While Drinking My Morning Coffee…
This morning I was going through my email and had a few dozen new Twitter followers (thanks to all of you who follow by the way) and clicked through to their Twitter profile pages. I always like to do this to see if who’s following me seems legit or if they’re using some automated Twitter script to gain as many followers as possible. I also like to check out their site link and see if it’s someone I might be able to collaborate with on WordPress projects.
I came to one profile page and the latest tweet (with a http://dlvr.it/ short url) referenced an “Attacker” who ambushed a woman, dragged her into the woods, and tried to rape her. This tweet had a hash tag of #Orlando_FL among others and that piqued my curiosity because I know several females in Orlando. So I clicked through.
I was expecting to see a full article from an Orlando newspaper or news station, but what I saw both shocked and saddened me. Say it ain’t so…
What Clues Led Me To WordPress Autoblogging?
First off, there was no full article, only the headline and summary that I had already read in the tweet + two urls pointing to the source of the news. Make me click, then click again? How dare you! I had been duped by someone using WordPress with some type of automated blogging plugin at work.
How Do I Know For Sure?
Along with the first clue above regarding short content and links back to additional sources, the other obvious clue is…what the hell is Spongebob doing on an article about attempted rape!? Look closely at that last arrow…guess where the image source is…yep, Flickr. It was only posted there a mere 76 months ago!
It was only so obvious to me because I’ve tried autoblogging. Yep, I admit it. I’m a recovering autoblogger. It started innocently enough. I just wanted to bring in a little extra content to a site I was already writing for daily. Just enough to entertain my readers and allow me to post a bit less often. It was a miserable failure…or a great success about a lesson learned if you’re a glass-half-full type of person like me.
The Moral Of The Story Is…
Just as in life, there are no shortcuts in creating quality online content. No matter what fancy tools come along and try to claim otherwise, the old saying stands true, “Garbage in, garbage out.”
You will ruin your otherwise original content by surrounding it with fluff no one wants to see.
You will piss off your loyal readers because they will know your passion is not there. Why would they want to read your site when you don’t even write anything?
Google and others will know, and punish you accordingly.
You will feel like a cheater and less of a man…or woman.
What Do You Think About Autoblogging?
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