Content Leeches

There is a new scourge on the net - what I affectionately refer to as content leeches. Okay, maybe they're not entirely new, but definitely more widespread and accepted (and utilized) by the masses more than ever before, due to their friendly appearance and convenience.

These sheep in wolves' clothing seem harmless enough, and portray themselves as "free" content hosting services. I could easily name some BIG sites that have been growing in popularity recetly, but I will instead keep this word of caution vague, for fear of retribution. However, anyone on the internet today is likely to have used one of the many services that fall into this category, since I am referring to popular video, audio, photo, and even *gulp* blogging services. While these new media giants advertise their services as being "free" for users, in reality we are giving up our rights everytime we choose to post something on them.

Read what you "digitally" sign very carefully when joining these services. In most cases, if you are savvy enough to decrypt the legal disclaimers, you will quickly discover that by posting your content on many of these sites, you are in effect, giving them an irrevocable unlimited right to that content, to use (and abuse) as they (and any of their successors) see fit. This is frightening, to say the least, for copyright holders and anyone who would like creative control over how their content is being distributed and sold.

The word irrevocable especially worries me, as I don't like the idea of creating a contract with any entity that will never expire. Although I may agree with how they use my content at this point (I upload a photo for free and send my family over to the site to view it), the future usage of my content can change at any time without my blessing once I've signed their contract (like when they sell my photo to somebody like Pepsi, retain the profit for themselves as a "distribution fee" and earn thousands each time it is aired).

This, however, is the new face of internet media. Why pay an artist, musician, photographer or writer for their work, when you can instead put together a "free" hosting service on the internet for these creative thinkers and gain immediate unlimited access, sales and distribution rights to their work for free?

blind progress

Big money finds its way into every nook and cranny in this country. No matter where you go to try and escape the influence of blind progress, it rears its ugly head. Small towns with seeming control over their heritage and a fever for historic preservation quickly show their true colors when a big time developer eyes the town, promising revenue. It doesn't matter that the developer will eseentially change the entire look and feel of the town. It only matters that he who has the money gets what he wants, and that the decision makers who let him get away with it get their kickbacks.

I am feeling quite disgusted right now, as you can tell. The American way of life, with its shopping malls, luxury condos, Starbucks, and WalMarts, is inescapable, even in areas that don't seem like they would produce a profit for these behemoth corporations. It's like a virus spreading to every cell in our American blooded body.

I know that this is nothing new, and that I am by no means a pioneer in anti-corporate sentiment, but I am seeing it firsthand once again and felt the need to react somehow. Sorry to blabber on...

The PayPerPost controversy

PayPerPost just received $3 million in venture capital, and has been at the cusp of controversial discussion lately.

It is a heated topic, and the primary trigger for all of the controversy has to do with disclosure. With the service, bloggers get paid a predetermined amount for name-dropping within their blog about a service or product. The advertiser determines what is required to get paid - links, images, word count, etc. Journalists are also upset about the fact that these advertisers also determine whether the post is to have a positive, negative, or neutral spin. Currently, the blogger is not required to disclose to their readers that it is a paid post, or that they are affiliated with the PayPerPost program in any way.

Alarmists are reporting that this new service will "pollute the blogosphere" and are calling for boycotts against blogs participating in it. Other "blog purists" are content with posting negative publicity for the service on their blogs. Personally, I don't see a problem with this new service, as I believe that readers are smart enough to see through paid plugs and honest ones. I would also say that they aren't giving bloggers enough credit, when it comes to our integrity. For example, If I were to sign up this blog in the PayPerPost service, I wouldn't post positive commentary on anything that I didn't think deserved it. Getting paid to plug a site that I already like would be a nice bonus, and I wouldn't feel ashamed to do it.

As for disclosing that I was using the service, PayPerPost pays their bloggers to namedrop their service all over their blogs, so I think my readers would get the idea pretty quickly. Even if they didn't, I would have no problem disclosing that I was using the service, and wouldn't deny it if questioned.

Regardless of what your opinion is of this new service and whether it is ethical or not, you can't argue that PayPerPost has discovered a new target market and has cleverly invented a streamlined approach that blows the unpredictable nature of other blog revenue programs like Adsense right out of the blogosphere.

Ideas for Fighting Spam

Here's a technique that I have been using for several years now that has served me well...

1) Get your own domain name and host it with a basic CPanel account with POP email

2) Turn on the "black hole" option that trashes all email that is sent to unlisted addresses, like the commonly spammed "admin@mydomain.com" or "webmaster@mydomain.com" addresses

3) Create an email POP account that you will use as a catch-all for web services
for example: "stuff@mydomain.com"

4) Everytime you sign up with a new website, use that website's name in the email you give them.
for example: at myspace you would use "myspace@mydomain.com"

5) Create a forwarding order in CPanel and forward the new myspace email address to your catch-all address
like this: forward "myspace@mydomain.com" >> "stuff@mydomain.com"

6) Create a separate POP account for your personal email and never use it on a website, forum, chatroom or online store. Only give it out to trusted friends who aren't stupid enough to forward you email chain letters.
for example: "myname@mydomain.com"

That's it! Now you have a personal email account that will remain spamless if your friends are smart, and you have a generic catch-all email account to forward messages to every time you sign up with a new service. Whether it's

myspace@mydomain.com
yahoo@mydomain.com
ebay@mydomain.com
amazon@mydomain.com

...or whatever...just create forwarders to your catch-all address each time you create a new account at one of these websites. Sure, it sounds funny when you tell someone at enterprise rental car that your email is "enterprise @mydomain.com", but it will save you lots of headaches in the long run. You are setting up not only a spam fighting technique, but an email tracking tool, as well.

So if one of these websites gives out your email address, and you start receiving junk mail addressed to "myspace@mydomain.com", then you know that myspace was the one that sold you out. So you delete the "myspace@mydomain.com" forwarder and -*bingo*- no more junk mail.

Just be sure not to respond to anything or send mail with your catch-all account or you may expose it to spam. If you absolutely need to respond to a website via your catch-all account, you should temporarily change the "from" address in your email program to match the company you are responding to before you send it (so that your response to myspace comes from myspace@mydomain.com" and not the catch-all address.)

Hope this works for you!