MySpace Layouts vs Boilerplate Crapola

A recent development with how MySpace handles links inserted into MySpace profiles may have a profound effect on all MySpace layout sites. Essentially we may see these sites shift from churning out boilerplate crapola to actually producing collections of truly original MySpace layouts. This is because MySpace.com recently decided that all hyperlinks inserted into MySpace profiles --be they in the Friends Comments section or anywhere else-- will be converted into their special msplinks.com redirects. The msplink.com link --which sports a long (and scary looking) alphanumeric coded suffix-- gives its SEO link power to msplink.com and then redirects to the original link destination.

What this means for MySpace layout sites is that they will no longer garner any search engine 'link love' from linked image tags and text links preinstalled into their MySpace layouts. These links are now useless as a means to get high rankings for their sites in search engine results pages. What this thankfully means for MySpace users is that layout sites will have to rethink their business model and possibly begin to stand and deliver on some quality layouts.

To fully understand how this will impact the MySpace layout scene, it will help to run through...

The Making of a MySpace Layout Site

Up to now, anyone wishing to capitalize on the runaway success of MySpace.com without actually having to do anything truly original or creative would do the following:

1. Purchase a turnkey MySpace layout site script (anywhere from $15 to $300).


2. Buy a domain name and launch the site.


3. Fill the site with thousands of crappy boilerplate MySpace layouts using stolen copyrighted celebrity and product photos for backgrounds.


4. Pad out the 'content' with a grotesque glut of childish no-talent glitter graphics.


5. Game their way to the top of search engine results pages using reciprocal linking schemes with other MySpace layout sites and automated comment spam on MySpace users' profiles.


6. Support their high rankings in search engines by continuously earning back links from the tags and text links in the layouts that MySpace users install from their site.

And believe you me, this is by no means an anomalous business model. MySpace layout site owners plainly and jokingly admit on webmaster forums that:

1. Their sites are full of crappy layouts.


2. They all tend to use the same content.


3. They make anywhere from $500-$3000 monthly and more doing this.

And by 'doing this' I mean essentially doing nothing.

The only reason this system works is because the internet has become so stuffed with subpar MySpace resources that MySpace users remain ever dazed and confused as to what constitutes the true reference standard for a quality MySpace layout.

Hence when MySpace users start to browse through high ranking Googled results for some common MySpace related keywords, e.g., 'myspace layouts', 'myspace backgrounds', etc. they are invariably forced to plow through hundreds of pages of glitter-infested garbage. After some time, the user comes to the conclusion that this is the best there is, gives up and then installs a dreadful excuse of a layout and perpetuates the whole scheme by creating another backlink to yet another crappy MySpace layout site.

Now that the msplinks.com system has rendered useless the SEO benefits derived from layout tags and text links installed on users' profiles, these tags and text links currently serve only one remaining purpose. And that purpose is to send traffic to the MySpace layout site because the viewer thinks the layout is actually good and they want one like it. Period.

A New Paradigm

Take this new MySpace.com development that disables comment spamming and nullifies the SEO benefits from layout tags and add to it the fact that advancing Google technology will soon do away the effects of reciprocal linking schemes and we may see some big changes in the MySpace layout scene. It's possible that legions of substandard MySpace layout sites will be forced out of the running as their most powerful search engine marketing tools are continuously shot down and rendered useless. MySpace layout site owners will then come to realize one important fact of life. The only way to left to succeed with their sites is to actually start putting some good content on them.

This will make way --in a perfect world anyway-- for new and other sites to be judged by the quality of their layouts as opposed to how well their site fits the paradigm of a typical MySpace layout site. Like seriously folks, what good really is a site full of 10,000 MySpace layouts if 9,950 of them look like they were mass produced by a monkey with a box of crayons?

Originality has always been a fundamental ingredient to producing quality in any market. With the msplink system turning the MySpace layouts scam on its ear, MySpace users may soon realize that what have up to now passed as the 'best' MySpace layouts sites have been far from producing the best in MySpace layouts.