Human generated spam
Gpshewan spotted this article on A Crank’s progress
This is a company looking to hire someone to hand spam their URL.
Might work, unless the site is spammy looking, and if the hireling is intelligent. But most aren’t.
I mean, let’s say you have a blog, and you find posts about your own topic. You comment, and include your URL. It isn’t spam, but it’s done ALMOST the same way. It does have a promotional value. Not in increasing link popularity. After all, most blogs have nofollow. But it generates posts about your blog, if your content is good enough.
Do I see that happening with an electronic greeting card company? Not unless it’s a fantastic product that is lightyears ahead of everything else. Greeting cards are dime a dozen. I mean, how many conversations are there about that topic? Not that many. I’d thunk viral marketing would work better by actually sending greeting cards to the hireling’s friends. If it’s good enough, they’ll start using it.
Anyway, I don’t see this kind of marketing working, unless it’s a non-spammy site. Non-spammy product. And having the CEO or a press relations professional doing it would help. Someone who’s recognizeable as a public face for the company. Say, someone like Matt Cutts for Google, Tim Mayer for Yahoo. Some faceless hireling? Forget it…