Just enter your first name and valid email address below, then click the5 Life Threating Reasons That Made Me Hate Blog Memes And Link Trains
This post is dedicated for my buddy, Paolo Mendoza. He made that banner for me. Looks cool eh? ;)
In the past months (specifically May, June, July) link trains were a big hit in the blogosphere. The big ones were the Technorati favorites train, viral tags and the Alexa redirect train that I started. Yes, I guess I’m one of those guys who made the mistake to take the ticket and ride. It wasn’t that bad though, we all make mistakes anyway.
Another thing is blog memes, people just don’t stop tagging me! It makes my head hurt. I just hate it. Why? Just think about these:
1. Irrelevant Content
Probably the number one reason why I hate these memes and trains. Although some trains are relevant these memes are not. I mean, just take a look at them, some have the “5 things you didn’t know about my cat” or maybe “10 things I hate to love�? or “7 things to blah blah blah!” Uhh, what does it have to do with my making money online again?
2. Duplicate Content
Like what I said awhile ago, link trains were a big hit in the blogosphere in the past months. Almost every “make money online” blog blogged about it, and because everyone blogged about it…
What do you get? Duplicate content.
Not only in Google’s eyes but also with your readers, which will eventually hurt your blog’s readership.
3. It’s A Waste Of Time!
I won’t finish this, if you just look at numbers one and two, you can see that these blog memes and link trains are worthless. Those are the two blog killers up there! It’s definitely not worth the extra Alexa rank, the extra Technorati fans, etc.
On A Second Thought
Joining memes is fun because not really all memes are irrelevant to your blog’s topic. We can exclude that.
For now, I have a challenge for you. Create your own meme (it has to be your own), tag me and if I like it I’ll make a post about it and answer it. Deal?
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11 Comments →
Agreed with you :arrow: . I never gave a thought that it can produce duplicate content :twisted: . Thanks for brighting my knowledge! :cool:
Some memes asks as many as 40 questions about those personal stuffs! Will you do this? :mrgreen:
“5 things you didn’t know about my cat� or maybe “10 things I hate to love� or “7 things to blah blah blah!� Uhh, what does it have to do with my making money online again?
This is true..it’s non-sense
Hi Carl,
I’ve tried a few of link trains and it doesn’t really drive traffic to your blog unless you were the one that started the link train. You have to be more creative and provide quality/unique content to get readership and authority in your industry.
Cheers,
Carlo Selorio
So are new bloggers too late for the train? :D That meme challenge sounds interesting though. Hmmnn… :)
To be honest, I haven’t heard the term “blog memes” before. Did read the “Virus of the Mind” about memes, but never came across this term before. Seems like I should be paying more attention to new terms.
I’ve only just started blogging a couple of months ago and in that time I’ve seen all sorts of trends popping up on all the make money blogs - link trains, memes, contests, paid reviews etc etc. After a while, all the blogs that do this all start to sound the same. Personally I’d rather stay away from all that rubbish and just write.
Memes can be fun, but remember that Google has now changed their rules, and linktrain memes can now get you into trouble.
Hey Carl
I share you view on these memes. In fact, I put up a challenging meme for you over at my website. I think it is worthy of your time especially now after all the PageRank hubbub. For a 14 year old, you are sure ahead of most of the class.
Keep up the good work
yeah! it’s like like the SMS thingie with “pass it on,or else you will regret” concept.
Ok, this post is old but you didn’t say the challenge was revoked :) so since I just made my first meme ever, I’m tagging you with it.
http://whall.org/blog/2008/01/21/divination-meme/