Sphinning out of Control
Having been a user of Sphinn for quite a long time now, a site which I find very useful and I respect greatly for the general quality of news items posted there by its users, I’m becoming concerned about the volume of companies who think they can get themselves links from this site and actually think their mindless spam is worthwhile.
Sphinn is an INTERNET MARKETING news and discussions site which encapsulates many corners of web activity. It is NOT a resource for promoting car insurance deals, free gym equipment or information about gluten-free pizzas. Those thinking about organising an SEO strategy in this way should know that these types of links are usually deleted within a couple of hours after only several users report it as spam. Furthermore, the link is only influential for as long as the page is relevant which in most circumstances is not very long - so even if you avoid removal from the site, neither your traffic nor your page rank will increase.
I’d also make the same recommendation for StumpleUpon, but I’m not as familiar with this site. Ultimately I think social bookmarking is a very important factor in the sharing of information over the Internet and a great outlet for bringing traffic to your site - especially in circumstances where the content is fantastic, but the author, having no idea about SEO, will never get any readers. But we must be careful that the system isn’t taken advantage of. Spamming social bookmarking sites isn’t blackhat, but it is unethical and worthless - people will never learn. Someone once said SEO is a mug’s game. Sadly, I guess social bookmarking is only advocating that theory.
I can name a couple more that receive their share of spam links: PlugIm and Small Business Brief. Sphinn isn’t nearly as bad as PlugIM, and at least the Sphinn community is vigilant enough to mark the spam and get rid of it. On PlugIM, it’s just nothing but spam. Small Business Brief is about the same percentage of spam as Sphinn, and I try to do my part to mark it on both sites.
StumbleUpon is nothing like above mentioned sites. I guess thats why eBay bought it.. And I never really liked Sphinn