Viralink - Bite my shiny metal ass!!
Ive placed this post in the ‘Promote Your Blog’ category but only because i haven’t yet created a ‘How not to promote your blog’ category!!
I’m still amazed at how many people jump on board these link trains. I’m sick to death about posting about them but so many Blogging Tips readers are taking part in this one i had to say something.
The one that has been buzzing about the blogosphere in the last month is called Viralink. The train seems to have started from this post and the number of bloggers who have jumped on this bandwagon is quite scary.
Basically, viralink is a pyramid linking scheme. There are 120 stars (*) and each blogger makes the star a link to someone who has linked to them. This has resulted in hundreds of blogs with posts with stars on it - ive already unsubscribed from a few blogging related blogs because of it. The only person i believe has benefited from this is the person who started it all, Andy Coates.
As andy says, you WILL get lots of backlinks with Viralink. Unfortunately, i would have to agree with him as you will have 120 backlinks to you with the keyword *. Now go get yourself an ice cream and pat yourself on the back 
These pyramid linking schemes have been here since the start of the internet and i have yet to see anyone get any real benefit from it. I had hoped that they had put in the same coffin as frames and pop ups.
If you are looking to increase backlinks then this pyramid sceme will probably do just that but is it really worth it. By participating in these schemes you are filling your blog with bad content (linking to unrelated sites with a * can hardly be called a good post!) and alienating your readers. There is only one way to ensure you get good targeted traffic to your blog - writing good posts! I can’t stress this enough.
Sure, you may exploit sites such as Technorati and increase your backlink ranking there but this will not bring you any targeted traffic as the only people clicking on these stars are the people who posted the damn links!! Not only that, look what happens to your search listings at Technorati when you do take part in something like this. This is the the kind of search result Technorati will bring up for your blog if you take part in Viralink. As you can see, it makes searching for normal posts on your site a nightmare - it pretty much stops readers from being able to use technorati to research a site.
I don’t wanna talk too much more about this as i have already covered this before and let everyone know why i strongly believe these things to be a complete waste of time. Also, i do not want to tell readers what they should and should not do with their own blog. However, i do encourage you to reconsider how you promote your blog and what content goes on it.
Do you wanna stand out from the crowd or do you wanna jump on the bandwagon and write a post full of stars? Its your choice
thanks,
Kevin
p.s. for the record, i have nothing against the guy who started this and those who joined in - im just sick of the blogosphere using the same shitty promotion techniques that porno sites were using 10 years ago. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it! 
Brian Aldrich | June 18th, 2007 at 3:10 am #
So many schemes out there, it’s unbelievable.
GoddessCarlie | June 18th, 2007 at 6:37 am #
Have you also seen the viralink where there is a whole heap of slots saying “viralink” and you get to change one of these “viralink”s to your anchor text of choice? That way you get your key word linking to your blogs.
And, it’s a good idea, but it’s not something I want to see as a reader of a blog.
And well, if your blog is good enough, it should get link backs the normal way. When I see this on a blog, I immediately think “amature!” and I’m not impressed.
GoddessCarlie | June 18th, 2007 at 6:52 am #
OK, I was just browsing and I found another type… viral icons… I don’t think I need to say more. *sigh*
Deaf Musician | June 18th, 2007 at 11:19 am #
Awww, Kevin… you know you like stars! *********** hahahahha. Great post! I hate it too!
Rea Maor | June 18th, 2007 at 12:38 pm #
I personally wouldn
Success Online | June 18th, 2007 at 1:34 pm #
Will you ever forgive me. I had no idea how much of a pain in the ass it was going to be. I can’t get the frick out of it. I will never be doing that bs again. I will bite your ass Kevin… LOL
Almost time for you to come back
Zet | June 18th, 2007 at 6:20 pm #
I’m a Korean Blogger! And My blog contains rock musics across the world! Visitors can listen to any rock musics!
Is there any sites or blog where i can introduce my blog to the world bloggers?
I wanna communicate to the rock fans in the world~lol
Thanks for reading!
Alwitt | June 18th, 2007 at 9:41 pm #
There is another scheme called ViralTags which use “Host Tag” and we can choose what keywords to link to our blog.
Tejvan Net Writing | June 19th, 2007 at 1:51 am #
Bloggers think too much about technorati ranking. It is Google that is important and Google hate people try to scam them
Kevin | June 19th, 2007 at 9:34 am #
glad so many of you share my view on this
stephen - dont worry about it. nothing against anyone who uses this kind of thing - im just trying to make people understand that there isno get rich quick type way of making money from the web.
Alwitt - i believe your linking scheme is the same as viralink. The bottom line is, there is no benefit from trying to cheat your way to the top. Google prefers rich original content to one link on a page with hundreds of links
Jonathan-C. Phillips | June 21st, 2007 at 4:13 am #
You nailed it Kevin! I just don’t understand why people don’t get it - Viralink isn’t a good idea, same thing for the viralicon and the viraltags… It’s just bad linkbaiting… well anyway, when I sell links to advertisers on my blogs at least they know I don’t try to game the system to have them pay more. I just think people participating in those viralstuff are not doing good for the blogging world, while they could writing great articles, that are actually worth linking to.. oh well, I don’t get it!
Andy Coates | June 21st, 2007 at 7:23 am #
Wow, it seems there as been alot of debate about this over the past few days. I completely agree, Viral-Linking is not a get rich quich scheme and I never imagined it would become so widespread! This was a great experiment and I’ll guess we’ll se what does happen in the next PR update, hey , I may even make history and get negative PR! LOL.
I love hearing reviews of it, and understand, now that it has become so “used” it’s begining ot get the SPAM label, I just hope my name doesnt get the same spam association!
Im happy I started it and given the choice I’d do it again….Ok im ready to be taken away, cuff me and feed me to the Google Lions!
All the best
Andy
Kevin | June 22nd, 2007 at 1:03 am #
hi andy,
i dont think youll get a negative pr - haha
however, i do not think that the campaign has benefited those who have taken part. Bloggers time could be better spent doing something else
kevin
Harshakm | July 4th, 2007 at 12:54 am #
Viral Linking doesnt help in your PR
Lewis Empire | July 7th, 2007 at 11:46 pm #
Doesn’t a lot of low ranking links hurt an established blog’s Google rank?