Spam is a regular occurrence for websites that allow comments or submissions from just about anyone online, but why is it always so mis-targeted? Take, for instance, this spam message I received regarding a “natural cure for insomnia”.
Insomnia is something that I’ve been struggling with for years, and there are even a few blog posts on this very site that talk about it. For someone who wants me to approve their spammy comment, wouldn’t it make more sense to target those posts rather than one that outlines the journey from Outlook to GMail?
Sure, spam will be with us long after the human race has disappeared from the universe (thanks, auto-sending bots), but if someone wants to spam a blog, the least they could do is include a quick Google search into their spamming, no?
Do you ever get spam like this on your sites? Ever wonder why they don’t target the right posts? Am I the only one that shakes their head over this kind of stuff? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Maybe the target is you, not your readers. It might be even more effective than email spam, because these comments get emailed to you as well, but they require you to at least cast your eyes over the comment before you delete it – just in case it’s a legitimate comment.
A spammer could open blog posts in 50 tabs and copy-paste-send to all of them in a just a few minutes. Easy work for a chance of a sale and maybe even repeat sales.
Besides, didn’t you once say you suffered from insomnia? And you definitely said recently that you prefer natural remedies to prescribed drugs.
So how about it Jason, can I interest in you in my proven range of herbal sleeping aids?
The only herbs I’m interested in can be found in KFC’s chicken, thank you
I see you have a new avatar. You don’t want to show your real face online anymore?
Nah, not for privacy reasons, just gave my Twitter page a bit of a spring clean with a new bio, background image and avatar. Would have used another picture of me, but I’ve gotten very lazy about moving photos from my camera to the computer, hence my lack of blogging!
Actually, when I saw you and Chris Gaunt using these manga avatar things, I went looking for the site where you make them, and once I found it, I couldn’t resist making a manga me.
Ah, I see. I’ve been thinking about switching back to my real face because there are too many people using manga avatars … we all look alike!