Purely For Money?

[Jeffro]

I mentioned this on Twitter earlier today and I was wondering, what could possibly be the motivations behind creating something like this?

wordpressmassinstaller.com

Is there really a market for something like this? It seems like this software could easily create a massive network that could then generate a trackback DoS attack on a site that all of their 10,000 created blogs link to. This piece of software if it works as advertised is like a splog network generating machine!

[MiroslavGlavic]

I mentioned this on Twitter earlier today and I was wondering, what could possibly be the motivations behind creating something like this?

wordpressmassinstaller.com

Is there really a market for something like this? It seems like this software could easily create a massive network that could then generate a trackback DoS attack on a site that all of their 10,000 created blogs link to. This piece of software if it works as advertised is like a splog network generating machine!

1) If my multiple blogs they mean WPMU....meh, but if they mean with one installation I can install in WPtavern.com, my site, andrea_r's site, chip's site and so forth then why the hell would I want that?

2) Isn't fantastico out there? Why would anyone want to pay $24.99 PER MONTH for that

3) They are breaking the wordpress trademark

4) I went back just after typing 3 and noticed this: Install 1000 blogs/hour. Spam blogs come to mind now.

[andrea_r]

Yes, money, yes there is a market. Unfortunately.

The mentality behind stuff like this (and the people who use them) is the exact same as the mentality behind spammers. A 1% return is "good".

So you set up a WP blog stuffed with google ads & scraped content. Makes you $3 a month. Now set up 1,000 that do that.

Miroslav - the part about different server is sites like this get shut down very quickly, even on shared hosts. So the people who do this tend to have multiple accoutns at multiple hosts, with multiple IP addresses. The programms allow you to connect with your own web hosts in various places.

[Jeffro]

Yuck, you pretty much just outlined what I saw during the trackback attack. Bunch of different hosts, junk domains, and different ip addresses.

[chipbennett]

Yuck, you pretty much just outlined what I saw during the trackback attack. Bunch of different hosts, junk domains, and different ip addresses.

Note: I don't think that the intent was malicious, though the outcome was the same, of your Backup Buddy trackback DDOS.

More than likely, you just hit on a valuable key word (backup), and some splogger tried to gain link-juice from you.

But, as you've demonstrated: it is certainly a valid means for someone to execute an intentional DDOS attack, should they desire to do so.

[Jeffro]

And what worries me is software that makes it even easier to carry out such an attack.

[Otto]

You couldn't make it into a DDOS unless you also had 1000 different hosts/servers.

But the purpose of these sorts of things is simple: splogs. Notice this key phrase:

WordPress Mass Installer allow you can create an entire network of blogs with its core a specific topic or niche.

This thing isn't just setting up blogs, it's posting to them too. With either generated or scraped content surrounding a specific topic you specify. The idea being to make them look legitimate enough to a search engine or casual glance, but not to somebody who's paying attention.

Set up 1000 sites on a big list of topics, scrape a truckload of content, SEO the hell out of it, and shove ads all over it. Voila, money maker. Ignorant, immoral, and probably illegal, but it can work.

It's inevitable really. When you make it easy for everybody to share their content, then you also make it easy for scammers like these to do the same.

[andreasnrb]

They aren't even that good. There are better tools for that sort of thing out there.
And it is big money. Check out WordPress Mage for example. The original software package went for $797 I think. And yes it works somewhat.
Most people who are into multiple blogs don't use this stuff. It mostly only work short time.
You usually buy a bulk of expired domains names which targets the niches you are after. These domains usually already have a bunch of links to them so you can take advantage of that. Then you put up around 10-20 miniblogs that link to your money blog/site. A couple squidoo, hubpages, ezinearticles, blogger, wordpress.com blogs and wohoo you get to the nbr one spot on google if you have done it right.
Also you ofcourse don't host those 10-20 blogs on the same hosting provider but spread it out. Most people also change the registrar information so it can't be linked back to the moneysite.

[Ryan]

Meh, this sort of thing has been around for a long time. I consider this a problem for Google mainly. They seem to do a good job of blocking them and hopefully they'll continue to.

[andrea_r]

You should see the software out there for setting up massive wpmu installs and/or splogging the same.