I just returned yesterday from ten days of vacation, tanned and if not rested, exactly, then at least refreshed. So that explains both my hiatus on posting to this blog as well as posting about something that unfolded over the last couple of weeks.
In getting caught up on my email and reading, an entry in the last American Libraries Direct caught my eye. The entry in question was about a post by Steven Bell on the ACRLog blog, called "These Predictions Throw Caution to the Wind". I’ve long known Steven, and of his good work in helping academic librarians keep up with rapid change for many years. So I was a bit surprised to see him taken in by what is clearly, with a little investigation, a scam that is unfortunately becoming more common. I also want to point out that I have been taken in by the same kind of scam before, so I am not seeking to apply blame that clearly can apply to myself as well. But this is also why I want to take some of my precious writing time to shine some light on it, in the hope that I can prevent future such mishaps.
Briefly stated, the scam is this: 1) write some content that appears to be helpful, 2) email people who you think may be interested, and 3) Profit! (by people linking to your post and driving up your Google ranking). OK, let me flesh that out a bit, using this particular incident as an example.
In this particular case, Steven was lampooning a post titled "25 Predictions for the University of the Future" (I will not link to them for reasons that will become clear, follow the link from Steven’s post if you want to see it). The fact that he did a good job of his satire is beside the point, but certainly worth noting. His main thesis, which was true, is that these "predictions" were hardly predictions at all, but more like a statement of current reality. Unfortunately, if he had looked a bit deeper, he may have decided not to write the post at all. Why? Because it only gives them what they’re after — "link love".
The deal is this. The content that Steven lampooned is a thin veneer of "respectability" over a site that drives traffic to commercial diploma mills [private educational institutions] like "Grand Canyon University" (really, I can’t make this stuff up), "Capella University", "Kaplan University", "Walden University", and others. It is, in other words, stealth advertising of the most insidious type. Spend a little time on their site and you’ll see what I mean. The "article" is hosted on a site called "associatedegree.com" but you are soon redirected to "elearners.com", which appears to be the epicenter of this operation.
As anyone familiar with Google’s ranking algorithm knows, you get high marks by having links to your site from sites that are themselves ranked high in terms of unique content, other sites that link to you that are themselves highly ranked, etc. So anytime you can seduce a site that has a good ranking to link to you, you get "link love" that moves your site higher up in Google search results. This of course leads to more clicks, and of course, profit!
As for the author of the post on the associatedegree.com site, "Emily Thomas", if that is her real name, she should really seek other employment. And the rest of us need to be aware of this kind of scam, and shun it in every way we can. Move along, there’s nothing to see here.
Update: Please also read Steven’s follow-up post.
No related posts.
Just wanted to say “thanks” for pointing to my follow up post. That’s very gracious of you. I also appreciate the collegial manner in which you have referred to my post – and hey, I appreciate the acknowledgement that the satire/sarcasm worked. But it appears I allowed my desire to ridicule the site overrule my sensibility about driving traffic to it – not so good.
I am glad if my original post created an opportunity to make our community aware of the scam (affiliate) site problem. Thanks for taking the time to write about it.
I myself recently fell for this and posted one of their “articles”. After a post from another well-known library blogger (who didn’t name me specifically) pointed out this “scam” I removed the post.
Good story here, and an object lesson.. Maybe bloggers/writers online can do stories, satire, commentary on any post – but if it’s a scammy one, you could leave out the link. But, then, how do we do know what you are writing about? Interesting.. perhaps use a screenshot instead, or a PDF of the page(s) up for examination? Thanks for the insights, Roy and STEVEN! Roy, great to hear you got in a vacation…
The way that I would write about a site without giving them the link love they desire is to list the URL unlinked, like this: http://www.somesite.com/page.html . This won’t get picked up as a link to a site by the search engines, but people can still copy and paste it into their browser if they want to see the site.
While I obviously agree with the main point of your article, I wanted to
note that Capella, Kaplan, Walden, and, yes, even Grand Canyon are
accredited by the HLC (part of North Central). Accredidation isn’t the
whole ballgame, but these places are a long way from traditional diploma mills.
oedb.org/accreditation-agencies/hlc
Bill, I stand corrected, and I have edited the piece to strike through my editorial comments. Thanks for pointing this out.
Apparently Cheryl LaGuardia over at E-views hasn’t read this post yet, Roy — she got suckered into linking to yet another one of these sites, this time ostensibly about nursing… Curious that she would make the same mistake right after Steven did, right down to the same author, “Emily Thomas,” on the sites she links. You should perhaps ask her if she doesn’t follow her fellow LJ bloggers, such as yourself…