Stompernet Sucks too: scribd demolished
Earlier today I found that links in my documents published on www.scribd.com no longer worked. That creates a bit of a problem since I’ve been using scribd to test new niches for the last few months. Scribd documents get ranked really fast, so it was great to be able to rank and get orders within a few days.
A week or so ago Stompernet published a video detailing this exact technique. And you know what - suddenly there are thousands more scribd pages appearing. And today this in the scribd FAQ:
“Can I include links in my Scribd documents?
No. Due to abuse from search engine optimizers and internet marketers, we have adopted a no link policy. You may place one link in the website field of your profile page. You may not add HTML links to documents on Scribd.“
Now it could be coincidence, but one possible scenario for this to happen is that the volume of internet marketers introduced to scribd after the Stompernet video brought this to the attention of the scribd admins, in which case Stompernet has spoilt the ride for everyone.
<irony>And if I were looking for conspiracies I might think it was done on purpose so that people could see how good the new Stompernet program is, get people to sign up AND demolish competition at the same time.</irony>
Don’t worry I don’t expect any sympathy, I’ll move on and do something new.
January 18th, 2008 at 03:00
wow David, I understand that you don’t like us, but try your best to be fair and leave the conspiracy talk dead at the side of the road where it belongs…
Scribd has been getting abused by SEOs for a few months now. Especially after this post:
http://www.zanypixel.com/blog/untapped-link-building-strategies/
In November.Scribd was also mentioned at Pubcon in December as a another source for followed links, in front of hundreds of avid link spammers.
I heard that Scribd had to delete well over 1000 articles in December. We didn’t cause this change. Any place where you can plant a hyperlink will draw spammers. And we don’t suggest or condone that behavior. ALL of our educational material strongly suggests restraint and social responsibility… unlike this post.
January 18th, 2008 at 03:22
Andy,
Thanks for your comment, the conspiracy bit was supposed to be tongue in cheek - I guess it doesn’t come across that way, so apologies for that.
Regarding all of your educational material strongly suggesting restraint and social responsibility - nope. I’ve watched Stompernet videos that really talk about pushing the line into the realms of spam.
While I respect the faculty you’ve assembled, the sum is far less than the individual parts. The problem from my experience is that Stompernet is all hype; when I joined SIMPLE the initial content was good, but not excellent because there were inconsistencies in the strategy going from one faculty member to the next.
But it rapidly became clear that there was no long term plan with SIMPLE and we spent a couple of months with little to ZERO content and no activity from faculty members in the forum, despite so many questions being asked - all the while you were happy to take our $97/month.
I started blogging about Stompernet because I thought I might be a good product to sell. Unfortunately there is no way on Earth I can recommend you.
David
January 18th, 2008 at 23:02
[…] You can read the post “Stompernet Sucks too: scribd demolished” here […]
January 20th, 2008 at 03:56
There are rumors flying rampant all over the Internet right now that StomperNet caused the shift in scribd policy. Andy has refuted that claim and that is good enough for me.
Also to get both sides of the story I have written to scribd asking them to either confirm or deny that StomperNet had any involvement. I wrote this before seeing Andy’s feedback here.
Scribd, in my opinion, just sent traffic packing. Instead of going after abusers they painted everyone with the same brush. I suppose that it is cheaper for them to do this but if they were smart they would offer a paid service to have links and said links must meet the appoval of a moderator.
But what do I know? I am not even human.
The Mad Ape
ps I tried to type ‘yellow’ in as the answer to your question as that is the color it turns after I take a piss in it!
January 20th, 2008 at 05:26
[…] read a very critical article on David Leigh’s blog in which David says that StomperNet sucks and blames them for scrbd.com’s policy shift […]
January 20th, 2008 at 14:44
[…] At the end of the Scribd response, they claim that they will be offering a service for ‘legitimate’ marketers…probably will be a paid service…something that I eluded to yesterday on another blog. […]