Has someone offered to sell you a guaranteed link on wikipedia? Read this before you buy.

Rhino Links & The Wiki Hijacking Scam

What is it? How it's done and why.

...And how you can make Rhino Links on your own to avoid getting scammed.

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They are charging you for something you can do your self... the software program they are doing this with is this: http://www.backlinkrhino.com/ (the video there at the top of the page, gives step by step details on what they do and how they do it) I think it costs around $50 for the program, which is generally around the same price people sell each link for, so you can buy the program for the same cost as a single link and then just make your own links limitlessly.

You can do it without the software program as well. People (legitimate SEO consultants) have been doing this sort of link building from scratch without the software for years. It was originally known as "Wiki Link Hijacking" and even though the word hijacking was in the name, it is actually a perfectly legitimate, white hat method of getting mega powerful high rated backlinks to your site. It's often the reason big business websites shoot to top rankings so very fast. (Because they can afford to hire an professional SEO consultant to build HUNDREDS of the wikipedia links to their site.) 

The newer name "Rhino Links" comes from the name of the software program. The software program itself is relatively new. The software just makes it easier to build these wiki links in minutes instead of days.

What they do is use the software to search wikipedia for dead links to expired domains, then buy the domain, create a new page for that link, then look for someone with an on topic website (in this case, you) and try to sell the link to your site from their site that wikipedia is linking to (Usually for about $50 for the 1 link).

The end result is, they own a website that is linked to by wikipedia, and they are offering to link to your site from it.

It is important to note that while they are offering you are "Wikipedia link", what you ACTUALLY get is a link of THEIR website, with THEIR website (NOT yours) being the one with the Wiki Link. And this is a major difference between getting a Wiki/Rhino Link from a legit SEO consultant and getting one from a scam artist. With an ACTUAL SEO consultant, you get the link put on a "parked domain" that is just 1 page and 301 redirects to a page on your website, resulting in your site having a direct link on Wikipedia. This will give your site an instant, HUGE boost in search engine ranking and often will drive thousands of click traffics to your site in a mater of hours. It's a VERY powerful way to gain rank and traffic. You will OWN the parked domain and have full control over it, so that you never have to worry about losing it.

What you get from a scam artist is quite different and instead a link placed on THEIR domain. THEIR site is the one directly linked to Wikipedia, so THEIR site gets the traffic boost, and your site is just a link on THEIR site. You do not get the 301 redirect that puts your site direct linked to Wikipedia, meaning your site does NOT get the boost in web rankings, as it is THEIR site getting the web boost instead. While you MAY see a slight increase in traffic, a few hundred new clicks a month, you will NOT see an increase in rankings and in fact risk getting dinged by Google's Penguin for what is known as "cloaked links". If this happens your site will not only lose rankings, but will be both unindexed from Google and blacklisted.

Please note that while a legit SEO consultant will include the parked domain and the 301 redirect together as part of the packaged deal, the scam artist will sell you ONLY the link and not the whole package... and I'll tell you why in just a minute... the why, is probably going to shock you. There is big, big, BIG money in this scam and sadly while the scam artist often become "instant millionaires" many web site owners are driven to bankruptcy and lose their homes and businesses over this scam. It's a VERY bad scam, when you find out what happens AFTER you buy the link.

Now there have always been scam artists who have used this sort of wiki-linking to take adjantage of web masters, but in older days, because it took so much time to build each link, "Wiki Link Hijacking" was rarely seen as a viable method for scam artists to use, as scam artists are looking for super fast ways to make mone.

However, since the creation of the software program that speeds up the process, it's now become easy for scam artists to mass create hundreds of wiki hijack links every day instead of only 1 or 2 a week, which has in turn resulted in the "Rhino Links Scam" that has plagued the internet the past few months, and will likely only get worse in 2018 and beyond.

How To Find Legit Rhino Links To Buy &
How To Spot a Scam Artist To Avoid

It's important to note here that building wiki links itself is not a scam, and the Rhino Links software, is a legit program that is also not a scam. And buying this type of link through a LEGIT SEO consultant, who provides you with the parked domain and the 301 redirect is okay.

The scam, is HOW con artists go about selling said links to unsuspecting web masters, and the shady "cloaked links" they often sell you while making the false claim that you are receiving the 301 redirects on a parked domain.

Know now, that NO legit SEO consultant is going to contact you offering to sell you links. REAL SEO consultants have websites listing their services and price schedules and are actual businesses who use professional business practices. They WILL NEVER cold call you out of the blue with an offer to sell you links.

Never, never, never, NEVER, buy Rhino Links or Wiki links from someone who, randomly out of the blue contacted you with any type of offer like this. REAL SEO consultants do not work that way. 

So, if you do decide you want to buy Rhino Links for your site, seek out an actual SEO Consultant company, preferably a local one that is driving distance from your home, so that you can visit them and sit down in their office and talk to one of their representatives about your website goals. Check your local yellow pages to find SEO consultants in your area.

AVOID any online self proclaimed "SEO gurus" as the word "guru" is slang code for "I don't have a business license and am working illegally to avoid paying taxes to the IRS".

If you can't find an SEO consultant in your area and MUST find one online, find one that has an actual physical address on their website, and an "about us" page that lists their consultants, along with listing their degrees (try to find one with an MTI degree if possible as the Massachusetts Technical Institute is a real live Ivy League college and they specialize in teaching SEO ). Once you find a consultant, call him and talk to him. He should speak clear and fluent English. Hang up immediately if he has any sort of accent or is using words incorrectly.

Note, while not everyone with an accent or bad English is a scam artist, MOST of the scam artists with-in this particular scam are working out of Nigeria and Indonesia.

Avoid any SEO website that uses phrases "SEO guru" or "kind Sir" or uses poetic flowery phrases and unusually big words in unnecessary places (such as: "May a present for you this fine beautiful day the presentation of my expert SEO services").

Avoid sites that say anything about "guaranteed results"... because by USA law it is ILLEGAL to offer guaranteed results for any sort of SEO services and the offer of guaranteed results is a huge red flag that this person does not have a business license and is operating illegally.

The Rhino Links Wikipedia Hijacking Scam
What They Do, Why They Do It...

Getting a link direct from wikipedia, will increase traffic to your site, by quite a lot and so the link itself is not a problem.

Most people incorrectly think links to their sites are a problem and will disavoid thousands of links, then wonder why they have bad rankings.

Google has recently (2016) posted a blog asking webmasters to please STOP disavowing backlinks because the MILLIONS of backlinks that have been disavowed in the past few years has resulted in seriously disrupting the Google index.

Contrary to popular urban myth (which was started by scam artists willfully misquoting a 2012 Google blog post) backlink disavowing is one of the biggest scams used by SEO gurus who use fear mongering to convince unsuspecting web masters into believing ALL links are back. They get told by these "gurus" to disavow all links, then "buy this safe link package instead". 

Links are GOOD. Google likes links. Google WANTS you to have lots of links both to and from your site. People linking to your site is a good thing. You linking to other people's sites is a good thing. It's the mass buying of 10s of thousands of FAKE links that Google wants stopped, but their post announcing this in 2012, got misquoted by scam artists so much, so far and wide, that now all web masters live in mortal fear of any link at all, and end up being fooled by the scam artists into buying the very fake links Google's 2012 blog post had warn against!

Well, the scam artists who sell "Rhino links" are taking advantage of this fear of "bad links" and using it to their own advantage. 

Like I said, the links themselves are not the problem in the case of Rhino Links. At least, not if you are getting legit Rhino Links, the type that includes not only the link but also the parked domain and the 301 redirects.

The problem is once you buy the scam artist version of this type of link, the one that offers you JUST the link and not the parked domain with the 301 redirect, they will start hounding you into paying HUGE amounts of money later on.

With a real legit link, your site is the ONLY link on it, and the site is just a 301 redirect. But with the scam artist version... they look for ALL the dead links on that domain, sell LOTS of links to lots of webmasters, have ALL of those links on 1 page of the parked domain... and then comes the scam...

...when they suddenly start blackmailing EACH of these webmasters into a bidding war against each other, with 10 or 12 or more webmasters now being pitted against each other, all being threatened to have their link removed if they do not buy the parked domain that their site is linked to.

The danger is the fact that after they get a bunch of sites like yours to agree to buy link placement... then they flip the site... meaning they sell it to someone else, and often the new owner just wants the domain name and not the site, meaning the link back to your site will likely be deleted within 6 months of your buying the link.

The only way to guarantee that your link stays on the site, is to buy it from them yourself, and that's the big money making part of this scam... 

They will in about 6 months contact you again with a boo-hoo sob story of how their...

"Dear kind sir, my sweet old kind and loving grandpappy Prince Poopdeck was killed in Nigeria and now I must be have to go back home to collect the body and have a funeral, so I are strapped for cash, even though dear of grand pappy Poopdeck was crown prince of Nigeria and I just inherited $20million, that I will use to pay back your $30k, so really you are not actually paying me a penny, because dear kind sir, you know I will pleasantly pay you back your $30k presently, and by the way would you consider buying the site that I are linking to your site from. I only need $30,000 for the plane ticket and funeral, and with that link on the wiki page to must site, it must be worth at least a million, so selling it to you for only $30k is a steal..."

.... and then they'll add something about...

"oh by the way, if you don't cough up the $30k I'll delete your link off the domain, ha! ha! Nothing you can do about it. But please kind sir, that was no a threat. No, I just have to get Poopdeck pappy's body so we can have a funeral. Him is price of Nigeria so I give you dear kind sir all money back soon, you see, okay? Yes please and thank you. Here is where to send Western Union money transfer to. I kindly await you send me $30k, okay?"

They will not only try to scam you, but they'll do it in very bad translation and they'll use the names of obscure cartoon characters that they hope you will have never heard of. It's laughable how idiotic a scam artist's email reads sometimes. Unfortunately, MANY people fall for it and do in fact wire them the $30k These scam artists can rake in $30k a month doing this, that's why the scam is so prevalent.

Like I said, the method of linking is not the issue and it's pretty easy to buy the software and just do it yourself. (Though i would imagine sooner or later Google will catch on to this sort of linking and do something about it, so I'm not sure it'd be a good thing to get into doing.) The issue is the way they will try to later trick you into dishing out your life savings to buy the site from them under the threat of them removing the link if you don't pay them tons of money. That's the part of it that is a scam.

In short "Rhino links" are legit links to your site that usually don't cause issues with Google, but most people selling said style links are scam artists and will try to trick you into buying the site the link is on later. Bypassing them and building the "rhino link" on your own is better than buying a pre-built rhino-link from someone who is likely a scam artist.

If you want Rhino Links to Wikipedia... either buy the software program and build them yourself, or have them custom made for your specifications by a legit SEO consultant who offers the service to do so. You'll end up with real links, on real parked domains that you have full control over.

Don't get them from some random con artist who sent you an email out of the blue. You'll end up with shady links, on sites you have no control over, and a lot of hardship down the road once the con artist starts heaping on the threats to remove said tlink. Don't put your balls in that sort of a vice grip.

And a bit off topic but...

If you know who Pappy Poopdeck is, then you is a rare person. That character hasn't been seen in a comic book since the 1940s.

If you didn't know, his daughter-in-law Olive is one of my longest running CosPlays. I started doing her as a daily CosPlay in 1983 and STILL do her today in 2017. Next year will be my 35th anniversary of CosPlaying Olive Oyl.

One of my favourite CosPlays to do because of the ease of wearing it every day, I will likely continue to CosPlay Olive into my late senior years. :P

Yes, I am a HUGE PopEye fan. Been collecting and reading the comic since I was 3 years old.

If you've followed me online for any length of time then you already knew about my Lord Sesshomaru and Scrooge McDuck obsession, but you may not have known about my Popeye obsession as I don't often mention it online. 

Though if you are someone who is part of my offline daily life than you were already well aware of my obsession with perfecting the perfect Olive Oyl CosPlay and the fact that I have LOTS of red blouses and black pencil skirts as a result of this 4 decade long obsession.

Of any CosPlay I've ever done, Olive Oyl is my longest running and the one with the most variations, as well as the one you are most likely to see me wearing if you ever meet me in public.

And if you are someone new to reading my sites and blogs -this is only 1 of many sites I have - I'm a CosPlayer and have been doing it as daily life acting for 30 years now. 

And all that is completely off topic.

:P

But moving on this this little side bit you mentioned...

Did Google ACTUALLY Ban Guest Posting?

oh... I also wanted to comment on this... (intended to when I was here the other day but got sidetracked by family stuff and only just got back here now)

>BUT, if we can't "guest post" anymore, since that's seen as bad form, 

Guest posting is bad form?

Who says you can't "guest post"?

Google?

That's NOT what they said.

Yes, I know. Last week Google made their infamous "do not guest post" announcement.

No, no, no, no, NO!

Google is NOT saying guest posting is not allowed or banned or bad or anything like that. That's not what Google said at all!

The whole "Google bans guest posting" cries being screamed all over the internet, is YET AGAIN, nothing but SEO "gurus" (scam artists) playing on people's emotions, trying to use fear mongering to convince unsuspecting web masters into a frenzy.

Fear mongering and instilling paranoia into webmasters is what SEO "guru"s do as a sales pitch to get you to buy some shady service they want to trick you into buying. Don't fall for it.

No. What Google was talking about, is not the average content writer or mommy blogger who makes a random guest post here or there. What Google was referring to was the mass scam of SEO "gurus" selling "paid placement services" style of guest posts.

In other words... the people who are buying spun content, and having tens of thousands of backlinks made to their sites, via "guest posts" on tens of thousands of "parked domains" that lead no where.

The average webmaster, doing the average guest posting, has nothing to worry about, because they are just making 1 monthly or weekly guest post. At most they are adding 52 links a year. That's not the issue at all and those types of guest posts are perfectly fine by Google.

No. Google is referencing the ones that are buying 1,000s of FAKE guest posts. Google is targeting sites that overnight suddenly have 20,000 guest posts linking to their site.

Legitimate guest posting is not a problem. It's the fake scam guest posting that Google was referencing.

If you are writing actual guest posts for actual sites, that's still okay. If you are buying thousands of fake guest posts just to get links to your site, that's what's going to get slapped by Google.

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