If it looks like spam and tastes like spam, it’s probably spam.

But what if it looks like ham and tastes like ham, could it be spam? Good question…

Apparently, if this “revolutionary” Blog Commentator software is any guide, spam that looks real is just fine and dandy.

This genius named Jason Thompson (whoops, maybe he’s a guru) has released some new blog commenting software that uses some screen-reading technology to actually “read” blog posts and leave thoughtful, relevant comments. Apparently it’s the same principle as contextual ad networks like Adsense.

Hey, what good would one of these sales letter be without outrageous claims?!

I’ll have to rank this right up there in quality with the BuyBlogComments service.

No one is going to buy this. I don’t care if they’re “limiting this launch to the first 300 people” and the slots will most likely “fill up in 30 minutes.” I can’t even tell you how many ebooks I’ve seen where they “sold out” the first day, only to [big surprise] find an extra 1000 copies in the supply room the next day.

And that even happens when they’re selling ebooks, which don’t take up all that much space in the supply room!

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As you can see, (unless you’re reading this in a feed reader, that is!) I have a new blog design! By adding all this extra junk in the header I have already shot up to A-list status!

Well, not really, but now I can at least pretend that I’m a hot shot!

And my MakeFunOfMe price is up to a whopping $3000! It’s a good value, though - a mere six times more than what John Chow charges!

I even have my own ebook! (Again, not really, because I’m still writing it, but the 3D cover graphic is the only thing that matters, right?)

But best of all, I am now a proud ScratchBack user! Yes, right there on the right is my ScratchBack widget. It’s pretty cool. By placing this one small widget on my blog, I’m hoping to sell a few links so that I can continue posting good stuff instead of shamelessly promoting $47 ebooks that are totally useless (other than a 50% commission.)

You scratch my back by tipping me $3, and you get a link right there! You won’t get any PR benefits, but if your link text is outrageous enough, some people might click through and check out your site!

I think a link like “I Don’t Know How To Make Money Online But Check Out My Make Money Online Blog Anyway” would get tons of clicks!

(Our first tipper, Link Building Tips, did a good job with their tagline. Then the work at home jobs one is even better, so take some hints from these guys.)

And it’s just $3 to get a link that automatically goes to the top spot. With only five links displayed, surely yours will get noticed.

Sound good? (If so, then tip me!)

Just to be clear, you scratch my back by buying a link - I don’t actually want you touching me!

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Another one of my favorite gurus is at it again! Duncan Carver, creator of the useful (and free) Comment Sniper software, has released a brand new piece of software called Answer Sniper.

If you couldn’t guess, it’s aimed at Yahoo Answers, which happens to be a good way to drive traffic to your site if you contribute useful answers. (Basically you answer people’s questions in your field of expertise and leave a link back to your site if applicable.)

But bringing this software for automating your answering into the internet marketing realm is just asking for spam…

And there you have it, a great example of the spam increase! Thank you Duncan Carver for bringing a ton of extra spam to Yahoo Answers. I can see it already - generic answers posted on every question, with the obligatory self-promotional link.

One jackass (seen above) comes to Yahoo Answers, and in response to a dieting question, leaves an idiotic response. I simply reported it and it was removed immediately… (which put a smile on my face, knowing that someone bought $97 spamming software and isn’t getting their money’s worth )

But as easy as that was, I’d prefer not to have so much spam…

Sure, you can use the software for legitimate uses, but the people doing that (i.e. answering Yahoo Answers questions legitimately) probably just use the RSS feeds Yahoo Answers provides for each topic, for free. If you do that, there’s no need for this software.

Again, another example of expensive software that makes things harder than the available free methods!

Although with such a long sales letter with small font, very few spammers will bother reading it. I sure wouldn’t. Would you?

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Attention: Boost Your Profits By Tapping Into An Unlimited Source Of Quality Links And Targeted Traffic From Two Popular Web 2.0 Sites…

Wow, that’s enticing. I’m frothing at the mouth to get a few links from a whole two popular sites!

I’m talking about Social Media Inspector if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s a new software release from Jeff Alderson that promises to get you a bunch of quality links from the latest Web 2.0 craze.

Well, if you still think Web 2.0 social media is the latest and greatest thing, then maybe this useless software is for you! But if you have any sense, you’ll see right through the sales pitch.

Let me save you some money…

First, what’s the point?

The whole premise behind this software is that Squidoo and HubPages are two hot sites with great ranking power in Google, and building pages there will get you #1 rankings instantly. (Well, that’s not even close to being true anymore, but that’s besides the point…)

Now building a good page does take time, so a [supposedly] better idea is to bypass the page building all together and take advantage of those who have already built quality pages on Squidoo and HubPages. To do that, simply leave a comment on one of the pages and you’ll get an authority backlink in minutes. (Also completely false, but it’s a sales pitch so I wouldn’t expect any less.)

Then what does the software do?

Simply, the software finds these quality Squidoo lenses and Hubs. You put in a keyword and the software finds the highest ranking pages at Squidoo and/or HubPages.

Then you can just browse to those pages and leave a comment for link building purposes.

And I think that’s all it does. (At least they’re not over-promising the features!)

If I understand correctly, the software doesn’t do much of anything, but what it does do is help you spam?

Pretty much.

Even worse than the sparse feature list is the fact that the entire strategy behind this linkbuilding method is worthless.

See, getting a Lens or Hub to rank #1 in Google is just as hard as building a site yourself and getting it to #1. Want the #1 spot for car insurance? Ha, good luck. Want the #1 spot for carlottaspurinsurance? Well, you can get that easily with any sort of web page.

Going further, comments on said pages are moderated, so your comments might not appear at all. If they are the least bit spammy, they’ll be deleted. Also, in most cases, you must be a Squidoo or HubPages member to leave a comment (in which case the comment just links back to your own Squidoo page.)

Again, this linkbuilding strategy is completely and utterly pointless.

But what if I really do want these links?

If your heart is set on these links, then we’ll get some. However, we’re going to skip Social Media Inspector and instead use a free alternative.

Instead of wasting $47 on software that doesn’t really do anything, I use a free alternative, known to a select few as Google. Yeah, it’s one of those closely guarded secrets.

Step 1: Go to Google and type in site:squidoo.com keyword.

The Social Media Inspector sales page uses golf as an example, so that’s what I’ll use: site:squidoo.com golf.

And in a fraction of a second, I get a list of results. You might think, “they’re not listed in the order or PageRank like Social Media Inspector gives you.”

To that I say, “who cares?” They are ranked in order of importance by Google itself. Considering you’re trying to build links to increase Google traffic, I think their ranking is a pretty good indicator of page quality!

Here we go… In about 5 seconds, I found four PR3 pages.

http://www.squidoo.com/golfexercisebook
http://www.squidoo.com/thecellophanebridge
http://www.squidoo.com/Golflessonacademy
http://www.squidoo.com/golfgiftsideas

Step 2: HubPages is the same way.

Use this search: site:hubpages.com/hub/ golf

And I find another three pages.

http://hubpages.com/hub/The_Perfect_Golf_Swing
http://hubpages.com/hub/The_Cross_Hand_Golf_Swing
http://hubpages.com/hub/Fixing-Golf-Slice

They’re all PR1, but that’s not so bad.

So that was about 30 seconds if you went slow. Even if Social Media Inspector cuts the time in half, is 15 seconds worth it?

Step 3: Leave your comments and hope for links

Wow, you’re right, Social Media Inspector is useless.

Yep, I just saved you $47

So what’s up with this Jeff Alderson character?

I’m not sure. This Social Media Inspector crap seems like a bad joke.

I’m not trying to knock Jeff Alderson or his software, because I actually have some of his other stuff and have been pleased with it, along with his customer support.

But I think that this particular piece of software is just taking advantage of people who are trying to blindly jump into the social media trend (when instead it should be providing a lot of value and time savings.) Seriously, take a little lesson in social media before buying something like this.

So I won’t be buying this one, that’s for damn sure.

However, sometimes no matter how much I make fun of something, you think I’m wrong. And that’s OK, you’re entitled to your opinion. So if you have some weird desire to buy this software, click here and go to www.socialmediainspector.com.

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