Many website owners have seen a rather ominous e-mail floating by their e-mail boxes lately. An e-mail from a person at a UK based company More Digital (moredigital.com). It seems like a rather random e-mail, especially when it’s unsolicited!
A quick search on the internet will pop up many other’s who are thinking the same thing … Are these people a scam or not? Sadly that question cannot be answered as of yet. So far they seem very legit. Or do they?
Edit (Sept 28th, 2010): Just heard back from them. In the original e-mail I told them that sure, we will allow text ad links on our site(s) assuming they agree to our conditions (detailed below in the original article). They finally replied, saying that everything was ok on terms, except they had no clients meeting our criteria. We have niche specific websites so their original niches of “Health/Gaming” (and a few others which I don’t remember) really didn’t fit. So they asked if they could “keep our site on record” to be contacted later. So we’ll see how that goes. To be continued!
Edit 2 (October 1st, 2010): So here is some updated information about More Digital:
They have a very bad WOT (web of trust) rating: http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/moredigital.com … It’s all in the red (ie: bad). That really doesn’t help their case. Also, as one of the readers pointed out whoever you are talking to from More Digital may not even exist. For example, the commenter was talking with “Alex” though they aren’t listed at all on the contact page for the company: http://www.moredigital.com/staff
Now, does that prove anything? NO! Most companies in the world will NOT publish a full roster for very good reasons (privacy, security ….). So ‘Alex’ might just be a freelance e-mail sales person, a independent contractor or just someone hired from a freelance site (or off the street). So, it’s possible they aren’t listed people USUALLY only the executive C-class employees are listed.
But you’d think a sales person might be? Who knows.
Huge Edit 3 (October 13th, 210): So, I got an e-mail directly from More Digital about this article and it’s response. Check out what they said and let me know what you think! http://www.piotrkrzyzek.com/more-digital-scam-or-not-huge-update-a-direct-response/
But the import thing here to note (from the readers comments), is that the link was up on their site FOR A WEEK! and they still haven’t been paid. Then More Digital asked to put up more links and never even paid the reader. Now that is complete B.S. and scammy action.
BE WARNED. You might not get paid by More Digital. So far no one came forward with saying that they were paid. Only time will tell!
Edit 4 (January 5th, 2011): I have some updated information about who gets paid and who doesn’t. Click here to read my article about payments from More Digital.
Let’s take a look at the original e-mail. It is a template e-mail which they mass send out to people:
From: <FIRST LAST> <<FIRST>@moredigital.com>Date: <date be here>To: <FIRSTNAME> <you @ yourwbsite adress>Subject: Enquiry regarding <YOURSITE<.comHi <FIRSTNAME>,
I work for More Digital; a UK based Digital Marketing Consultancy.
We represent clients interested in social media marketing on smaller sites with little or no existing advertising and we’re currently looking for advertising partners.
We pay a fixed upfront annual fee which we will agree on with you. Once the ad is in place, payment is made within approximately 48 hours.
Would you be interested in placing a small text-based ad on Chykalophia.com?
Kind regards,
<FIRST LAST>==================================================
This e-mail message is strictly confidential. It is intended solely for the person or organisation to whom it is addressed and contains confidential or privileged information. If you have received it in error, please notify info@moredigital.com immediately and destroy this e-mail and any attachments. You must not disclose, copy, distribute or take any action in reliance on this e-mail or any attachments. Views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of More Digital.More Digital does not accept liability for any data corruption, interception, unauthorised amendment, viruses and delays or the consequences thereof relating to this or any other email. Any e-mail or attachment is opened at your own risk.
To help protect you, this email (ID-<10 DIGIT NUMBER>) was scanned for viruses by Norton AntiVirus.
E-mails like this always put me off a bit honestly. I’m not one to take lightly to unsolicited solicitations. Life has also taught me to take everything with a grain of salt … and then some!
So I researched and checked out their site and it seems rather legit. So I thought, ok. Let’s e-mail them back and let’s see what they say.
There are a few things I made 100% clear to them though. These are things that you should also do inorder to protect yourself.
Why protect yourself?
Simple, you protect yourself legally and you won’t get the Google Slap.
What More Digital is offering is a paid link. Paid links are not allowed under Google. BUT there are ways for it to be ok with Google as per their article here:
- Adding a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the < a > tag
- Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file
So just make any link they give you a no-follow link and you’ll be ok!
What to tell them to make sure you are protected:
One of the first things you should tell them is that you will have to approve any links first. Also that they will be no-follow links. Here’s a list of what you should probably tell them (in these words or preferably in your own words):
- The links will be no-follow links
- You will have the option to approve links before they go live (ie: you can check out the websites you’ll be linking to)
- You will set the time frame or amount the links are seen
- They offer one set price for one year. Turn this down. Say them instead something like: monthly payments for unlimited views
- Price per estimated clicks
- Price per views of page with the anchor text on it
- Add option to remove links if the linked-to website ever becomes a ‘bad’ site. Ie, if that site ever becomes a spam/maleware site/illegal content you have the right to remove the link with no recourse on their part.
- If you have a higher traffic site, obviously ask for more money than what they offer. They offered $100 USD for links on our sites. Umm .. yeah, too low for the traffic we get. But the price really is up to you.
- Optional suggestion: tell them the price is PER different website link. Ie, if they want to link to ABC.com and DEF.com then it would be $200 not $100… for example.
- Ask for which niche’s the sites are in that they want to link to from your site.
Stuff along those lines. I’d copy the e-mail I sent to them here for you guys and gals, but we (More Media and my clients) are currently in talks so it might ruin things if I do. Sorry! But once things are ok or once they fall apart I’ll post it here.
So what did they reply with? Well, they said things like this:
- “More Digital only work with contextual, natural adverts”
- Their writers will write the ad for you to “match” and “blend in” to your site.
- If you’re not happy with the anchor text, you can suggest a different one.
- The ad will just be an text link somewhere on one page
- You will be paid via Paypal or Moneybookers
- You’ll get your money 3-4 business days after the link is put up.
So, lets take a look at the company More digital.
They are up on Web Of Trust: http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/moredigital.com
They got a lot of complaints of spam … presumably from the mass e-mails they sent out. It doesn’t look too good from Site Advisor either: http://www.siteadvisor.cn/sites/moredigital.com/msgpage
There is a small disccusion on this forum about it: http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/domain-name-scams/69141-real-deal.html
The people there haven’t decided if it’s a good deal or not yet. My recommendation would be exactly like what one of the thread replies said: Just go for it. You’ve got nothing to loose. Just make sure to protect yourself from the Google Slap and other things.
Always use a CYA letter … a Cover Your Ass letter which let’s you pull out of anything goes bad (see above).
So what did we do?
We are currently going forward with it. We’ll see if they pay up and agree to our terms. I’m not going to go forward with something if I’m not protected legally.
Ultimately the choice is yours.
Have any of you gotten such a e-mail? What do you guys do or respond with? Let us know in the comments!
With so many spams floating around these days, no wonder that more and more people are being aware of that kind of suspicious emails. Thanks for the info and the tips
Valuable info. Lucky me I found your site by accident, I bookmarked it.
We got this exact email for our blog! The whole thing sounded fishy to me from the beginning….
Thanks for posting this info, very helpful!
Hey Angela! I’m glad you found this useful!
Once I get more info I’ll update everyone.
Did you talk to MoreDigital more or did you ignore them? I’m trying to gather as much info as I can about them and their e-mails.
Cheers!
–PK
They contacted my brother via e-mail one weeks ago (February 20, 2012), and I think it’s just joke
.
, but he believed about the offers is true. He writes one pages review about moredigital clients with 1 anchor link on his games review site.
Two days ago, he told me the latest email from moredigital like this:
..bla bla..bla..
Web Marketing Ltd sent you $150,00 USD.
- Transaction ID xxxx
I am from Indonesia, just for sharing and apologies for my poor English
Yep. Got the same email from More Digital, word for word in fact. So glad you posted this because I might have gone ahead without thinking of consequences. Much obliged for the heads up and the language to use.
I’ll probably go ahead with it just because I’ve got nothing else to do. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks again!
Awesome Nico!
Let me know! I’m collecting info about them so I can give everyone an accurate description of that company. Legit or not. Dunno either way yet.
Thanks for commenting
Good luck with it!
–PK
Got the same email and went for it and posted their link.It has been 2 days still no money???
I will wait for one more day before i take them down.
Hey Susan,
Please let me know how this turns out. I’d wait another day (like you said) or two. If they still haven’t paid then blacklist their company and links.
For fun, you can also inform their clients that you aren’t being paid and therefor the company they are dealing with is breaking contracts left and right. I would be ‘fun’ to inform their clients of that.
Good luck and let us know how this turns out!
–PK
I got the same email thanks!
Wow, It’s like Bombard email. I got one too, Now lets see what they give if I follow every step they asked to me. see you on the next issue for an agreement from moredigital.com and their client on me…
Thanks for your comment Hari. Though I don’t link to SEnuke blogs and/or spam blogs or crap blogs .. aka: splogs!
I’ll put your link back up if it really isn’t a splog! Though, the 4 ‘spun’ articles really aint helping your case PLUS, you forgot to close a } while writing up your article. EPIC FAIL!
Here what I got, when I asked more money… from moredigital.com aka Jennifer
“Hi Hari,
Sorry! On this occasion, we could not match your site with a current client. However, we are continuously bringing new clients on board and I expect to have a good match for you in the near future.
With your permission, I’ll keep your site on our list and will get back to you if I find a suitable advertiser.
In the meantime, if you or anyone you know manages other sites that we might consider then please feel free to forward them to me.
Best regards,
Jennifer”
And thank’s peter ( I don’t think that seo nuke can do that ) LOL
Heh yeah, Senuke can’t do that. Seems you got the same e-mail from the people my clients and I did.
Pesky scammers.
Thanks for letting us all know!
–PK
So far no payment.I dont know what to think.It is not a lot of money that would hurt my business so i dont understand them at all,why would they do something like this you put up the link ,they stale you for a week and than you’ll remove them and announce them every where as a SCAM artists???.
no clue
Wow, if that sucks then just remove the links and be done with them.
They seem to be very big scammers. They do this for a few reasons, they get backlinks, and if those backlinks are indexed by google then it’s hard to remove them from the Google cache (for example).
But one question for ya Susan, why does your e-mail address keep changing with each comment?
–PK
Sorry for the email i have this google chrome and it just poped up in the E-mail * option.
No worries!
I’m just paranoid about security, ’tis all.
You called and they didn’t even answer? Shish … More Digital people really seem like a scam. Though, as you said in another comment they contacted you again. Best to ask for the money RIGHT NOW or they won’t get any more business from you.
If they pay, then I see no harm in doing so (just make sure the people they are linking too aren’t scammers or doing anything illegal.
Best wishes!
–PK
I even called them +44 (0)870 766 2480 nobody answered,even the stuff they have on the webiste does not include the person i was dealing with called Alex???
http://www.moredigital.com/staff
Nothing and not even email responses any more.I am sure they are either SCAMERS an i think they work together with this guys http://www. partypoker .it/
So we took them down.
Good luck to the rest of you.
just found this
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/scam-and-cheating-c65797.html#c304062
Hmm, I’ll check out the site. Good find for a complaint website! Sweet!
Though the links points to Digital Landing, which isn’t More Digital … or is it? I dunno….
I guess you were right,the way they were staling me its exactly the time they needed for their txt links to get indexed on Google page rank,there is no other explanation ?
Hey Susan,
Yeah. They really seem like jerks.
Best part is, there is comment from “Hari”, in which he got an almost identical letter back. The “we’ll keep your page on file” blahblabhlabh.
Spread the word my friends, these guys are scammers as far as we can tell. DO NOT TRUST THEM (so far).
Best of luck,
–PK
This is the emaiI i received from them.OMG i got to laugh on this one.
Alex Chan
Hi,
I am very sorry for the inconvenience. It was never my intention to ignore you, I was out of the office for a couple of days because I just became a father. This is a happy time for me, please understand why there was a delay.
Anyway, we hit yet another snag. Our project manager wants us to add a few more lines of text, I hope this is OK? At the moment our copywriters are working on the added text, please be patient. I also recognize that this has caused you extra trouble, so I’m bringing the payment up to 130 USD. Again, all I ask is a little bit more of your patience.
You said it yourself, there’s no way we can hurt your business and not being able to close this deal won’t bring us any kind of benefit. I wish to finalize this transaction as much as you do. Fatherhood is a blessing but it’s also very stressful (I am finding this out the hard way).
I will be back with the copy very soon. Rest assured that the deal is still on. One last time, I sincerely wish for you to be very patient. Payment will be there, we just need to make sure the advertisement is in perfect shape before it goes to our clients.
Thank you very much for your patience.
Sincerely,
Alex
————–
LOL:)))
and they are up on my site for over a week now ,and emailing me every second day to change this or change that on the text link they provided.
hahahahha
Haha, Those people are freaking absurd!
Tell them sure … you can put more links up, but money first. And it’s extra for more links.
Good luck!
Heh, those people make me laugh.
–PK
Here are their terms, FYI.
http://www.moredigital.com/terms.pdf
Awesome. Thanks for the link!
–PK
Just not sure here.
My grandfather always said, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
I was offered $140/yr. for a text link on http://run100miles.com but I’m less and less inclined to accept.
For one, it’s a link to a casino. Second, as an SEO myself, I’m all for working with the system but this just feels sketchy to me. The risk vs. the reward is hardly balanced here.
I think I’m gonna pass on these dudes.
(but I would like to know if anyone ever gets paid…)
I agree with you completely, almost all things that sound too good to be true are.
It’s a good thing you didn’t take them up on the offer, from that I hear so far the people I’ve talked to … none of them have been paid.
As you also point out, they gave ‘clients’ in all the wrong nichces of our sites.
Good luck with the running!
–PK
As an update, I replied to them stating my own terms, similar to those in the post above, perhaps even to be construed as demands, and she never got back to me.
So there you have it. Business, done.
Hey Nico!
Great to hear from you again.
Man. That really is a bummer what they are doing. Glad you’ve made it out clean and safe! It does take them a few days sometimes to respond. We’ll see what they say back to you soon. I’m pretty sure it’ll be a boilerplate answer like those listen in the comments here and in the article.
Best of luck and be safe!
–PK
Hi all,
got that in Germany. Looked in google, found your website.
Thanks for the infos. Thought myself it is just ….
Tx again.
Peter
Excellent site/blog and very informative.
I received several emails from “Jo” who admitted that they got my details from http://www.whois.com. Isn’t that a breach of copyright?
As a measure of goodwill, I sent them a link to this site so they can read the comments. Hopefully that will kick them into actually paying some of you.
I, for one, will decline their offer!
Hey Robert,
Breach of ‘copyright’? No … This have nothing to do with copyrights. Maybe you mean breach of privacy?
And no, either way it’s not. Whois is public information and anything that is public is fair game (usually). It’s like saying that getting a (free) newspaper at your doorstep is a breach because the company saw your address on the street as they drove by.
So yeah, it’s public info.
Though soliciting business through public information … that is another story. I can’t really comment on it since I do not know the laws pertaining to that.
Cheers,
–PK
Well, I must admit I’m surprised, but in the end I have to vindicate More Digital. I decided to go ahead and see what would happen if I followed through with the transaction and I must say it all ended up working out, and rather painlessly I might add.
Yesterday I installed the link on the page they requested and today I was paid. I’m certainly not a plant from their company, as you can see from my previous comments, but More Digital did end up coming through with their payment when all was said and done. They have a very specific way they want their ad text to read on the page, which I found to be fairly reasonable after all, and which I thought would look far more obnoxious on the page than it finally did, but once the language was added, they transferred the agreed upon amount into my Paypal account. What do you know?
I’m not saying that you’ll be problem free with them, I think a few of the people had issues getting their payment, but in my case it turned out to be an honest business transaction. I just wanted to follow through back here to put my experience in plain view.
Cheers,
Nico
Yes, same story in german: They send a mail with a “simple Text-ad”-offer (einfache Textwerbung, Text-Anzeigen). They promit to pay shortly after the placement on the own homepage (praktisch gleich nach der Platzierung der Werbung einen fixen Jahresbetrag). If you don’t react to the first mail they come back with a second mail. I’m lucky to find this site here, because i found no german discussion about it. It all looks very suspicious:
- SPAM-like automated contact-mails
- the persons in the first mails do not apear on moredigital.com/staff and are not contactable via tel. (also answers very suspicious)
- the offer is arround 100-150 $
- the payment is over Paypal, as alternative credit card
- The Terms of MoreDigital.com are very suspicious: http://www.moredigital.com/terms.pdf
- the payment is not confirmed in any case after 4 days and only in some case generally
- The Ad links to online-gambling, gaming, health (Poker?, Viagra?)
- the payment of text links is against Google policy (and maybe others) and can very harm your search engine ratings
I will do no business with this guys/girls/scammers – for german indexing: Vorsicht Scam, Achtung Spam MoreDigital.com aufpassen bei Bezahlung/Geld für Text-Anzeigen!
He MartinB,
You’re right about a lot of what you said.
Though there is one correction. Text link ads are NOT against Google’s Police, as long as they have the ‘no-follow’ tag on the link.
I just wanted to clarify that
Thanks for the german translations!
–PK
I got the same email today from someone called Elaine from More Digital and found it suspicious. When I searched for the wording used, I found this post.
Thanks for the warning, it sounds like I’d have a frustrating time with these guys.
Hi Piotr,
Thanks for your post. I got the same email from them and was wondering whether to go ahead with it, since I do have ads on that particular site.
I think I’ll just give this a miss.
I also got this mail some days ago. I replied but i got no answer. Moredigital seems to be just Spammers like all the others :/
Hey Steve,
I can’t they they are spammers really. Though I do not agree with their methods.
Cheers,
–PK
Hi!
Any news/development from More Digital? I received the same offer yesterday and agreed of their terms and conditions today.
Best regards!
Rudy
Hey Rudy,
Good luck with More Digital! I haven’t heard anything new from them yet. I’ll let everyone know once I do.
–PK
I also had an offer from them and I think I’ll accept it. Maybe I’ll ask them some questions first, I don’t know. Only because it looks strange I cannot judge ’bout’em. There are so many people trying to do the strangest businesses in the internet, you cannot say they’re all bad guys. If they’re not paying, I kick it off, this is almost no work. I’ll tell if everything went fine or not.
Mart
Let us all know how it turns out Martin!
–PK
I received the same email. They wanted to advertise on my site for $200 for the whole year. There was no way that I was taking such a low ball offer.
Got the same thing for my halloween-master.com.
Waiting for a reply.
But seems like a few years ago, had something similar. They wanted me to post something of theirs on my site but wanted to wait for payment til they had enough people with the same niches for my type of site.
Sounds like Free Advertisement to me.
I told them, “Sorry, Already sold the space to someone else. UNLESS you want to out bid them?”
Of course got no reply.
I must say, I’ve been getting some quick responses from them. Must be automated.
Anyhow, Like fishing, You have to play with the fish a bit before you can bring it in to see how big it is.
So, for now, just going to play it out and go along with it.
I’ll keep everyone informed.
Btw, Heres my last response, after I told them, Sure, but I doubt you guys have anything for a halloween site.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hi Michael,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
We don’t have anything that is directly related to halloween.
I believe the best option would be is to allow us show you the ad copy we’ve prepared for your site. This should give you a better idea on how simple the whole model is, as well as give you more information regarding the client.
May I go ahead and send you the details?
Regards,
Isabella
Here is the string of messages recently received and sent (Christmas week 2010). Start at bottom. We will pass.
—– Original Message —–
From: Gracie Horton
To: Michael
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 3:13 AM
Subject: Re: Enquiry regarding Runhope.com
Hi Michael,
Thanks for getting back to me! We represent several industries that might interest you:
- Online gaming: you would receive 120 USD per year
- Finance, telecommunications, tourism or health: you would receive 100 USD per year
The advert will be text, not a visual banner. It will appear on a single page of your website. We aim to complete payment via secure payment partners Paypal or Moneybookers within 48 hours of the advert going live on your site.
To give you an idea of what a text advert looks like, please view our example at the following link: http://www.discoverdisney.co.uk/family-diary where the anchor is ‘Virgin Atlantic’.
Also, please read our terms and conditions: http://www.moredigital.com/terms.pdf
Please let me know which industry you prefer, we’ll then let you know which client fits your site best and draft an advert!
Best regards,
Gracie
=============================================================================
My response:
Hello Gracie,
We would consider the option but would need more understanding of your proposal.
What type of ads are you suggesting; what specific clients would be posted on our site?
Thank you,
Michael
—– Original Message —–
From: Gracie Horton
To: Michael
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 6:16 AM
Subject: Enquiry regarding Runhope.com
Hi Michael,
I work for More Digital; a UK based Digital Marketing Consultancy.
We represent clients interested in social media marketing on smaller sites with little or no existing advertising and we’re currently looking for advertising partners.
We pay a fixed upfront annual fee which we will agree on with you. Once the ad is in place, payment is made within approximately 48 hours.
Would you be interested in placing a small text-based ad on Runhope.com?
Kind regards,
Gracie Horton
I had a problem with More Digital also. They were sending spam emails and I responded to a person who doesn’t exist named Brandon. We provide Web 2.0 services and Brandon wanted to place ads at our clients sites. Our client is now upset because More Digital failed to deliver on their promises. This particular client has paid us very well for many years and we may now lose his business because of this. Stay away from MoreDigital! MoreDigital Reviews
Hey David,
Sorry to hear about the loss of business. This is exactly why I setup the posts about More Digital … so that people can make informed decisions about whether to go ahead or not with a deal with them. Best of luck in your web 2.0 servicing company David.
Cheers,
–PK
Hi,
Couple days ago i received email from them but in polish. At least first one was. Further conversation is in english. I am trying to get that cheese.
Take care.
Hi guys.
Lucky me, I got an email from them a couple of days ago and I was smart enough to Google it first.
Thanks again.
Yep got one of their emails. Checked their site – there’s no mention of who any of their clients are – just a whole lot of waffle about how ‘professional’ they are. I emailed them back asking for more info on who their clients are. Interesting when I typed in More Digital in Google my second choice in their list was ‘more digital scam’ – alarm bells started then and that’s how I found this site.
We have a policy ‘pay before publish’. I’ve learnt quite a lot here from just reading the replys
Congrats on the site will bookmark.
Hi again
I now have an email from Celebrity Cafe.com smells of the same thing. Know anything about them. Wow I’m pleased I found this site.
I have recently had the same email for my small blog, although i have mainly free ads on it i decided to research them (seeings it was only a text ad) and came across your article which was very informative.
I decided not to bother so thanks for posting.
Steve
Okay, I’ve been following this site for quite a while now.
I was contacted, by someone called Karen on my e-mail. Normally I don’t pay attention to spam, but it wasn’t a busy day and I was bored. So I replied asking for more information, like I bet many of you already have. This Karen person seems nice enough, and I thought to myself; “What the heck, let’s give it a shot, and if it won’t work, I can always back out”. So I went with it for as far as I wanted.
I was told there were 2 options of advertising with them.
1. Some text that fit into the text I already had, where a link would be implemented. ($100)
2. A whole site for advertising, tailored to look like it was something made by my company. ($200)
It’s no secret that I wanted the big cash (Who wouldn’t, right?) So I went for option no. 2. It then takes a few days with no answer, and I write to her again – This time I get an answer with an apology, and she tells me that option no. 2 couldn’t be verified by some managers of some kind. Now that seemed very strange to me, but I kept on – and asked for option no. 1 then.
I get a sample of what the text might be, where it should be placed, and who it would link to. Yes – it’s a casino, but to be honest, I don’t think anyone will ever notice there’s a link there.
She said she wanted to verify when it was implemented. And as we agreed, I wrote to her once it was implemented, and provided her with my PayPal information. Between 24-48 hours, I received $100. – There was nothing to complain about, really.
HOWEVER!!!!
I did, like many of you – searched on Google, and found sites saying it was a scam, including this. But I wanted to test this one out for myself, and it seems it worked out – I understand if you hesitate or won’t ever do it. And maybe in a year for the next payment, you’ll laugh your asses off and point your fingers at me, because I got a $10.000 debt to a fake company, I don’t know!
Another thing I frowned upon, was that you don’t create and account – you just contact them o.O.
As a last thing – some of you wrote that you couldn’t find the person you were talking to, under the “staff” section. Well, that’s only a few of the ones who work there, as far as I understand.
On their Staff section – it says:
“More Digital employs over 80 members of staff worldwide, within our advertising, new business and social media teams.”
Now I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this and that it was helpful in any way =)
Bye,
Brian!
Same for me… I received the same e-mail but I think that 200$ can’t change my life
I got that email too.
First I saw this result on Google, and found the domain is like piotrkrzyzek, a randomly generated sequence of text.
Be careful with the titles like “Scam or Not”, because I found many fake “Scam or Not” blog posts.
(I had a post about scam sites on my blog)
Hey Shinkirou,
Glad you found my site.
You’re right though, there are A LOT OF fake ‘scam or not’ blogs, websites and articles. I didn’t really think of that when I wrote the articles, you really bring up a good point!
Thanks!
—PK
Well I also got that mail and made a research, just to come up here.
That even made me more skeptical. nevertheless after speaking to my partners we decided to give it a try.
there is nothing to loose and if they don’t pay I take it off again.
So I replied and got the text and the link a few hours later. I published it and in a few hours the money on my paypal arrived.
Reading some of the reviews in the net made me very positive surprised, as I did not expect much. at all.
cheers
Rhoody
We also got that mail and after putting the link waiting for 4 days for payment. Their answer was:)):
“I have gotten notice from our technical department that we are experiencing some issues with Moneybookers at the moment. However, this should be sorted out by the end of the week. I shall continue to give you updates regarding this matter. I assure you that you shall be receiving the funds in the soonest possible time.”
After that, I’ve replied: “I’ve removed the link. It could be live again, but it’s up to you.”
They never contact me again
they contacted me too, sent me the terms..but when i emailed them that i agree to their terms, they never once even got back to me in more than a month. a bit of courtesy would have been nice. if they weren’t interested anymore or something. but nothing. i sent a couple of follow up emails but no one bothered replying. disappointing and unprofessional.
I went to their website today to check things out as I wasn’t sure if they were legit or not. It now says “This Account Has Been Suspended”, no website. That can’t be good for a legit site.
Hey Peter,
There have been ups and downs with the company. Like one of the latest commenters: they got $150 as their payment within two days. Depends on their ‘mood’ I guess … :: shrug ::
–Cheers!
Hi Piotr,
A few months ago I also received the mentioned e-mail. Really, it sounds too good to be true. But i decided to give it a try. First the price was 100 usd but after some negotiating we meet at 150/year.
I was so suspicious and make separate Paypal account with empty balance. To my surprise a have been paid within two days. Whole 150 usd, without Paypal cut of course. Now we are discussing other sites to “link”. Since now (1,5 months) I have nothing to complain. Is there any sunken rock to be worried about ?
Best regards: Alexander
Hey Alex,
Great to hear that you’ve had success with them. That’s terrific! I hope it works out awesome for ya.
May I ask, what kind of site did they ask you to link to?
–PK
hey i just got the same email today…i already have someone payin me £30 a month to hold a banner on my site so i thought my luck was in again…but i googled it and seen this page so obviously my luck was not in lol i emailed them back sayin i would happily do it…(before i googled it tho) so i’ll see what their reply is…and i will try ask for money up front..see what they say
Good luck Amy!
I’ve heard good and bad stories, so your mileage may vary. If you get a response from them and they pay upfront let us know!
Thanks so much!
You have some very nice jewelry on your story. I’ll tell me gal about it, she’ll be interested in it for sure!
– Piotr
I received an email from these people as well in Australia. After reading everyones experiences I think I might give them a miss, its all a bit too vague and dodgey. Its not worth jeopardising my relationship with my client for this. Thanks for sharing everyone.
I also wonder if the few good responses are being made by the very scammers who have set this up
Hey Michael,
I though the same thing; it’s possible though it seems unlikely. Plus, I’m not saying that these people are dodgey or anything, just that their sales practices and link types didn’t jive well with me. I do sort of disagree with their practices and lead generation techniques, if they do pay out then they are a decent business model. What they offer isn’t comparible to the traffic ‘value’ that my sites and clients sites bring. For example, on this site I get well over 600 people a day (I know it’s not much but it’s still valuable) is worth more than $100 per year especially since this is a high quality site with high quality content (all unique) and it’s for building my brand.
To be fair to them, I told them that yes I’d agree to their price if it’s on my terms. Alas we could not come to an agreement on which types of sites I’d link to.
** shrug **
Cheers,
–PK
Thanks for all this information. MoreDigital contacted me like all the others here, I placed their advert, and they paid within 24 hours
It’s possible that I am that lucky because I told them what I found here and they were hoping I write something positive. So of course everyone should still be careful!
The advert doesn’t make sense for that page, and none of my visitors would click it because of that. So it is really only search engine optimization.
I would like to stay anonymous, but if you, Piotr, want to contact me to get more information about if I am real, your are welcome… Of course everyone thinks I am a MoreDigital employee
I hope that adding this advert (without …nofollow) doesnt make me a bad boy for google and they take me out of the index or something. Is that possible?
In between they contacted me again, asking for a second advert
I just received this email today, and am thinking of going forward with them. I don’t have any ads on my page now (tried Google Ads for a while, but it didn’t really take off), so I’m thinking of going forward with them.
I really appreciate the suggestions! I will definitely add those to my reply email to them
Hey! I got the same e-mail, they want to pay a flat rate for the year… I have not responded — is it a wise decision to just ignore these blokes?
After a few months, I have just received another e-mail from Janet of More Digital, decided to check them in Google found your Blog, read it all and I now what?
I meen ”you know what”?
YOU OWN MORE DIGITAL!!!
Smart guy…
Just wanted to say that I was approached by this company recently and am happy to report I didn’t have a negative experience with them. One of their link builders offered me a flat rate, which I found to be fair and commensurate to my sites level of visibility. I was pretty skeptical after reading the comments posted here, so I brought these comments to the link builder’s attention. They explained that they did have some problems initially with paypal, but in time everyone had been paid. After some consideration, I decided I didn’t have anything to lose, so I agreed to their proposition and they paid me within two or three days. I can’t speak for anyone else, or to the truth of the claim that all their prospects were paid, but I can say that I was able to do business with them without any issues.
I got one from More Digital as well and they seem a little shady however another company paid me over $300 for one link and they initially contacted me by an email that I thought was spam. You never can tell who is legit these days. My advice. If you have never heard of the company best not to risk being black listed by Google.
Great to hear you got a nice clean $300! Awesome! What kind of link did they post on your site?
I also did not have a bad experience from them.Although at first i wasn’t sure what their ad had in common with my website (Punk Rock shows in Los Angeles) but after a few emails back and forth we agreed on a price and i was paid in full.It’s been a full year since then and nothing bad has come out of it.
Rock on dude! Glad to hear it!
I was contacted by this company today as well. Usually scam is full of typos and also their mail server was not blacklisted on the usual spam houses so I googled around instead of simply trashing the mail.
When I found your site I replied to the mail explaining that I am so not interested and asked to delete me from their system. I also added some of their staff members to CC according to the mail address pattern I figured from your blog, my own mail and another example on the net. All mails hit a box so I guess I somehow spammed back.
One hour later I got a reply from the sender: “I understand. We will ensure you are noted as ‘not to be contacted’. All the best.”
Hope this is it. I also can see no reason how someone might even come to the idea to place ads on our website.
Hi there, Piotr.
I’ve recently received an email from More Digital regarding their interest in advertising on my website. I’ve replied to them and am very keen on what would they reply.
After I’ve bounced on ur site, i’ll think i’ll give them a shot. =P.
Hey Random Apples,
Thanks for your comment. So you are going to give them a shot? Please let me know how it turns out!
Interesting site by the way! What is the topic/theme of your site?
–PK
I didnt see it as a scam at all, they gave me the email and after 48 hours and many requests, they paid me the $120 that they said they would. I have not been blacklisted by google after having the ad up for a week, but I well see what happens next
Hello everyone,
Yesterday, I received that same email from More Digital everybosy has received. I don’t use Google AdSense, so Google can’t complain or slap me.
I will do some more research about them before moving forward. Thanks for your comments.
Philippe
Hey Phillippe, It’s not just about Adsense though. Low ranking sites that you point to can hurt you ranking on the search engines as well.
i wonder how many people at more digital wrote the comments for this post??
thanks for the info btw
Hello-
I just rec’d an email from them today and I replied back. This is the second company to contact me asking for something like this and its been very lucrative. I am interested to see what kind of money they’re offering
lol i was thinking about that too tom, about how many ppl that were actually from more digital that were vouching 4 the website and its legitimacy im still confused some ppl say they got they;re money some didnt i still dont know if its a scam or not, And Piotr Krzyzek what exactly would put me in violation of the google adsense program when it comes to placing ads on my site?
I received “the email” 9/5/11. It sounded interesting but I wondered how they found me, so I wrote back telling them sure, send me the details. They did, $100 for a text link and $150 for a whole page for 12 months. I didn’t think that was enough money. Now that I’ve read these posts, I think I will pass.
Thanks much!
Got the exactly the same mail yesterday.
So I googling and found this useful article, then I disregard them.
I got the email from moredigital less than a month ago, same conditions like everyone else. They offered me $150 for posting a post on my page with the anchor word. We negotiated and agreed on $75. My website is urban celebrity entertainment gossips I mostly cover hip hop news. So they were going to write a content for me with the anchor word inside of it. They chose a topic about band Kiss which doesn’t fit in with my content on the website. Their anchor word was “party poker” for the italian poker website. I decided then to write my own post and just put the anchor word inside of it, which I did and emailed to them. They told me to go ahead and post it. The post is about Nicki Minaj on a Cosmopolitan cover it’s still on my website so you can find it and the anchor word is highlighted in red. I’m telling all these details to prove you that I’m not working for moredigital or anything like that, I’m a real person who decided to go ahead and give them a try. The next day after I posted I got $175 transferred to my paypal account. Even though they said 24-48 hrs, but it was there in less than 24 hrs. So I had a really good experience with them. If anyone needs proof I can email screenshots of my correspondence with moredigital
I meant $175 *
Wow! Such a wealth of information. Like others, we have to wonder how many of the posts are shills.
Also worth noting is that, so far, no one has responded to Piotr’s questions about types of link, etc.
We have hundreds of highly-ranked websites, and thought it interesting that they picked one, which, while successful, is hardly our largest or highest-ranking. Dozens of our sites are at the top of the search engines for multiple keyphrases, so, that raised a question.
More to the point, perhaps, Piotr, you are a regular, everyday hero. Entirely generous of you to provide this service. Plus, it’s great that you’re at the top of the search engines.
We will tentatively go ahead, using the guidelines you provided in this post, and, out of both gratitude to you and a wish to see scummers squashed, will be happy to keep you guys posted
I had a smiliar sketch experience. I didn’t go as far as getting to the payment option. Their whole pitch comes off as a scam, hence how I ended up here.
Same here. Put up a link, after 5 days they asked for a change. I changed it. Required payment immediately. No reply, so the link is out.
Sad that they take advantage, and some may just leave their link up not knowing what to do.
Well, they’re pretty real. I’m not sure why you guys weren’t paid but after being skeptical at first i decided to just go through with it (won’t hurt since they’re the one who’s gonna make the content of the ad as well so you’re not risking to lose any time anyway), I got paid 140usd for a not-too-flashy ad post and i’m very happy with it.
Thank you for posting. My webhost got the email word for word (about a year after the email got to you!) and I’m “on the fence” because the terms of service include not revealing their name or relationship between MOREdigital, their client, and me. I regularly meet with other bloggers, and contracting with them and fielding questions would be a dilemma for me.
Hi folks,
Just got this email too from an “Amanda McRae” – with text identical to that above.
I thought it sounded a bit strange but I said I’d reply anyway – asked what information they’d need from me etc. – but glad I found this site now. Something just didn’t sit right to be honest with it.
Think I might have some fun with them and see if this “Amanda” really is real. Couple of emails back and forth – especially if it is a scam!!
Hay Guys,
Received the same email from them yesterday. I replyed requesting more info, just to see what they say. Don’t feel I’m going to go ahead with it anyway, sounds too scamy to me.
Regards,
David.
I had this mail but it said they definitely wanted to place an add. I phoned after the email came in, the robot-like answer was that they had decided to go with someone else!!
Piotr,
I received a similar e-mail and responded in interest but haven’t heard back from them yet. The information you provided is very useful and am not certain I want to deal with them. Thanks for sharing. ps: are there legitemate companies out there that offer this same service as well and has an excellent payment processing reputation?.
Hey there,
I very sure there are services that pay for ads/links though I’ve never searched for any so I don’t know. Sorry.
I got an email last week. Thanks so much for your write-up, particularly with the “no follow” suggestion.
I’ve received two contacts from Amanda and still waiting her answers for my questions.. LOL.
Hello Piotr,
I got an email this morning from Z a c . I wrote back to him, that I am not really interested in putting ads on a private project. After about 30min I got an answer where they offered more information about the ads they would like to place on my site. That they offer around 125USD for a 12 month ad placement and he told me that tehy have an unobtrusive style that they tailer to my site.
I asked them a couple questions couple minutes ago. Waiting for an answer. I post it when I get it.
Thanks for your posts here. Helped me to understand their emails.
I also received and email from this company yesterday. I asked for more information and Donna replied back rather quickly with very similar responses to those already listed in this thread. I let them know I would get back to them today.
Thanks for the article and letting this thread run. It has been very useful to me and my websites.
Hey there Mobile Marketing company! Hmm, I’m not sure if I should allow keywords in the names, but you name a quality comment so I’ll let it slide this time
Though please do let me know how it works out with you and More Digital. I’m holding off on writing a “conclusion” article until I gather a lot more information.
Best of you to you mate!
Hi,
Yes – I have received three enquiry emails (all for different sites) from Adrian of ‘Moredigital’, and the same pattern of emails follow, all as per your article – I don’t understand what he (or the company) gains from this?
Answers on a postcard please…..
Regards,
Jon
The company gains links for the well paying clients. Quality PR links at that. The big question becomes whether you want to risk being ‘sandboxed’ in Google because it is against google’s policy to accept paid links in that form.
Hi
Me too. Janet at More Digital has promised $125 USD for a text link
on my blog. I shall let you guys know how it goes and indeed if they pay.
More Digital contacted me in late January. I placed a link and was paid the following Monday, $150. My website is http://www.thepowerbase.com. But, somehow my adsense ads have all been deactivated. Don’t believe me? Go and look…
Hey Dean, … thanks for commenting! But quick question: Your adsense ads HAVE or HAVEN’T been deactivated?
I also got contacted by them and after a few e-mails I wrote:
“Hi Joanna,
you may send more details, but:
NOTE:
1. Google does not accept paid links. This means I will have to add a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the “a” tag or redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file. If you have any other idea please let me know.
2. If any of the linked websites becomes a spam/maleware site/illegal content, I will have the right to remove the link.
3. If payment is not made within 48hrs all links will be removed from the website.
Let me know if there is a problem with the above points.
Regards,
……………….. ”
and 2 days later she relied:
“Hi …,
Thank you for your email.
I’m afraid your suggestion doesn’t match any of our clients’ current campaigns.
Best regards,
Joanna ”
seems like you have to play buy their rules….
I got contacted by them few months back requesting for ads placements with an offer of 120$ for 1 year ads placement.
it is my habit to always do some check on the advertisers website or account before doing a deal with them.
guess what? found so many bad reviews about this company on google.
Just search ‘More Digital Scam’ and you’ll find bunch of disappointed bloggers.
But i thought.. ok i’ll give it a shot. And i replied to their email stating that i am interested.
They replied back saying that we’ll be in touch. It was on November last year.
Three days ago i got email from the same person who contacted me last year, saying that they have an advertiser ready for me. and they will pay me $140.
Again I googled about this company, still got the same result, saying that this guys is scammer.
I said to them that i will only put the article live after i receive the payment. He said No.
After few long argument then finally he agreed to pay me first. And there goes.. they sent me 140$ before i create an article for them on my site.
So this company is actually paying, well at least they pay me .
Hi,
after spending 1 hour reading this post, after evaluating my talks with MDigital (coz I received the email too), I can ensure this has to be a kind of Indian people living in the UK and doing their own business.
A lot of comments here are from themselves, I’m pretty sure.
I do not know if someone got paid by them, it can be, because all this seems a way of scam to place some sites in a well google rank. So, they earn money for this, they can spend 10% of their gains in lying people. We are the lied people, who got paid defends the site. It’s a tactic, these indian guys are a bit clever, but don’t thrust on them at all. Perhaps you can try to get that “pittance”, but you will be working for them, they will earn money from thirds to position other sites, and the business rules for them.
I think I’m not in a bad way, I spent time on this conversation and this sounds like a perfect SCAM.
Have a nice day
@ury_jupus
Just read this because I got the email too.
A point of interest was that they sent the email through my whois contact info and not the email address that I advertise on my website.
Just to add that I’ve also been contacted by these guys. I’m going to give them a shot with all the usual prerequisites to adhere to Google rules since I’m using AdSense as well. The way I see it, at the very worst, I have a text link on my site for 48 hours, and I don’t get anything.
What I did find odd though is, the email was addressed to me by name – my name is not listed in my domain whois, nor is it the name set on my outgoing email address that they contacted me with. One possibility is that they actually visited my website, and came across my about page (logs show the about page WAS visited 2 times and that is fairly rare for me) which is the only place (that I am aware of) that my name appears unprotected (FB/Twitter are completely private) on the Internet. Interesting/odd…
Either way, as I mentioned earlier, I’ll give them a shot and see if it works out. No harm trying I suppose. Will post back with more information if and when available.
Allow me to clarify further before we move forward. We can not work with an additional ‘nofollow’ attribute NOR a redirect via intermediate page. Apologies if my last email was unclear on this matter.
This was in one of their replies to me. I’m going to proceed with them and see what happens.
Good luck!
Let us know how it goes.
Nice work, Piortr.
When I was upfront with them about the Google ‘nofollow’ rule, they put me off saying their client found another site to target.
My advice…unless you don’t care about your site, be patient and don’t be penny-wise and dollar-foolish.
Thanks,
Mike
The Sports Archives
I hear ya Mike. That’s a true and tried statement, all too many people are “penny-wise and pound-foolish”. Sad sad world.
In this day-in-age were SOPA and ACTA are everywhere, I’d be VERY VERY careful about who I link to.
It’s weird Biatch0 that you mention the name thing, as the addressed me my nickname which isn’t listed anywhere except on my Commission Junction account and I recently just added this site to my CJ account. Funny a few days later I get an email addressed to “webmaster@mydomian.com” and referring to me as “Nickname”. I’m not saying there is any link i just found this very coincidental.
I received payment to my Moneybookers account approximately 16 hours from the time they replied to my email with payment information. The ad chosen for my site was a poker site; which involved creating a page with some template text (which appeared to be an article) with a link to said site which fit in to the article itself – pretty much looked like any article you would read on a blog. I actually delayed in replying to them for a few days after the article had been published and approved by them, and they actually contacted me asking for account information for payment.
All is well… However, to address the other comment that came later…
Google “nofollow” rule – This would likely be a fairly major issue for some people. However, my site has very, very, very low traffic. For reference, I’ve been using AdSense (on and off, mostly on) since 2004… and at the moment I have US$40 in my AdSense account. At this rate, my first cheque of US$100 from Google will be received some time in 2024. Essentially, my Google AdSense revenue is low enough that I’m prepared to forfeit it if need be. This is the only reason I chose to proceed with this “experiment” – besides the theoretical US$40 that I might lose, I would gain far more with these guys (MoreDigital)… not to mention I get to share that information here.
If there’s any other information you guys may be interested in, drop a comment and I’ll try to fill in the blanks.
TLDR:
- MoreDigital appears to pay on time and with little hassle
- they appear to have a new rule with regards to “nofollow”, which is not allowed
- redirect via intermediate page is also a no
I got the exact same email about two weeks ago and have been ruminating on whether to take them up on their offer because it just sounds scammy. Thanks for the advice about avoiding the Google slap, I had not even considered that. I think I am going to try them out and if they don’t pay in a timely manner or change the links, I will drop them. I will also follow up with you here to let you know what te experience is. I do not have a huge amount of confidence in this site though after reading this page and several others.
Hey Patrick, my biggest worry about the google slap is the concern in Google’s policies about paid links that use the ‘do follow’ tag … basically, any sort of advert ‘should’ be ‘no-follow’ …. or something along those line. Best of luck to you mate!
Piotyr,
I answered them stating that I would do it with the conditions that it would be a nofollow link and that I would have to pre-approve any links before they go live with the additional caveat that if the links are later redirected I will pull the post without giving them a refund. They replied with the following form reply:
I know its a form reply because they sent it to me three times with three different names. It almost feels like I am playing games with Nigerian scammers corresponding with them.
Patrick
Yeah, it seems weird like that.
I JUST got this email, verbatim.
It’s a very tempting offer, depending on what kind of money they are talking about. However, I try to stay ad-free for my readers.
Hi guys!
Does anybody know same companies as MoreDigital?
Please contact me yeahiloveit@gmail.com
Hi Piotr,
I got that email today from More Digital, and they sent me a link within the website to show me what the text ad would look like. The site was a UK based site about visiting Disney theme Parks, and the implication was that Virgin Atlantic Airlines was the advertising client. I sent an enquiry to Virgin Airlines about this. I hope they reply. If it turns out that Virgin did not pay them to put this text ad on this site, then I would have to ask why they didn’t send me an example from a “real client”.
Another thing that bothered me was the fact that they were sending these emails to owners of websites that “had no advertisements”. My site is full of advertisements from banner ads, buttons and a featured services directory of paid text advertisers. Kinda looks like the email was sent without someone actually looking at my site.