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06
Mar

Social Media Inspector - The Latest ‘Totally Useless’ Product!

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

generic 3d software box

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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16 Comments so far

  1. Andy on March 6th, 2008

    obviously you can’t take it seriously without a 3d cover! :p

  2. TzuVelli on March 7th, 2008

    Great write-up. I think you are right. Some people just want to take advantage of people.

  3. Sucker on March 7th, 2008

    @Andy
    Yeah, I had to pull out my “your name goes here” 3d cover ;)

    @TzuVelli
    “Social media” is the new buzzword and there are certainly some people that will take advantage of that at any cost.

  4. Jenny Ford on March 8th, 2008

    Thanks for your comment on my Hub,
    http://hubpages.com/hub/Social-Media-Inspector-Scam

    I’ve added an RSS feed from your blog to the page, now - keep it coming!

  5. ForexTrader on March 10th, 2008

    Thanks for this review and the tips to do it ourselves, really appreciated.

  6. Finance on March 11th, 2008

    Google is the best tools for SEO research ;)

  7. TT Loan-Shark on March 14th, 2008

    Another $47 software. Quick, where’s my credit card?! There are geezers in webmaster forums offering services like this for $10, and you’ll get a lot more links out of it.

  8. Ricky on March 16th, 2008

    I think your right, google is the best way to learn how the system works, it just takes some research to get there.

  9. Webhostingpad on March 17th, 2008

    Thanks for save my pocket from bleeding. I have go to squidoo to post it, it’s do follow, but it’s this work?

  10. Louiss on March 17th, 2008

    Great posts man! Squidoo comment section can give a weight on our link?

  11. Sucker on March 20th, 2008

    ^ I think the Squidoo comment sections are no-followed, but even if not, the links are still moderated by the page owner. So just leaving a comment doesn’t guarantee that it will actually show up.

  12. firepow on May 5th, 2008

    I actually was a victim and went out and bought this stupid software. This is what happens when you get sucked in by the sales letter and don’t check out any online reviews first.

    Thanks for the free way to do what social media inspector does minus the $47.

  13. Sucker on May 7th, 2008

    @firepow

    Glad I could help, because yeah, some of those sales letters are too good to resist!

  14. California Beach Vacations on May 8th, 2008

    Wow…. it’s ridiculous that people go out and actually buy this software…. why would you waste your time making software that is useless….. i don’t understand.

  15. How To Get A Six Pack on May 26th, 2008

    Good post, U agree though with the person above you could purchase a service for much cheaper on a forum

  16. luxury guy on June 30th, 2008

    Sometimes - it’s good idea to learn google operators and get some “juice for free”.
    Your article is strict enough, but honest.

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