How I Got Banned, Then Unbanned From Technorati
Last Sunday, I got an email from Gustav Mörtberg of Diablo Source pointing me to a post from Earners Blog call Trick to Increase your Technorati Rank. The author explained how he went from 40,000 to about 4,100 Technorati rank in just one day.
I used Xenu to fully spider & grab all the URL’s from sites I knew had a Sitewide link to Earners Blog. I loaded all the URL’s into a text file & got rid of any externals. I then loaded the full list into the pinging tool that comes with Blogger Generator, fire the Technorati ping server into it:
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Then just let it run on the entire list.
This technique increased my link count from 888 to 3,100 within the space of around 60 minutes.
Blogger Generator is a get rich quick program that allows you to create a ton of useless Made for AdSense (MFA) blogs on Blogger.com. The $97.00 program also comes with the ping tool you would need to do that above Technorati dance, but there was no way I was going to pay $97.00 for it. However, if you’re evil 
, you will be able to figure out how to get the ping tool for free.
With dreams of rocketing to the Technorati top 100 overnight, I grabbed a list of all blogs linking to John Chow dot Com, loaded it into the Pinging tool and blasted it away at Technorati. Now, Technorati doesn’t seem to mind if you send them a few pings (maybe even a few hundred). However, they seem to get upset when you try to send them 17,000. The results: Technorati banned my ass.
Getting Unbanned
At this point I was thinking, “Maybe it’s just a software glitch?” *Classic denial* Doing a Technorati search for johnchow.com resulted in the following message:
Huh?
There are blogs, and then there’s whatever you just typed in. If it’s a blog, we don’t know about it. Maybe you made a typo. Or maybe it’s a blog that doesn’t exist. Maybe you don’t exist. (In which case, please ignore this.)
At this point, I decided to play dumb and send Technorati an email asking why my site wasn’t ranked anymore. I stressed the fact that I am a longtime Technorati user, promoted Technorati, run the Technorati favorites button, etc., and asked for their help, because I don’t know what happen! 
The email worked. Technorati unbanned me and restore my ranking last night (which now stands at 259).
This mass pinging had a side effect on blogs that I linked to. Steve at Ramblings from the Marginalized wrote a post wondering why his Technorati ranking went from 90,000 to 15,955 in a day. Now you know Steve. If anyone else saw a huge Technorati increase, you have me to thank!
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend doing the above. I’m not sure at what point Technorati banned my blog. I noticed it was gone at about the 1100 ping mark. If you do wish to try it, then I recommend you keep the number of pings low and ping just top-level domains and not article URLs.
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- 74 comments what's your take?
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I guess Technorati needs their own spider to crawl sites that don’t ping back…
That would get rid of the need for any shenanigans.
Reply to this commentWhat’s also funny is that my old (no longer exists) blog also jumped to a ranking of about 17K !!!
Reply to this commentso that’s how you spell shenanigans!
Reply to this commentQuick thinking paid off big, John. Sounds like you got away with murd… well, not quite that, but something big. I just saw Steve’s post a few minutes ago and was going to ask you if you’d heard when Boom! there it was on your hp
Better you than someone less deserving
Reply to this commentIf the glove don’t fit…
Reply to this commentI’m guessing that if Technorati got a ton of pings tonight (because we all read this post), they would know something is up and not unban us!
Reply to this commentStephen’s website was missing from Technorati this morning too.
Same issue perhaps?
Reply to this commentWas it? I did not notice.
John, when you talk about “spreading the love” you don’t kid around!
Reply to this commentYeah! He got my ass Banned! I feel like such an injured Panda right now
Reply to this commentTHAT’S HOW I WENT FROM 68K to 19K overnight!!!LOL
I didn’t know what the heck happened, but I wasn’t going to go asking questions.
People kept emailing me asking how I did it. Well, now I can refer them to this post
Do you think you’ll be able to keep that ranking John? Not to mention ours?
Reply to this commentIt’s just one more bonus “perk” for being a top commentator on John’s Blog…
I’m all for these perks unless they result in a firing squad.
Reply to this commentWohoo!!! YOU’RE THE MAN JOHN!
Reply to this commentI also had a huge jump, but I agree. I love the perks John, but please don’t get us in too much trouble
Reply to this commentI noticed a jump as well, being part of the Clan of Evil has perks!
Reply to this comment[...]and asked for their help, because I don’t know what happen! The email worked. Technorati unbanned me and restore my ranking last night (which now stands at 259).[...]
This is another good example showing why you are the root of all evil
Reply to this commentMystery solved.
John at it again. 
Reply to this commentI’ve gotten that same “Huh” response and they stopped updating my blog about a month ago. But I sent them an email also and they fixed it within 3 days i think. So maybe you didn’t get banned, but it makes for a better story
Reply to this commentI had the same “Huh” message for a few weeks and just recently sent Technorati an email about it. Within a few hours, my site was back and it was being crawled for updates.
I’ve seen my ranking increase from about 77,000 to about 45,000 in the last few weeks as well. I had been thinking that I was making progress with my blog but now it all appears it may have been smoke and mirrors.
Reply to this commentWell I think some of that is progress. But the over night jump is John…I thought the same thing…but hey, I take what I can get.
Reply to this commentWeird, I didn’t get banned but I noticed that I have a lot more incoming links from John…
Reply to this commentWow that makes sense. I was looking at my own Technorati rating and who was linking in. I clicked on johnchow.com and it gave me the same error you mentioned in your blog entry.
Not it makes sense. I thought it was the result of my sleep-depravation/user-error.
Reply to this commentGood tale of woe John
It will be interesting to see how the other blogs that benefited from your “ping of promotion” will decrease in ranking over the next few weeks. At least I’m guessing that they will decrease unless they are prepared for a great deal of work between now and then 
Sadly my blog wasn’t lucky enough to be ravaged by your escapades. 
Reply to this commentOn a related note. JonhChow.com is no longer a hot community on MyBlogLog.
Reply to this commentWTF, what were they thinking!
Reply to this commentThey are resisting his evilness!
Reply to this commentAnd now you’ll get banned again (as soon as they read this post)
Reply to this commentYeah I noticed you were on their naughty list and I wrote about it in my blog two days ago.
Glad you got unbanned.
Technorati still hasn’t responded to my request to update http://www.2kbloggers.com even though we haven’t done anything the slightest bit tricky or twisted.
How much original content does Technorati produce? How valuable are they, really?
Reply to this commentI am on the same boat. Not tricks (at least intentional) but I get the “Huh” when I search for http://ww-success.com. Have sent them two emails over a period of 2 weeks. No response and no fix. This looks more like a bug on their site.
Reply to this commentThanks John! I went from 1,300,000 ish to 135,217th on Technorati . . do it again . .do it again!
Reply to this commentJohn you should make your list of top commentators update weekly instead of monthly!
Reply to this commentNoooooooooooo!!!!!!
Reply to this commentI would like to echo HMTK…
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
Reply to this commentYeah, give the rest of us a chance to spam
Reply to this commentJohn Chow’s Hax strike again! The Robin Hood of the internet no doubt.
Reply to this commentThe Robin Hood of the Internet has such a positive tone….
We need something more evil…
Reply to this commentI gotta say John, I learn something new from you every day! If only you harnessed your power for good instead of evil… muahahahahahaha!
Reply to this commentIt’s amazing what you can achieve if you know how!
Reply to this commentI hope this post doesn’t do you in. Man, I wish I could get away with something like that!
Reply to this commentOr you could just climb the chart with hard work like everyone else
Reply to this commentThat’s what I was thinking!
Like I’ve said before: it’s all about hard work and dedication!
Reply to this commentYour honesty is refreshing, John…
Reply to this commentVery true, but just look at the benefit to him - how active are the comments on this post?!
Honesty=Good
Reply to this commentUmmm, well I guess your banned again since I get the “Huh?” message when I click on your site in my Technorati favorites.
Reply to this commentOh well. I guess I’ll have to put plan B into action now.
Reply to this commentNinjas?
Have you had anymore contact with the technorati guys?
Reply to this commentI’m going to wait for this post to go off the front page before doing Plan B. I’m really not too worry about it. Technorati is still ranking me. They’re just not showing it on their site.
Reply to this commentJohn, not only are you a dumb-ass for trying to game this, but you then went an wrote about it on your blog.
Too funny!
Reply to this commentHey, at least he was honest about it (with us anyway).
Reply to this commentWouldn’t this be considered spamming Technorati? At least a gray hat technique…
Reply to this commentWhats the chances of them trying to reverse the effects? If they don’t congrats to everyone who got a bump
Reply to this commentThis is why its never a good idea to have site-wide links to other sites.
In other, related news, because of gaming links such as this, Technorati’s on a crackdown for link-horders. Trust me, it’s simple to figure out who’s gaming the system like this, and they go with ban-first explain later.
Reply to this commentInteresting… I wonder if there is a way to do this with Alexa?
Reply to this commentGood “EVIL” deed dude any way you were lucky to get back on Technorati. I think the case maynot be true for others
Reply to this commentIts all funny and all, but technorati forms the basis of valuations of blogs. Sort of makes a mockery of the value of my blog!!! and a high rank in Technorati seems to be a hollow boast.
Reply to this commentSo, there is a crack for all the softwares that are ever written and will be written I guess….
Reply to this commentYep, all it takes is time - and a lot of Mountain Dew!
Reply to this commentJust a thought…couldn’t you use the new feature in google’s webmaster tools to get all your backlinks. You can even download them to a excel table
Reply to this commentHaha, how great to even get mentioned!
Although i am sorry that i did get you in trouble, i only did it with good intentions. I love following your blog’s road to success and i will continue to send you any evil tips i get my hands on!
Reply to this commentI noticed a seemingly random jump from 1.7million to 700k that may well have been from you doing that. I was then able to work my way down to the 100k range using the technique Stuart described in the Earnersblog post.
Good Stuff!
Reply to this commentCan’t find your blog in Technorati. Maybe they have put the ban back on (or I have mistyped) http://technorati.com/blogs/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.johnchow.com%2F .
Reply to this commentAre you sure you’re unbanned? Stephen and I could not find your site listed. Stephen is still banned
Reply to this commentHey hey! Found the pinger and the software for free! Woohoo!
If anyone wants it just shoot me an email and Ill hook ya up! Spread the evilness!
blain . reinkensmeyer @ gmail . com
Reply to this commentSo let me get this right, you gamed the system and the people who linked to you also got banned? That’s really not fair.
But good job finding the loophole
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