Yet Another Naive Way to Make Money from Reddit (and Other Social Media Sites)
I recently wrote about how some bloggers make money from Reddit by spamming it with stolen and linkjacked content, which occasionally gets voted up to the Reddit frontpage.
The success rate for these type of blogs seems to have fallen after Reddit users have become more aware of how others try to profit off Reddit’s ability to send large amounts of web traffic.
Now there’s another tactic used by some webmasters while trying to make money off Reddit’s users. The operative keyword is try, because I think they fail miserably in their attempts.
While most Redditers will not fall for these lame affiliate marketing tricks, there might be a very small number of less web savvy users who will bite.
It’s not entirely an unethical method but I am mildly irritated at how social news websites are blatantly mis-used by these webmasters who might not have a clue about really making money online.
How to Spam Reddit and other Social Sites as an Affiliate Marketer
Here is the method in full, as I see it from various examples on Reddit:
- Choose a free blog host, choose a topic and pick a relevant keyword domain
- Find an affiliate program related to the topic and sign up as an affiliate
- Write a few paragraphs of text related to the topic and insert your affiliate link
- Make sure your blog only has one blog post on it and is free of ads
- Submit it to Reddit (and probably a dozen other social sites)
- Collect commission made off the gullible few who converted.
The Reddit spammers I’ve come across were using Tumblr, a free microblogging platform that has a default one-column style. This makes it look like a landing page with no other external links or ads, which may increase conversion rates.
I frequently check Reddit’s New section for content and these sites have been springing up a lot today, with all of them being submitted by new users with no editorial karma. They have absolutely no hope of reaching the frontpage, although some users may invariably click through and check them out.
There’s nothing wrong with making money off affiliate programs. I do it myself but not in this silly way. Using Tumblr might even be a good idea if you’re low on funds and don’t want to buy domains.
Keep your schemes on Google if you want, just lay off the social media/news sites. It’s the wrong place to aggressively push your affiliate program/product and you’ll just make yourself look bad.
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I agree. Inevitably people will always try to find a work around for making a quick and easy buck through these social networking sites but at the end of the day you have to ask yourself if its really worth it. You’d have to do this a lot to see any real monetary value from it.
If you don’t succeed at first them try again.
I’m willing to bet these are all people participating in the 30 Day Challenge (thirtydaychallenge.com). These people are being coached along the basic process you outlined. They’re specifically told to use Tumblr, and then submit to a whole bunch of social networks through socialposter.com. I believe the ultimate goal isn’t so much to spam Reddit, as it is to get free backlinks. The whole program is based on making $10 without spending anything. I think it’s ultimately a lead gen program for The Immediate Edge, which is some kind of paid coaching program run by the same guys.
Interesting, I hadn’t heard about people doing this. I wouldn’t think you would get many (if any) converts to be honest.
nice one maki, its good you provide the good bad and ugly ways of making money online. its great you distinguish the good path to follow
Lots more of this is coming. Check out Thirtydaychallenge.com
Thousands of Internet Marketing newbies are being told that this is what you need to do to earn money online.
Disclaimer: I’m participating in the challenge and learned about a few good tools but I plan on building real blogs with good articles and mostly pictures that I take myself.
Thanks Drew and Anthony for telling us that it came from that specific website/program.
I can think of far better ways to make money online which don’t involve spamming social websites for backlinks and cash. And it IS spamming if you’re putting up crap just to push an affiliate link.
Never checked out their challenge and tips and I don’t think I ever will, now that I have a good reason not to.
This really burns me up. I use Tumblr for a personal blog that has nothing to do with making money or meta-blogging. I do it because I have always loved blogging, and I dig Tumblr’s style and philosophy. It’s maddening to see it abused this way by these naive, lazy idiots.
The new Tumblr blogs are from the 30 Day Challenge people. I made a page to test out Tumblr, but really don’t care for the design.
If you follow the challenge they tell you not to put up crap. The people are supposed to write content that has value, not junk.
BeachBum
Something that has been bugging me lately is the Stumbleupon linktrain stuff. I hate to see these sites watered down with junk. I really don’t think any of these schemes will have any long-term impact as far as making money goes–they are just going to piss people off.
I too have been following the 30DC and the parasite methods that are being used. Unfortunately they seem to be training a new generation to spam.
The sad thing is once each new spam method is started it never stops until it kills whatever ‘advertising vehicle’ it’s using. Just look at what has happened to email.
Maki
I love Dosh Dosh – but your jumping to an ill-informed conclusion –
I hate spam with a passion. We are teaching people to utilise all sorts of content providers to provide and I emphasise AMAZING content on micro-niche content – yes we get people to use social bookmarking for any content they create – just as you as do Maki.
The thirty day challenge is so anti what you are talking about – it’s about concentrating on a micro-niche and teaching people to get traffic and make money by providing SUPERIOR content on a under served micro-niche.
Something your very familiar with as you do a brilliant job identifying these opportunities yourself. You have my email address – I encourage you to get in-touch with me and get the full story.
Ed
I am also part of the 30DC and I must say that Ed Dale and his team are not promoting spam and the techniques they teach have a very good basis.
Tumblr is part of the 30 day challenege. Ive noticed them all over reddit
In other words, this social network spamming is a short-term (30 day) solution. I hope those guys have fun going from $2/month from this to anything significant and sustainable…
Sucker – Not in other words – it’s part of a process – rather than snipe why don’t you go to the site and make an informed decision.
Maki – it’s not spamming if your offering useful information on a micro-niche and thats the idea.
We are trying to get people to use social bookmarking properly – people would bookmark something (DIFFERENT!) 2-5 times a day is hardly spamming if the content deserves it and helps someone out in that micro-niche.
If the content is crap and just tries to pitch junk then I’m with Sucker – a pox on their house.
Ed
I’ll vouch for Ed in that yes he is definitely telling everyone to create good and interesting content.
But unfortunately with so many people taking part in the challenge, not everyone is listening.
Ed,
Thanks for dropping by and clarifying. From what I’ve seen so far, it IS spamming because they’re not offering any useful information. Writing four paragraphs of text and dropping an affiliate link isn’t offering useful information. I don’t see the value in that. Social news sites like Reddit, Netscape and Digg are not made for this junk.
But I understand your point and I’ll just put it down to some bad apples in the group. Will withhold further judgment until I get a clearer understanding of the program.
Maki,
I am a long time Software Engineer (decades!) I am also interested in Business and Marketing. I will firmly stand with you in the belief that there are LOTS of lowlife spammers out on the net. (just check one of my email inboxes – before it gets filtered that is) There are those that will abuse any resource given half a chance. Unfortunately, this is not just marketers… lets not forget the small but significant numbers of programmers who want to give the rest of us a bad name by hacking (new definition of the term, not the old respectful version) and creating viruses, etc. Every group will have bad apples.
I am certain that a number of these lowlifes are also involved in the Thirty Day Challenge. However, as a participant in the challenge, I have gotten to see Ed Dale’s approach firsthand. He is adamant about bringing value to the Web2.0 marketing process. He has responded to some of the challenge participants concerning spam as follows… I hate spam, I hate spammers, if you are out there spamming and not adding genuine, useful content to the web, you deserve to get kicked to the curb. (maybe not an exact quote, but close enough) Ed is a strong proponent of creating a good experience for the users of the internet. He tells us to picture yourself as a typical user and not just someone trying to sell advertising copy. What does the user experience when searching for something and then going to your site? Does the user learn something, does the user have an enjoyable experience, has your page contributed in some significant way to the Web? These are questions we can all ask ourselves, marketers or any other group.
Rest assured that not all people in “marketing” are just out to make a quick buck. I certainly am not making any quick bucks. However, if I find a “truly useful” product that would be helpful to people and I can plug it in a polite way in an article that ALSO provides useful and original content, why not?
Bottom line, Thank you for withholding judgment and taking the interest to at least get a clearer picture of what is going on with the program. If someone is chewing up your bandwidth and resources with crap about how to make certain body parts larger or some other pathetic scam that they try to pass off as marketing… by all means.. kill the account… I support you 200%. In the end, I fully understand that it is YOUR site, and YOUR decision to manage it in whatever fashion you feel is best.
Thanks for your time and understanding
Bob Mueller
You’re welcome, Bob. Thanks for dropping by. ^_^
Maki,
Just to add to the other guys here from TDC, unfortunately there are some of the group who are spammers, as well as the lurkers on the forums. These people are not interested in doing the process correctly, as per Eds instructions.
What you will see is that lots of people will drop off soon i’m sure, as they realise this is going to be hard work.
I have posted a forum discussion on self regulation, and had lengthy discussions in our groups in this whole issue. I have made my point clear for those who expect my help: “if your content is not good enough, don’t expect me to help you”, as a large community in our own right we have a responsibility to behave ethically. This has been confirmed with some of the other main team leaders.
We have also been telling people to become genuine community members, become the “commenter”/rater on those communities for your niche area, take active part in the internet, in your niche, become an expert. look through the social sites and spend time rating stories/posts, do at least 10 a day on each platform. This will teach you a lot about your area, and the community around it.
This is what Ed is actually teaching unfortunately not everyone gets it. I personally have held off sending my website to these social sites because i wasn’t happy the content was good enough yet.
Eventually you will probably end up with 1% of the people carrying on the work, who will add to the internet at large, and become valuable social members. The rest will move on to other get rich quick schemes or give up completely.
Thankyou for not being hasty in judgement, it takes a great deal of “control” in the face of such an explosion!
oh and by the way I will be posting another note today, saying that if I see anyone posting spammy sites in my niche areas, I will be rating them negatively in every social site I can…oh and i love reddit!
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