Have you already come across a splog ?

Although quite a few people don’t know what a splog [1] is, everyone has probably seen one at least once while surfing on the Internet. In fact, according to a recent study, 56% of Anglophone blogs on the net are splogs. [2] This new word that we hear more and more about comes from a mixture of spam and blogs (hence the name!) More precisely, they are blogs specifically designed to mislead Internet users in order to gain large quantities of money from advertising. One reason a lot of spammers use this format is deployment speed and integrated functionalities.

Search engines and directories have fought against splogs mercilessly for many years, but many say that the phenomenon is only growing. The challenge is too attractive to sploggers, and the money involved too impressive - some case studies available online show 5-figure monthly revenues for many splog owners.

Furthermore, it is increasingly easy to make a splog, with dozens of different online software available which will create and update as many splogs as you want. [3]

Are you giving them your money?

But where does all this money come from? Your pockets, of course. Basically advertising revenue from keyword purchasing campaigns on major networks (Google, Yahoo!, MSN etc.). These campaigns are normally configured by default so that your adverts appear on the “content network” which is nothing more than a site network where many splogs are located.

Do you help them position themselves better?

It is very possible that you actually promote a splog on your own blog without knowing it. How? There are several possible options. It could initially be that some comments on your blog refer to a splog. According to Askimet’s statistics, 9 out of 10 comments should be regarded as spam. Each comment that links to a splog is in effect a vote of confidence which improved its positioning.

You might also have the ‘TrackBack ’ [4] option activated on your blog. This option enables all bloggers to show if they link to your posting. These links then appear in your blog with the TrackBack option. In many cases, TrackBacks are full of splogs who use this to gain massive popularity.

Do you have a splog?

Many companies have several active splogs here and there and don’t know it. They are usually created by search engine positioning companies who use this method to increase the number of links that go to the site they wish to optimize.

In numerous cases, the results provided by the creation of a splog or other fake site are optimized quickly, but give very little long-term reliability. If, for the most part, your optimization uses this strategy, you are increasing the risk of failure.

This phenomenon reminds us of the importance of evaluating the amounts we invest in keyword purchases, especially in competitive industries. The more competitive an industry, the more significant figures will be and there will be more sploggers.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/splog

[2] http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/...

[3] http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/sp...

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackback