This Is Not A Real Blog Post, But Please Read It Anyway

Flog?

On the websites of a couple of plugin publishers, I noticed the words Fake News Page and Fake Blog, or Flog. What in the world is a Flog? Hmm…maybe a fake news page could be some sort of a news parody, like the TV show Not Necessarily the News was years ago.

What is a flog?

But what is a Fake Blog? It looks like a blog, it reads like a blog, it barks like a blog, but it’s not a blog? And what would be the purpose of a fake blog? To tell you fake things? To give you information about fake eyelashes or cubic zirconias? To sell you a fake ID?

So, I googled it. “What is a fake blog?” I asked. Without the quotes, of course. The number 1 answer came from Wikipedia. Wow. They get number 1 on a lot of stuff, huh?
A fake blog (sometimes shortened to flog or referred to as a flack blog) is an electronic communication form that appears to originate from a credible, non-biased source, but which in fact is created by a company or organization for the purpose of marketing a product, service, or political viewpoint. The purpose of a fake blog is to inspire viral marketing or create an internet meme that generates traffic and interest in a product, much the same as astroturfing (a fake grassroots campaign). Fake blogs are corrupted forms of public relations…

Identity cloaking was another term Wikipedia used in reference to a flog. A well-known (to some, evidently, but not to me) example would be a fake blog created in 2006 called Walmarting Across America. It was supposedly written by 2 Walmart “”enthusiasts”” who journeyed across America, visiting Walmarts, and blogging about their experiences in those Walmarts. There actually were 2 people who did this, but it was really a public relations stunt thought up by a PR firm that Walmart had hired, not by a couple of everyday people. Gives me an idea though. When I retire, I think I’ll RV across the nation blogging about all the fast food places. I’ll have to try them out first, of course.

Fake Parody Blogs

Just as I thought, a flog can be a parody.  It seems that they are usually written about a celebrity or other noteworthy individual. But unlike other flogs, parody blogs are not necessarily marketing tools. They are written mostly for the fun of it. Some noteworthy parody blogs include Fake Steve Jobs, Mock Mark Cuban and the network News Groper.

So?

So, assume that you used one of these plugins that help you make fake blogs and fake news pages. (Luckily, they also allow you to make Landing pages and Squeeze pages. REAL ones.) How would you monetize a flog? Any differently than you would a real blog? Would you need fake plugins for it? Fake comments? And then what would you call a real blog, a rog? Really, I am clueless. So, someone tell me, please, are there ways to earn money with a flog, other than the same ways you can earn money with a rog?

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Comments

    • Ernie Barrett
    • December 2, 2013

    Twitter’s own CEO, Dick Costolo, has a personal feed followed by 1.1 million people, but 31 per cent of them are fake.

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