Yesterday, I decided to test little couple of things here on DP. First, I wanted to check if linkbaiting success is mainly the result of the article title or the article content also adds up some points. I expected that CONTROVERSIAL title will attract lots of viewers, but they will not comment very much, as the content of the thread doesn´t give lot of chances to express theirselves (no message, or even annoying message for them). Second, I wanted to give more evidence to those I advised to build the community around their sites. So I decided to put up a new thread here (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=149988) with a huge catchy title: I Will Spam Digital Point Tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, with the low quality content: if I do that, will my "berserker" status be changed to "president of the universe"? or shawn assigns me "the f.cker of the year" and comes personally kick my ass to the middle of nowhere here in Europe? As I wished to filter ou the scanners from reviewers i added: just a little linkbaiting example for those who asked to give some more space to think about it for the reviewers as the scanners usually do not get to the very end of the message. TOOO late i found out that my in-English thinking is much delayed compared to my Slovak brain - I catched myself during optimizing for the word I didn´t want to and - later tried to edit the post and change the word "SPAMMING" for the word "HACKING" to get more attraction, I din´t have enough time to do that, sorry for this I would do the post title more annoying, the DP staff can prove. THE RESULTS The thread was posted to Link Development group as it was the first intention to proove that. In about 10 minutes it was moved (by the group admin?) to Digital Point Forums/Suggestions & Feedback and another 10 minutes later to Digital Point Forums/General Chat. Generally, i didn´expect that, I must admit, as I thought DP webmasters are more automate-like but at least someone was quite consistent enough in what he was doing (generally I failed in this opinion, but I am quite flexible to re-evaluate myself, no probs with rising my credit, little probs with decreasing it). I have to say that I am quite content with the area it ended (it is the largest category even though the most general so it doesn´t attract the ALL the people I planned to attract). Numbers The thread attracted some 200 views and 17 replies in next 24 hours. As for the title, 200 results is not bad considering that it was moved from the thread I thought it would pass the best to a general one. The replies... let´s say I expected much more negative posts, seems to me that the undecided part of DP is really an undecided part. (you should have given me more hate points, but if you add now, y´re f.ckers, but you´re still encouraged to do that... It will count for another experiment)... I also got some red points from the informers, but somehow I managed to get again to greens (angel for the last PM advice, or the group admin revalued the post with the second beer). As for the community, the post gave just the right results. As I wrote to Scott , this has proven a lot. You can build a community around your site, which works (positively for you) like hell, no matter if it is a forum like DP, e-bay users or the philatelists.
Spamming can help your site via backlinks but it can allso give your site a reputation as a "spam" , one thing i disagree strongly against is spamming DP. Seriasly whats that all about? Never Spam DP!
In fact, I haven´t spammed it more than the other 5.000 more or less spammy threads. Anyway, showing clearly in the title I am going to spam it - even though far from the truth - it grabbed more attention. You can use it yourself at - e.g. - blog commenting, have ready 2 comments at the same time, one controversial in term of the blog topic and one explaining your controversy in details and moving you much more towards the main stream. You can sure figure out the details better than me.
You know, I give you kudos for being brave enough to "experiment" techniques to build your business or website traffic. Most people would be too chicken or scared of what mommy would do to them when they got home. Feel good that at least one person (that's me) learned something from experiment. Good job buddy!
Wow! Do people really believe this crap? Your "test" was slightly short of pathetic, to say the least. The fact that you are "quite content" that your thread ended up in the dumping ground for shitty posts (General Chat), says quite a bit in itself. As a business owner, I would be nothing short of embarassed to have my business and/or name associated with "200 views and 17 replies" that consisted of this: "Excuse me, any specific reason for this thread?" "What you had in breakfast today..." "Hope this thread gets closed soon." "If thats the type of example you are setting - better be prepared for some reds matey" "Useless threads arent appreciated by the mods" So the purpose of your post was to gain links (linkbaiting), which you gained none? How is that the "right results"? Please do explain, I'm apparently so confused.
Yeah i dont really get it. Drawing attention to a thread by using a catchy title isnt link baiting. Thats just using good copy. And, of course, a catchy title draws more attention - thats the definition of catchy. Here's a better experiment - start a thread with a compelling conversation/concept that is relevant to your website (which is conveniently present as a link in your sig) and of interest to the DP community. Then track how much traffic you can generate as an upstanding contributor in the DP forum.
Starting controversial content is a good way to draw attention to yourself but I think condoning the spamming of DP is uncalled for