Most Blog Directories these days are giving a bad name to the industry through several methods. Some directories force bloggers to link back to them, yet never approve or reject their blogs, thus giving the directory owner a free backlink from bloggers who do not pay attention. Other directory owners are approving any and every blog, regardless of splogs, porno blogs or copyright infringement blogs.

One popular directory has taken poor standards to a new low. It appears TopBlogArea.com is scamming bloggers into putting up a shady backlink to another drectory they own when bloggers ad their chicklet code. I confirmed the allegations myself by adding one of my blogs into their directory an this was the code they requested I put on my site :

As you can see, TopBlogArea.com is using a JavaScript <noscript> tag to hide a link to clysma.com which is a low grade non-blog directory. This type of behaviour is repulsive and TopBlogArea.com administration shuld be ashamed of themselves for this type of scamming. If they’re willing to link to another directory from your site, who can say they woudn’t hide casino or pornography links the same as they are currently doing.

Word of advice to bloggers : Don’t bother using TopBlogArea.com and if you are already linking to them, be certain to check your code and make sure they’re not cheating you for backlinks to someplace you don’t approve of.