I Hate MySpace Sites
June 16, 2006 Posted by Tyler CruzIt always surprises me how fast time passes. I can’t believe it’s already been 5 days since I last posted.
I Hate MySpace Sites
In case you’ve been living underneath a rock for the past year, MySpace sites are a very popular craze right now. I know virtually nothing about MySpace and MySpace sites, but I’ll comment on what I do know.
MySpace sites are MySpace resource sites that usually offer some type of content or service, usually such as backgrounds, layouts, or other bits of crap. Like MySpace, they are usually ugly and don’t really offer anything useful. MySpace webmasters, whom I will hereon refer to as Space Rangers, then litter their sites with either AdSense or YPN.
They then will send bulletins to thousands of ‘friends’, essentially spamming them. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly since people who use MySpace are morons, a fairly large % of people click on the links contained in the bulletin and then proceed to click with a high CTR on the adverts on the Space Rangers’ sites.
How do the Space Rangers get so many friends? Oh, through various means. Many use automated scripts/bots which basically spam/auto-add people. Many people buy names off of other people, and I’ve even heard of a guy hacking/stealing people’s accounts by setting up a fake website getting people to enter their passwords.
No matter the way people are getting their ‘friends’, they are essentially spamming them. I have an immense hatred for Space Rangers. They are making an absolute KILLING, and I don’t use that term lightly, by taking advantage of the sheer size of MySpace, the stupidity of the members, and worst of all, spamming them. Quite frankly, I’m very surprised these SpaceRangers make so much money.
Now, most web entpreneurs in my ‘circle’, my circle being peers who are around my level of webmaster experience and income, are SpaceRangers, and many people may say that I am either jealous and/or stupid (for not becoming a SpaceRanger and making dough until SpaceCamp ends).
Let me rebut to that. I won’t deny that I may be slightly jealous of how much SpaceRangers are making – did I mention how much yet? Many are making between $300 and $800 a day. But then again, I would never join the ranks and become a SpaceRanger for the following reasons:
1. I Have Morals
I just won’t do anything that I don’t feel comfortable with. And I don’t feel good about making money off of spamming people.
To be honest, I view SpaceRangers not much different than WareZ sites or Porn. Not that WareZ sites, or even porn for that matter, make a whole of money these days. But with porn, at least that’s not harming anyone.
“It’s only bulletins Tyler, calm down”.
No, it’s not. It’s spam.
“But a lot of people like it. They even bookmark my site.”
Ah, but what about all those who don’t like like it? Too bad for them? What you’re doing is no different than those LONGER ERECTIONS and FREE UNIVERSITY DIPLOMA e-mail spams everyone gets.
2. This Won’t Last Forever
This MySpace thing is only temporary. It is not a long term solution. MySpace will eventually wisen up and crack down on all the spam and such, because it will only get worse. Also, I’m sure that the advertising agencies including AdSense and YPN will eventually not allow their ads to be on the Interplanetary Sites of SpaceRangers. Many SpaceRangers expicitely violate terms such as falsifying their page so that ads look like links to other content on the site – yes, this violates their terms. There’s a fine line there.
And many people are riding off of YPN. Obviously YPN is guaranteed to plummit once it’s out of beta.
It’s interesting because I see and hear so many SpaceRangers suddenly seem so big and confident because they’re making half a grand a day. They suddenly think they are all that and a can of beans. They think they are as good as me. Just kidding, a bit of levity there for you kids 🙂
But kidding aside, they are really putting themselves into a false sense of success, as they are not engaging in true hard work and reward, but are more like hitting the sweetness of a temporary monetary pinata.
3. Bad Habits, Good Experience Lost
While the SpaceRangers are busy adding 12-year-old children to their lists, they are essentially cashing in any past good habits they may have had, for new bad ones. Again, they may start to get into a false sense of security and success, thinking that something like MySpace will always be around for them to rely on. They will then ingrain bad habits, such as depending on things such as mass bulletins, ‘free mass traffic’, and inflated CPC rates.
Apart from any bad habits gained, SpaceRangers will be losing valuable experience. The time they spent adding a new MySpace background to their site, they could be learning new and useful SEO techniques, better PHP, better site ad management, marketing techniques, and just overall becoming a more robust entrepreneur.
4. I don’t know MySpace
I don’t know MySpace, and I’m not interested in it. I could learn, it wouldn’t take long, but again I have no interest in it. And that would go against my utopian ideals of being a web entrepreneur. That is, I love what I do and I try to only do things and make sites on things that interest me.
5. There’s More To Be Made than Money
There’s more to be made from websites than just money. There are countless of priceless things. Friends, knowledge, contacts in the industry, respect, and giving back to the community.
Now, there’s only one thing that people can say about my view on this: “Even though you hate MySpace sites, why don’t you just join in anyway for a few months and make the $500 a day until you’ve made $50,000 or so and then stop and put that money into other things?”
I don’t have a good response to that under than: “First off, MySpace sites are hit and miss. Not all sites make money. It’s not guaranteed, of course. Secondly, I’ll refer you to points 1, 3, and 5 above. Lastly, I’m a stubborn person. Or sometimes I just stand up for what I believe in. Whatever you want to call it… but I don’t want to add to the crap on the Internet by joining in. There’s far too much crap on the Internet now as it is.
It’s time somebody started cleaning it up with good, high quality, useful sites.
Rawr.
36 Responses to “I Hate MySpace Sites”
SpaceRangers, haha, I love it
I’d just start off saying that all of your posts provide good insight, but this last post of yours made me wonder just why you’d like to make such a large generalisation.
Specifically, the bit on spamming. I run a few myspace resource sites, and I understand what you mean by many people spamming via bulletins, and friends, etc. BUT, I think you’re being a bit close-minded here.
Roughly 90% of traffic to my sites come via search engines, and the rest are from links on other sites, inclusive of people’s myspace profiles. I also know of a fair few other people who all have their main flow of traffic as what I’d call “natural” traffic.
Just a bit of food for thought.
You have morals? You’re running a poker site trying to get money from all poker players noob.
kell hen:
I’m sure you’ll be the first to agree with me that you and your friends are the exception, not the rule.
My problem with SpaceRangers here lies with mainly the spammers.
guk6kk:
I knew somebody would try to be ignorant as to want to turn this around on me.
I do not SPAM my site. People come to my site on their own. Don’t you understand the difference?
And it also makes me chuckle whenever somebody thinks of poker as immoral. What’s your logic and basis on that?
In fact, for players who repeatedly lose a lot of money, our mods even warn them that they may have a gambling problem and to seek help.
Anyhow, I knew the SpaceRangers would all get angry and upset and cry to their mommies. It just goes to show how insecure they are.
*Puts up fists*
lol, so I’m now going to my mommy to cry. Ok..
Take it easy boy.
People can just turn off their bulletins you know.
Why did you make a whole post to diss myspace websites? Are you jealous of us rich space rangers? And just to let you know, I never even use my myspace account, my traffic is 50% SEO and 50% links from other sites.
I dont know why a real “entrepreneur” would diss another means of making money…
especially when the person makes money off from a poker site…
and makes money with his personal/work blog.
lol, hilarious.
And that would go against my utopian ideals of being a web entrepreneur. That is, I love what I do and I try to only do things and make sites on things that interest me.
So why are you dissing websites that people love to make and make them money?
I come to this blog for information. I dont come here to get dissed on. I make over 400$ a day off my myspace sites. You only make 157$ off your “moral” websites…….this last post makes you seem like a little kid being jealous about other webmasters. There is no information whatsoever….last time I come here, Ill find other real entrepreneurs to look up to, thank you.
I agree with your sentiments exactly Jonathan. This seems like the delusional rants of a jealous boy, disenchanted with the fact that his “entrepenueral dream” and accomplishments are only impressive to the Net’s bottom feeders and up and coming 7th grade “summertime” webmasters.
Meanwhile webmasters less experienced are profiting off a relatively streamlined (residual income) revenue approach.
Yet how does he or anyone dismiss something they do not partake/capitalize/involved in/benefit from? Of course it’s a morality tale, about he could if “he wanted too”, but he’s “above it”.
Smell the condescensionin in the air on Blogger.com? I do.
Forget the hundreds of kids who lost college tuition and or rent money from your POKER ADVERTISEMENTS. He’s moral.
My input is – you went from $0 to $3000 a month VERY VERY quickly. In the process you had no time to plant your feet, pay bills with a real job, discipline yourself, and your business accumen. In turn the combination between the small quick money (with no wortk) in addition to the “sitepoint” member ego -stroking, you believed more and more in the hype. A hype that was unfounded, aside from one lucky niche before a massive American online trend. Basically you let Sitepoint go to your head.
Now suddenly you’re on your blog over-stepping boundaries and making this a subjective-soapbox/talkshow for the Tyler show as you complain about others who make more. Complain about areas you lack adequate knowledge/experience in.
For instance – Adult/porn no money? Go to “gfy.com”, and search through posts. Its the sitepoint for adult webmasters. I know many many many millionaires from there Very lucrative industry for both publishers and paysite owners.
Now for the closer – I DO NOT OWN A SINGLE MYSPACE SITE, SPAM, OR EVEN HAVE A MYSPACE normal MEMBER ACCOUNT. Yet I make my $xxxx daily from domains such as er.com, sword.com, shadow.com, period.com, physical.com, funnycrap.com, schoolonline.com, streetfights.com, amongst dozen and more one worder domains. Plus developed sites I do not want to divulege due to the at-times harsh tone of this comment.
Point? I know what the hell I’m talking about and I make a great living from many web industries. So please understand when I call you a (unjustified) egotistical hypocrite, I mean it.
Kudos to all those out there who are putting food on the table. Morally or immorally. Don’t let this blogger/forum owner deter your entrepreneurial efforts.
Good luck Tyler, hopefully one day you grow up and become a business man.
great post erdotcom!
Great post erdotcom. I agree with everything you said.
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“…his ‘entrepenueral dream’ and accomplishments are only impressive to the Net’s bottom feeders and up and coming 7th grade ‘summertime’ webmasters.”
Your post loses its merit because of this. You bash Tyler for making a generalization and then the first thing you come on here and do is make one yourself. If anything I find this very hypocritical of you.
I have to agree a bit here even though I do own several myspace sites (although they are popular they are not the majority of my networks earnings). Myspace will catch on sooner or later with the bulletin spam and it will all end for the “Space Rangers”. I suggest finding alternate sources to traffic or your going to find yourself broke one day.
Quoted by: entrepreneur
Your post loses its merit because of this. You bash Tyler for making a generalization…… then the first thing you come on here and do is make one yourself
Hi Tyle…I mean entrepreneur —
I never claimed to be a “perfect guy” or the “morally” self-righteous webmaster here. Nor have I asserted myself above the situation.
It’s clear I’m not neutral, this is not my blog. This is not ABOUT ME, nor was I the catalyst of this subject. I’m not trying to get converts or impress visitors with sweet talk, I’m blunt. Nevertheless “generalizations” are not the reason why I’m critical of Tyler. Tyler is the reason I’m critical of tTer.
I posted initially merely to assess his HOLIER THAN THOUGH attitude, and put some experienced perspective on the current circumstance. As well as bring to light some of Tyler’s increasing illogical blog ramblings.
For instance; He has the nerve to add 10 entries about how he “ordered a forum design”, and how much of an achievement this is. Yet some 15 yr old kid making $300+ a day from a Myspace site does not deserve a “hey kid, great job”. Instead, beat them down? Discourage their efforts? Condemn it as “immoral”. It screams jealousy.
Especially given Tyler’s background – Between the poker as mentioned, as well as MMA fighting forum, etc – this has absolutely nothing to do with “morality”, just look at his character. You are naive to think I attacked Tyler on the basis of merely “lumping up webmasters”. You should have known immediately that’s insignificant when you actually read some of his drivel.
Nevertheless, let me get back to you, and piece this together. I reference lower income webmasters (bottom feeders) and suddenly that takes the validity out of my entire arguement? Take’s the validity out of Tyler’s habitual actions as a 22yr old know-it-all? Suddenly the claims/inherent truth of Tyler’s naivety/egotism/lack of
experience are washed away and forgotten?
I feel bad for you if that is all it takes to disregard one’s views, or dismiss an alternative view (as it’s obvious you are Tyler and or a fanboy).
Furthermore regarding my statements of low-income webmasters – Hey, it’s a dog eat dog world. We all do it, whether consciously or not. We classify people on the basis of their income/status within society. I say bottom feeder? Because it’s the truth, only people who cannot think for themselves, and are the typical unfocused ‘get rich quick’ ebook buyers actually take him seriously.
Hey erdotcom, I’ll send you my autograph for $50.
PayPal: twcruz@hotmail.com
Tyler, you should be getting erdotcom autograph. He makes a day what you make in a month.
Oh, btw, thanks for deleting me off your msn list. Mr. drama queen… you deleted me cas I said “i dont want it that bad” about your domain, haha.
I blocked you because you messaged me out of the blue asking to buy one of my domains, I think PageDump. I gave you my price and then you said that, wasting my time.
Anyhow, I love how often you two check my blog. Seems like you two are obsessed with me or something 🙂
jonathan: When you say things like, “he makes a day what you make in a month,” this makes you sound like a prick. Stop being a prick. If you were a little bit more humble I might actually respect what you have to say in your posts. But I don’t.
erdotcom: What you should have got from my last post was the fact that you made a generalization in the same way that Tyler did. This makes you no better off than Tyler in this regard.
Tyler –
Sign this image please:
http://www.er.com/autograph.gif
Please mail me or fax back the autograph.
Thank you. Best regards,
-MM
Aha, nice try, but you need to send me my $50 first.
Tyler Cruz doesn’t give out autographs for free…
haha…
… and this is why i “like” myspace websites 😉
http://www.jonwaraas.com/ypn.gif
entrepreneur – Maybe someday we will be able to see your blog?
I’ve always liked reading your blog Tyler and of course it’s your right to post whatever you want but I wouldn’t make generalizations that may insult half your readers, not very wise. Oh and erdotcom I agree with everything you say, nice posts buddy!
I don’t believe in having a blog. My secrets are my own.
Tyler I think it would be in your best interests to stop making such condensending and steriotypical generalizations and perhaps attempt to venture into the field yourself. It’s not immoral, and your argument has been ripped to shreds by these commenters.
Excuse my misspellings.
SpaceRanger.
You sure are petty, grow up.
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Tyler, I do not own a single myspace-related site.
admin – Why would you say such a thing? Have ticklish tyler actually make a myspace website? OMG! No No! I cant believe your asking someone that calls himself a “entrepreneur” to actually make a website that doesnt evolve buying a skin and loading up a turnkey backend. naughty naughty *slaps Admins wrist*
Well thanks to you tiny tyler, i have realized what a real entrepreneur is, oh but don’t get all exited, your not one. Check my blog later tonight, it will keep you informed..
I agree with tyler. Also if you dont like what he posted just leave.
What’s up with all the myspace whining? If I owned a myspace accessory site that was making a few hundred or more per day, I would be tickled pink if someone was urinating on my business model.
If the blogger that offended my sensabilities had any merit or pull with it’s readers (which it must have some if you’re here) then that would lead to less competition.
I work in a niche where some “professional” instructors pooh-poohed the merit of my products. At first I fought with them on forums and blogs, but instead I just took the high road by ignoring their comments and concentrated on providing value to my customers. You can probably guess who won.
PS – If you are one of the people that said that you “proved” spamming is not immoral, then you don’t understand what morals are. Morals are not facts. You can not “disprove” what Tyler believes to be immoral.
You sound like someone who is not good with women and maybe in the closet. but myspace has your kind of people on there also jealousy will only make you weak and never a man