Mid last year, Alison Robert wrote an great article on How to get your blog crashed by WoW.com.
What she didn’t mention is the unwanted attention you will get from scrapers, spammers and bots.
I’m not an ungrateful son of a Gnome
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a bit of WoW.com linkage as much as the next Gnome… err blogger. I really appreciate the recent linkage from the WoW.com Guide to WoW Resources and the post by Adam Holisky about the list.
Unexpected Results
Speaking of which, that was a great opportunity for me to find out what some people thought of my blog. Frank (bless his heart) made sure I got a mention on the list, then even better yet, Vandersvelt had the balls to slam my blog!
Yeah, even better I say!
You know why, because he had the balls to say what he thought without fear of the WoW.com fanboys and girls tearing him to shreds. When he started getting voted down he had the balls to come back and question why and continue the conversation with me until we got to the root of the problem.
The two lessons I got out of that are:
1) it’s good to meet people in this world with the balls to say what they genuinely think – because then you get to learn.
2) Never judge a blog by it’s 1st 3 posts (that you might read).
Vandersvelt caught me at a particularly ragey point in my blogging life. I’m OK with raging, and he’s OK for calling me out on it. I do hope he is still reading!
PS: Thanks to those of you that brought the comment to my attention and/or either spoke up against Vandersvelt or scored him down. I appreciate your efforts as well, I’m just happiest that I got to chat it out with Vandersvelt.
So then today…
I am even more surprised to see one of my throw away posts (WoW.com love my throw away posts) got linkage. Thank you Elizabeth Harper!
I’m not sure why you linked it, but thanks for doing so!
The message for bloggers is
It’s very exciting to get the linkage, and Allison pretty much covered all the good, bad an ugly of it… but there is one more thing you need to be aware of.
Spammage!
Your inbox will overflow with spam and dodgy links to scrapped versions of the WoW.com article.
The spam will look like bog-standard spam.
The links will look like legitimate links, if you follow them you will see a carbon copy of the original post and let’s face it, at least they included the links back to the original WoW.com post as well as to your post.
The question then is how to treat them, which is ultimately up to you.
I spam them, then quietly roast them over a Pyroblast. I do this with a smile on my face, I admit it.
The unfortunate part of it is you will need to do this several times during the 1st days and continue with your spam-strat for a while, at least a week.
As an example, I have jumped from zero spam on the average day to about 40 spam each day since the Resource guide was released. Today I have dealt with about 20 not-quite-WoW.com links.
You may also find your own post popping up all over the interwebs. I have a pretty strong “I will hunt your down and slaughter your website and your children” attitude to these sites (it’s reflected in my BG style when I see the Horde). You will need to decide whether it’s worth your trouble.
Don’t let it deter you, but don’t be surprised when your inbox overflows that it isn’t adoring fans, it’s just a mailbox full of gardening catalogs.
Thanks again WoW.com
So once again, thanks for the linkage WoW.com!
I don’t need it and never expect it… but then that’s what makes it just so sweet!
Gnomer and Out!
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http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/03/26/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-wow-com-linkage/
“I don’t need it and never expect it… but then that’s what makes it just so sweet!” You stole my post about the ideal loot! Damn gnomes…
I’ve never been linked by wow.com, which suits me fine.
I’m a sneaky Gnome… but I promise I didn’t steal it… I just gave you someone to link to!
Yeah WoW.com linkage sets your heart a flutter for a day or two.. I expect some of my regular readers originally came from WoW.com linkage, I will never know how many and it really doesn’t matter.
All that matters is they are here.
It was a terrible post anyway, turned out all wrong. So I wrote about trolling instead.
About roasting Trolls on the ends of your Pyroblasts?
My highest mage is only in his 30s and quite unplayed. He would be nice to trolls anyway. Be nice to trolls!
I’m convinced that I don’t write suitable titles for my articles in order for them to be picked up on WoW.com.
I mean, the few times we’ve been linked, they’ve been well for … boring posts, or ranty posts that happen to have *insert brand new game feature just released* in the title.
I’m sure that nobody actual read my (quite sarcastic and mean) 15 Things You Should Know About the Dungeon Finder before deciding it was appropriate for WoW.com readers.
Oh well. You’re quite right – it’s not something you count on. And suddenly being flooded with bizarre comments and new visitors who might not “get” you and where you’re coming from is always interesting.
I found your blog from other mage blogs, and instantly loved what I read. I’ve started using Google Reader just to make sure I don’t miss stuff.
Congrats on the linkage from WoW.com’s daily quest, it’s well deserved!
Ahh thanks… I tend to think of myself as a Mage themed blog.. I link the links, well they do me no harm…
Ultimately whichever way you got here is the best way!
i believe i found you through other mage blogs, too. also, i could not *believe* that you were not included on the initial list of wow.com mage blogs, so i just had to speak up. i’m glad they added you. i hope the traffic is not ALL bad. : )
Frank? Frank?
No.. you got to be Prelimar!
ha! yes, i go by many names. you may also know me as… dr. bombay… : )
I certainly do, although the synapses never connected.
Tell me about BridesOfMarch… And biker bars….
ha! google it — it’s just an annual spring pub crawl with a costume twist, that’s all. tell you this — you haven’t experienced life and fear as a man until you’ve walked into an unsuspecting biker bar in a wedding dress. luckily i was with many other guys (and gals) in wedding dresses, too, and we quickly all bought booze for eveyone and made friends. but for a few minutes there, it was kinda tense.
[...] reminds us that getting linked to by a “famous” site such as WOW.com isn’t without its [...]
[...] reminds us that getting linked to by a “famous” site such as WOW.com isn’t without its [...]