A while back John Andrews wrote a post about trusting WordPress plugins and how that really isn't such a good idea. I agree with everything John wrote, but up until today I hadn't come across a plugin that actually did anything that "crossed the line".

The plugin that I've been digging into has code that randomly determines whether to inject a link into the outputted text. Not only is the insertion frequency dynamic, but so is the link that is injected. That is, the link is pulled from a web site that when queried, spits out a different link. A nice automated link building tool, wouldn't you say?

After a few minutes of requesting links from this site, it became apparent to me that the black hat has just made it easy for me to identify 18 of his sites.

So what would you do with a list of domains all being supported by black hat link building techniques? Take the opportunity to learn a thing or two? Call Matt Cutts?

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7 Responses to “WordPress Plugin Reveals a Black Hat's Network”
  1. john andrews:

    "So what would you do with a list of domains all being supported by black hat link building techniques? Take the opportunity to learn a thing or two?"

    Yes, indeedy. I'd immediately share it with John Andrews ;-) and then learn all I could before anything else changed. Information is power....

  2. 5ubliminal:

    Call Matt Cutts ... :( ... uncool ... and worse than what he tried to do to you.

    I'll give you another option:
    Build your own plugin or appreciate that guys work, remove offending code and think nice thoughts of him.

    • Marios Alexandrou:

      Thinking nice thoughts about the author is a bit of a stretch :-) Although the plugin itself is cool and I have to hand it to him for being clever.

  3. 5ubliminal:

    Yeah ... I forgot the ' at the nice thing. I meant 'nice' ... like say in your mind ... &%$#^ $%%$% 3$@#$@ ... nice plugin.

  4. Robert K:

    I think its a pretty brilliant idea lol. If his sites were immoral/warez sites then I would be pretty pee'd off tho. Would also be nice to see backlinks from his site if he's posting them on yours tbh

  5. radius13:

    I thought those wordpress plugins had to go through some sort screening.

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