Amiel Aguilar Cabanlig employing astroturfing in his Dona Victorina blog?!
(Photo Credits: CNN)
Why do I suspect that Amiel Aguilar Cabanlig is employing astroturfing technique in his blog Dona Victorina? Well, our lesson for today is: HOW DO YOU SPOT ASTROTURFERS?! Or better yet: Is Amiel Aguilar Cabanlig employing astroturfing in his Dona Victorina blog? Let me show you my empirical studies!
“Astroturfing” is the act of trying to boost one’s image online with fake comments and paid-for review.”
Ang Paul Farol kasi binubuko si Amiel Aguilar Cabanlig who said in one of his hate entries, that Reyna Elena and Barrio Siete have been attacked by a lot of bloggers. A cursory look at these blogs revealed that they are mostly owned and run either by Paul Farol himself pala! or by Amiel Aguilar Cabanlig and Eric Bordeos. Three bloggers may not be “a lot”. But if you’re talking about 14 blogs (according to Paul Farol), now that’s a lot of blogs – owned and run mostly by Paul Farol himself. An lolo nyo kasi me ambisyon palang maging PR firm ni Dick Gordon. Or someone told me that if Dick Gordon wins, maging Cabinet Secretary daw!
Hayssst! Pengeng tubiggg shoktong!!!
Anyway, that technique is called fake grassroots activity.
The other word? “ASTROTURFING”.
People in public relations employ this tool. Ring a bell? It’s called, Dona Victorina blog, Manila Review blog, Utak Pugita blog, Quezon City Chorva blog, Slander Inc blog, Oh Noy blog and E Chronicles blog. You will see anonymous commenters in these hate blogs. Pansinin nyo, si Paul Farol kinakausap sarili nya. Mas matindi daw si Amiel, ina-away si James. Sya den daw yun. Sumbong saken nang isang kasamahan nila.
Now, Amazon is not a hate blog. Its a humongous bookstore on the web but are allegedly and blatantly nasty in using astroturfing too! All those user reviews? Product reviews? Grrr! Don’t ask me how many books I bought believing those bloody user reviews! Leche! yes, I was fooled! Hindi na ngayon. Natuto na ako.
Kaya wag nyong lolokohin an lola nyo ha?! Sa Amerika, meron na akong medalya in forensic auditing na pwede kong ipagmayabang ki Madam Auring. At pag ako nabigyan nang go-signal, ipagmamayabang ko talaga sya at hindi hate blog entries na kademonyohan nang Utak Pugita! Tse!
So how do you find out if a blog employs astroturfing?
Tuturuan ko kayo.
Maupo at makinig sa lola.
First, check out the Alexa ranking of a blog. If a blog has a very high Alexa ranking (to the un-informed, the lower the number, the higher your rank is) it could only mean 3 things.
1.) That blog’s SEO is working great. Those keywords they are using are raking in “hits”!
2.) The blog just have a lot of regulars and continues to magnet new visitors. Dala lang nang ganda. Gaya namen sa Barrio.
3.) Or a combination of the two. Maganda ka na, hit ka pa!
But a very high Alexa ranking number does not necessarily mean na me nagbabasa nang blog mo. Ulol! gumising ka, wag kang mag-ilusyon! Walang konek doon! Let me explain in some very simpler un-polynomial terms. Pramis walang differential calculus dito.
It’s like having a store, nilagay mo along EDSA, heavy traffic sya. Expect your Alexa to be very high. Ang problema, walang entrance mula EDSA hanggang sa store mo. So you don’t get pageviews. Walang nag-sa-shopping. Yan ang challenge in blogging. It’s a big advantage that you are able to pull traffic to your site, but if you cannot convert them to read, hindi ka winner. Loser ang tawag dun. If you blog, you want to be read. Don’t tell me na you are blogging dahil slumbook mo sya. Tse!
So, if you have a very high traffic and you have a stagnant pageview, with so many anonymous and/or kung sino sunong engkantong commenters, guilty! Sunugin! It’s called astro-turfing!
In astro-turfing, typically, what they do is “shape the debate” o kaya palabasin that there are many people agreeing with you. Ganun lang yun.
Let’s do a simple presentation to be clear. Randon sample lang to mga ka-barrio. Again, random lang to ha? Ewan ko ba, ba’t lumabas ang Dona Victorina! O, wag magalit ang Amiel Aguilar Cabanlig dyan ha?!
515k is a “medyo OK” Alexa rank hahaha! and if you noticed, kung di pa pinag-init ang Reyna, wala pang mag-babasa nang blog nang Donya! Mga mangagamet~!@#$%!
Now take a look at this next chart.
Do you know what that means?! This means na yong Alexa rank nila na “medyo OK” is largely coming from SEO hits, as in, wala talaga silang readers. Sila lang! I mean, ikaw ba naman, mag-benta ka nang dildo, pag di ka nilusob nang malilibog sa mundo, surefire, tataas ang trapik mo.
In other words, breeding ground nang mga engkanto commenters.
That’s how you spot astroturfing.
Getz?!
Class is dismissed!
Salamat sa patuloy na pag-tangkilik sa Barrio.
Dahil sa Barrio ma-ha-high kayo, kahit na walang droga dito.
Now, fan me on Facebook. Check the sidebar. Kundi, iba-blak ko kayong lahat! Hahaha!
My next class will be Business 101 muna and we will talk about Belo. Tutal, these people have been emailing me na tawagan daw ang Belo Clinic. Pwes! Your will be done! Order coming up!
Tse!
For more on astroturfing, read: Researcher: China pays 280K people to boost its Web image
Note: Paul Farol currently owns and manages the following hate blogs:
1.) http://utakpugita.blogspot.com (in cooperation with Amiel Aguilar Cabanlig, the founder of Dona Victorina blog http://donavictorina.blogspot.com)
2.) http://manilareview.wordpress.com
3.) http://quezoncitychorva.wordpress.com
4.) http://slanderinc.wordpress.com
5.) http://pinoybiz.blogspot.com (sorry for the typo)
6.) http://adventure2day.blogspot.com
7.) http://ohnoy.wordpress.com/ (thanks to leo of noy-piako.com for the tip)
8.) http://www.malayanghalalan.com/ (thanks to another tip! this is also owned by Paul Farol)
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reynz is one Uragon and a Filipino-American, has many years of public accounting & auditing, broadcast investments, housing tax credits and equity investments as his background. Based in the US, he maintains his personal and humor blog at reyna elena dot com. A graduate of Aquinas U, he went to GWU and Temple U in the United States.
bwahahahahaha – the best ka talaga!
It’s pretty obvious that astroturfing is happening there…
Simple indicator, there are a lot of anonymous comments. Niloloko lang ang mga sarili nila hahahaha…
I heard that too na kinakausap daw niya sarili niya.
Ano ba yan. Hahaha
Ate Reynz, may nadagdag na naman sa vocab ko, tnx. Astroturfing. Tunog sushal. Hahaha
Alam nyo kung bakit “atroturfing” ang tawag diyan? Kasi fake “grassroots.” Fake grass. Hahaha. Fake ang Dona Victorina! Talo sa mahal na Reyna!
Mga ambisyosong haters. Tigilan na ang ginagawa!
pwede kong gamitin ang chart ng DV sa forex! kita agad ang trendlines! hahaha
trend is either flat or on a downward slope.
Hmm, usong-uso siguro ang astroturfing ngayong election season. I suddenly remember my old job before sa media bureau ng isang presidential candidate. My job was to write fake letters to the editor, hahaha.Mas madali na ngayon kasi high-tech na. At eto na nga, astroturfing……..great lesson Propesora!
astroturfing? huy bagong word yan ha…i’ve learned a new one maraming salamat sa barrio siete.
Reynz,
I give you plat wan for this post-graduate course…Summa cum laude ka para sa akin.
Best regards,
Dr. Silver Ph.d
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