Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Free-for-All (FFA) Sites

Free-for-All sites allow you to submit your site to them and have it posted on their site for a short period of time. While some think this is a useful exercise, professionals will cite it is an exercise in futility. There are no benefits in posting to those sites.

Have you started a web site and hired a search engine submittal service? Did that submittal service state they submit your site to 100,000’s of search engines? If they stated they do run the other way as fast as possible.

First, there are not 100,000’s of search engines available on the Internet. There are many search engines and directories, but the majority of the sites you’re being submitted to are classifieds and FFA sites. Submitting to these services does not assist in capturing visitors.

Have you ever wondered how you start getting on the lists for adult oriented and MLM sites? Those types of organizations use classifieds and FFA sites to capture your email address and place it on their marketing (SPAM) lists. Therefore, you’re simply granting permission for everyone to start loading your Inbox with junk.

Once you’re on these lists you will never be removed. Of course, those sites give you the opportunity to ban your email address from further submissions; you still don’t come off their marketing lists.

Below is an actual Posting Agreement. You’ll notice that they require you use a real email address, but suggest you do not use your regular email address. They also state that the result will be your link will be posted, but you may receive hundreds of emails as a result.

You must agree with the following Posting Agreement:

You agree to receive confirmation messages from each of our PRO Member pages where your link(s) get posted to.

This may result in hundreds of emails.

You must use a VALID email address to post your link.

We recommend you DO NOT use your regular email address.

You may only post one link daily.

NO ADULT, WAREZ, HATE, or ILLEGAL LINKS ALLOWED

A company whom I invited to be on my radio show unethically started submitting my sites to the classifieds and FFA pages. Instead of taking the opportunity to discuss their business with my 22 million listeners, they began a massive attack on my email addresses. They actually went so far as to find email addresses that aren’t posted on my sites or any other location.

By law this falls into the Cyber Crimes Statutes of the State and Federal Laws. The company misrepresented my businesses and performed an assault on my businesses to intentionally do harm. While some less educated individuals might think the additional links are really cool, let me assure you I know marketing on the Internet and classifieds and FFA pages are your worst enemy.

So, what can you do if this happens to you?

1. Keep a record of the emails you receive – damages are based on per email incidents.

2. Read each email and look for the submittal IP address. Some include this and you’re able to track it back to the culprit.

3. Once you have all this information go to Arin.net and perform a WhoIs search on the IP address. If you’re lucky the IP address will reflect the company name of the offending party. If it doesn’t you can get the contact information for their provider and you can contact their Abuse Department.

4. Contact the providers Abuse Department and provide them with the appropriate information.

5. Change your email address because you can’t get off the lists once you’re on them.

Don’t attempt to contact the company or offender directly. Let the legal system handle the issue. If they can’t and you have the money to subpoena them to court, you can attempt to handle the issue in your local small claims court.

Lee Roberts President/CEO of Rose Rock Design, Inc. and owner/developer of the Apple
Pie Shopping Cart
the search engine friendly shopping cart.

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