While, it is a nice if not done before idea; why on earth would I actually want to pay for them to live the life of greatness whilst moving around the world. Their site states that this million dollar couple want to be provided with money to pay off their debts and travel around the world. Well, wouldn’t any of us like that. I know of a couple right here who would love that. Yeah it a good idea if it actually works and all that, but what about substance? What do you get apart from a possibly dubious warm fuzzy feeling as you pay off their debts? There is no information as to what coverage this pixel of expense will give you as a company or person. I am rather sceptical.

Yes, I have deleted it and maybe give them too much coverage by actually posting here. It just struck me as another blight on blogs. These type of things invariably spiral into copy catness. As if our lives weren’t blighted enough by viagra and the like. Now, I have some cheeky so and so asking for money for a pixel and suggesting it would "amp" their year – my year would be amped by spammers going away.

On one level good luck to them as I think they might need it unless they actually can provide some return on this investment in their overdraft. Just falls a bit into the you gotta be kidding now I hitting delete category. If anyone is interested I will now be selling space on my dog for advertising along with the buy a cell promotion I am currently running on my husband.

A selection from the few this week I have had the pleasure to land in my inbox includes :

“Logofuture wiIl provide your business with a custom, professionally-looking loqo and corporate identity .We will make your visuaI image unique to distinguish you from the competitors and memorable to leave a lasting impression on your customers.”

“lt is really hard to recollect a company: the market is full of suqqestions and the information is overwhelming; but A GOOD CATCHY LOGO ,STYLlSH STATIONERY and OUTSTANDlNG WEBSITE wiII make the task much easier. We do not promise that havinq ordered a Ioqo your company wiIl automaticaIly become a world Ieader: it is guite cIear that without qood products, effective business orqanization and practicable aim it will be hot at nowadays market; but we do promise that your marketing efforts will become much more effective. Here is the list of clear benefits:
Creativeness: hand-made, original logos, specially done to reflect your distinctive company image. Convenience: logo and stationery are provided in all formats; easy-to-use Content Management System lets you change your website content and even its structure. Promptness: you will see logo drafts within three business days. Affordability: your marketing break-through shouldn’t make gaps in your budget. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed: we provide unlimited amount of changes with no extra fees for you to be sure that you will love the result of this collaboration.
Have a look at our portfolio
not interested…” : I really like the fact that this one offers a not interested link. Note also the great typographical use of CAPITAL letters and that designer touch of misspelling.

Designers have delicate egos and I am lead to wander how many e-mail logo or web design related designer suicides there are. It is late at night and the poor designer is working on the 20th batch of logos for client x, or she is pushing pixels to get css to play nicely with all the browsers….. That oh so not comforting boing comes from the mail reader and voila instant samaritians moment. They just plainly don’t consider the implications of their actions these spammers. It’s just plain rude!. Either that or it is some plan to rid the world of all the web designers and is being lead by Spooks or something. I think I need an early night.

My only weapon so far has been a rather droopy sword of removing all html commenting. I don’t like doing this and would love to give the option. I plan to infact, but I have yet to figure out a fool proof way to get around the link spammer. The unfortunate product of this security knee jerk reaction is the number of empty posts I have. The total today was a record breaking 23 for this site.

There is an interview Register of a link spammer. In it “Sam” lives the life of riley due to the profit from PPC (pills, porn and casinos). Rather nice for him life is too with the jaguar car, good house and kids. In this interview, one of the main bits that interests me is the quote from this spammer :

“You could be aiming at 20,000 or 100,000 blogs. Any sensible spammer will be looking to spam not for quality [of site] but quantity of links.”

I have seen a lot of people saying “oooo I got link spam therefore I am” – this kind of wees all over that declaration. Along with this the rather nice co-point of “hits and comments only don’t maketh a site”.

One thing is sure that considering what is outlined as the theory on how you link spam, the content of the site isn’t the thing. It is the pound stretcher bargain basement approach to advertising. Along with it’s close cousins email and form spamming, link spamming is a part of the online world and probably they are all set to stay.

Just a quick google can help with ways to bash them on the head. I have been looking into this lately and thinking of applying some of the things I have been looking at. Ultimately, I don’t like the idea of not enabling html in posts. It kind of feels like using a rocket launcher to squash an ant.

My first look comes to the subject of only allowing comments from users. I really don’t like this idea and as a result won’t be using it. Basically, I don’t think blogs should force a sign up – you have to sign up to breathe online lately and it gets rather tired. So, what else can I do apart from tiping the balance to a one-sided view and removing comments totally?

Of course, all of this would be easier if I just gave in and used wordpress or moveable type. I still at this point don’t want to so this is sort of not in the mix of consideration. For me, I like having written my own blog front and back. It might be a rather vain and ego thing, but it as I have posted before this is an experiment I am rather enjoying.

It appears I have to do a bit more thinking on my tackling of this. I might even need to dust off the old thinking cap that has been put away due to migraines. If anyone has any idea I would be going the php route for this endeavour.