How many times did this URL appear in your logs? I'm not sure that it's spam if a real person visits your site once or twice, regardless of the Referrer URL they leave. If it's clogging up your logs, that's another story though. Also, wouldn't this URL benefit Amazon.com in any link-counting algorithms? Not sure how it helps the "spammer," unless you're in the habit of buying books found in your website's acess logs.
Hi Simon,
It's not clogging up my logs, however, if someone has deliberately left an affiliate link in my logs for me to click on, that's unwelcome and underhanded.
It helps the "spammer" in that they got a an affiliate cookie set when I investigated the link. Now if I purchase anything through amazon, they get a commission. They put a link to an affiliate marketing book, which I suppose I'm more likely to purchase than a random book.
Yes, only amazon benefits from the link pop in this case.
It's not unusual for me to see stuff like this in my logs. Usually it's a clickbank link on some get rich quick ebook or something. It's the affiliate who's link this is that caught my attention.
Maybe it's an accident, or a technical glitch, or someone messing with me, which is why I didn't publish the ID.
Ok, I think I've got a reasonable explanation, which I wouldn't have come to so quickly without the collective thinking of some readers. So thank you!
Here's what happened....Shawn puts his affiliatetip blogs into his Amazon page somehow (master marketer, Shawn is.) Since he is a prolific writer, the posts cycle off the page pretty quickly.
Shawn DID have a link to my site in one of his posts, which is now gone. I spoke to Shawn and the timing syncs up.
So someone must have clicked through this affiliate's link over to the Amazon page, and then over to my blog causing a legit referer.
Faith in humankind is restored. :)
Ok, I think I've got a reasonable explanation, which I wouldn't have come to so quickly without the collective thinking of some readers. So thank you!
Here's what happened....Shawn puts his affiliatetip blogs into his Amazon page somehow (master marketer, Shawn is.) Since he is a prolific writer, the posts cycle off the page pretty quickly.
Shawn DID have a link to my site in one of his posts, which is now gone.
I spoke to Shawn and the timing syncs up.
So someone must have clicked through this affiliate's link over to the Amazon page, and then over to my blog causing a legit referer.
Faith in humankind is restored. :)
> Now if only the prolific Shawn Collins would update his otherwise fine book on affiliate marketing for merchants.
Here's one of my resolutions from a blog post I made yesterday. ;-)
"I wrote Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants back in late 2000. Lots of things have happened since then, so I want to update the book. I am not sure what form this will take, though. Perhaps a new book, a series of white papers, video how-to guides, or whatever."
How many times did this URL appear in your logs?
I'm not sure that it's spam if a real person visits your site once or twice, regardless of the Referrer URL they leave. If it's clogging up your logs, that's another story though.
Also, wouldn't this URL benefit http://Amazon.com" rel="nofollow">Amazon.com in any link-counting algorithms? Not sure how it helps the "spammer," unless you're in the habit of buying books found in your website's acess logs.
© 2012 http://www.jangro.com/
RSS
I was reviewing refererers to jangro.com in my web server logs and of course an Amazon.com url would catch my eye:
http://www.amazon.com/ exec/obidos/ASIN/0789725258/ XXXXXXXXXXXXX-20/103-5085788-0070201I checked it out and this link goes to Shawn Collin's book, Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants.My first reaction was, cool, somehow a link to my blog ended up in the reviews or comments, or even one of Shawn's blog posts that end up there. But there's no link there.So I took a closer look and realized that there's an affiliate ID in that link. As Amazon's IDs are text and based on your username, it's pretty clear to me who this is.
I've X'ed out the ID just in case I've overlooked a more benign explanation. But it smells bad to me. Is this person referer spamming?
It's trivial to spoof a referer url so that a link ends up in someone's web stats. It's a common black-hat technique to do this, (a) to get direct traffic from the curious person who owns the web site, and (b) to get inbound links from web stats that are not secured and get picked up by search engines.There's a lot here to be a coincidence:1. The referer is an affiliate link.2. The link goes to an affiliate marketing book.
3. This url was deposited into the logs of a website owned by someone who is an affiliate marketer and a good target for this book.
4. The affiliate in question here is a well known figure in the affiliate marketing industry.Is there another reasonable explanation for how that referer ended up in my logs?
Please, someone help restore my faith in this individual.
Added: It became apparent to me that I may appear to be pointing fingers at Shawn here. I do not believe that it is him. The affiliate ID incriminates someone who is merely promoting his book.