It has been irritating me all day like a piece of popcorn caught between my teeth. No matter how much I ignore the issue it doesn’t seem to go away. I am of course talking about the now well known email from Ted Murphy, to Gawker Media’s ever popular site Gizmodo. At first I thought to myself that Ted must think we are all completely oblivious to what is going on at PayPerPost, but every time I see the landslide of news in my reader or links to the latest story, the same conclusion comes to mind, Ted Murphy, "The Linkbait King" or Murphy "The Link Farmer." As my title suggests, whenever PPP needs a boost in links or whenever the news becomes stale, Murphy launches the latest linkbait scam of causing the blogosphere to buzz about the company. No matter what is said about PPP or about the ethics of the business plan or any other derogatory statement, Ted continues in his search for links. He continues his march to a different drum no matter what type of publicity results.
I too have been sucked into his vortex of link gathering with my own posts about the subject. I can’t help but grab my own torch and pitchfork to join the mob that is out to bury the company and the monster it has become. I have often said I would love to be in a panel discussion with the different types of business models of online marketing through social media, but I’m afraid a chair might get thrown and Murphy would turn it into another Geraldo Rivera publicity stunt. It’s almost an admiration on my part to see what slick move Murphy will pull out of his bag of tricks next. I’ll be keeping my eye out for the fertilizer Murphy is so apt to spread.
Tags: Ted Murphy, Gawker Media, Gizmodo, Pay Per Post, PPP, Linkbait, viral marketing
We are looking for additional speakers at PostieCon. I would love to have you share you perspective on the future of blogging. I promise I won’t grab any chairs.
Oh and thanks for the link ; )
Hi Ted, Both Jim and I would be interested in speaking at PostieCon.
No matter what is said about PPP, you do have a knack for staying top of mind!
Besides that somebody has to watch Scoble’s back when the mob gets loosed!
I am catching up on my reading a little.
Most of the time until recently PPP seems to be reactive and not proactive in marketing, other than Teds video exploits.
There has however been a subtle change.
Lots of links from the PPP blog through to their community offering tips to improve disclosure.
The occasional link out to sites that offer some level of support, I received the benefit of this recently both from DisclosurePolicy.org and the PPP blog.
It is strange, but the only people complying to the ideal disclosure in the first line of a post seem to be people doing paid reviews, and not the a-list.
It is ethically correct for those on the pinnacle to impose regulations on the masses that they themselves don’t adhere to first.