Using the shooting at Virginia Tech as linkbait is extremely bad taste but that is exactly what OneDayBlogSilence.com has done. Today, the Blogsphere is to hold a one-day blog silence in honor of the victims at Virginia Tech. They are asking all bloggers to not make any posts. Instead, they want you to display this button.
All you have to do is spread the word about it and post the graphic on your blog on 30th April 2007. No words and no comments. Just respect, reflect and empathy.
So far, 268 blogs has fallen for the linkbait, enough to rank the 11 day old site 13,548 on Technorati. It also made the Digg front page.
Because there is no advertising on the site, some will say OneDayBlogSilence.com is trying to do a good thing and not profit from a shocking event. However, you don’t need advertising on a site to profit from it.
A webhosting outfit in Berlin owns the site. In a few weeks, everyone will forget about the site but the links and Google rankings will still be there and can be 301 redirected to the webhosting site that set it all up.
As you can guess, I am not taking part in this one day of blog silence. I can see taking a moment of silence, but a full day? The Internet stops of no one. The shooting at Virginia Tech is a terrible event. To use it as linkbait is beyond evil.