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November 26, 2006
Review: Forum Equalizer
I have just received an advertisement for a new product called Forum Equalizer and cannot refrain from commenting, no matter how unpopular I might be for my comments. Forum Equalizer is the latest in a product line created by Jeff Alderson, which includes Traffic Equalizer, Press Equalizer, Article Equalizer and more. Alderson's products frequently nudge the spam line, but this is an absolute disgrace!
The way it works is that you can write a post to a forum - and the software will automatically post it to "2100+" forums without the poster ever having to log on to said forum. The point, of course, is to get tons of backlinks - backlinks that the user hasn't earned and doesn't deserve.
One of the ironies of the piece of trash is that the advertising email states, "Submitting to more than a few forums sucks your valuable time dry!" Question for Alderson and his partner, Rod Beckworth: what about the time of the forum participants? what about the time of the forum owner who will have to delter this stuff? Clearly, that is irrelevant. The very nature of a forum is that it is a community, a source where people share. Forum Equalizer completely negates that entire concept.
There are only two groups who will be interested in this software:
1. Those who are totally selfish and care nothing for the good of the Net or the Internet marketing community.These are the same people who complain loudly about the price of products they have to buy - while feeling mistreated if they don't receive top dollar for the stuff they are selling.
2. Newbies, who don't understand what the marketing game is about and truly believe this is a shortcut to high SEO position. It isn't.
Message to both groups: this won't work for long - it at all. Google is Top Dog in SEO these days and they have large numbers of employees and bazillions of dollars to spend in combatting this kind of junk. Can we really believe they don't know about this? Are we to assume that they won't quickly find a way to negate these kinds of posts?
Sadly, the way they will most likely put a stop to this will be to discount all legitimate links coming from forums, from those folks who work hard to include thoughtful and helpful posts. We've all seen this same cycle many times: blog spam on this very blog being a case in point. Legitimate traffic sources work - and then here come the spoilers who want to find the easy way out.
The word for this is SPAM! Yes, spam, spam, spam. Let's not kid ourselves that since it isn't email related, it isn't spam. And Alderson and Beckworth know better. And clearly don't care. Their profits are all that matter.
Oh, and by the way, if you buy Spam Equalizer, you get a bonus ... it's called Guestbook Equalizer and its sole purpose is to spam guestbooks in the same way.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at November 26, 2006 11:38 AM
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Comments
Enjoyed your comments about Forum Equalizer. I was tempted to buy it until I read your information. Would appreciate your letting me know you got this message, at my barleygreen address above. Also would appreciate any further comments regarding sharing information and Internet promotions. I am a newbie.
Thanks for your efforts. Norm A.
Posted by: Norm at December 8, 2006 9:15 PM
I'm a forum owner and I really feel the pain from this stupid software. Not do I get the same stupid posts over and over again. It doesn't seem to bother them to spam my forum time after time.
I have a hard time to keep my ban control up to date. First I ban the username and then I ban the ip address. Not only am I annoyed by this, my legit forum members are starting to complain about the garbage posted.
There must be a way to block this.
Posted by: Peter at December 25, 2006 6:54 AM
