Sunday, March 16, 2008

Blog Ad Scam?

Just a note to fellow bloggers out there. I got this email today:

Hello,



We have reviewed your blog on behalf of one of our clients that would
be interested in placing advertising with you.



Client profile :

DoingFine (http://doingfine.xxx)

New project (<1 month old)

Theme A forum dedicated to those things that came out right

and worked out fine.



We'd like either a 150x150 button, 160x600 skyscraper or 468x60 full
banner (or footer). Alternatively, we may be interested in text-only
advertising.



This would be a weekly, monthly or yearly arrangement. In either case
we will require a one time, one day (24 hours) free placement in order
to test the quality and quantity of traffic your website can actually
provide*. Within this interval, we will make a final determination,
based on the traffic volume, quality, and your asking price. Should
we find your terms acceptable, this trial day will count towards the
agreed interval.



Kindly let us know if you would be interested, which arrangement best
suits your editorial needs, and what rates you would like to charge.
We prefer using PayPal but may be able to accommodate alternative
payment methods.



Thank you.



*Please note that we employ software that reliably detects autoclick
and autosurf bots, pay per click and paid to surf type traffic, and
other such non-human traffic. This may be a concern for you,
especially if you are buying "bulk traffic", or employing the
services of dubious "SEO experts".


A little research revealed these no-so-glowing blog posts about Polmedia, the company sending out these emails (I'm not the only one getting this apparently):

Scamming By Spamming – They Just Won’t Quit!

The Right Way, The Wrong Way

Conclusion: This is either a scam or a very clumsy and inept marketer. Either way, who wants a piece of that?

No thanks Polmedia.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We've been getting the same email at BNN. It seemed odd, so I've ignored all three versions.