This morning in my ClickZ column entitled "Spamlalot: Broadway Hit or Blogosphere Epidemic" I raise some very tough questions and issues about the explosion of blog spam across the web. This was a very tough piece for me to write, and it thoroughly put to the "torture test" the tension I sometimes between being an "evangelist" for CGM and also being honest, objective, and dispassionate about numbers and measurements.
By our estimates, a conservative 30% of blog posts are now spam, and nearly 50% of blog comments are spam. My colleagues at Intelliseek count blogs and CGM for a living, and they've spent the last six months diving deep into the sobering world of blog spam. The root causes, I write, "...can be traced to the practices we righteously beat to a pulp in marketing: click-throughs, PageRank, contextual targeting, and "next-day" ROI." Search Engine Optimization (SEO), in particular, is playing a major role in the growth of spam blogs.
You can comment on this topic below. Prompted by the current BlogOn 2005 conference, started a discussion on this topic on the WOMMA blog. Here's the link.
Pete,
A few quick points:
1. Check out the numbers you get when you enter (in quotes) "spam blogs" on Google Blog Search.
2. Dave Sifry recently said that only 2-8 % of new blogs are spam blogs. Some good news!
3. I don't want to "spam" your comments with my blog post URL, so if you want to see some timely info on "Is A Blogger A "Carrier" or "Editor" of Blog "Comments"?", you have my TypeKey info. It's about an onging, current Federal Court case that could dramatically affect all bloggers, and involves a "white hat" and a "black hat" SEO!
Keep Up the Good Work,
Bill Kelm
Posted by: Brokerblogger | October 18, 2005 at 02:58 PM