fantomNews™ — the ultimate know

Isn’t it funny how prophecies have a knack of coming true sometimes? Here’s a cartoon we did over at Stripgenerator one month ago to day, taking a shot at Google’s hypocritical FUD tactics (which are, unsurprisingly, proving rather successful) regarding paid links:

Now, Khamnam Robinsun Singh over at his personal blog reports how he put a paid link to Shopzilla some months back. Nothing unusual by itself, except that now they’ve actually paid him $100 to remove it!

Few months back I wrote a review about Shopzilla .com in one of my blogs. It got that offer from payperpost and after one month I got paid for the reviews. But day before yesterday I got a mail from a representative of Shopzilla .com saying that they need to remove the post and link in my blog and some other blogs of the other bloggers.

I was quite busy about my examination and I didn’t remove the link. Then yesterday I got another mail from them saying that they will give me $100 if I remove the mail before noon. I was about to remove the link but didn’t remove the link because I didn’t get time for that. But in the second mail they were offering me $100 for the removal of the link. I was really amazed to see the mail because they paid for putting the link and now they are offering for the removal of the link also.

And in case you’re wondering: Yes, the mail was quite for real and the money actually arrived in his PayPal account.

Nor is he the only one, it seems: In the comments section, Miche May Lee reports the same happening to her.

(You can read the full story here: $100 for Nothing)

Obviously, Shopzilla’s concerned about getting slammed for all those paid links they’ve been buying across the Internet, losing their hallowed PR7. And it only stands to reason that others will follow soon.

Because, let’s face it: In spite of all their fashionable “visionspeak”, corporate executives aren’t typically hired for their imaginativeness and originality. Meaning that they tend to behave just like the good, overpaid little herd animals they are. So chances are that we’ll see a slew of other companies taking up the cue now.

So here we are: First, get paid for linking out. Next, get paid again for getting rid of paid links. If that isn’t a ridiculous development spawned by no one else but Mighty Goo Itself, I really wouldn’t know what is. What a hoot!

Well, seeing that we’ve linked to Shopzilla now, too, of course we’re eagerly awaiting their eCheck…

True, they haven’t paid for this link in any way (honest - would they had!), but how on earth is Google going to tell the difference?

As for a more aggressive, promising alternate, mobster-type business model - see cartoon above.

Also, read our featured article: The Google Payload Instant Success - Buyers Making Money Only Hours After Signing Up

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