Registry Cleaner Articles

You get an email that runs something like this:

I came across your site and am really impressed. I have a similar website that I'd like to get more exposure for. What I can do is offer you unique keyword rich articles written on topics related to both our sites. All of the articles will be on interesting topics relating to the windows registry or related computer topics and of course, will be search engine friendly. These quality articles will help you in your search engine rankings, and will never be published on another website.

OK.. so you ask for a sample, and you know what? It's not such a horrible article. It actually may contain useful advice about Windows troubleshooting. And while it's almost certainly not unique in the sense that you could easily find thousands of other posts on the same subject, you won't find exactly that article anywhere else. There's just one thing wrong..

The links are to pages trying to sell a useless product.

No, not porn (which is what I expected it to be). No cleverly hidden popups on the page you would publish. Nothing really wrong with it at all, except the links to that useless product.

Well, you know from the title of this post what that pointless product is. No doubt one or more of the context sensitive ads here will pick up on that too and put out an ad or two for "that product".

Oh, yeah, I know: some people insist these things are useful. A long thread at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone has several folks get quite heated up about the subject. Those in favor of such things often point to this apparently Microsoft sanctioned article. A Wikipedia posting has nothing but good things to say about these tools. I'm still of the opinion that there is no use for these things at all. Maybe, maybe they had some value back years ago, but I just do not believe it now. Yes, I've used them, and no, they never made a bit of difference, never fixed anything worth fixing, never improved anything.

Possibly your experience is different, but I doubt it, and I certainly wouldn't want to see anyone add to the giant pile of web junk by publishing articles like those.

What do you think?

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Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them. I resell or can earn commissions from the sale of some of these items. Links within these pages may be affiliate links that pay me for referring you to them. That's mostly insignificant amounts of money; whenever it is not I have made my relationship plain. I also may own stock in companies mentioned here. If you have any question, please do feel free to contact me.

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