Facebook promoted posts actually seems to result in a high number of fake likes, the fact that
these fake likes have zero user engagement causes the posts to not be shown to other users.

I think this may apply here.

Not cheating... it's called creativity. And creativity pays off. So nice job and if it's quality content anyway, why wouldn't they share? At the end of the day, even if everyone else is sharing the article, they won't really share it unless they like it. So if you just have a killer article and prime it a bit then that's killer!! Good thinkin

It sounds like your mind was already made up so why bother asking the question in the first place?

A fake like is essentially a fake endorsement.

It might seem like a great idea right now, that nothing bad could come of it, but history is very clear that people who game the system experience negative long term effects for what are temporary benefits.

This will be my last response to this thread.

You asked a question and got a bunch of answers, some you liked and others you didn't. As mentioned, you already knew the answer to your own question.

A while back someone here started a thread raving about a fiverr seller who would get your WSO thousands of fake views. People flock to offers that have a lot of views. And according to this guy, he was selling more of his offer using this trick. It's deceptive. It's a deliberate lie designed to deceive in exchange for a reward.

What you're doing is in the same neighborhood. You mention affiliates and say "KNOWING that they will create bogus endorsements?" I don't know anything of the kind. You're grasping at straws. And if I knew affiliates were being deceptive I would avoid them. But that's not the point here.

I've been around a while and have tried just about every dirty trick there is. I think I've even invented a few. And every time I built something that way it eventually came crashing down around me at a time when I could least afford it. It took a while but I learned that when you live by deception, sooner or later you die by it. To the measure you lie or deceive, you will be lied to and deceived. There's no getting around it.

I'm no holy roller but I've had my ass handed to me enough behind my shitty tricks to know enough to stop. If there's the slightest possibility something is fishy I won't go near it. And that's because I know the consequences will far outweigh any short term rewards.

I've noticed you around the forum this week. I get the feeling you're a pretty smart guy. You've got enough going on that you don't need cheap tricks to prosper. Deception is always answered with deception. Lies are answered with more lies, etc. Don't avoid black or gray hat methods because they're "wrong." Avoid them because in the long term, it's smart business. Good luck.

I'm not so sure that Stan's strategy is all that evil. Seems to me it's more like priming the pump. The idea seems to be that a few "fake" signals generate many more real ones.

No one is going to share or "like" a post that don't actually like, but if they DO like it they might not think to click that button. However, if they see that other (admittedly fake) people have clicked, they are more likely to do so themselves.

I see this as similar to restaurant owners who ask their employees to park in front of the restaurant so people will think, "Gee, this place gets business, I think I'll try it."

Or how about the tip jar on the counter at the ice cream store? The teenagers who work there know that they're more likely to get tips if they put in a few bucks to "remind" people that tipping is welcome.

Finally, and FWIW, Deiss and Belcher use very similar tactics in a variety of settings and they're millionaires.

Oh... you bad BAD boy... but no more FREEBIES

It's not a cheat.. It's a smart move..

I would lean on the side of caution. If I'm on the fence about a particular technique, then I don't do it.

This is brilliant and apart of advertising. When you see commercials for fitness equipment, and they have testimonials from people, chances are those people are actors.

The market balances itself. If you do a social promotion of a great product, then it will dominate. If its a bad product then social promotion will work against the product.

I would never put a huge jump of share or like or any type of link directlto my money site. Google is not dumb and you will get ranked down into the sandbox.

What's the problem with showing actual shares for long term effect?

Why lie and use deceit unless you're picking someone's pocket?

You can use SocialAdr and take a few minutes out of your day to create a bookmark and have an entire community share it over and over.

This concept is so true, when you see so many people liking a post you want to be a part of it because it's socially acceptable to "like" the post and it becomes viral. i wouldn't want to like post and see only my name there "Churchill Likes this" I would feel like something is wrong with it and feel like it's not cool to like it. I've actually "unliked" post because I was the only person to like it.

Not being able to trust your own social statistics is counter productive in the long term. This is just a short term strategy because Google and co are always getting smarter and it's not good business to proactively manipulate your customers. It's not a serious cheat but it is still a cheat and unless you can predict the future, you have no idea how long it will last before it snaps back and bites your business on the ass. Statistical, analytic tools are always getting better and it's impossible to tell what evidence may be visible in the future.
If your only interested in short-term gain then I say, keep doing what your doing but if your trying to build a brand and establish authority, I would stop doing this immediately.

Also, your missing out on any real sense of achievement when you look at your social stats. This is a statistic I aim to be proud of.

Final word of warning, the internet grey will eventually dissolve away until we will only be left with either black or white and no fuzzy middle ground. Which side of the fence do you want to be on?

The people who say this is not unethical REALLY need to learn the meaning of ethics!