Lately I've noticed my traffic rising *insert happy dance* and I've been really keen on seeing where my visitors are coming from (HI to all you new lovely readers!). So of course I've gone investigating my traffic sources but one in particular sent my spidey senses tingling...Vampie Stat. Don't ask me what digital deity intervened but for some reason I didn't click the link, I googled the site instead...oh jeez.
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| Vampire Stat on the blogger stats page |
They've got some sort of algorithm that trawls the likes of Twitter and Facebook, targeting your posts about new blog updates. They then visit your site multiple times in the hope that the poor unsuspecting blogger clicks their link and BOOM, they've got you.
So please bloggers, don't click the link! Vampire Stat isn't the only one out there, others include;
- Adsense watchdog
- Villianstat
- Monsterstat
- ontimemarketing
- 7secretsearch..adsensewatchdog!#sthash.IaQPAVdA.dpuf7 Secret Search7secretsearch..adsensewatchdog!#sthash.IaQPAVdA.dpuf
If in doubt about a traffic source, Google it first!
If you know of any other sites like the ones above be sure to let me know in the comments and I'll add them to the list above!
Urgh! These situations are so annoying! I've had a few days of receiving "views" from some of these sites and it's so frustrating!
ReplyDeletex
Argh... I've pushed that Vampire thing more than once.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the warning. I wondered why I had traffic.
I thought if I didn't click their link, they would eventually leave me alone. But vampirestat is in full force today..bleh! Plus, heads up, these two are also spammers: 7secretsearch..adsensewatchdog!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the warnings, I'll add them to the list in the main post!
DeleteSarah :)
Eeeek! I've gone and clicked it! Now worrying about the lifespan of my computer.
ReplyDeleteJust run your computers virus scan to be sure nothing nasty has found its way into your system and be sure to avoid clicking it in the future :)
DeleteSarah :)
Great, just when you think people are actually visiting your blog, you find out that, of course, they are not.
ReplyDeleteIts really frustrating but at least we know what it is now!
DeleteSarah :)
Thanks for the help with this, I was a bit confused! I've also got a couple of hits from savegco-antivir that look a bit dodgy...
ReplyDeletehttp://shoulditbebought.blogspot.co.uk/
I'm glad you've found this helpful! My general rule of thumb now is that if the link isn't a google, twitter, bloglovin or a dot com blog then I don't click it, it's just not worth the risk. A lot of the scam sites have really obvious looking names, mixed with abbreviations, numbers or even misspellings so if it includes any of them - stay clear!
ReplyDeleteSarah :)
The truth is once sites like Vampirstat latch on, whether or not you've hit their link to see what it is, they're there for good. Referrer spam is almost impossible to get rid of. Ones only hope is that Google finally gets up off their a** and does something about it. We'll just have to wait.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that no one as yet have found out who Vampirestat are. If we could it may be possible to go after them ourselves.
Very true. Since they started showing up on my blog they've never left, and some days they're hitting me ten fold! It's really annoying when you're keeping an eye on your page views. Hopefully Google will get onto it and sort it out for us someday, but it's the internet after all and something just as malicious is likely to come along and quickly take it's place.
DeleteSarah :)
Yeah... we should spread this info. Not all bloggers know about this especially newbies. Anyway, I got hit from vampirestat as well and it bothers me that there's nothing I can do to block them.
ReplyDeletehttp://ezelovesse7en.blogspot.com/2013/12/those-annoying-referrer-spams-will.html
The more bloggers who hear about this the more that will hopefully not end up clicking the nasty links!
DeleteSarah :)
Your such a pet! Thankyou for this, I had no idea and I was constanty clicking on vampire stat, fortunately I have a mac :)
ReplyDeletehttp://itsmegsmind.blogspot.co.uk/
I'm not sure if Macs are any more protected against these malicious sites than other platforms. I'd still run a virus scan etc to be sure your Mac is safe!
DeleteSarah :)
Thank you for this info! I unfortunately clicked on the link yesterday to investigate and thought it was strange. We are going to do a maintenance clean-up of our computer now to hopefully clean out any damage done but this connection to the site.
ReplyDeleteDoing a virus scan and pc clean up is a great idea. Also having up to date anti-virus on your pc is a great way to insure you are 100% protected. If you've got decent enough anti-virus this should hopefully stop any malware from the site getting onto your pc!
DeleteSarah :)
Oh no I clicked it I'm a kid
ReplyDeleteAs long as you didn't click around the site it took you to you should be ok! Run a virus scan to be sure nothing nasty got onto your computer!
DeleteSarah :)
Devised a technique to get rid off these bots completely and it worked for me lol. Not a single visit for the past 5 months
ReplyDeletehttp://www.digitallyblind.com/2013/07/how-to-control-visits-from-referring.html
Not clicking these links in the first place is the best thing we can do. I've noticed that the hits form these sites goes up and down all the time, no rhyme or reason to it really as I know I only ever clicked the link ONCE almost a year ago! I've had a few people tell me that they've never clicked these sites and still get a ton of hits from them. So frustrating!
DeleteSarah
Great post! I felt like you, intrigued by this link but I didn't click on it. I'm happy I didn't :)
ReplyDeleteJasmine xx For a Real Woman
I'm so glad you didn't click the link! Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteSarah :)
I know vampirestat very well and i was about checking my site worth on their page. i need to be more careful now. Thanks for the post
ReplyDeleteGlad it's helped you out!
DeleteSarah :)