Will Random Good Stuff be next?
Shortly after I published the "Linkbait Friday" campaign yesterday RGS reader Mike left this this comment:
I dont wanna spoil the fun, but this kinda linkbait got john chow banned from google
Thanks to that I could not sleep … all night I was thinking "Will RGS be banned from Google because of Linkbait Friday?"
So I decided to take a closer look in the case of John Chow:
Read his very first blog post in December 2005 here.
And Shortly after his traffic went:
In December 2006 he decided to run a LinkBaiting Campaign and he offered every blog reviewing his site in context of making money blogging a link to the reviewers site. Random Good Stuff could not resist 
Well he got banned from Google for that … Chris Hemphill got the whole scoop.
Did John Chow suffer because of that? Not at all .. as you can see in the graph above.
See for yourself and google search John Chow … no link to his site.
Now, high up in the results is John Cow and as you can see that sites shows up on the first google page. That witty webmaster took advantage of John Chow’s ban and is guiding lost sheep in the search of John Chow to his site. With great success as you can see:
WOW!
Bastard .. lol 
Now back to RGS … John Chow might be able to survive a ban from Google ….. Random Good Stuff probably won’t so now the question will my Linkbait Friday get me into trouble with Google? Please Vote:
In my case I am not asking for a review about RGS with a specific anchor text. I am offering my content and ask for a via: link and every Friday I want to link to everyone taking part in a thank you post with a link to their site. Is that really that bad?
Looking especially forward to get Feedback from following Dot Com Moguls:
If you have any input you can back up feel free to post them as a comment. And until further notice I will put my Linkbait Friday on hold, don’t feel like getting banned … yet
Linkbait Friday | Random Good Stuff - The Entertainment Blog wrote,
[...] Linkbait is on hold! Why read here and if you have any input please feel free to post a [...]
Link | September 15th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Daniel wrote,
Creating a post every Friday with a link to readers that “talked” about your blog should not get you into trouble.
Be careful how you structure the whole deal, though. John Chow did not suffer much from getting banned in Google because he has a very popular blog and an incredibly active community. I bet that he could choose, though, he would rather have his Google SE traffic back (which should be around 1,000 hits per day or say by the time he was banner).
Google lays down the rules, and if you can’t beat them, you better join them
.
Link | September 15th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Maki wrote,
To answer your question: No, I don’t you will get banned for this exercise. Hope this helps.
Link | September 15th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
tuvie wrote,
I believe you’re gonna be okay.
Link | September 16th, 2007 at 4:23 am
Blogosphere is going Crazy | Random Good Stuff - The Entertainment Blog wrote,
[...] came up with something new. But for that you have to wait until Friday. And if you are wondering if Linkbaiting will get you banned… you can read on that post some comments. Which inspired me to the new campaign but for that [...]
Link | September 17th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Al wrote,
I think it depends how you word it, if you say you want links and will link back in return in order to manipulate rankings then you’re going against Google’s terms and if you get penalised you’d only have your self to blame, though I highly doubt Google would notice.
Link | September 17th, 2007 at 11:54 am
tuvie wrote,
hey al, you mean if the link exchange’s done without any money, it would be okay ? so basically google found out about the money because of the post, if John didn’t mention any money, then he will be just find ?
Link | September 17th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
RGS wrote,
Tuvie,
as far as I know John never offered any money. Or am I wrong?
Link | September 17th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
tuvie wrote,
ops, sorry, I misread, so he was just offering a link back right ? I don’t see what’s wrong with that … btw, I just google “john chow” (without the quote) and I see 2,5 million results. Are you sure google banned John Chow ?
Link | September 17th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
RGS wrote,
Yeah he is banned … because you will not find a google result linking directly to his own site http://www.johnchow.com . He should be number one.
Link | September 17th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
elysa wrote,
I linked to you in a recent post that was fitting of my topic so whether or not you link back wasn’t my reason for linking to you. I think the thankyou post will be ok though. But I am certainly not an expert.
Link | September 21st, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Link Love Friday | Random Good Stuff - The Entertainment Blog wrote,
[...] raised the question not too long ago if thanking the blogosphere will get me banned from Google. And I received some helpful answers from couple of big pro [...]
Link | September 29th, 2007 at 10:04 am