February 1st, 2007
How To Get Free Advertising By Trying To Buy Votes On Digg
There’s a thread on Techmeme about a new Digg payola scandal — posts at Pronet Advertising and The Blog Herald reproduce the following email (I’m about to be complicit in the free advertising scam):
Hello,
I need a favor. I run a website bringpopcorn.com.
Would you get my website to the Digg first page, and if successful I’ll pay $500.
The site is of interest to most Digg users anyhow, it’s just people only listen to top Digg users.
If interested please email back.
Alex
At first you think, how stupid could this guy be? But then you realize that he has his URL, bringpopcorn.com, in the email, which is now being printed on top blogs — I confess that I popped the URL in my browser to check it out, out of curiosity. Suddenly, it starts to dawn on you — maybe this guy isn’t as stupid as here appears. Either that, or he’s getting a nice consolation prize.
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Wrong audience. He would have done better by getting Dugg.
Of course he would have done better getting Dugg. But when that’s out of reach for most sites, why not go for the consolation prize gambit?
(He may well just be stupid, it’s just fun to speculate.)
Scott
I just posted a quick note on an announcement of the digg blog how they will be doing away with the Top Digger list … I don’t think that this was the right way to deal with the situation like you posted about but who knows
http://www.winextra.com/?p=270
Either that or he’s not the originator of the email, and whoever is behind it is successful at ruining that guy’s reputation.
Scott,
Great blog - I’ve been enjoying it for a while. This is a great angle on this post. Who know if it was intentional or not, but notoriety is good (sometimes) when you’re trying to get noticed.
Cheers,
Rahul
Digg Removes List of Top UsersDerek van Vliet / The Blog Herald: Busted! Bringpopcorn.com Soliciting Top Diggers Scott Karp / Publishing 2.0: How To Get Free Advertising By Trying To Buy Votes On Digg
Only this guy includes his own URL within the body of the email. Which then gets posted on the blogs of the top Digg users (which themselves are somewhat heavily trafficked). Is this guy as dumb as he appears? http://publishing2.com/2007/02/01/how-to-get-free-advertising-by-trying-to-buy-votes-on-digg/
Scott Karp / Publishing 2.0 : How To Get Free Advertising By Trying To Buy Votes On Digg