As for the NYC location thing, they do state earlier in the ad that the person would be working in the midtown office location, therefore, one would have to either live in NYC or have a way to get there in order to actually do the work.
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Yes, Aaron,, I read that part and that is my question … forget if this job is shady, legit, or outstanding, if you hire somebody to visit web sites or blogs, then why would they have to physically sit in someones office … in NYC or anywhere else? That’s the thing that ‘wonders” me quite a bit about a number of companies who in one way seem to “get” the on-line community yet in another seem to have no … last I looked I can visit blogs from nearly anywhere … and if it’s a time accounting problem, well, that’s what they have dozens of freeware and commercially available time tracking programs for to prove what a person was doing on line …. note to self, must install one to track my own time reading and commenting on blogs LoL.

If voice contact is needed, Yahoo messenger, Skype, a whole panoply of free computer to computer voice utilities out there so the supervisor can give voice direction or “pep” talks if that’s required. No biggy, just didn’t seem like a very on-line way of looking at things.

Best regards
Dave

I picture dozens of people shackled to computer workstations, typing comments for 14 hours a day.

I have a form on one of my sites with a ‘captcha’ graphic that still manages to get up 7 or 8 spam messages a day. That to me suggests that somebody is manually spamming the form and most likely getting paid for it.

Brad

this sort of thing isn’t terribly uncommon and can be quite different to spam. Quite often people advertise for people to help spread their campaigns, by posting comments about the product/service.

Yes it’s a fine line but I don’t mind people joining relevent forums/commenting against blogs within that niche because they should be writing genuine, relevent content rather than emulating a spam bot.

Besides, it’s nothing that SEO dudes haven’t been doing for ages.

I liken this to blog networks who join together and vote their posts up on Digg.

It’s manipulation.

…But how can you intereact with people honestly when you have a hidden agenda…money? You cannot, not in my book. Unfortunately, I don’t think they understand what “good ethics” are.

Dave,

As for the NYC location thing, they do state earlier in the ad that the person would be working in the midtown office location, therefore, one would have to either live in NYC or have a way to get there in order to actually do the work.

Shine on,
Aaron

I have seen some of those ads mentioned by jeremy above though. Spam Karma seems to catch them fairly well though.

I also was taken with the line requiring that the successful candidates live in or have easy access to New York City … mystifies me. let’s say, for whatever reason (greed, ignorance ….) a budding blogger applies and is accepted. Why do they have to live in or visit NYC? Only paid with cash, under the table I guess … tax forms, we don’t need no steenking tax forms ….

It takes all kinds I suppose. For years carnivals and games of chance have boosted profits by paying people to stand in the audience and tell how easy it is to win the games … they are called ’shills” … and if you think the “big winners” in casinos are not sometimes phonies sent out to liven up the action, winning and losing the house’s money, then I have a bridge to sell you.

No way to stop this kind of nonsense, just beware, fellow bloggers with integrity.