I hate spam on Twitter. Most spam is fairly obvious, some of it is a bit less so.
Here is an example of something that isn’t really classified as spam but, in my opinion, is just as bad. Someone tweets a link with a description. The link leads to the tweeter’s site which has another link to the site which contains the information. Here’s a capture of what you see from the link in the tweet:
I’m not going to post the tweet here. It describes the article that this link leads to. This is the tweeter’s site, not the site where the information is posted. It’s an intermediate step, one that generates income for the tweeter but, probably, not very much for the original creator of the information. To me, this is spam.
With absolutely no originality or, apparently, sense of fair play, the tweeter simply links pages from his page and tweets the link to his page. In order to get the information that is tweeted about, you have to go through two different sites. I tweet my own material, things that I have actually created. But I also share links that lead directly to other sites without going through any of my sites. This tweeter is doing this solely to make money, not to help the Twitter community.
If you follow people that do this double-click spamming, please un-follow them. This type of spam doesn’t qualify as spam, according to Twitter, but I’m sure that you would agree that is.
Thanks for reading!
Update: I received a comment on this post by, strangely enough, the spammer in question. I am not going to approve the comment because, guess what, he posted links to his own site in the comment. While he insists that he doesn’t make money from his site, there are two ‘Advertise Here’ spots on the right side of the page and a definite link to a hosting company on the page. The site is nothing but links to other sites, no information whatsoever. It’s obvious to me that even Google won’t allow their ads on a site like this. With Google, of course, content is king. When there’s no content, there’s no Google. Nice try, buddy. Your tweets and your site are contrary to the sense of community that Twitter is known for.
Update 2: This is a capture of Thomas’s site showing the potential for ads. With 182 pages of links, it’s kind of easy to see what there aren’t any there now.
Wow… you must be kidding, right? First you accuse people of spamming. Then you don’t give me the chance to tell my side of the story.
A. Where is the link to a hosting company???
B. The Devflix banner-link is my own site too.
C. The Lockruf link is a link to my own company. I created it so it’s ok to link to my own company, or?
D. If the link to my site would have been the reason not to approve my comment you could have removed it
Like i said before. You got your point of view i got mine. So have fun.
OK, Thomas. Sorry that I didn’t post your first comment. I’m new to WordPress and didn’t know that I could edit out links in comments.
In your comment, the first one, you say that you don’t make income from the site. I assume you mean ‘yet’ because you’re fishing for ads. I’ll place the capture from your site in the body of my original article to prove that. If your intention is to provide a service, fine. Let people find your site on their own instead of spamming Twitter with all of your double-click links. You and I both know that this is complete B.S. since you aren’t providing anything but pure traffic to your own site.
You’ve somehow collected 182 pages of links to other people’s sites with nothing, that I can find anyway, of your own. The site itself could be useful to someone but your way of Tweeting your own site with links to other sites isn’t helpful to anyone…except yourself.
That’s fine, it’s a free world but my point is this: Twitter is a community. We help each other. You don’t. You tweet ONLY about your own site. That is spam, pure and simple. If you just provided links to other sites, which is what everyone else does, you’d be doing everyone a favor. This way, you’re stealing intellectual property, more or less, and using it for your own purposes.
I don’t know how you got the 20,000 plus followers that you have so congratulations on that. Something is out of whack there, that’s for sure.
Good luck, I guess. You’ve had your say. (See the difference between having your OWN content and simply borrowing links from others?)
Brian
Hi Brian,
I started collecting links for me coleagues and friends 6 years ago. It all started for a small group of people. Since thren a lot of people mailed me and told me that they are greatful I collect all these links at one place.
I don’t make any income from the site. I spent my free time and pay for the hosting etc. So I don’t make money from it. Mostly I do it for the community.
Second I do it for the site owners. They get a lot of traffic from me.
So I don’t get it whats wrong with it. Sites like mine have been there for years.( edited), (edited) just to name two.
If it is spam to you when someone create a win-win situation for a. the readers who get all the links in one place and b. the authors who get a lot of traffic, then ok … call it spam.
Otherwise just unfollow me. Thank God we can do this 🙂
All the best and have fun,
T.