tkingdoll
25th March 2008, 08:59 AM
I received an email last week to my personal email address, which read:
Hello,
We have reviewed your blog on behalf of one of our clients that would
be interested in placing advertising with you.
Client profile :
Name (domain removed by me just in case)
New project (<1 month old)
Theme Edited by me just in case
We'd like either a 150x150 button, 160x600 skyscraper or 468x60 full
banner (or footer). Alternatively, we may be interested in text-only
advertising.
This would be a weekly, monthly or yearly arrangement. In either case
we will require a one time, one day (24 hours) free placement in order
to test the quality and quantity of traffic your website can actually
provide*. Within this interval, we will make a final determination,
based on the traffic volume, quality, and your asking price. Should
we find your terms acceptable, this trial day will count towards the
agreed interval.
Kindly let us know if you would be interested, which arrangement best
suits your editorial needs, and what rates you would like to charge.
We prefer using PayPal but may be able to accommodate alternative
payment methods.
Thank you.
*Please note that we employ software that reliably detects autoclick
and autosurf bots, pay per click and paid to surf type traffic, and
other such non-human traffic. This may be a concern for you,
especially if you are buying "bulk traffic", or employing the
services of dubious "SEO experts".
I've put the interesting bit in bold and the edited stuff in italics. They want 24 hours of free advertising on "my blog" to test quality and quantity of traffic? Hmm.
Lots of things are weird about this. Firstly, the email address they sent the message to isn't attached to any blog. I contribute to the Skepchick blog but I don't run it, and I used to have the once-famous dinner blog but I closed that over a year ago. So, no blog, and certainly no blog attached to that email address. It's clearly a generic email with no personalisation, and suspect as a result.
Secondly, they're asking me to name my price without any sort of guideline as to what their budget is? That's just odd. If they're spamming/approaching regular bloggers, and were genuine, then they'd include an outline of their pricing expectations. Otherwise they'd just be wasting their own time sifting through ludicrous requests.
And various other things including their odd mention of 'dubious SEO experts' when they come across as exactly that.
I haven't come across this before, it's puzzling me a little. The only theory I have is that they're trying to drive traffic to the site and are spamming every blogger they can under the assumption that email recipients will go and check out the site they're promoting. That could add up to a lot of clicks. Also, the 24-hour free test thing would give them another chunk of traffic. If we assume that the owner of the site is paying them to drive traffic, then this is just a new and slightly stupid tactic.
However, the site they are promoting isn't a commercial site. In fact it's a rather crummy homemade forum. Not usually the sort of thing that's worth paying to promote.
The whole thing stinks - anyone had something similar or know anything about it? Google shows a few bloggers having received the same email, some have gone for the 24 hour trial and some think it's spam. I haven't yet found anyone who has been paid.
Hello,
We have reviewed your blog on behalf of one of our clients that would
be interested in placing advertising with you.
Client profile :
Name (domain removed by me just in case)
New project (<1 month old)
Theme Edited by me just in case
We'd like either a 150x150 button, 160x600 skyscraper or 468x60 full
banner (or footer). Alternatively, we may be interested in text-only
advertising.
This would be a weekly, monthly or yearly arrangement. In either case
we will require a one time, one day (24 hours) free placement in order
to test the quality and quantity of traffic your website can actually
provide*. Within this interval, we will make a final determination,
based on the traffic volume, quality, and your asking price. Should
we find your terms acceptable, this trial day will count towards the
agreed interval.
Kindly let us know if you would be interested, which arrangement best
suits your editorial needs, and what rates you would like to charge.
We prefer using PayPal but may be able to accommodate alternative
payment methods.
Thank you.
*Please note that we employ software that reliably detects autoclick
and autosurf bots, pay per click and paid to surf type traffic, and
other such non-human traffic. This may be a concern for you,
especially if you are buying "bulk traffic", or employing the
services of dubious "SEO experts".
I've put the interesting bit in bold and the edited stuff in italics. They want 24 hours of free advertising on "my blog" to test quality and quantity of traffic? Hmm.
Lots of things are weird about this. Firstly, the email address they sent the message to isn't attached to any blog. I contribute to the Skepchick blog but I don't run it, and I used to have the once-famous dinner blog but I closed that over a year ago. So, no blog, and certainly no blog attached to that email address. It's clearly a generic email with no personalisation, and suspect as a result.
Secondly, they're asking me to name my price without any sort of guideline as to what their budget is? That's just odd. If they're spamming/approaching regular bloggers, and were genuine, then they'd include an outline of their pricing expectations. Otherwise they'd just be wasting their own time sifting through ludicrous requests.
And various other things including their odd mention of 'dubious SEO experts' when they come across as exactly that.
I haven't come across this before, it's puzzling me a little. The only theory I have is that they're trying to drive traffic to the site and are spamming every blogger they can under the assumption that email recipients will go and check out the site they're promoting. That could add up to a lot of clicks. Also, the 24-hour free test thing would give them another chunk of traffic. If we assume that the owner of the site is paying them to drive traffic, then this is just a new and slightly stupid tactic.
However, the site they are promoting isn't a commercial site. In fact it's a rather crummy homemade forum. Not usually the sort of thing that's worth paying to promote.
The whole thing stinks - anyone had something similar or know anything about it? Google shows a few bloggers having received the same email, some have gone for the 24 hour trial and some think it's spam. I haven't yet found anyone who has been paid.