Hey, is this word new to you ? then read on …… I will tell you what a splog and what they do…..
Have you ever seen trackbacks ( links to your posts ) saying “Wrote an interesting post” or “talked today about” or similar words? They do not have their own content but links to lot of other blogs.. and you thought that someone liked your post and linked there ? Yes, they are splogs.
Splog is What ?
Let’s start with Wikipedia
Spam blogs, sometimes referred to by the neologism splogs[citation needed], are artificially created weblog sites which the author uses to promote affiliated websites or to increase the search engine rankings of associated sites. The purpose of a splog can be to increase the PageRank or backlink portfolio of affiliate websites, to artificially inflate paid ad impressions from visitors, and/or use the blog as a link outlet to get new sites indexed. Spam blogs are usually a type of scraper site, where content is often either inauthentic text or merely stolen (see blog scraping) from other websites. These blogs usually contain a high number of links to sites associated with the splog creator which are often disreputable or otherwise useless websites.
Why a Splog ?
More content ( easily )
More visitors
More links
Better pagerank
More money
More business ( SEO related )
Etc … Etc ……
How to Identify a Splog
Lorelle can explain that better … here
How to Report Splogs
Read how to report a splog to wordpress.com, here If you want to report them to Google, here is how.
- While viewing the splog, click on the “Ads by Google” link shown with any Google ad.
- Click the “Send Google your thoughts on the site or the ads you just saw” link. Note that the name of this link changes occasionally.
- Click the “Also report a violation?” link.
- Fill in the necessary information, and click the Submit button. ( from this blog )
So … Wanna Splog ?
… just kidding … and yes, one more thing… I just wanted to introduce you all you splogs if you haven’t already … for further reading … well ..do you want me to give a few links for write another post… ?
30 responses so far ↓
1 amit // Jul 28, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Is these the same kind of blogs from which we get pingbacks at times and which only have links to various sites?
2 Binny V A // Jul 28, 2008 at 11:58 pm
@amit
In most cases, they are splog. But there will be some valid blogs there as well. If its a splog, mark that trackback as span - or you will be penalized by google for linking to ‘bad neighborhoods’. This will happen only if you removed the ‘no-follow’ from comments.
3 arvind // Jul 29, 2008 at 2:05 am
ok..now in understood it all…
but why splogs in wordpress..i have seen loads of them using my content…
NO money in that
4 dinu // Jul 29, 2008 at 8:09 am
@ Amit
Yes … as Binny said … most of the times they are splogs… its better if you review them before approving their trackback/pingback
@ Binny
Welcome !! and thanks for that info buddy
@ Arvind
See, when you approve them as comments they get a link back right ? and as they get more n more links .. chances for better pagerank … and most of the times you will see google ads next to these splogs … and they make money … and yes, with wordpress.com, they can’t have ads … not ever spammer get paid … right ?
5 Smallstar // Jul 29, 2008 at 9:20 am
How are you? I hope very well…
And how are things going?
*HUGGG*
6 Musicalchaos // Jul 29, 2008 at 9:54 am
ahem.. quite insightful… I didnt know u were Mr. Know-It-All…
but seriously the purpose of splogs in wordpress beats me..
7 dinu // Jul 29, 2008 at 9:58 am
@ Smallstar
I am good
thanks
@ Musicalchaos
Uhmm thank thank u … ( I know u were joking though )
8 Nikhil // Jul 29, 2008 at 9:59 am
I get a lot of pingbacks from what appear to be normal sites but when I go there, its a lot of accumulated content and I notice that my posts have been published there!! With no Reference to my blog! Is this a splog? can I report it?
9 dinu // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:01 am
@ Nikhil
Yep !! they are splogs … I have explained how to report them
10 Lorelle // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:29 am
Just to be clear for your readers, a spam blog is a splog. That is a blog that may use original content, or garbled content, or content stolen from other blogs, including yours. Sometimes this might be twisted around and the words changed, trying to avoid the copyright infringement by changing a few words - either way, these are done automatically by a “bot” not human. These are called “scraper blogs” or “scraper splogs” since their intent is to use other people’s content as a replacement for those and use them for advertising and marketing (or SEO abusive) purposes.
While these are still splogs, and you should report them when you find them, treatment of splogs/blogs violating copyrights are handled by the copyright owner or representative. If you find a blog using content you recognize from another blogger, report it to them immediately, and leave a comment on the blog to warn others that this is content that may be used without permission.
Comment spam also comes in different flavors. There is comment spam created by humans paid substandard fee to spam blogs around the world with a “human” touch to confuse comment spam filters. There are also bot spammers, web programs that leave comment spam, which can include keyword matching and grabbing some of your blog post content or another comment’s content and posting it in a way that confuses the spam filters and makes you think it’s legit. That’s painful, so check carefully if you doubt the comment and delete or mark as spam if there is a glimmer of spam.
Trackback spam is spam created by a web program that may or may not be generated by a website or blog. Some is, but a lot isn’t, but you think it is, so you may trust it.
Spammers and sploggers are getting smarter, and making tons of money with their automated systems. Luckily, blog hosting programs like WordPress.com and services like Akismet and Defensio are working overtime to outwit the comment spammers. There are very few splogs on WordPress.com, and they are serious about squishing them if found, so please report them immediately. Unfortunately, Google’s Blogspot/Blogger blogs are rife with splogs and have a terrible reputation because of the overwhelming number of splogs. I check out every blogspot commenter on my blogs to make sure their blogs are not spam blogs. Most of them are, and I mark them as comment spam immediately.
And luckily, the blogosphere is filled with savvy bloggers who keep their blog comments clean and fight back against copyright violations.
Thanks for helping to spread the word and keeping the blogosphere a fun place to play.
11 dinu // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:35 am
@ Lorelle
Vowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Is that you who commented here ? Can’t believe it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Super excited !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and honored
Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12 Mani Karthik // Jul 29, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Dinu, Good one there.
I’d like to add that, not necessarily is every trackback a splog. (Like Binny said), So it’s always good to review it. And there are a few things you can check to see if it’s a splog.
- Check the content, see if all of them have the same structure. Mostly, it would have a two-three liner saying “Mr.X writes about…” then an expert from your content and the link. Many a times, it would carry a wrong name.
- Check the site on Google, if it’s indexed. Many a times, it would not be, if it has, it’d have only a few pages indexed.
Also, splogs are time wasters to set up. Even if they manage to collect trackbacks from all different websites, they cannot elevate on SERPs or gather PR as normally as other blogs because;
- Google can easily find out if it’s duplicate content or not.
- Google won’t award PR so easily just because they have incoming links, because they all follow a pattern, that’s easily identifiable.
- Many of the splogger scripts available are easily recognizeable from the code, and discounted from the SERPs. (The spolgger script vendor may not tell you this at the time of purchase.)
It’s best to avoid a splog, delete their trackbacks as it may affect you (if your site is a struggler and young one). It cannot do anything to harm you.
If at all one does, you can report it to Google like how Dinu mentioned above. Or else, there are other “smarter than splogger” ways of getting him banned, of which I cannot speak in a forum.
Cheers!
13 dinu // Jul 29, 2008 at 12:56 pm
@ Mani Karthik
Thanks ….
I think I should add up all these comments from Binny, Lorelle and Binny and make another post 
14 Joel // Jul 29, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Fack! A comment by Lorelle here…!? wooowwww!!! coolll
A good post dinu and btw Lorelle’s comment says it all… keep it up!
15 dinu // Jul 29, 2008 at 4:39 pm
@ Joel
Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss a comment by Lorelle !!!!!!!!!!!! and she wrote a comment better than my post
16 vishesh // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:11 pm
thanks man…just found that a site has taken my post without asking me and well it was one without any comments….so am going to report..
17 dinu // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:15 pm
@ Vishesh
Cool
18 Lorelle // Jul 30, 2008 at 1:36 am
Goodness, folks. Didn’t mean to cause a riot.
But watch out. I, and others like me, are EVERYWHERE. We live inside the Internet and are always watching.
19 dinu // Jul 30, 2008 at 9:39 am
@ Lorelle
20 Hasit // Jul 30, 2008 at 9:07 pm
can u all wait a second. its all a bouncer to me. will u send me an email explaning it? you all may call me a stupid, but sorry guys, i didnt get a thing. i actually read your post twice. hehe. sorry. SPLOG…. what is it??!!
21 dinu // Jul 30, 2008 at 9:09 pm
@ Hasit
Hi Hi .. don’t worry .. I will help you
Sent an email already
22 Hasit // Jul 30, 2008 at 9:13 pm
and also, is your blog’s name “A Name” it shows that on my firefox tab.
23 dinu // Jul 30, 2008 at 9:16 pm
@ Hasit
I was planning to change me blog’s name .. offline blog was a temporary name …. I have updated the name now
24 Anshul // Aug 1, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Very Nice this blog
25 dinu // Aug 1, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Very nice .. this blog or the splog ?
26 Anshul // Aug 1, 2008 at 3:21 pm
This is the most common spam comment(on my site) “Very nice this blog”.
27 dinu // Aug 1, 2008 at 3:25 pm
@ Anshul
LOL yea right
28 Chirag Chamoli // Sep 24, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Thanks Bro, this is very useful I didn’t know anything about Splog
29 dinu // Sep 24, 2008 at 2:40 pm
@ Chirag Chamoli
so you searched for this one and found it
30 Birth of The Blogosphere « Dynamic Disruption // Oct 8, 2008 at 10:59 am
[...] as usual late comers were the corporate blogs, spammers ( read marketers), splog . FYI: The first spam email was sent on May 01 1978 by a DEC marketing representative to every [...]
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