Imitation of life pretty much sums up the internet, unfortunately. You’ll find more truth in art and fiction than text and history on blogs. So how do we stay honest as bloggers? When is it okay to use automation in blogging? You may know the REM song “Imitation of Life,” well this post is talking about something similar: automation. In the song, Michael Stipe sings: “Trying to look like you don’t try.” How appropriate. Who do the spammers think they are kidding?
Here’s an example of bad automation. I have been on Twitter many times and I’ll find a friend with something like “I now get 400 new followers a day. You can too! (some link here)” It’s happened a few times recently and I have contacted the person direct message. In each case, the person knew it was there and was trying feverishly to remove it from their Twitter. In some cases, they were forced to change their password to make it stop. They signed up for a service hoping to legitimately boost their follower #’s through an automated service. Instead, what happened is they got a bunch of meaningless followers they didn’t know and who didn’t want to follow them. These are Twitter pyramid schemes. I found this out recently. Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I often feel the responsibility to raise awareness when things happen to me.
Last Friday I posted my monthly blog stats and I elaborated on how I am using “automation” (not the bad kind) to improve my blog numbers. To one reader it was ubiquitous with spam and I think the general perception of that word is the same. I was talking about legitimate routines, passive income (ie; adsense and text-link-ads), and toolbar shortcuts to make producing quality content easier. He read me wrong. So now it’s your turn: What do you think of automation in blogging?
I agree there are good automation techniques for finding content and bad ones. I found this blog by using automation but stop by personally to comment.
Automating content always needs to have the human editor in the mix and too many people wan to use set and forget methods. Yet to find one that works well without the editing.
As long as the content being written and produced is hand crafted and not automatically stripped and pulled from other sites, then I believe it is fine in blogging.
In the IT industry we strive to automate as much as possible to free up IT resources to do other things. We automate scripts, backups, software..
Automation is not a thing to be feared, and using automatic income earners like ADSENSE and such free up the bloggers time to write more articles instead of spending time fishing for opps and paid articles. (Not that that’s a bad thing)
Everyone should be wary of gimmicks that ask for your twitter password in order for you to take part. Googling the app/site for ‘problems’ or to see what others have experienced with it before deciding to take part is always prudent, and I agree… those stupid pyramid schemes aren’t worth the trouble!
@Mike Paetzold: I like the human element you put in there. Automation can be good when it’s routines or reminders or even posting quick short snippets of other blogs and then commenting. But, when you get into the “bot” stuff it’s not good for anybody. Thanks for your comment man.
@Dragon Blogger: Hey buddy! I think you and I have the same mind more or less on this. Automation as a method is good but when you start replicating content etc. it’s a no-win.
@fracas: Hey there
Twitter seems to be accruing quite a set of parasitic apps. People need to watch it. It doesn’t take much in blogging to turn a reader off. Thanks for the comment!
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