Evil Blog Promotion Ideas
written by John Chow
Forget the traditional banner ad or doing link exchanges with other blogs. Let’s talk about some evil blog promotion techniques! The following are some blog promotion ideas that are not well known by many bloggers, could send you a lot traffic, may get you in trouble, and are evil enough that you would join the clan of evil for just attempting them. Evil scores are out of five stars.
Evil score: 4 stars - You RevewMe Me, I ReviewMe You
This one only works when ReviewMe has a 50% coupon code available. You agree to review another blog through ReviewMe (aff) if they will do the same for you. Let’s assume your blog cost $100 for a review and you find another blog that cost the same. Agree to review each other and sign up with for an advertiser’s account using your own ReviewMe affiliate code. You will pay $50 for the review with the 50% coupon, but that is canceled out by the $50 you’ll get for reviewing the other blog. At the end of the day, you’ll have a free review and make $25 for referring yourself. 
Evil score: 4 stars - The Text Link Ad Shuffle
Text Link Ads offers a $100 coupon for new advertisers using their Link Buying Starter Kit (aff). This is a great way to test out the service. TLA does requires you to buy $125 of links to take advantage of this offer, but it gives you $125 of links for just $25.00. And you can get a bonus $25 if you’re a TLA publisher and refer yourself for an advertiser account.
Evil score: 5 stars - The PPC Shell Game
Occasionally, Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter will issue $100 (or more) coupons for new customers. I normally don’t post about these because the coupons are always in short supply. The last one from MS AdCenter was for $200. For the truly evil among us, you can set up five accounts with one Credit Card number. Can you imagine how much traffic you can buy with $1,000 of free targeted contextual ads? Now imagine if you have two or more Credit Cards.
Evil score: 3 stars - The Tech Link Train
This one was sent to me by Jimi of JMH Techtronics. It’s a list of tech sites/blog that anyone can add to. You reproduce the original list and then add up to five other tech, science or CE blogs that you like. Then let those added blogs know and tell them to do the same thing. Soon, the list will a mile long, spread all over the blogshpere, and drive Technorati nuts.
***Start copy here***
1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and link back to the blog that put you on the list in the paragraph. This isn’t a suggestion. You need to break up the duplicate content string. Someone took the time to add you so the least you can do is give them an extra linkback.
2. Copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog then change it when you do your post and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword.
3. Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals” list.
4. Add no more than 5 new TECH, SCIENCE, or CONSUMER ELECTRONICS blogs to the list in the “My Adds” section.
My Adds:
The TechZone
Mega TechNews
Tech Buzz
Techzi
Connected Internet
The Originals:
John Chow dot Com
Ted Leung on the Air
Geek is a chic.
you’ve been HACKED
IDIOT TOYS
JMH Techtronics
Web Services
UtterlyGeek
Tech It Like A Man!
Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot
techboyardee
The Tech Inspector
***End Copying Here***
Evil score: 1 star - Sponsoring a Wordpress Theme
This one is not that evil but I included here because it’s pretty unique. Thousands of bloggers use popular Wordpress themes which are free to download. What you do is sponsor a Wordpress theme by buying a link in the footer text. Maki at Dosh Dosh wrote Link Building through Word Press Theme Sponsorship: A Good Idea? It’s worth checking out.
The main problem with sponsoring a Wordpress theme is the evil blogger who downloads it will remove the footer link.
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(19 votes, average: 3.95 out of 5)
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I am intrigued my Microsoft Adcenter, Would you say they are worth getting like adwords?
With a $200 coupon, you bet!
Nice! You used my “Clan of Evil” phrase in this post!
Saman=Best +1
How often do they release coupons?
Seems that ended January 15th, but yeah so much worth of clicks.. Even though less people use Live Search It wouldn’t have hurt to get 200$ free in ads
heheh…I figured you’d give me more stars
I’m going to do a review of you this week somewhere. Just trying to figure out what way I want to go with it :wink:.
How about giving a shot of evil twist features in it? It will definitely be sure of a read.
Now I know why did they say, John Chow is evil.
Thanks for the great tips. But my off days is gone. Couldn’t sitting all day long in front of the computer anymore starting tomorrow.
Na.. John Chow is just a wanna be evil Blogger. I bet he will be one
Evil Score: only about 1 star really
Leaving a relevant link as a signature in comments you make on popular websites. Bonus evil point if you’re the first to post.
bla.st/john-chow-network/
The comments here crack me up. I’m glad I started coming over here a bit more.
We are glad to ‘crack’ you up. Continue to come back for more crackers.
Actually if you look at the code in your link, it’s no follow - all links in comments are (unless you’ve changed your code):
http://bla.st/john-chow-network/” rel=”nofollow”
im one of the link train starters, wouldnt believe how well that actually works, took about an hour or 2 to set everything up and walla, it becomes a beast
[...] tech list I posted the other day has really taken off. In fact, John Chow even posted a version of it. Sadly, not the version that included a link back here to GeekySpeaky! [...]
Oooh… you’re a great evil mentor
I have to try out some of these evil tricks 
But do you think ReviewMe and TLA is OK with people signing up under there own affiliate links?
OK… “the evil blogger who downloads it will remove the footer link.” - I was wondering about that one, why I didn’t see a “theme sponsored by…” like I see on other blogs that use the Misty theme. Are you allowed to do that - isn’t it against the terms? I know that some theme designers get really mad (and even threaten people) if people remove the linkback that they had included in the footer.
I was wondering that myself.
Yes, surely somewhere in the huge blob of terms and conditions nobody reads when they sign up for these things, there’s rules against referring yourself… I can’t imagine why they’d let something like that slide. I really think you follow John’s ideas here at your own peril; if these companies find out you’re being evil, they could drop your account and ban you from future services.
I thought so as well for programs that give out referral bonus. I do know that it is out of the rules for payment processors such as e-gold or paypal. You will get warned, or even warrant a ban for going against the agreement when you sign up.
That saying, what did the agreement stipulate?
Some programs allow “self referral” while others don’t. But some programs just frown upon it but don’t forbid it specifically.
I don’t allow “self referral” in my own affiliate program - I don’t see a reason why I should allow it…
I’ll let you know if TLA puts $25 into my account for referring myself. I don’t get it until the review is complete and Stephen is taking his sweet ass time.
This is a great list, but the problem I find is that my site still doesn’t rank high enough to sign up for most of these programs!
It will take time….no worries just conc on content and commenting now rest it will pay back when its the right time
We would love to hear from you. Hopefully, you will get paid. And we can learn from that too.
What plugin are you using here to get the MyBlogLog pics to show up with comments if I may ask?
He uses MyAvatar: http://www.napolux.com/projects/myavatars/
Since Gravatar is back, I’m moving to Gravatar
Nevermind. Found it. Thought it had a weird name and didn’t want to try searching for it…lol
so, what’s the name of the plugin?
MyAvatars http://www.johnchow.com/myavatars-for-mybloglog/
nice . . . just installed it and it’s working perfectly . . just missing a comment from you . . where’s John in my community?
I’ll still stick around with my all time favorite Gravatar (http://gravatar.com)
I am nout sure what i use…lol comes with the theme
Hmmm haven’t checked our textlinkads yet. This idea is extremely evil so I’ll have a play on the weekend with it
Thanks John, for the link!
Great to see the Z List spawning off into a Tech tangent. I’ve gotten around links from 200+ blogs since I restarted the Z List a month ago on Dosh Dosh.
If anyone is interested in trying out the Z List, see this post:
Need free blog traffic and links? Try the Z-List.
I remember doing this Z-List earlier . . . do I have to do it again or is once ok? I’ve gotten a few links since posting it in January.
This is not a Z List, it’s a Tech List. If you have a tech based blog or site, then feel free to join it.
ahh . . ok . . my blog is kind of like yours where I cover lots of things, would this count as a tech blog?
Wouldn’t a tech blog have to be more specific-inclined? I affirm that’s what the tech geeks are doing.
“Tech” is a pretty broad category these days, especially with everyone using the internet. Lyndon, I know what you mean though, but hopefully I can get by. In any case, I just started another, more narcissistic list to make myself feel better =)
It juts depends what you are giving to your readers….tech has a lot of category and you can find 2-3 out of it for you…just one thing dont give just news there are already sites there
I just checked out the TLA link and it says this:
Get $100 in free Text Link Ads by entering “starter kit” in the coupon field at checkout. The minimum order total to take advantage of this offer is $125.00.
thanks for the tricks, i’ll try this out!
Thanks for the link
How about an accidental ‘evil blog’ tip. Along the lines of the WordPress one you gave…
a) Someone creates a theme for Word Press. It’s an ‘SEO and adsense optimized theme’…already has adsense ad placed and working. Key point.
b) A newbie (like me) downloads it, finally gets it up and running over, say, about a three month period (day job and the family is priority 1, so the other web work happens elsewhere).
c) All that time, while I am getting the blog really humming, getting my Adsense account set-up, etc….the owner of that blog theme obviously included their own adsense publisher number in there. So, until I finally go in and add my adsense registration # (in whatever .php file has it) , he or she is reaping clicks. And dollars from Adsense.
The theme I downloaded works great, and I am happy the individual was able to glean what they could until I added my adsense info in. But think about it.
Wonder if it will encourage a flurry of adsense optimzied themes!
Hope that helps…and if you want to know what the name of the theme is…you’ll have to just visit my site.
Well, that is a little evil if they don’t disclose that it’s their AdSense code! They need to have ads showing so you can see it working, but they should let you know to ad your own code!
There are in fact many plain adsense optimized themes, with the majority belonging to netizens in the domain-parking arena.
[...] matter-of-fact situation. So, if any of you are reading this from the comment I am about to write in this Jon Chow post, that’s the theme. That’s the idea. Anyway, maybe there already is a flurry of [...]
Great post John
I feel slightly evil just for having read it
My blog isn’t monetised but hey, those tips may work out in the end
I blog about my actual business and I feel that’s the best way to make money out of it, if people actually head off to my business and buy my product.
It doesn’t have to be monetized to give it a try. What you can do in the meantime is to really build up links and connections. The rest remains to be told in the future.
Its just about getting links one way or the other but then be careful whom u link.Deep linking is a big concept but the train idea can work for any blog
These are very very evil!!
I’m gonna try them!! Thanks!!
great post john! this is the kind of posts, that will have “thousands of thousands” of readers. Keep the show on the road, i’ll say it again GREAT POST