So I treaded on the dark side at one point, and was hired to write a Craigslist spam application. It was pretty simple and would automatically post to all the Erotic Services sections in all the U.S. localities with randomized (a huge set of varying titles, descriptions and photos - that could all be localized specifically to where it was posting) postings, randomized emails, obfuscating the text further by using shades of black for each letter - then solving the captcha and auto-responding to the email to publish the posting. It would do this every 20 minutes, 24/7.
The results for spamming adult dating affiliate links was pretty interesting. On average it would earn $1k a day, with most holidays jumping up to $2k a day. One very religious holiday in particular (won't mention which one to single any group out) brought in $3k. In one single day.
As long as spamming people with affiliate links will work, and makes them money - someone will do it.
Well - part of the deal of me writing the app for the guy was that I would use it too. So the numbers I am reporting were my personal profits off of it - and I had a much lower posting frequency as not to compete directly with the guy who hired me to write the app. He ended up abusing the system and changed the configuration to go like every 5 minutes which caused Craigslist to make various changes like removing the ability to add links in the postings, then they changed the captcha system (which was still easy to bypass) and then finally they moved to recaptcha (I believe). I don't know how much more the other guy ended up making but I know he was easily pulling in more than me.
It's fascinating how much money there is in things that are at best ethically unsound and legally questionable, and at worst completely illegal (no real shocker in the latter, though).
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So I treaded on the dark side at one point, and was hired to write a Craigslist spam application. It was pretty simple and would automatically post to all the Erotic Services sections in all the U.S. localities with randomized (a huge set of varying titles, descriptions and photos - that could all be localized specifically to where it was posting) postings, randomized emails, obfuscating the text further by using shades of black for each letter - then solving the captcha and auto-responding to the email to publish the posting. It would do this every 20 minutes, 24/7.
The results for spamming adult dating affiliate links was pretty interesting. On average it would earn $1k a day, with most holidays jumping up to $2k a day. One very religious holiday in particular (won't mention which one to single any group out) brought in $3k. In one single day.
As long as spamming people with affiliate links will work, and makes them money - someone will do it.
Ever think about swapping out your own affiliate link for a small percentage of the posts?
Well - part of the deal of me writing the app for the guy was that I would use it too. So the numbers I am reporting were my personal profits off of it - and I had a much lower posting frequency as not to compete directly with the guy who hired me to write the app. He ended up abusing the system and changed the configuration to go like every 5 minutes which caused Craigslist to make various changes like removing the ability to add links in the postings, then they changed the captcha system (which was still easy to bypass) and then finally they moved to recaptcha (I believe). I don't know how much more the other guy ended up making but I know he was easily pulling in more than me.
It's fascinating how much money there is in things that are at best ethically unsound and legally questionable, and at worst completely illegal (no real shocker in the latter, though).