Spam Impersonates Robert Benchley
I’ve realised I’m on skepticism overload. There’s a post from early August on Ben Eltham’s blog that I just got around to reading. He’s linked to an article about freelancing, by Richard Morgan, on The Awl.
I clicked through to the article and it was hilarious but the dial on my skepticism meter went into the red. It was a little TOO entertaining. He’d had such a picturesquely difficult time. It read like carefully plotted outrageously good and bad luck. And the happy ending of a staff job in Memphis? Hmmm. But if I follow William Gibson’s advice I should believe the unbelievable.
But what really got me wondering was this comment, which reads like spam doing a Robert Benchley impersonation:
“I think the freelance world may have changed a bit. As in, I believe modern-day freelance writers should also consider correct Web 2.0 Freelance Blogging methods. It involves time and effort, but the end result is enough AdSense revenue to subsist on as a freelance writer: * Blog often. * Write separate articles about your topic to submit to sites that accept articles (GoArticles.com, for example); the articles provide important back-links to your blog. * Quote and link to subject matter experts from within your blog. *Also post comments at blogs that allow comments (like this one), specifically for the additional back-links. * Lean toward maximizing AdSense placement, without overkill; in other words, placing AdSense ads at the top of blog posts between title and text will maximize exposure, but you are only allowed a certain total number of AdSense ads. * And, finally, don’t give up because it’s not a scam and it actually works over time. SK”
