joshua tyler updated
We are forced to suspend our daily publishing operations. giant no way robot. That means more time for yourself. Most of that time is focused on us right now. YouTube channelbut whatever I have left I intend to spend supporting independent publishers.
I’ll be the first to warn you, because not everyone thinks they need help. They are really trying to help you.
Large media companies come in many forms. Among them are huge upstart media conglomerates owned by hedge funds that have bought up independent sites and turned them into zombie content farms. There are also old media monsters that roam the content space like King Kong, destroying everything in their path.
Don’t get me wrong. They see independent publishers as the enemy, and always have. After destroying the original independent publishers that built the Internet as a private sphere, they will do everything they can to ensure that independent publishers cannot secure a foothold in what we see now.
Competitors of major media brands have unlimited funds, unlimited employees, and unlimited connections. They can use them in ways you, as an independent publisher, can’t even imagine and consider them unethical. Below are some of the techniques I found they are using to destroy this site, and now they are using it against you.
infiltration
From time to time, independent publishers look to form alliances as a way to counter the onslaught of money from big media companies that can be used to sabotage them. Large media companies then send teams to infiltrate and sabotage these groups, usually in subtle ways, but sometimes more overtly.
In many cases, they position themselves as a friendly force that wants to work with secessionists. They are dangling as a carrot the idea that they might be able to buy these premises and make the owners rich, or that they might be able to invest in them somehow. Sometimes they can pretend to be friendly and altruistic enough to want to help.
That’s hardly true. They data mine you and keep you divided. they know exactly what they are doing.
Creating harmful links
Have you ever wondered why so many crappy and questionable sites are linked to your site even though you haven’t bought any links? Some of them are trying to steal money from you. It occurs naturally by content scrapers who think they can make money by doing so. But not all.
Used daily by major media organizations negative SEO To suppress small sites. Once they start encroaching on the keywords they think are theirs, they will intentionally start paying link buying services to buy harmful links that redirect to your website.
It’s unclear how much this will negatively impact your search rankings, but it’s definitely not helpful.
Copy content
Most of the big media content farms run algorithms that decide what to write. These algorithms are based on copying what is working for your competitors. They analyze what others are doing and copy it. The algorithm they use also creates an outline that assigns a title and topic and tells the writer step-by-step what to write.
So if an independent publisher writes an article about the best Star Trek starships and it starts doing well, the big media’s algorithm will pick up on it and start automatically generating copycat articles and assigning them to writers.
They create dozens of the best Star Trek starship articles at once and bombard you with the keywords they want to steal. They keep producing articles until their content drowns out the original articles they are copying, sometimes using writers who are paid as little as $1 per article. It works, and you end up stealing the momentum of traffic and interest that the original article was generating.
smear campaign
If independent publishers start generating positive buzz, it’s seen as a threat, and big media companies use their public relations teams to pose as readers and experts. These fake accounts are used to smear competitors.
These attacks can take many forms. In some cases, they even create entire Reddit threads with titles like “Site A is a scam.” And Google favors Reddit, so when you search for “Site A,” it will show up as one of the first results.
More often, trust rating platforms and comments on social media are leveraged. They will regularly smear your independent brand, advise people to stay away from you because you are a liar, or deceive them.
intimidation and intimidation
When independent publishers start doing too well, they inevitably find themselves subject to intimidation from staff at major media brands.
These threats come in many forms and serve different purposes. Some people request that posts they don’t like be deleted. In other cases, they may be upset that you destroyed an article they believe is theirs and demand that you hand over the source of the information.
The consequences of refusing to comply vary. If you don’t comply, they often threaten to use their power to harm your PR representative and restrict their access. In other cases, they use their superior distribution to write negative articles about your site, or use their PR team to create online smear campaigns disguised as organized hate. I will.
legal issues
In the early 2000s, old media companies began threatening lawsuits against distribution platforms like Facebook and Google unless their content was treated more favorably than independent publishers. It worked, but it’s not the only way they can leverage their deep pockets.
If an independent publisher makes the mistake of criticizing a major media brand for any of the items on this list, they may be subject to legal action.
While you may think the truth is a surefire defense, defending yourself against these types of lawsuits costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and ultimately no matter what lawyer you hire, they are no better. He will be forced to make a settlement by promising to keep his mouth shut and paying a small amount back.
fake acquisition offer
Legitimate media companies are buying small brands, hollowing them out and dumping AI-generated content into them. But some big media brands regularly make fake takeover offers to give smaller sites access to their data.
Once they have your data, they make you offers so low that they know you won’t accept them, and they use that data to improve their own sites and steal keywords that could help you beat them. Masu.
Backlink stacking
Much of how Google determines whether a publisher is of high quality is based on backlinks. Big media brands use their money to create hundreds of thousands of backlinks to their sites all at once.
If you’re looking for proof, look at the backlink analysis of independent publishers acquired by big brands. Immediately after the acquisition is completed, you will see a significant spike in the number of backlinks to that site.
Just because some major company bought a site, did people suddenly naturally like it and link to it more often?Unlikely.
technological sabotage
When independent publishers spread something, their success is almost always followed by some kind of DDOS attack that takes down their servers.
Are you trying to create an email newsletter signup? Thousands of fake users sign up and get slammed right away to report the newsletter as spam and ban it from showing up on your email service. It is expected that
Technological sabotage comes in many forms, and it’s impossible to prove where it came from. But if you do this long enough, you’ll start to notice some very suspicious patterns.
Leverage partnerships with leading platforms
At a recent Google Creators Conversation Event with independent publishers, Google seemed to express concern that giving independent publishers more status than big brands could anger big brands.
Is it a coincidence that every platform seems to favor big brands? Probably not.
Is it a coincidence that right after Google signed the AI deal, it suddenly gave Reddit the top spot in all search results? That’s a question worth asking.
Did I miss any dirty tricks? Let us know in the comments section below.
