As more and more people look for the “easy solution to making money”, they find themselves exploiting affiliate links on their favorite social networking sites. Unfortunately these social networking sites are also yours and my favorite social networking sites. It’s sad to see the fruit of the web rotting in front of my eyes and, unfortunately, there is little I can do about it. CAN-SPAMM laws only protect us from e-mail spam (or try to), but will there be a move to protect your favorite social media site? One can only hope. If the educational fiber of sites like Plaxo, Facebook, etc gets permanently tarnished to the point where you can’t weed out the legitimate from illegitimate posts, then i might have to resort back to books :0 (god forbid).
What kills me is that affiliate marketers that exploit social networks don’t believe they are spammers. Well, I would let that slide if I wasn’t getting links shoved in my face for “Air Conditioners” inside a “Help Zimbabwe” group. Others try and say that the community “will benefit from these products”. Well, honestly, I think the marketer is the only one that benefits from these products and I guarantee you I could find a cheaper, better quality product than whatever your getting paid to promote.
So please keep your spam *cough* I mean affiliate links on your own websites and out of my networks. And, to all of the innocent, none the wiser, social media participants who DO want to purify they’re network groups, don’t be afraid to speak up.
*Note: For all the Plaxo members who have fallen victim to these links all you need to do is click the ‘hide’ button under the users link which you believe to be spam. Hopefully over time the spam will go down and we can clean up our community.