Slogan for my website

*Wassercrats* · 11-16-2003, 10:47 AM

I just saw four new referrers in my stats--all blogs that appear to be new or under construction:
http://www.kwlablog.com/
http://www.jennifersblog.com/
http://www.bongohome.com/
http://www.saulem.com/

PoliSource is listed on the side, under "Links" or something simmilar.

How does "PoliSource.com: Favorite website of fly-by-night blogs" sound?
Or maybe "PoliSource.com: The perfect address for testing your webpage."

*Andilinks* · 11-16-2003, 05:10 PM

I don't think insulting your referrers is the way to build traffic. You could discourage all those pesky visitors with a simple "deny all" in your .htaccess file.

Andi

*Wassercrats* · 11-16-2003, 05:42 PM

They changed my link to aota.net. Those blogs were all put up in the last few days and the content seemed like filler until they get started. For example, PoliSource was listed as a referrer to one of the blogs, which it wasn't...but maybe they meant that they're referring those sites to their visitors. I guess someone might have actually liked my site rather than picked it out of thin air.

Well, at least they got some extra hits, and I'll be checking up on them once in a while, if I'm not blocked!

...I'm blaming this thread on sleepiness.

*Wassercrats* · 11-16-2003, 05:54 PM

I get it! The Referrer catagory was right, all those links are probably the most recent referrer! They had a bot going around visiting random websites, and people like me who clicked their link in our stats were listed on their page! Well, I'm not a referrer to them, and I don't want their bot visiting me! They probably have hundreds or thousands of random websites that their bot visits.

...I'm awake now.

*Andilinks* · 11-16-2003, 06:57 PM

It is odd because egovlinks.com was listed a a referrer to my site, and when I visited that site, jennifersblog.com was listed as a referrer there and aota.net is blogrolled on Jennifer's site.

jennifersblog.com is legit with archives going back over a year and some good references, I even added her link to my site. Looks to be a fashion blog though, not political.

I have been troubled by "referrer spam" for months now, it seems to be some web marketing companies' way of generating bogus traffic. The referrers generate 404's so I have my 404 file down to a minimal 138 bytes since I get hundreds of these referrer spams each month. They can be blocked with a mod_rewrite script but it is beyond my skill-level and the bandwidth drain is minimal--at least for now.

But it could potentially get much worse...

Andi

*Joe* · 11-16-2003, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Andilinks:
jennifersblog.com is legit with archives going back over a year and some good references,

I wonder how legit this site really is.

Quote:

Registrar: STARGATE.COM, INC.
Whois-Server:whois.stargateinc.com
----------------------------------------
Domain Name: jennifersblog.com

Name Servers
ns1.jennifersblog.com
141.85.3.106

ns2.jennifersblog.com
141.85.3.106

Domain Created: 11/8/2003
Domain Expires: 11/8/2004

Each entry on the blog has 4 comments which can't be accessed.

Like others, I found my site linked there.

*Andilinks* · 11-16-2003, 08:11 PM

I stand corrected. (Again, sigh--often wrong, never in doubt.)

Jennifer's Blog is a phony!

Andi

*Andilinks* · 11-16-2003, 08:40 PM

Add TEORAS.COM to the list, a referrer to my site in the last hour:

Name Server: NS1.TEORAS.COM
ICANN Registrar: STARGATE.COM, INC.
Created: 2003-11-08
Expires: 2004-11-08
Status: ACTIVE

scambot stay away...

Andi

*kitchin* · 11-17-2003, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Andilinks:
...I have my 404 file down to a minimal 138 bytes...

Andi, you might want to make that 512 bytes, due to an issue with IE 5 and it's default "friendly" 404 pages, if that's a concern for you. If you don't mind IE presenting its "friendly" page instead of your custom 404, then 138 bytes is fine.

See also my 404 worry-too-much here:
http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=64980

*Andilinks* · 11-17-2003, 02:14 PM

Hmmm...

20% of today's traffic used IE5.

If the "friendly" 404 still presents a link to my root directory it is more than adequate, but I don't know if it does.

Since the spam referrers have at times hit hundreds of times a day and the potential is probably much greater I think I will keep the tiny 404 until I can figure out the mod_rewrite solution. It hasn't been much of an issue because my bandwith usage is well within the package limits, but that may change.

Thanks for that Kitchin.

Andi