Depression Should Never Be A Topic For Spam
Oct 15th, 2008 by zania
The Parasites Who Make Money Out Of Depression Sufferers
As Fraying Edges Depression Help grows, I get more and more spam comments. Nothing strange about that, all bloggers get them. I just have a very quick scan through to see that no one has been ‘Akismeted’ by mistake and then press the delete button.
But what really gets to me are those who set up spam blogs about Depression and then scrape the feeds from the serious depression blogs (you find out about this when you check your ’spam pingbacks’). These (usually) partial feeds are then posted on the spam blog, which is (if the spammer has done his or her homework) very well optimised to receive adsense clicks.
The spam depression blog’s only interest is in making money from your suffering. Nothing more, nothing less. If you tried to post a comment asking for advice, you would either be faced with comments turned off, or a request to ‘log in to comment’ which, of course, would be denied.
Spammers are trying to make money. Nothing else. They do not give a flying fig whether you are in the depths of despair or even suicidal. They simply want you to click on their adsense adds and make them a few measly bucks.
Why do I know this? For several reasons. The first being that whenever I receive a ’spam pingback’ from one of these blogs, I go and check it out…and it will always be filled with the same old crap. They will also nearly always be made with Wordpress themes I recognise as being produced purely for internet marketing. I know because I use them myself.
Following on from that, the second reason I know about this is that I too am an internet marketer. I know just how to ’scrape’ a feed if I wanted to. I know about optimisation, backlinks, article marketing, content ’spinning’, and loads of other ‘tricks of the trade’. Do I use them? Sometimes (but I will not scrape anyone’s feed - I honestly think it’s wrong to take someone else’s thoughts without at least without making a damn good reference to them first), and I do not spam.
And I would never produce a ‘made for adsense’ blog on Depression. The subject is much too serious to be treated this way. It actually upsets me to think that there are so many people on the internet who really do not care about anything other than taking advantage of people’s suffering and trying to make money out of it.
You see, the concept behind this type of marketing is to ‘fill a need’. It’s as old as the hills and I use it myself when writing some of my marketing blogs. But there are some needs which can be filled without turning oneself into a predator.
Would I make a mfa blog on the very ‘profitable’ subject of weight loss, even though I suffer from (latent) Anorexia? Yes, and I have some out there, and they are highly optimised for adsense. But they are filled with my personal thoughts on the subject and stressing that slimming is ok in moderation, but how to do it without endangering your health. I actually think I can give some valuable input on that.
Do I make blogs about the ‘high on the agenda’ subject of how to get out of debt? Yes, I have a couple. But they are not filled with scraped articles, as the majority are; they are researched before I post and, again, they try to be helpful.
Then there is stuff which comes under the pseudonym of ‘mens’ health’ and fits very well on my adult blogs (which of course also fill a need even though some may think otherwise…). Is it harming anyone to read these articles? No, I don’t think so (although some of the ‘contraptions’ for ‘men’s health’ I would rather not think about…).
Basically, when it comes to marketing (on the internet or in ‘real life’), I think there are some ‘needs’ which can justifiably be approached and others which the uninformed person just trying to make a buck should steer clear of. And Depression and all mental illnesses fall into this latter category.
I even wonder whether the (very few) adverts I have on this blog are really worth having there? The book reviews are ok. I read them before advertising them, and the adverts for the ‘zen’ things are useful rather than harmful, but that ‘panic away’ button at the bottom of the blog I do wonder about…. The CD is okay though….
As for putting adsense on this blog. I did try it for a while, but as it was not even secondary to what this blog was about, it simply didn’t fit, and the adverts which appeared I felt woukl have been more distressing to the depression sufferer than helpful. So I took them off. Others manage this and still produce a helpful blog, but they are very careful how they treat the whole concept. It is not these depression bloggers I am talking about here - just the ‘mfa parasites’ and they know exactly who they are.
But anyway, I just needed to get that off my chest. Those thoughts have been lingering away in the background for some time and just had to be expressed 
And after that rant, I am wondering whether this article will be scraped for one of those ‘mfa depression blogs’? If it is, I hope the spammer actually reads it. But that is unlikely because he or she will have their ’scraper’ set on automatic and will never find out that I think they are close to being the scum of the earth…
It took a while to understand what ’scraping’ is, I did not moderate them in the beginning but I do now. The fact that depression is a specialized niche (a popular one too..;) makes it all worthwhile to feed on others’ contents. I’m not too sure if they actually make money out of it….did they?
Off-topic: Are you abandoning your MMO blog? As I see that you are not updating it anymore..
Yan
Hi Yan,
thanks for dropping by here
For me personally, depression is not profitable at all, lol!
Although I guess it is for some of the ‘mfa-ers’. There’s more money to be made, I reckon, in the ’self-help’ stuff, but I don’t do much on that, because, to be painfully honest, hardly any of it works!
This post has already been scraped a number of times. It’s funny actually, seeing some of the blogs it has turned up on (slimming tips as well as depression ones this time) - if the scraper blog owners actually read it they would realise their mistake
And I should imagine your blog gets scraped a lot, considering all that good content. Sad, but probably true. I guess all you can do is make sure you rank higher in the serps than the scrapers.
And off topic - well, I added an addition to my last post on my ‘mmo’ blog yesterday, but I haven’t updated it. Too busy with all my other blogs (and hosting problems myself).
Thanks for commenting here Yan.
I know it’s not really your type of thing to comment on a blog like this, so I appreciate that
I know it’s not really your type of thing to comment on a blog like this, so I appreciate that..
Well, that proves that I’m not the least depressed at all and I hate to make a presumption that you are… if you are not, why do you even care to create this blog in the first place?
When I first got to know you, I wasn’t too sure why you were in the adult niche…and I do now realize how profitable it is if done right. I’m experimenting with a financial niche at the moment and how much I make a week on adsense alone is worth more than a month (or more) on my blogging niche. I’m now beginning to have a pretty good idea of how to play the game…
Off-topic again: Have you seen PB recently? Kinda miss him..
Yan
Glad to hear you do not suffer from depression Yan. I’m afraid though I’m one of the millions who do (and I know I can hide it well…). Hence this blog. It’s kind of an outlet, but it’s grown into something more and basically, it’s my home on the net now
As for adult, I began writing erotica and it sort of ‘blossomed’ from there…. Adult webmasters are actually an okay bunch really (we just use language your granny probably wouldn’t like to hear…). And to be honest, there is less scamming going on among adult webmasters than in most other niches, so I’m happy enough there.
I heard from PB about three weeks ago and nothing since. And Neal has gone a little quiet of late too. But PB told me he reads Fraying Edges, so now we will see
I hate those sites with a passion, but most topics for spamming aren’t legitimate. I don’t know how these people set themselves up with all this garbage, but I often believe it’s just a trick to get someone to click on the link so they can drop malware onto your system.
One of my blogs is always getting ’scraped’ for one reason or another and it’s a bit of a pain following the trackback to it’s source and deleting the comment, but it is something that has to be done. The fact that there are those out there who do this sort of thing does not surprise me at all as the world is so full of lowlifes.
Hi, I’m new in this business. Yes I say business as I was supposed to do some money here. But I soon, yes very soon got other things to think about. I read so many posts about how much trouble and problems people have as stated above, so purely making money on peoples distress is not an option any longer. I try to provide them with content even if I’m not is a professional. And I have some experiencies from myself, friends and colleagues
I’m sorry…..but what is ’spam pingback’?….what is ’scraping’? I just started……..can I protect myself?
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My goodness, how on earth you guys found this site? You aren’t following me, are you?
Yan
I wanted to (sometime in the future) put in some adsense showing the medications that have worked for me and my friends (ie seroquel)
Is that wrong?
Nothing seems to be easier than seeing someone whom you can help but not helping.
I suggest we start giving it a try. Give love to the ones that need it.
God will appreciate it.
Yan, that’s the magic of CommentLuv. I saw someone wrote on the topic, and I followed it back here. Oh yeah, Zania did!
As for me Yan, it’s just way too long for me to remember what brought me here. Perhaps I was following you, I just can’t remember for sure
I first had panic attacks when I was twenty-one, and it’s been seven years since that time… I am taking Xanax for ages and it has been very habit-forming to me, and I’m heavily rely on medication! I’m searching for other option anxiety relief system which will help me gain total cure. I saw many people have great result with natural online panic treatment, I speculate if these sort of treatment truly do works?
Few days ago, I stumble upon this website - Relief Anxiety, and I do not know if this is what I’m searching for. It introduced 3 online programs that I not heard about, I wonder if any person had any experience?
Should I continue to take medicine or try alternative therapy? Any advice would be greatly appreciated…!