Unhappy Contest Winners

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I talked to Jon about being dissatisfied myself, because I view these things as splogs, as someone said above. I don't think they have any value for the end user. RSS isn't for syndicating content on websites, it's for providing convenience to readers.

Jon disagrees with me on this, but this is gray hat stuff at best, and I think the argument could certainly be made that it's black hat.

As to what would make me happy? I was expecting a niche site with unique content, nothing earth shattering, but something to add to the portfolio. That'd make me happy.

Either way I'll still be reading and posting here, but add me to the list of people who think this wasn't handled well.
 


I have no problems with the RSS, as I do link back, and most of the feeds have their adverts in them anyways, but i don't think people would like being tricked into thinking they've found original content.
 
Dave said:
I have no problems with the RSS, as I do link back, and most of the feeds have their adverts in them anyways, but i don't think people would like being tricked into thinking they've found original content.
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Everyone talks about the linking back as if that makes it ok, but it really doesn't.

I have sites that people scrape, and it annoys the fuck out of me that they link back, because I'm sure it looks to the search engines like a spam site is linking to my site.
 
JDA said:
Everyone talks about the linking back as if that makes it ok, but it really doesn't.

I have sites that people scrape, and it annoys the fuck out of me that they link back, because I'm sure it looks to the search engines like a spam site is linking to my site.
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You tried asking them to remove the feed? If someone was annoyed with a Feed on my sites i'd gladly remove it.
 
Yes, most of the people that run these sites don't respond to anything, and I don't have the resources or time to properly threaten legal action.
 
I'm glad my post has lead to something good.

Some people pointed out that scraper sites can in fact make money. The problem is I already knew that for months, I have checked out the rssgm script back then and some automated blogger account spawner and spammer but I knew this is not the type of sites I want to build. For one because by duplicating other sites you create no real value and on the long term this will result in the search engines working you out of their way. Secondly, if I'm going to make a bunch of scraper sites I will probably do shit in the beginning and screw some of the sites up and I'm 10 domains poorer and many months older before I get to see some cash.

That's why I was hoping for a niche site that actually provided value, like for example a decent amount of niche content that I can promote the shit out of. And if the content is good it shouldn't be very hard to promote, wich should be a great advantage over a scraper site.

Alternatively, if mook can't get some authors together to write us something, I would like some guidance with promoting the site(s) that I already have. Because I have in fact learned a lot from jon, his forum, and many other places and I'm putting all of that into a bunch of real value-creating niche sites and some hints on how to promote them would be very helpful.
 
peach said:
Some people pointed out that scraper sites can in fact make money. The problem is I already knew that for months, I have checked out the rssgm script back then and some automated blogger account spawner and spammer but I knew this is not the type of sites I want to build. .
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I know your not happy, but really, is Jon supposed to know what you or anyone else already knows?

peach said:
if I'm going to make a bunch of scraper sites I will probably do shit in the beginning and screw some of the sites up and I'm 10 domains poorer and many months older before I get to see some cash..
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There are other ways to do this for very little $.
 
(apologies for being a bit behind on this, was on vacation the previous week so I haven't had a ton of time to get into this)

I admit to being a bit underwhelmed by the site. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but didn't expect something thats essentially publically available and (fairly) well known.

That being said, I wouldn't mind knowing some of your specific methods to sites such as this - where you get your feed from, exactly how you set them up, promoting them, seo and expected life span and roi. At this point, I would say the knowledge of someone who has had success would be better than a unique site (for me personally).
 
the thing that really disapointed me that it was just the script. Jon said i'd have to wait a week to get it so i started to think maybe:
- unique design?
- they find the rss feeds?
- they specifically optimize it to my niche?
- they start a link buildin campaign?
None of these, just the script, which I had to wait a week for, for some reason.
 
This is an easy fix - just get a datafeed from an affiliate network, get a freelancer to rewrite the product descriptions and presto - original content from an xml or csv file that can be used with those type of scripts.

Cup half full. ;)
 
Rob_TID said:
This is an easy fix - just get a datafeed from an affiliate network, get a freelancer to rewrite the product descriptions and presto - original content from an xml or csv file that can be used with those type of scripts.

Cup half full. ;)
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hmm, not bad!
 
although that would be a damn easy way out, he said a site created by his team, that would be a cheap bare-bones layout on a freeware CMS with a freeware plugin.
 
Well, I did the 30 referrals contest, and here's my input and what I gleaned from reading the contest page:

I guess I was one of the people that thought it was some all-out crazy made site that was bound to make me my first million :P I thought it was going to come all uniquely made, fully functional, including a domain and stuff. Although that is true, I don't believe for a second that Jon was trying to "spam" or lie to any of the contestants. Anyways, I'm not like "let down" or crazy pissed like some of the other people I've seen posting on this thread; I knew that Jon couldn't humanly possible come up with 20+ 100% unique sites with unique content and stuff.

Thats just my two cents, and I think Jon just didn't think that everyone reading the contest description would read it that way.

What I want to know is....what would have happened if the same person had won both the posting and referral contest? Would they have gotten the script twice? ;)
 
I wouldn'tve minded if Jon had done something with the script, somehow made it more useful to us, but it's just freeware plugins, kinda irks me that he ain't replyin either, he's on AIM.
 
I was never a big fan of contests... and glad I didn't participate in this one. My general take was that the winners were going to get a unique site (already optimized for the search engines) with pre-written, original content. I thought the emphasis would be more on the unique content and SEO. I didn't realize that it was just a script.
 
ltn1dr said:
What I want to know is....what would have happened if the same person had won both the posting and referral contest? Would they have gotten the script twice? ;)
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Nah I just got one copy :)
 
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