Making Money Off Penguin, or How I'm Being a Dick

by 22 replies
26
Thought I would share an interesting development that I find sort of amusing.

With the rollout of Penguin, many web sites are panicking and scrambling to get rid of "suspect" links.

I own a few dozen Wordpress autoblogs. I don't actively manage them anymore and they're just sitting out there. Some are good domain names, so I'm just hanging on to them. They are populated with goarticles and ezine and other stuff pulled by Wordpress plugins designed to do just that.

Over the last few weeks I've been getting some request for me to take down articles. I've been ignoring them. Today I got another:

This time I replied:

And lo and behold they replied with a list of URLs.

I just made an easy $70
#search engine optimization #google #making #money #penguin #penguin update
  • My response would have been to ask for your website, just so I know your legit.

    Then when I got your website, I would have built about 10,000 of the spammiest backlinks I could to it.

    Then I'd send you another email stating "hey, I just built 10,000 super spammy adult porn backlinks pointing to your website, if you don't take those articles down, the links stay, if you do take them down, I'll remove my own links - peace out you cheap f$$k, oh btw thanks for trying to extort me for $70, not happening".

    When people play dirty with me, I usually play that much dirtier. Fortunately you just happened to find a gullible idiot, but you might not get so lucky next time.

    BTW I'm not trying to insult you, just saying I wouldn't have put up with that at all.

    -Red
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Wouldn't you then have to go through 10,000 sites removing all the links afterwards?

      If you built 10k links and then removed them (after he'd had to take just 7 off) and did it manually, I reckon you'd have wasted well over $70 in time.

      If you just spammed him with 10,000 Fiverr links then you'd spend even longer removing them.

      ...and he could just do the same back.

      Just saying.
      • [1] reply
    • Unless the site has an obvious brandable name, how does someone know the site is of value to the OP? It would appear to most that he had just abandoned it and it was just sitting there gathering dust.

  • Playing dirty? WTF are you talking about?

    Why should I take my time and effort to correct what they've now decided is a mistake? Asking to be compensated for my effort to correct a mistake YOU made isn't playing dirty, it's good business sense.

    And link bombing works both ways. We're all a Fiverr gig away from 10,000 scrapbox links.....
  • I lol'ed
    I have to add the latest google update is a complete crap.
  • Hey Webdango, I have to side with you on this one.
    They posted to ezine with the express permission (and likely, intent) to have those articles "syndicated" to blogs such as your own. That's end of story, as far as I'm concerned.
    Beyond that, anything that you do on YOUR blog (regardless of the original owner of the article) is your business. If they want you to do something for them on a blog you own, then they are essentially 'hiring' you. And, guess what? You probably don't work for free, I imagine (and hey, if you do, PM me ). Therefore, you deserve to get paid for work that you do.
    You're not a dick. You've put a dollar value on your time in this case, and refused to work for free. It's as simple as that. Good job!
  • Karma's a bitch.....

    If this is how you plan on making money, so be it. To each their own.
  • I don't see anything wrong with it. If I had a bunch of old sites and was getting requests to remove content just because the content author is worried about the latest Google changes I'd be a little annoyed too.

    Not sure if I'd charge. And I definitely wouldn't boast about it here @ the WF. But I can see where he's coming from, asking for a small fee to have to take the time to log in (and potentially need to remember the login info), find the articles, and remove them.
  • I think you made the right call. You didn't put the links there, they did. And nobody works for free.
  • You know, my initial reaction was "what an ass". However, it's actually a good idea since it wasn't you who put the links there. I agree. Why should you volunteer your time to fix someone else's mistake?
  • I don't see how you're being a dick. You're getting compensated for your time.
    • [1] reply
    • $10? A fool and his money are soon parted. P.T. Barnum
      had it right. There's a sucker born every minute.

      Paul
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Yes what a sucker. Nice one OP!
  • Since when did writing an article to be syndicated with links become high risk? Seems overly aggressive to be trying to remove those types of links unless they are on porn sites or something.
  • So how long before there is a business model of creating spam links to site (whether they put out publicly available content or not and then selling the link removal.

    LOL penguin just keeps getting better and better.
  • IMO, you charged too little.
    • [1] reply
    • What an utterly. s***ty. situation.

      This scenario seems to be playing out exactly and CONFIRMING my suspicions.

      Google wants SERP wars to commence in order to ease their task of getting rid of a lot of sites, leaving behind only the big ones that cannot be touched by bad links. We all know what they are.

      Don't forget the "Distinguished Engineer" Matt Cutts has called Penguin a "resounding success". They planned all this. They know where it's going too.

      There is a big bad agenda here at play, which unfortunately, many internet marketers still cannot see or comprehend.

      The only one to be blamed, is Evil Google.
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    No big deal, OP was compensated for his time.
    • [1] reply
    • Exactly. It's not his fault that the article writers submitted content, knowing that it could get syndicated anywhere. Not sure why he'd be expected to spend his time removing their articles for them at no cost.

      Though I wouldn't have boasted about it here @ the WF. But I've got no issues with asking for a small fee.
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed