Splogs and a Side of Spam

Splogs and a Side of Spam
By Christian Del Monte

If your online, you probably already know what spam is. From Viagra to online gambling, it seems like our e-mail boxes are stuffed with unwanted solicitations everyday. But there's a new kid on the block and its name is Splog. In case your not familiar with the term, Splogs in essence is a Blog that offers real no resource other than trying to trick its visitors into clicking on advertisements or sending traffic to affiliate sites. So why should you care you might ask?

We'll if you use a search engine, the chances are that you've come across a splog or two in your innocent searches. Search results end up tainted because the splogger has a basic understanding on how to make his site come up for your search request. Don't be fooled though, this Blog has little to offer in the way of solving your search request. Typically, content consists of articles, press releases, or marketing mumbo-jumbo that wasn't written by its respectful owner splattered with advertisements for you to click on. So ask yourself this: What's worse? Deleting a spam e-mail or stumbling on a Website that tricks you into thinking it has something useful to offer that you asked for?

Because starting a Blog is free, such as the case with Blogger.com, anyone with an e-mail address and a computer can start a mirad of Splogs with little or no effort. Add that to a revenue sharing program like Google's Adsense and you got yourself a no cost home based business other than your Internet connection.

But don't the search engines care about splogs? You'd like to think so...but no. The reason is simple. More real estate (content) for searches means more revenue opportunity. Plus, most sploggers use search engine advertising to monetize their Splog. So it's a never-ending circle of revenue growth for the search engines. Win-lose, you might say!

Splogs have given birth to its own followings such as Splogspot.com, a search engine dedicated to just searching Splogs. Then there are the opponents such as Splog Fighter that combat Splogs by looking for policy violations and alerting their originating source. However, whether you like it or not, it's becoming a real problem and needs your help.

How to Spot and Avoid

Spotting a Splog can be difficult. However, since we run a Spam free Blog directory and receive hundreds of Splog-like submissions, here are a couple of tell-tale signs of a Splog:

1. Has little or few Blog posts. (one or two months in the archive and are not current)
2. Posts consist of one to two sentences.
3. Majority of the Blog posts are not written by its author. (The source is quoted, but its not by the original author)
4. "Edit me" appears in the left or right column.
5. No "about us" or "about me" page to be found.
6. Advertising seems overly excessive and more emphasis seems to be placed on ads than content.
7. Overall language promotes how to make money with little or no effort.

Although the above list is in no way all-inclusive, it at least points out some shortcomings of common Splog symptoms. If your not sure whether it's a slog or not, the best course of action is to avoid it and not click any of its tempting ads. With your help, we can send a message to the search engines that Splogs will not be tolerated by the masses!

Christian Del Monte: creator of iBlogMarketing.com and Director of Operations for TMA E-Marketing has a B.S. degree in Marketing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. In addition, Christian has over 10 years in personal sales experience and has directed the operations for TMA for the last 4 years.

He has directed and worked on Internet marketing projects for mid to large-scale clients including several fortune 500 companies. Christian continues to head up the operations for TMA as well as lead research and development on vertical search markets and business blogging.