Working at Home on the Internet

Are Spammers Cockroaches in Disguise?

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It seems Spammers try to get everywhere, just like the little cockroaches they are. And just like cockroaches, there is no way to really eradicate the little buggers. They proliferate and find the little dark corners to hide and invade the pantry late at night when we are all asleep.

Joe Hauckes

What brought on that little tirade you may ask?

You may know that I am in the process of trying to put together a viable Job Board for people who are looking for Real Jobs and Opportunities to Work at Home.  The official launch hasn’t even been announced, let alone any major promotional efforts to find Good Employers. So far, the only Freelance Opportunity I have listed is my own for a Webdesigner to help redesign the Working at Home on the Internet Group.

But, without any promo, SEO or Advertising in place, I have had Nineteen, Yes 19, Spammers start the registration process without following through on the procedures I have in place. I do get notification of them registering and even following through on the e-mail autoresponder verification, however, when they get to the Payment Options page, they seem to just quit.

I am not sure if these are some type of Spam Spiders that are stopped in their tracks or if they are real people spammers who just don’t want to pay for the privilege of spamming me. But, I do know that the Payment Options page deters spammers, at least from trying to register on my site.

Is that the future way to stop comment spam? Make people pay to register to comment?

I sure hope not, it’s hard enough to get people to leave a thought and participate as it is. That would be the End of Commenting as we know it.

April 8th, 2008 at 12:35pm | Posted by Joe | Attitude, Spam | 2 reader remarks | Print This Post

Another Milestone for WAHI… 100,000 Spam Comments Blocked!

 Not all that long ago I was talking to a blogger friend and she was not only disappointed with the small amount of comments she had gotten on her blog (she is not an active blogger presently, or I would link) BUT she actually complained that she had gotten -0- Spam comments.

I understand what she was saying… “even the spammers aren’t interested”. Well, let me tell you what I told her.

“Getting real comments from real readers is probably the best thing that any blogger could want, BUT SPAM SUCKS!”

Right now I am sitting here waiting, just waiting…

99,949 Spam caught by Akismet.

99,967 Spams…

(I have FastStone Capture ready and waiting…)

99,971… (seems to be stuck here, maybe they are watching SuperBowl Pre-game shows?)

I don’t know how all these guys have the patience to get that screenshot that shows an Event like this! This is probably the First and Last time I am just waiting for Spammers to Spam me. I know that if I go somewhere and do something else, I’ll end up missing this hallmark.

Ok

It seems everybody stopped Spamming to go watch the SuperBowl (nothing has changed in an hour), so, this is where I’m going to leave it until tomorrow. Hopefully, the Spammers will have REALLY BIG HANGOVERS so I can catch the Big 100,000 mark on screen.

Here’s the Pre-Historic Pic

I’ll really be keeping an eye on this, so if anything happens during the game (well, half time) I’ll update. If not, stay tuned tomorrow to see the final screenshot numbers. I have no doubt it will be over the 100k mark.

Update1: It is now 9:01pm EST and we’re up to 99,989 I think we will break the 100k tonight.

Update2: Just as soon as the SuperBowl was finished (NY 17 NE 14) it started again, I can’t believe I actually caught this!

History Has Happened

I guess the next Spam Milestone will be 250k? Stay tuned for the Never Ending Story…

February 3rd, 2008 at 06:02pm | Posted by Joe | Attitude, Spam, Stastics | reader remarks | Print This Post

Pop-ups Are As Bad As SPAM

 Pop-ups, Pop-unders, Glaring Blinking Ads, Blaring Sounds… SPAM

Personally, if I visit a Website or a Blog more than likely I am looking for information or a particular product that I think should be contained within the site. That is all I want.

I don’t want a bunch of junk popping in my eyes and hurting my ears. It serves no purpose but to distract me from my original intent.

If I visit a site, I want it to be inviting, give me what I want and be quiet about it. If I like what I find, I’ll probably be back for more of the same content. If something pops up unexpectedly, even something as unobtrusive as a Newsletter Subscription, you will not only lose me as a Subscriber to your Newsletter, you will definitely lose me as a potential customer. I’ll just click away, never to return.

It is beyond me why some “business people” persist in the assumption that if you put something in front of a consumer, they might buy into it. I have found through personal experience, that the opposite is true. Especially in this day and age of consumer skepticism. They think that everything you do is to make them opt-in on your ads.

Are they right?

Don’t Be a SPAMMER of Your Own Site. Let your readers and customers enjoy their experience on your site. They are more likely to return if they can find what they are looking for without a lot of Junk Thrown in Their Face.

December 5th, 2007 at 03:03pm | Posted by Joe | Attitude, Rants, Spam | 2 reader remarks | Print This Post